First noticed that my hairline was receding at age 18. I was shocked and I totally did not expect it. It seemed to settle into a pattern mainly of temporal recession until it stabilized around age 26. I tried minoxidil for several years but it did not really do much and it was messy so I stopped it several years ago. I really did not pay attention to the top because I couldn't really see it in the mirror (out of sight out of mind). Around age 38 or so I noticed in a few photos that the top was really getting pretty thin so I started avoiding photos as much as possible. I bothered me a bit but I figured that's life and was pretty much prepared to live with it.
I looked into hair transplantation at around age 23 but fortunately I met with an ethical physician and he told me to come back in 10 years: I was young and had totally unrealisitic expectations of maintaining a teenage hairline. I looked into transplants periodically over the years but the results were poor. There were 2 people that I worked with who had transplants in the mid 80s: one had the plugs that looked ridiculous: he had to do a ridiculous front over side combover and would have looked better shaved. The other person looked like he had major scalp reduction surgery: he had these massive scars going every which way. He had a very dense strip at the front so his frontal profile looked pretty good but front the top or behind you could see these major scars with poor coverage and it just looked unatural.
I researched HT over the years and in late 2004/2005 I read about FUT and saw some of the results which absolutely blew me away. I had no idea the techniques had evolved so much over the years. This was one of those things that I had wanted for about 25 years. I just turned 44 and I had a unique opportunity in my extremely busy carreer to take about 10 days off so I just decided now is the time. My wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I was reluctant to tell her. I finally blurted out : HAIR TRANSPLANT. I was surprised: she did not laugh or think I was just kidding, she just said OK. I had contacted Hasson and Wong several months previously but the timing was not right, so I contacted them again and I was able to get in with Dr. Hasson before the end of 2006 which pretty well worked out perfectly for me.
