Hair Changes Over 3 Years (7 Words Bla)

[JeanLucBB]

Some people have been saying to clearly balding norwood 2s lately not to worry about it so I just thought I'd post this to make people remember what a few years can do:

18:

21:

22 (5 months on finasteride):

If you're thinking you're balding, get on finasteride and relax asap. When studies show an efficacy of over a decade for maintenance with 85% of patients and less than 5% get sides, for $100ish a year its well worth it. Don't be a sucker and wait.

 

[Bigbone]

I'm supporting finasteride use, but I don't get the point of this post. Your hair looks better at 18 and I can't tell the difference between the other pics. It's more like the last two actually shows how bad your hair loss was compared to the low res pics.

 

[JeanLucBB]

I'm supporting finasteride use, but I don't get the point of this post. Your hair looks better at 18 and I can't tell the difference between the other pics. It's more like the last two actually shows how bad your hair loss was compared to the low res pics.

The point is that I went from having hair with density in the top 1% of the population to a norwood 3 diffusing in a norwood 5 pattern in 3 years at 21, despite some people on here telling clearly balding norwood 2s they have no issues and medication is too risky. It makes no sense at all to wait to get on medication because of a 3% chance of sides when the alternative is potentially moving up two norwoods in 3 years. The anti-meds brigade on here seems to be getting worse, and when you have people saying they have sexual sides on minoxidil and people take them seriously they should see what can happen when you listen to the nutjobs and what can happen without meds.

Also just easier to put the pics from right prior to my transplant at 22 because they show the extent of damage clearer, but it's still visibly clear how bad it was in the pics from when I was 21 from the phone pics.

 

[Endmymisery]

Do you have any pics from 19 and 20? I'm just curious about how the progression looked

 

[Johnt1997]

Some people have been saying to clearly balding norwood 2s lately not to worry about it so I just thought I'd post this to make people remember what a few years can do:

18:

View attachment 65050

21:

View attachment 65051 View attachment 65052

22 (5 months on finasteride):

View attachment 65053 View attachment 65054




If you're thinking you're balding, get on finasteride and relax asap. When studies show an efficacy of over a decade for maintenance with 85% of patients and less than 5% get sides, for $100ish a year its well worth it. Don't be a sucker and wait.

What Norwood are you now post transplant? I'm a couple years younger than yourself with similar temples and thinking of a transplant

 

[Alphalete]

Thanks for sharing

 

[JeanLucBB]

What Norwood are you now post transplant? I'm a couple years younger than yourself with similar temples and thinking of a transplant

About a 1.5 but I'm going to get another transplant in a few months to close off the temple areas so it's a clear NW1. Especially if you are around 22 like I was I doubt any doctor will attempt to take you to a full NW1 in a first procedure.

If your loss is stable on meds and you have a strong donor its definitely much smarter to go for it when you're young I feel.

 

[Johnt1997]

About a 1.5 but I'm going to get another transplant in a few months to close off the temple areas so it's a clear NW1. Especially if you are around 22 like I was I doubt any doctor will attempt to take you to a full NW1 in a first procedure.

If your loss is stable on meds and you have a strong donor its definitely much smarter to go for it when you're young I feel.

Are you planning to shave your head again for transplant #2? That is the one thing that's putting me off tbh; I have an active social life and work in a professional environment so I can hardly walk about looking like a strawberry for months.

I know you kind of isolated yourself for a few months while it grew out but I'm not in much of a position to do that, I could take a couple weeks of work and stay in for a couple weekends but after that people would start to ask questions

 

[Johnt1997]

Are you planning to shave your head again for transplant #2? That is the one thing that's putting me off tbh; I have an active social life and work in a professional environment so I can hardly walk about looking like a strawberry for months.

I know you kind of isolated yourself for a few months while it grew out but I'm not in much of a position to do that, I could take a couple weeks of work and stay in for a couple weekends but after that people would start to ask questions

My hairline is a little better than yours was I think but I have some crown thinning too

 

[JeanLucBB]

Are you planning to shave your head again for transplant #2? That is the one thing that's putting me off tbh; I have an active social life and work in a professional environment so I can hardly walk about looking like a strawberry for months.

