Concerned about my hairline

[luis_scofield]

Hello everyone, my name is Luis ,im from Mexico im 24 years old, almost 25 in september.

Pretty much since i turned 24 i started noticing a difference in my hairline and how it was kinda thinner. I remember when i was younger (around 20) i noticed how guys a bit older, who were in their mid 20s had a different hairline than mine. At first i didnt gave it too much importance as i tought it was just part of getting older.

However i started looking online how hair loss can begin around this age and i started to panic. To be honest im not in a good emotional state currently to suffer from hair loss. Anyway, i started thinking too much about it, all the day, and kinda started losing some hairs, maybe due to the stress of thinking about hair loss. I dont remember even before had hair loss problems that i noticed.

About my family, my old man is bald, yeah. Im not sure when his balding started. My brother, 31 year old is not bald at all and he says he has a hairline like mine that he noticed "several years" ago however i dont see anything. From my mom side, nobody is bald, none of his brothers. I mean, most of then have huge hairlines that look that they were receding over the years but none of them is full bald. Im talking about men in their 50s for the most part anyway. My grandpather from my mom side, wasnt bald either, the same, he had a receding hairline, but he was not full bald, kinda like Anthony Hopkins. When i think of full bald i thin of Danny Devito. Thats pretty much ugly bald and not, let say, Jean Reno who doesnt have much hair but it looks fine to me.

I pretty much hope that is what some may call a "mature hairline" but im not too sure anyway. It would be fine to me if it recedes over the years to a certain point but not full bald like Norwood 6. But i hope it takes a lot of years to recede like that.


Honestly i dont mind my hairline, but i dont want to use minoxidil and propecia only to make it worse. However im concered that if i dont do anyhting i will loose hair pretty fast...

My hair is pretty much the same besides the hairline. I noticed some pics when i was younger and it doenst show too much of a difference. Besides with my current haircut i dont mind it since nobody notices anything.

I dont know about the crown either.

So anyway. I went to two dermatologist. The first one checked my hair with a light. He told one told me that i had a healthy hair and that it was only in my head.In fact he insisted that i needed psychiatric help because i was seeing things that are "not there". That everyone loose at least 50 to 100 hair, that i was not "wierd". But i insisted about my hairline, that it was different and he told me that it either was from my mom or from my dad. I REALLY hope that its from my mother side. Since nobody is full bald. Anyway he told me that i had nothing to worry about it, that i had to live the life of a young man and not be concered about something that i shouldnt be.

I was a little better at first, i was happy to know that i wasnt going bald, at least not yet. But then i started to doubt and went to another dermatologist, who was also specialized in hair loss. She touched my hair, and she said that every men start to loose a bit of hair eventually, but that my hairline was a bit thinning, so my crown. However everyone see that my crown is just fine, if not "perfect". She told me to buy minoxidil. But she said, that my hair looked fine, and somehow she told me that she doesnt think that i will be bald in the future. I dont know why.

I dont know who believe. Some guys in a different spanish forum told me that i was balding, others say i was ok. I dont want to use a hair product that makes my hair worse, wich is pretty much fine currently. However i dont want to be over confident and loose hair pretty fast.

This is my hairline currently:





Crown pics can be confusing due to quality, but here they are anyway:



Honestly in some pics my crown looks awfully unusual and then it looks fine i dont know what is going on, I think i just washed my hair when i took those pics.


This is how my hair looks normally:


A better pic from my crown taken with a digital camera. However this is a pic from march and i feel it look worse:

My hairline in march:

https://imageshack.com/i/idpsp9eIj
https://imageshack.com/i/idAF3MOBj
https://imageshack.com/i/ipQXcXEij

This is how it looked since i first noticed:
http://imageshack.com/a/img661/466/FvB5ef.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img908/4088/5TEoyF.jpg

As i see it i lost a noticeable amount of hair within a months.

So i pretty much lost my hairline ibut i think it havent changed much since march. However i fear a lot that it get worse. I see that is obviously thinning and it gives me the impression that it will go on. As you can see in the first pic there is a small amount of hairs around where my hairline was. Those are actually new hairs due to minoxidil.

