Advice for my hairloss situation

[Nat]

I am in my early 30s and my hairloss started around 7-8 years back when I was 25+. When the issue(MPB) was diagnosed, i was advised to take Finasteride ,Minoxidil and some vitamin(biotin maybe) by my doctor. Because of side effects that I read regarding Fin and most importantly PFS, i did not take Finasteride.

I used minoxidil for around 4-5 years and then did buzz cut for last several years. I did face some side effects from Minoxidil- palpitations and headaches.

1. What should be my plan of action to restore my hair or is it too late that i should just shave it or buzz it?

2. I understand that even if I want to do a hair transplant, the doctor will advise to get on Fin and Min after the transplant. Should I take finasteride 1 mg or dutasteride .5 mg now to test how do I react? I read recently about some people achieving decent agains with dutasteride.

3. If I proceed with hair transplant, how many grafts would I require for age appropriate hairline ?

4. How is my donor area? Which type under norwood scale do I belong?

(Brief background- My father who is in his 70s has almost full hair except for minor thinning in crown, which happened in last decade or so. Both my maternal and paternal grandfathers had almost full scalp hair till they died in 70s/early 80s. Also, my uncle(mother’s brother) has receding hairline but he is 60 years +. All brothers of my father had almost full hair till their old age(70s/80s or death). In my entire family(including distant family), only I and one of my cousin(the only male cousin in my mother’s side) has hairloss(MPB).

The only person(ancestor) that I could find with severe hairloss is my great maternal grandfather. He died before I was born)

[Vega]

You got unlucky with the hair genetics. You also had the chance of having a good doctor because he recommended you finasteride and it would have saved you

1. If I was you, I would take finasteride/dutasteride for 1-2 years with 5% topical minoxidil daily, then see how it looks. If results are not good enough, stay on treatment and go for HT. I would say that you can still have decent hair without the HT, and it will always look better than no hair
2. Finasteride is a safe treatment, if you are scared to take it, don’t take it, but don’t hope to have decent hair
3. At least 4000
4. N5

[baldbutnotbold]

Your situation is dire my man. Your chance of fully recovering frontal and crown regions are low to be honest. You are also NOT diffuse thinning, where follicles are thinning/miniaturized but nevertheless still alive and can respond to treatment, so follicles in those areas (frontal-crown) are probably dormant, no growth will occur. I don’t know what your full face looks like honestly, but you may try buzzing it all off, it may suit you well given the pics you posted. If no side effects occur you should take a medicine if a doctor prescribes it to you. Finasteride is solid for those purposes, shame you fell for the rare-occuring if any PFS, meanwhile I take dut already . To me you seem like NW4.5 by the way. I cannot say much about your donor area as I am not a surgeon but looks good, maybe you could refer that road if you prefer. Us turks are good at it. It is never too late, if you wanna hop on the HT route. But bear in mind that, this time you gotta take the finasteride or dutasteride. If you don’t then your second chance will also slip away.