I know you kind of isolated yourself for a few months while it grew out but I'm not in much of a position to do that, I could take a couple weeks of work and stay in for a couple weekends but after that people would start to ask questions

It's mandatory so I gotta. At least I'll have a decent hairline this time when buzzed down, but the first 3 months post-transplant were definitely an absolute disaster for my social life. The redness was a problem up until the hair grew in and covered it properly with decent density at around month 5, but I did have an internship I had to deal with and was open about it. After the scabs come off at day 10 and it looks clean its embarrassing but not the end of the world, definitely possible to deal with in a work environment. Fatal to your sex life in the short term maybe, but apart from initial embarrassment and forcing you to be open about it at work it shouldn't put you off.

 

[Johnt1997]

It's mandatory so I gotta. At least I'll have a decent hairline this time when buzzed down, but the first 3 months post-transplant were definitely an absolute disaster for my social life. The redness was a problem up until the hair grew in and covered it properly with decent density at around month 5, but I did have an internship I had to deal with and was open about it. After the scabs come off at day 10 and it looks clean its embarrassing but not the end of the world, definitely possible to deal with in a work environment. Fatal to your sex life in the short term maybe, but apart from initial embarrassment and forcing you to be open about it at work it shouldn't put you off.

No pain no gain I guess. Did you ever consider investing a wig for a few months to get you through the Worst of it? Or are they not allowed post op?

 

[JeanLucBB]

No pain no gain I guess. Did you ever consider investing a wig for a few months to get you through the Worst of it? Or are they not allowed post op?

Not allowed and too much hassle. People would known something was up anyway which would have defeated the purpose. I'd accepted I wasn't going to have a social life or try to pick up girls until it grew in as well.

 

[Seeker988]

It's mandatory so I gotta. At least I'll have a decent hairline this time when buzzed down, but the first 3 months post-transplant were definitely an absolute disaster for my social life. The redness was a problem up until the hair grew in and covered it properly with decent density at around month 5, but I did have an internship I had to deal with and was open about it. After the scabs come off at day 10 and it looks clean its embarrassing but not the end of the world, definitely possible to deal with in a work environment. Fatal to your sex life in the short term maybe, but apart from initial embarrassment and forcing you to be open about it at work it shouldn't put you off.

What will be your eventual baldness pattern? Has your hairloss stabilized? You're just 23 so did the surgeon predict the eventual baldness pattern that you might have without taking any drugs ? From what I've gathered,hair transplant this early is a bit risky as you will always have to catch up with the hairloss behind your transplanted areas. What about 10 years down the line? I'm not at all confronting you,just wanna know your thoughts on it.

 

[JeanLucBB]

What will be your eventual baldness pattern? Has your hairloss stabilized? You're just 23 so did the surgeon predict the eventual baldness pattern that you might have without taking any drugs ? From what I've gathered,hair transplant this early is a bit risky as you will always have to catch up with the hairloss behind your transplanted areas. What about 10 years down the line? I'm not at all confronting you,just wanna know your thoughts on it.

NW5 with strong back and sides is common in the family, which is also occurring in my case. Erdogan estimated about 9650 donor grafts. The data I've read and also the opinion of Erdogan is largely that finasteride will maintain long term, and ultimately transplants + some thinning later in life isn't the end of the world. If it progressed always the option of concealers, SMP, probably another 1000-1500 FUE grafts after the next runthrough along with 3k from FUT, beard donor or BHT.

It's completely false that it is riskier to perform surgery on younger patients, once you've had more than a small amount of hairloss means of testing miniaturisation in the donor and your hairloss pattern are easily available. Studies also suggest younger patients with aggressive loss actually respond BETTER or at least equally to medication than older patients. Most surgeons say young patients shouldn't opt for transplants specifically because it appeases the masses as a means of virtue signalling, younger people often have higher expectations, are less trustworthy to stick on medication and don't usually have funding for future transplants down the line, and will blame issues with this on the surgeon. When they say that young people are not ideal candidates, what they mean to say is that they are a pain in the *** and not worth the hassle. They are probably right from a business perspective, but are blatantly lying about their reasoning, there are no two ways about it. It becomes more obvious they are lying when they suggest that aggressive hairlines etc on young patients are a bad idea because they will look silly in their 50s and beyond. Obviously they have never heard of Brad Pitt or George Clooney, or the 20% of the population that doesn't suffer from hairloss even into old age.

It's simply a matter of taking the path of least resistance for me on the balance of probabilities, which is ultimately all this is, a set of probabilities and desirability when looking at each potential choice and outcome. If your donor can handle it, you're on medication and have the money then aggressive transplants in your early twenties can be the smartest path of action. I'm sure I will lose more hair over the next few decades and may need to look for solutions like concealers and further transplants, but this is worth it considering the alternative of looking like a subhuman freak in my 20s.

 

[lshallperish]

lol