Question:
I am a 42-year-old female very unhappy with my recent hair loss. Is there any way a doctor can predict for me how much more hair I will lose before I make the decision about getting a hair transplant?

Answer:
Unfortunately, there is no specific test that can be done on a patient to determine how far their hair loss will progress before it stops.

We do take a detailed family history including both sides of the family to determine if they are closely following another family member’s hair loss pattern. In most cases the patient has some type of mixed genetics from both parents, however, to determine or predict an exact hair loss pattern is virtually impossible.

In many cases when we consider doing a hair transplantation surgery on a patient who is young and experiencing hair loss and will most likely continue to experience additional hair loss, we treat that patient as if they are going to lose most of the hair on their head and progress to what we call a stage VI on the Norwood Scale of Hair Loss.

By approaching a patient in this manner, we make sure that we stay conservative and will have enough donor hair to continue doing more hair transplants if more hair loss occurs in the future for this patient.

Posted by: Dr. Charles