Im not sure if it got worse within a few months. Could it be due to stress and thinking about hair loss that it can get worse? so the whole "mature hairline" is just not my case?


I have heard a lot about the so called "mature hairline" but it seems like a way to calm down men suffering from hair loss. Honestly just looking at my pics i think im pretty much balding that doesnt look like a normal hairline, neither mature, so i dont know how a dermatologist just couldnt see it. I dont get how some family members say they see "nothing". I dont think im being over reactive, i mean, how can that be "nothing"... specially weird coming from a dermatologist.


About my hairline chances is that it will get worse eventually? i dont get it why a dermatologist would tell me that i had nothing anyway, but after i saw him i noticed it worse.

I think im pretty much balding and i feel awful because i dont have much money. What can i do? i cant take any drugs to some health issues. Minoxidil would be my only chance but i barely have money. I was using minoxidil but it didnt lasted more than a month.

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I have to say, that the fist dermatologist that i visited, said that i had nothing... that i had a healthy hair, and that it was normal to loose a few hairs here and there daily. He said it was all a product of my head and confusing information in the internet.

I have to say that i suffer from body dismorphic disorder so i tend to see problems that are not there, and in fact his diagnostic was that it was all part of my bdd and that i needed psychriatic evaluation...

So please help me anyone cus this might be more serious than you think. Do i seriosly have male pattern baldness? how can it be in my head when i can see a receding hairline? i showed my hairline to him and he said it was nothing to be alarmed of. When i insisted about what i seen in the internet, and some users opinions he only said "well, who is he specialist, them or me?" so i dont know if i just should trust him.

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Any anwser please? what can i do? what hair loss product would help?

 

[Wolf Pack]

I didn't read all that, sorry I am a bit busy. But I noticed no one has replied. I looked at your pictures. There looks to be some thinning at the hairline I think, but it may not be anything, sometimes it's just like that. See a hair transplant doctor who can use tools to analyse it. It looks very early if it is male pattern baldness but could be nothing. You will need minimum Finasteride and possibly Minoxidil for regrowth - don't bother with the second one yet. Both are FDA approved for hair loss.

 

[luis_scofield]

Thanks for your anwser. So isnt that bad? some people say that i should go on propecia/finasteride inmediatly.

I have seen two doctors so far. The first one from the public hospita told me that i had nothing really, that is normal to loose hairs, and that i was not balding that it was "all in my head" and i should be concerned about getting a job or a girflriend intead. He used tools to check my hair, he told me that i hadnt to worry, that my hair was fine and i shouldnt worry about it until im like 35, that i didnt had to use any other special product and just told me to buy a gentle shampoo. That was around march. I felt great for a while, wowever i just couldnt trust him because my hairline just didnt looked right to me, and started fo feel insecure within a few days because i listened to people on forums who told me that sometimes doctors can be wrong and what not. So i visited another dermatologist, specialized about problems like hair loss and said that i was thinning from the crown and temples. He told me to use minoxidil. I dont know if i just should had stayed with the opinion of the first doctor.


So i started minoxidil. However i just cant quit the product because it might get worse.

Here is my crown today:

Here how it was in April:




So maybe i just should have stuck with the opinion of the first doctor. However my hair looks worse than before and im worried that it wont recover naturally.

I dont know what to do if i should stick with minoxidil for life or stop using products.

 

[alex85]

Greetings Luis. It looks like a typical diffuse male pattern baldness. And i am almost sure your mid scalp is thinning too=(

 

[luis_scofield]

How bad it is? im waiting to get another opinion by a specialist on monday or tuesday. I highly doubt it will get worse within a week, it would be impossible right?. If he tells me that i have indeed male pattern baldness then i will no doubt start treating myself again. Im trying to get minoxidil again too. But i want to waint until the doctor see me.

I think that the crown can be confusing consdering the way i comb myself. When i touch my scalp i dont really feel any difference than before but im not sure.


