Question:

I am a 33-year-old man and have been losing hair substantially over the past year. Am I currently a candidate for a hair transplant or should I wait longer to see whether this could be a phase before doing the surgery?

Answer:
I think the first step for a patient who has noticed a significant amount of recent hair loss would be to see a specialist regarding hair restoration and consider trying either an over-the-counter product such as Rogaine or prescription medication such as Propecia to at the very least try to slow down the hair loss.

It would also be prudent to take a very detailed family history from this patient to determine if this is in fact genetic hair loss and/or some type of medical abnormality that is causing the hair loss.

A patient does not need to wait until they are no longer losing hair before they proceed with a hair restoration procedure. It does, however, need to be determined whether or not their hair loss is genetic or because those individuals have hair loss from a non-genetic cause. Once this is determined, the hair loss possibly could be slowed or reversed prior to even considering hair transplantation surgery.

Posted by: Dr. Charles