My Story
30th July 2009
I’m always discussing other people’s hair-loss and thought it would be interesting to give you an insight into my own. This occurred to me recently, when a patient enquired how I, as an ‘expert’ in this field, managed to lose my own hair.
My hair loss – like most men’s – is genetic and ‘gifted’ to me from both sides of the family. Come to think of it, out of 10 direct male relatives I can think of, there are only two who didn’t end up almost completely bald!
I suspect that what he really meant was, why have I not taken any action against my baldness? Rather than, why have I lost my hair? Well, truth be told, I did take action, but Propecia was not around at the time of my hair loss and Minoxidil did nothing to help.
When I was training in hair surgery I also had a hair transplant. But, the quality – and level of techniques used – were nowhere near where they are today. More importantly, efficient use of the available donor hair is not comparable to today’s extremely high standards.
The combination of advanced hair loss at a young age and inefficient use of my very limited donor hair means that there’s very little I can now do with my hair.
Over time I have come to terms with this. In fact, I feel that this experience allows me to perfectly place myself in my patients’ shoes, especially the young guys with a strong family history and high expectations.
Tags: hair, loss, transplant, treatments
