Mid-teen Males Flocking To Cosmetic Surgeons for Hair Transplants

Young men still in their mid-teens are battling male pattern baldness by flocking to cosmetic doctors for hair transplants. Despite the very expensive cost, which could reach $17,000, teens with means are willing to spend to spare from being the butt of jokes for the vanishing hair or receding hairlines at age 15 or 16.

There was a spike in hair transplant procedures in the past 12 months, said Dr Keith Durante, a hair transplant surgeon based in Islip, reports the New York Post. Durante gets hairs one by one from the patient’s back of the neck and transplants it to the top of the head. The procedure takes up to six hours.

He estimates that the number of his patients, who are getting younger, has increased by about 50 percent in the past 12 months. The patients could just have slight hair recession or be totally bald. The cost of the procedure is often shouldered by the patient’s parents, Durante said.

The hair transplant surgeon explains the growing popularity of the procedure to the selfie culture as many youth join the trend of taking photos of themselves using their mobile phones from big moments in their lives such as school achievements to minor ones such as just chilling, and posting these images on social media sites. However, young men with less hair are often hesitant to post their selfies on Facebook because of the jokes or negative comments they get about their hair deficiency.

One of Durante’s patients from Manhattan, whom the New York Post describes as follicularly deficient, said, “I don’t just put pictures on Facebook anymore – there were jokes about the way my head looks.” The youth adds, “I just want to look hot.”

In some instances, some of these teen males didn’t know they were losing hair until their social media friends comment on their vanishing crown of glory or they realise hair deficiency from the photos posted. Durante discloses that a lot of these young men lose their self-esteem upon finding out that they have hair problems. “They’re not comfortable in their own skin,” the surgeon observes.

Some don on head covers such as hats or scarves to hide their hair woes. However, for those who could afford the procedure and have undergone it, they had become hat-free and gained more confidence.

For those who cannot afford hair transplant, alternatives include hair weaving, hairpieces or change of hairstyle to disguise the hair loss. Medications to treat male pattern baldness, an inherited condition, include minoxidil, a solution directly applied to the scalp to stimulate hair follicles, and finasteride, a pill that interferes with the production of a highly active form of testosterone linked to baldness, according to MedlinePlus.

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