Is minoxidil and laser going to be enough for me?

Is my plan solid?

I’ve selected this question below for this week’s question of the week. It allows us to review the concept of continual life long treatments.

Question

I’m 21 year of male and have started minoxidil and laser for my male pattern hair loss. I’m willing to go for a transplant later. I want to know if the minoxidil and laser treatments are going to prevent further loss so that I can just add back what’s needed with a transplant. Is this plan a good one?

Answer

This is a great question.

You have 80-100 + years ahead of you so there are a great many unknowns. That’s the most important thing to take from this. Nobody can give you what I call the “crystal ball” answer. Nobody can tell you exactly what your hair will do or how it will respond over the next 80 years let alone 10 years. However, the good news is you’ve started a plan and you’ll know in 9 months to 12 months just how effective this particular plan is. For some males, the combination of minoxidil and laser works well, for other it works only a bit to slow down hair loss and for some males this plant you describe does not work at all.

You’ll know in the near future and then you and your doctors can make a decision as to whether you should continue one or both of add other treatments like oral minoxidil, topical or oral finasteride or PRP. Hair transplants should be avoided until 24-25 years of age and if you are not sure why that is you’ll want to keep doing your research. The biggest error that exists here in this question is the assumption that minoxidil and laser are going to hold things in place and prevent any further hair loss over the next 80-120 years. They may of course help wonderfully but the chances they will “be enough” for the next 8 to 10 decades is very low. They may be a very good option for the next 3-5 years and maybe 10 in some cases. Further hair transplants or additional treatments may be needed down the road. We don’t know exactly what your male balding genes will want to guide the hair to do, but a treatment approach that takes into account all the hair loss possibilities is ideally what’s needed. Congratulations for taking these steps to address the loss so far.

Be sure to take photos every 4-6 months (not more often) to evaluate how things are changing. That’s going to be essential.