Can You Be Too Young or Too Old for Hair Transplant Surgery?
Are you curious whether you’re too young or too old for hair restoration surgery? While some surgeons may try and pinpoint ages, like 30 being a general minimum age for hair restoration surgery, we have a different opinion at our Oakbrook Terrace, IL, office. Instead, we focus on factors like whether your hair loss has stabilized, whether you're healthy enough to undergo surgery, and whether you have enough donor hair for natural-looking results. Let’s look more closely at these criteria together.
Rate of Hair Loss
The reason some surgeons might land on a number like 30 is because hair loss is typically more rapid in younger men, then it stabilizes at some point.
During your initial evaluation, we’ll discuss questions like how long you’ve been losing your hair and whether you are still actively shedding hair. Our aim is to provide near-permanent results for our hair restoration surgery patients. We can absolutely perform touch-ups but we want your surgical results to be natural-looking and long-lasting. For example, it wouldn’t look attractive if you had a tuft of hair at the front of your previous hairline and bare areas behind it.
In other words, if you are still actively losing hair, it defeats the purpose of pursuing surgery at our Oakbrook Terrace office at this time.
General Health
Another factor we use to inform candidacy is how healthy our patients are. Though it is low, hair restoration, like any type of surgery, involves some degree of risk. One way we can dramatically reduce patients’ risk of complications is by screening them for conditions like poorly controlled diabetes that could increase the risk of infection and more.
While the rate of serious health conditions does rise as we get older, our team has treated many healthy patients in their 50s, 60s, and beyond. If you have health concerns that could make surgery unadvisable at this time, we’re happy to work with you to get them under control and revisit the idea of hair restoration in the near future.
Other Important Considerations
In addition to assessing your general health and whether your hair loss has stabilized, we’ll look at:
- Skin Elasticity: To ensure the best result, your skin needs to have a sufficient amount of elasticity. While this does decrease as you age, it can vary tremendously between individuals. We’ll assess your skin during a visit to our office.
- Donor Hair Site: Donor hair, taken from the back of the head, is resistant to male pattern baldness due to hormones. However, other conditions can impact the viability of these hair follicles. Again, we’ll conduct a detailed analysis of your hair during an initial consultation.
One of the most important things we’ll discuss is your expectations. Before we recommend surgery, we’ll need to ensure you understand what hair restoration can and can’t do, as well as your role throughout the treatment process.
Schedule a Hair Restoration Consultation to Begin
Are you ready to take control of your hair loss? Reach out to our Oakbrook Terrace team today using our simple online form. We’ll be happy to provide you with more information about your candidacy during an evaluation.