To add to this, I started receding at age 16. Somehow it's been a very slow process, I didn't reach over NW2 until mid 20's when I started treatments, but it was recession no doubt, and it fucked with me so much (and continues to).
I can't lecture anyone who truly went bald by their early 20's, but when it comes to male pattern baldness giving you BDD and other issues, I'm your prime example. It's why I often write not just about the aesthetic crippling of baldness but how the inevitable and slow process (if you're lucky) fucks with you, that's what I've had.
Yesterday my friend showed me our old high school year book and I remember seeing that photo of me, age 18 at the time, and being disgusted at my huge forehead and receding temples, which made my other features seem ridiculous, bug eyes, bloated, weird mouth. And now I see it? 8/10 slayer. What the actual f*** was I thinking, and what do I continue to think about myself. When I saw that year book I had this instant tension inside me of wondering what that photo was like, I think I still have that year book but haven't looked at it since because of the anxiety of it.
I'm not at all trying to compare BDD about "baldness" with actually going bald (as this causes much worse BDD in itself) but I definitely understand how it fucks with your perception of yourself.
I don't even know what to think of myself now, I only know I'm good looking because I've been told it and have that attention, in my own mind I don't know what I look like because pictures and videos of me seem horrific, the mirror can mean some days I look literally ugly to myself, below average, and other days good. I'm sick of thinking about it, I don't have a perception of myself aesthetically anymore, I don't know what people are seeing when they look at me, in videos I think I look like a retard, months later I'll see the same ones maybe when I'm caught off guard, and I look fine. f*** this.
