What is the Best Age to Get a Hair Transplant?

It’s understandable to want to rush into the operating room the second you find chunks of hair in your brush. Many men begin losing their hair in their early 20s. But getting a hair transplant at that age can lead to your hair looking worse than before. Today, our hair restoration experts discuss the best age to start thinking about a hair transplant so that you can make an informed decision for your hair.

How Do Hair Transplants Work?

Before we jump into discussing best age to get a hair transplant, you should understand how hair transplants work. Hair transplant surgeons can’t just stick other people’s hair on your head. Instead, your surgeon removes or borrows hairs in the form of “grafts” (the hair follicle, bulb and a small amount of surrounding tissue) from the back of the head and strategically places them into the balding area. This way, you’ll still be growing your own hair and it will retain a natural appearance.

Hair on the back of your head is much more resistant to the hormones that cause thinning and balding, which is why those follicles are chosen for the transplant.

At What Age Should You Get A Hair Transplant?

So what does all of this have to do with age? A lot, actually. When you’re in your 20s, it’s hard for experts to identify what type of balding pattern you are going to experience in the future. If your surgeon places more resistant hair follicles in your frontal hairline, the hairs behind it will eventually begin to recede. The areas that have received transplant treatment will flourish, whereas the hair all around may continue to fall out. If you receive a hair transplant to fill in a thinning crown at too young of an age, you can end up with an island of strong transplanted hair in the middle, as patches continue to fall out around it.

This strange patchy baldness will look unnatural because it is. Even worse, it’s difficult to correct hair that has already received hair transplants. This is why we typically ask our patients to wait until they are close to 30 years old to get a hair transplant. At this point in your life, it’s much easier for surgeons to identify your particular balding pattern and therefore give you a successful and natural-looking transplant.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you don’t have an endless supply of donor hair. If you receive a hair transplant at a very early age and you are destined for baldness, you can’t rely on endless hair transplants to completely fill in all of the areas that have lost hair. There’s only so much hair that can be borrowed from the back before it looks scarred or patchy.

Remember, with age comes realistic expectations. You shouldn’t expect to have the same head of hair that you had in your high school yearbook photo. Everyone loses some hair density as they age. When you look around, you should see that your friends and family members are also experiencing hair loss in one form or another. You are not alone. Thinning to some degree is perfectly normal and nothing to be ashamed of.

Other Hair Growth Treatments

Just because you should wait to get a hair transplant doesn’t mean you’re doomed to be bald. As soon as you notice that your hair is beginning to fall out, it’s important that you visit a hair restoration expert. We offer a variety of hair growth therapies to slow down hair loss and stimulate hair growth. You might not even need a hair transplant in the future thanks to these therapies.

It’s extremely important that you get your hair treated as soon as possible when you notice balding. Early treatment is key to success. Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP), Low-Level Laser Light Therapy and Finasteride and Minoxidil are some of our most effective hair growth treatments.

Contact us today to get on the path to better hair growth. The Limmer Hair Transplant Center has been transforming lives through hair restoration for over 30 years. We would love to help you grow thicker hair for good.