So is it thinning too? man im ****ed

 

[DoctorHouse]

Luis, your hair looks great. You do not have aggressive balding as that would have happened by now. You are going to be 25 and still have thick hair. Just relax and stop stressing over something that is very very very unlikely to happen in the next few years or even longer. Minoxidil should buy you some time. Make sure you go to a doctor who specializes in hair loss and can measure your density and look under a microscope to see if you are miniaturizing. And if that is the case then you can start taking finasteride. The way you wear your hair is very similar to the way I do and no one notices any issues with my hair. I am sure you would get the same reaction.

 

[luis_scofield]

Thanks House, you are way nicer than in your tv show hehe. Anyway i guess that i have been losing hair these months due to stress. Because i have been stressed about hair loss.

So im gonna do my best to keep my cool until my next visit to the doctor and i will ask him to examine the cause of my hair loss and the best way to treat it. I hope is not genetics. Tomorrow im gonna go with a couple of friends to drink a beer or something and see if i can relax a little.

Anyway, i will ask for the best treatement possible, and cheap. However if i was already using minoxidil, shouldnt be the best to keep treating my hair with it? i dont think that i should be changing products, i havent tried minoxidil for 6 months, it is when i should see results, so the best is to keep up with it i guess. If it doesnt work i will try anything else.

 

[alex85]

Atm your hair looks nice, it will take a long time before your thinning will become noticeable. You have some options -
1) Invigilate to see if it's becomes worse. If it does, jump on finasteride.
2) Jump on finasteride now.
Starting minoxidil solo is a bad idea. Your hair simply doesn't need it for now. There is a several reasons to start finasteride only for you - min does NOT works without finasteride if you have male pattern baldness, and you can use finasteride for at least 6-12 months just to check how it works, and how you tolerate it.

Again, i am sure you have diffuse thinning, according to your pics. And i am 99% sure it's caused by male pattern baldness. And again, your hair looks good now, but male pattern baldness is cruel time bomb.

 

[luis_scofield]

Ok then, im going to see the doctor this monday and i will ask him to give me a prescription for finasteride.So finasteride grows lost hairs back? for what i see i have only lost hair around the temples and isnt that much and u cant really tell if you dont pull back my hair.Previous doctor recommended me minoxidil to restore lost hair, she said that is better due to lack of side effects. I hope i dont get side effects.Thanks a lot.

 

[alex85]

So finasteride grows lost hairs back?

finasteride stops hair loss, and, in most cases, regrows it.

Previous doctor recommended me minoxidil to restore lost hair, she said that is better due to lack of side effects.

Lack of side effects? Oh man, minoxidil side effects possibly even worse then finasteride, trust me.
Leave minoxidil alone for now.

 

[luis_scofield]

I will treat myself with finasteride in monday then, i higly doubt it get worse within a few years.How can you tell that it might be difuse male pattern baldness? how can you tell the difference? i tough it was pretty much typical male pattern baldness due to genetics, like my dad.

 

[alex85]

How can you tell that it might be difuse male pattern baldness? how can you tell the difference? i tough it was pretty much typical male pattern baldness due to genetics, like my dad.

Diffuse male pattern baldness is very typical. I can say even more common, then any other. Just compare the density between "male pattern baldness" and "non-male pattern baldness" areas, you'll see the difference.

 

[1knox1]

Some of these derms really don't have a clue. See one and make clear that you want your hair checked for miniaturization so you know what next step to take. Good luck!

 

[luis_scofield]

The point is that im pretty sure that my hair loss is pshycological and caused pretty much by myself.Every since i started thinking about hair loss i started to loose hair, NEVER had hair loss problems before. I dont know about it too much, but i doubt that hair loss appears magically one day like a parasite.Because i wasnt this bad in the temples a few months ago, when the first derm checked my hair for miniaturization.But i have been overly obssessed and persistent with myself, keep telling, its getting worse, its getting worse, you are balding, you are balding...Could that be what is causing my hair loss instead of typical male pattern baldness? i dont know but it seems odd to me.Is not that im denial, but i just hope is stress and mental hair loss instead of typical male balding... all stressed constantly taking pic of my scalp and i admit i had a few freak out moments.What can i do about it then? obviously relax and be less paranoid i guess, but i hope that i can repair the damage done.