Postby MagnoliaMum » Mon Mar 10, 2025 11:36 am
My son in his early 20s is already receding noticeably at his temples and very sensitive about it, so he has been looking into this too. He did lots of research on the reviews of the various clinics and booked a free consultation at the Wimpole Clinic, which I attended with him. They looked at his hair pattern and gave us lots of information, showing photos of patients undergoing all stages of the procedure. They quoted us for a FUE transplant, where individual hairs from the back of the head are transplanted one at a time into the balding areas. These aren't very extensive on him yet and the quote was £5,600 - to give you a bit of an idea. This covered the op day (it's all done in a day) and a lot of support and aftercare to maximise its success.
However, as a poster above has commented, we were told that the process works best if the person takes pills to lower testosterone at the same time, to inhibit further hair loss. Otherwise you will end up needing new transplants every few years and you only have a limited supply without thinning down the back of your head too much. My son had tried taking Finasteride in a rather chaotic time at uni and felt he had bad side effects from it and stopped. He then tried a topical, spray on the hair, version which destroyed his hair texture and didn't seem to work (the clinic was sceptical of this too).
Our joint conclusion was that our son should not go ahead with a transplant unless he was first sure he could tolerate the Finasteride on a long term basis - he is trying it again now that life is calmer and he can better assess what his side effects are and weigh up if they're worth it. These can be very extreme in some people, including depression, lack of energy and low libido, but other people seem to be ok on it when they get used to it. We're keeping a close eye on him and then we'll review the whole thing again with him in a few months.
My advice to your husband would be that if this is bothering him then there is no harm in making an appointment (or comparative appointments in different clinics) to discuss his particular case - I was worried about hard sell, but the Wimpole seems to have plenty of clients without needing to do that, we had no pressure at all subsequently. People have different hair loss patterns and rates of receding, so he will get personalised advice and they email you a quote soon afterwards. You should go with him and look at all the photos of treated clients and come to your own conclusion of whether it looks fake or not. I was more impressed than I expected - these things have come on a long way in recent years and they go to huge efforts to ensure it looks as natural as possible (although were very scathing about results from the cheaper clinics in Turkey and abroad!). Hope that helps you a bit.
