There are several very devastating forms of hair loss. The most common type of hair loss (what you would normally think of when you picture a bald or balding person) is called androgenetic alopecia.
This form of hair loss usually comes in the form of male pattern baldness (MPB) or female pattern baldness (FPB) and is quite normal. By “normal” I mean you can find cases of it quite commonly in the general population.
There are worse forms of hair loss such as aggressive forms of alopecia areata or alopecia universalis, scarring (cicatricial) alopecia, along with other types. These can have profoundly negative impacts on the self-esteem of people who suffer from them (as can regular androgenetic alopecia).
I have never seen a case of androgenetic alopecia that I would categorize as being as bad as a bad case of alopecia areata, scarring alopecia, or alopecia universalis. But today I saw the worst case of androgenetic alopecia in the form of male pattern baldness that I have ever seen.
I got into an elevator and was joined by a fellow who clearly had pattern baldness, in that the hair loss resembled a classification of Norwood VII on the Norwood scale. But what really shocked me was that this poor individual had the thinnest, wispiest and sparsest hair I have ever scene at the sides and back of his head, the areas that are normally not hit with hair loss, even in a balding person. The hair at the sides and back of your head is supposed to for all intents and purposes be very resistent to MPB and thinning.
This individual did not have alopecia areata, alopecia universalis or cicatricial alopecia from what I could tell. It was just regular MPB — except that there was no way he would ever be able to get a hair transplant, even if hair multiplication in the form that it is being pursued currently ever comes to fruition.
This served as another huge reminder to me that one really needs to make sure that one researches hair loss in one’s own family thoroughly. Whatever the worst case is that you find, that is what you should assume you may experience, and if you’re thinking of a hair transplant you should plan to get it done taking into consideration the amount of hair you’ll expect worst case to remain in your donor area. For instance, if the person I saw today with the very diffuse donor area were in my family, I would never consider a hair transplant. Because if I got one I may have ended up losing all of the transplanted hair in the future and having a very visible donor area scar.
I truly felt sorry for this guy. Who knows, maybe he doesn’t care all that much about the condition of his hair, but if I had to make a bet I would wager it has taken an impact on his self-esteem. If my own hair loss ever progressed to that level I would just completely shave my head.
Remember, if you’re planning on getting a transplant find out what your worst case scenario would be in terms of future hair loss and don’t get one if you expect to lose a lot of hair in your donor area. Always err on the side of caution. That is my opinion.