Hair Transplants Not for the Young, Expert Warns

25-year-old Manchester United footballer Wayne Rooney surprised the world when he tweeted a picture of himself (with his new locks) immediately following a hair transplant procedure.

He posted on his Twitter account, “Just to confirm to all my followers, I have had a hair transplant. I was going bald at 25 why not. I’m delighted with the result.”

Rooney underwent Follicular Unit Extraction, also known as FUE, the most advanced hair restoration method available today. Three months later, the results are looking great, but one hair transplant expert warns that it might not last forever.

Dr. Bessam Farjo, one of the world’s leading hair transplant doctors and founder of the Farjo Medical Centre, told BBC News that young men like Rooney should wait until they are around the age of 30 to undergo hair transplant surgery.

And while Rooney’s surgery brought awareness to male pattern baldness and hair restoration, Dr. Farjo thinks it’s sending the wrong message to other guys in their 20’s.

“When a celebrity comes out with it, you only hear the good things. You don’t hear the cautions or the potential complications,” he told BBC.

Although he’s seen interest from more young men since Rooney’s surgery, the complications are apparently so great, that Dr. Farjo doesn’t recommend any hair transplant procedure for patients under 25 years of age.

This might not be good news for the thousands of young men who start to experience hair loss in their late teens and early 20’s, but Dr. Farjo makes a good point.

He explained to BBC that if a patient receives a hair transplant too young, his body still may be going through the hair loss process, and this could mean a very awkward-looking long-term result.

He said, “If you have the surgery too early and you go bald, you don’t have enough hair to keep chasing the hair loss. You can end up with isolated patches of hair. You could end up with hairy temples and a bald forehead, which isn’t pretty, but is also hard to fix.”

Hairy temples and a bald forehead?

Most guys would probably agree that waiting a few years would be completely worth avoiding a mess like that.

The good news is there are other things that can be done to prevent hair loss at a young age. Before diving straight into surgery, Dr. Farjo does everything in his power to preserve a patient’s already existing hair.

He explained, “I ask them questions about their family history, record the hair loss, and monitor it over a period of time. I also offer them medication to see if their hair stops falling out. I am then able to have a much fuller picture of how much hair they will lose.”

Predicting an individual’s total hair loss, he said, is the key to achieving excellent hair transplant surgery results.

Unfortunately, however, there are no age limits or regulations in place to inform or protect younger patients from undergoing hair restoration surgery. Dr. Farjo says some hair transplant clinics are more concerned with making money, rather than the health and happiness of their patients.

As an alternative, he suggests that surgeons work to inform colleagues and patients about the risks associated with age, as a form of self-quality control within the community of hair transplant specialists.

For younger men currently experiencing hair loss, you may want to take advantage of FUE or FUT technology and nip baldness in the bud, but take Dr. Farjo’s advice and wait it out.

Source: Where is my doctor