How Old Do You Have To Be for Hair Transplant?

There are several options to treat hair loss. One of them is with hair transplant. It can provide a quick result for hair growth. However, not all people of all age can take it. To get the most benefit from this kind of hair loss treatment, there are some crucial issues you need to concern. For instance, the age may not be the major issue but you should not be too young to take it.

Unlike the procedures of transplantation for other organs of the body – currently, the transplantation of hair is only derived from other areas of your scalp. In men, the most common donor sites are the resistant hairs from the back and sides of the head.

The good news, most men that are going to baldness still have lots of hairs in the back and sides. Therefore, about 90 percent of men with balding can take hair transplant [1].

On the other hand, the number of women who can be good candidate to take this kind of hair loss treatment is much lower than men. The reason is due to most women usually experience overall thinning (uniform scalp thinning), as a result there is poor donor site for transplantation.

So, to take this kind of treatment, you need to have stable donor sites. These stable sites are areas of your scalp where hair follicles are still not affected by follicle-killing dihydrotestosterone (DHT).

For this reason, you may also wonder whether hair transplant can be done with someone else’s donor hair?! Unfortunately, if the hair comes from someone else, your body usually will reject it.

Actually it can be done with taking anti-rejection medication. But the risk of taking this option far outweighs the advantages.

So currently, the use of donor hair from one person to another is still not recommended. However, some studies are continuously going to find the better chance of transplanting hair follicles from one person to another without following rejection.

After the treatment, there is a chance for your scalp to become tender. But it should be temporary. For this reason, you are asked to take pain medications to cope with this side effect for several days.

Some antibiotic or anti-inflammatory medicines may also be prescribed. And for about 1-2 days after surgery, you are usually also asked to wear a surgical dressing to cover the area of the surgery (over your scalp).

In general, the recovery can go fast. You may be allowed to return to work about a week or even 5 days after taking the surgery [2].

A few weeks (about 2-3 weeks) after the treatment, you usually will notice that the transplanted hairs on your scalp fall out. But don’t be panic!

The falling out of transplanted hair a few weeks after surgery is expected. It can be a sign that the new cycle of hair growth begins. Then a few months later (about 6 to 9 months after the treatment), you should notice new hair growth.

The next question – is the result permanent or just temporary (how long does it last)? The prognosis after treatment can vary, but many people who take it can have a permanent result.

Unfortunately, there is still no clearly regulation about the specific age that is recommended for hair transplant. But in general, many experts agree that it should not be taken when you are too young.

For best result, in men with hair loss problem, hair transplant is commonly recommended at close to the age of 30 or older [3]. This may go the same for women (discuss more with a dermatologist or a qualified surgery for in-depth information)!

The quality of donor site can play a key role for the prognosis after surgery [4]. How old you are and the severity of your hair loss problem can significantly affect the quality of your donor site for hair transplant.

Individuals with rapidly losing hair and at young age (early 20s) usually have poor prognosis. On the other hand, the older age and with slowly losing hair usually will have better prognosis – why?