Young Patients-#4

This young patient is a 28 year old male who had been taking Propecia for three years. He had not noticed any changes in his condition and wondered if he should continue taking the medication, or even if he needed it in the first place.

Recommendation: Take photos on consultation date and discontinuepropecia for three months. Then take photos with the same angle, light, hair style and length tofor comparison purposes.

Lesson: Always take pictures before taking Propecia. The hair growthis slow (6-8 months)

making it difficult to notice the results. On the other hand, Propecia may not be the right hair loss solution for some patients. I have seen patients who don't think the medication is helping, but are so afraid of hair loss that they continue taking it anyway. Never forget to take pictures before taking Propecia to chart your own progress.

Young Patients-#3

A 26 year old male who is concerned that his scalp is visible in the daylight.

His hair doesn't show any sign of miniaturization.

The problem is his hair style, in which the hair sticks together. Also, the contrast between his hair and scalp color is too sharp.

My Recommendation: Consider changing the hair styling; or even changing the hair color to one more similar to the scalp color.

Young Patients-#2

Case 2a

29 year old male lost his frontal hair. The coverage area is 64 square centimeters.

Vertex hair is coarse. No sign of miniaturization on his vertex area. Propecia alone will not be able to help to re-grow hair at hairline.

My Recommendation: surgery and Propecia as an option.




Case 2b

A 21 year old man came in with his parents. He was so depressed by his frontal hair loss he had difficulty concentrating on school.

I recommended hair transplant surgery and Propecia was advised.

Coverage area was 60 square centimeters with a 30% increase in density.

When he came back for follow up one year later, his hair had grown back with no further sign of miniaturization.

The whole family is very happy.

Before:

After:

Case 2c

When E.A. flew to Orange County from Wisconsin ten years ago for his hair transplant surgery, he was only 23 years old and very depressed about his hair loss.

I performed surgery and advised him to take Propecia to prevent future hair loss.

He is now 33 years old. I saw him recently and he is much more confident in his personality and appearance.

Please see his 21 day surgery diary at: http://www.hairtransplant.com/month/patient4.htm

Young Patients-#1

Each patient is unique.

I offer individualized treatments to all my patients, especially the younger ones. Younger patients require particular attention because their hair loss progress is often unpredictable and donor hair limited. Under these conditions, hair transplant is not always the best option for young people. I have to use hair loss pattern, size, age, hair quality, gender and other factors to give them different plans.

These recommendations may include: surgery, Propecia, Rogaine, observation and sometimes a different hair style or hair color.

In the next several weeks, I will mention them one by one.

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Case 1a:

A 32 year old male came for a hair transplant consultation.



His concern is his vertex area.

His vertex hair is thin and fine; the frontal hair is thinner and softer than donor hair. This is one of the first signs of hair loss.

Vertex thinning area is about 90 square centimeters.

Family History: His father is a Norwood pattern class 6.

His main concern: He is young and has the potential to lose as much hair as his father did. If we do the surgery at the vertex now, we might run out of donor hair and be unable to cover the front in the future.

Treatment Suggested: No surgery right away, instead take Propecia for six months. I always take pictures for comparison. Without the photos it is always difficult to tell the difference.


Case 1b:

Some of my patients on Propecia end up not having surgery after taking the medication.

This patient is on Propecia and never had surgery.

Before Using Propecia


After Using Propecia

Case 1c:

23 years old patient came in for consultation. I advised him to take Propecia first.

The patient took Propecia for two years. The medication helped him grow hair on the crown area and prevented further hair loss.



There was still some thinning on the frontal area and receding hairline, so I performed a hair transplant surgery and used 12 square centimeters of donor. The surgery increased density by 25%.

Conclusion:

He is very happy with the results. By taking Propecia first, he saved both a lot of donor hair for future use and the surgery fee.