[melling]

Probably. I asked about a hair transplant before and was told you’ll need to take these drugs or your new hair will fall out.

That’s what the article isn’t telling you. You’ll soon be more easily be able to get new hair but you’ll also need one of these potentially dangerous drugs for the rest of your life...

Or you’ll simply go bald again.

[hizanberg]

> you’ll need to take these drugs or your new hair will fall out.

Not really true, male pattern baldness is generally caused by non-resistant DHT hair follicles which nearly always occurs at the top of the head. New transplanted hair is taken from the "safe" DHT resistant hair follicles at the side + back of the head. Successful transplanted hair follicles still have different yields from various factors, but they're typically not susceptible to the same cause of baldness as the rest of the follicles in the MPB area.

You're recommended to take drugs to prevent/reduce further hair loss and avoid your new hair from looking like a patch infront of a balding area. But if you have good density/elasticity (to maximize harvest) and a mild pattern of baldness you can get away with not needing to take any drugs.

[tidepod12]

AFAIK this isn't necessarily true. The transplanted follicles will not suffer the same fate as your original follicles, so the "new" hair won't just "fall out". The thing about transplants is that, depending on how much existing hair you have, the transplant is really only used to fill in missing spots. This means it's essential to stop any more of the existing hair from falling out, or you'll need another transplant later to cover up the new spots. The reason most people are prescribed finasteride/minoxidil is to slow/prevent any of that existing hair from falling out.

[stavros]

When I got implants they told me to take minoxidil and finasteride. I didn't take the finasteride, and the implants are fine. They eventually told me I could stop the minoxidil, which made me wonder what the point was.

[hombre_fatal]

Even if there were no side-effects, you are basically choosing between learning to accept yourself and the aging process vs. looking at yourself as having a problem and forever worrying about it. Reason enough to think twice about forever-medication.

[melling]

Why would you choose to accept the aging process?

If men were meant to fly,…

[hombre_fatal]

Because it's the only choice you have in the matter.