On a typical day, most of us get up, have some breakfast, go to work, do our best to make a meaningful impression on the world (or at least the office), come home, have some dinner, and hit the sack. Then the whole rigid narrative restarts on the very next day. For some people, this goes on and on until the very words on the page begin to blur into each other, forming a school of question marks that encourage some serious stroking of the beard. Those question marks can act as speed-bumps on the sloping roads of life’s highway, or checks on the surface of our inner well-being.
Such rude encroachments can occur at any point during one’s life, or never at all. The same goes for pattern baldness. One can first notice a thinning of his (or her) hair while in the prime of youth; for example, actors Patrick Stewart and Jason Statham both started losing hair while still in their twenties. For others, the first indications of hair loss may not show until their forties or fifties. At the bottom line, medical science tells us that once the age of puberty has crossed, hair loss can begin. The gap is wide, the chasm disheartening.
Finding out that pattern baldness has set in while still in your twenties is a tough pill to take. Typically, it begins with a receding hairline, or thinning of the crown. From this point it’s sensible to wonder just how bad things are going to get. For those afflicted who have decided upon hair transplant surgery as a means to reverse time’s tyranny, they also have to decide when to get the transplant. Is it right to jump the gun straight away, or to wait and see how much further the baldness progresses?
It is important for patients to consider the question. Knowing when to schedule a hair transplant saves them time and money. Thankfully, just about every hair transplant clinic in the world can help its patients make the right call.
Consultation is Key
If you’re considering hair transplant surgery to put a stop to your thinning hair, but aren’t sure how much further the condition is going to progress, the best course of action lies with professional consultation. Schedule an appointment with a board certified hair transplant surgeon. He or she will perform a careful examination of the scalp to determine the precise level of your hair loss, plus how much more hair you can expect to be gone as time passes.
Nor is a scalp exam the only component in the process. Clinics will ask their patients to fill out a form that asks questions about their medical history. This would include past surgeries and prescribed medications. You’ll also need to fill out some blanks about the history of your hair loss, such as which treatments—if any—you have already undergone. Chances are, the clinic will want to know what expectations you have with the potential surgery, so from there it can analyze how to meet them.
It is possible that you may not need surgery at all, or that you simply don’t make a good candidate for the procedure. Should this be the case, the clinic may prescribe other methods of combating your condition. Whichever the circumstance, the consultation is crucial. It eliminates virtually all the guesswork about when to get a hair transplant, and what kind.
Best Age For A Hair Transplant
Young men in their late teens or early twenties do not always make the best candidates for surgical hair restoration. It is an age where they have just begun to lose their hair, but can expect to lose more. Even when a consultation reveals the extent to which their unfortunate situation will travel, it is likely too soon to consider surgery. It’s important to remember that a hair transplant is permanent, while hair loss will continue with age. The hair that a young man has surgically inserted isn’t going anywhere; thus, when the untransplanted hair around it falls away, his head will begin to look strange.
The best age to get a hair transplant is around 30 years. Men who lose their hair early have advanced progression by then—enough so that the doctor will not consider further hair loss around the recipient area to be a problem. Before the age of 30, sufferers of thinning hair may wish to look at over-the-counter products, such as topical solutions or hair thickening fibers.
Another way to determine whether it’s okay to get a hair transplant is to simply wait until your rapid hair loss begins to taper off. At this stage, men can finally look at the scoreboard and see exactly how much catching up needs to be done. Once they’re through a clinical consultation they will know even more.
If you’re under the age of 30 and would still like to find out if it’s okay to receive a hair transplant, schedule an appointment with a clinic near you. This is hands down the best way to learn everything you need to know.
