Hi Andy .. I can`t answer many of your questions, as I simply have no experience of many of the products you mention.
However, I think that it`s come as a shock to you that your hairloss was pointed-out to you ..... I guess none of us were
happy to be told of it, or realize it ourselves. You can certainly ` mask` your thinning hair, with such things as` concealers` / hair fibers,
but they can have limitations such as if you get caught in heavy rain ,they can ` run` ..... personally, I think hair -grafts are so expensive
and have no guarantee that they will ` take` .. you also have to consider the look of the ` donor-area` ... I hope you get some replies
from guys who have experience of some of the things you mention..... all I wanted to say is that, with the style you wear, you can get a
pretty decent system to blend in with your side /back hair, if /when you decide the time has come.... it`s not perfect....nothing is as
perfect as having all your own hair, but we`re gone beyond that point [ you`re getting there] .... wearing comes with it`s own issues and
that often involves actually psyching yourself up before making the move ...don`t rush into it....one thing that I can tell you about,
is something I`ve been having done recently [this is a ` work-in-progress` and I`ll be doing a thread on it in the coming months] is scalp-
pigmentation ....... rather than having the skin tattooed with tiny ` dots`, pigmentation involves tiny cuts to the skin, similar to a paper cut,
into which a pigment is added ..the difference is these are little ` lines` similar to short hairs, rather than [relatively] ` heavy` tattooed ` dots`.
It isn`t cheap either.
However, I think that in your case, seeing as the thinning is at the [very visible] front and temple areas, if you were to get this area pigmented,
it would probably be a waste of money, because, it`s really best suited to being done on an area where hair is re-growing, rather than disappearing-from.
At least you have the option of wearing...modern systems are pretty good and, with Toplace, reasonably-priced.
You could spend thousands on all types of ` options` from transplants to ` potions` ..... to my mind, until someone, somewhere has a Eureka moment, and
discovers a ` cure` for hairloss, wearing is about the most practical alternative to going bald....hope that helps.