Is this male pattern baldness?

[Quickstrike]

Hello everyone.

I am 22 years of age and have noticed quite a loss of hair over the past few years. Whenever I shampoo or gel my hair there are tonnes of hairs that fall into my hand. Hair on my pillow... Hair on the collars of my jackets.

My dad and his 2 brothers are almost completely bald @ the age of 50. He started to notice serious signs of male pattern baldness when he was 24 years old. My moms father still has a full-set of hair, her siblings (my uncles) have receded a bit over the years, but nothing serious.

I think my hair has been thinning over the years. It used to be very very thick, whenever I went to get a haircut the person would comment on how thick it was.

I started using Nizoral every week a few months back.

Here are some pictures. Plz excuse the acne and hair cut. I am long overdue for a haircut -- I never have it this long and out of place.

What do you guys think? Am I just noticing the loss of hairs so much because I have never kept it this long? Is this just normal receding for my age?

What should my plan of attack be [if applicable]?




Thanks so much.
I appreciate all the help.
-Quickstrike

 

[metalheaddude]

The only questionable area is the hairline because the rest of your hair including the crown and hairline is flawless and VERY thick. What was your hairline like before you noticed this?

You know about a mature hairline right? (Which is not male pattern baldness) Its more a sign you're becoming a man (kinda). Its something that 95% of all caucasian males experience. Just do a google on it for information.

Personally I think your hairline might be starting to recead. I would monitor it VERY closely over the next couple of months. Look into propecia (finasteride) this should stop your potential male pattern baldness in its tracks.

Good luck..

 

[DoctorHouse]

Metalheaddude, Propecia does not stop male pattern baldness in its tracks even it you use the drug at the earliest level. My thinning was at the earliest level and Propecia did not stop me from thinning in the front. My hair got worse so abruptly on Propecia. I never got back to baseline. Propecia may slow things down for some people but to say it stops male pattern baldness is definitely a wrong choice of words. I wish it stopped my thinning and my stress level would definitely be lower than it is now worrying about what the heck caused my hair to thin so rapidly in such a short time. Minoxidil or Propecia or stress?????

 

[JayB]

i would def use minoxidil on that hairline. you still have hair there but its clearly thinning..if minoxidil works on you, it should def thicken up those hairs and you might not even look like ur thinning

 

[Jkkezh]

Looks pretty similar to how it started with me. The shorter hairs with tapered ending on your hairline indicates that they are miniaturizing.

 

[metalheaddude]

Metalheaddude, Propecia does not stop male pattern baldness in its tracks even it you use the drug at the earliest level. My thinning was at the earliest level and Propecia did not stop me from thinning in the front. My hair got worse so abruptly on Propecia. I never got back to baseline. Propecia may slow things down for some people but to say it stops male pattern baldness is definitely a wrong choice of words. I wish it stopped my thinning and my stress level would definitely be lower than it is now worrying about what the heck caused my hair to thin so rapidly in such a short time. Minoxidil or Propecia or stress?????

Well this is what i have been discussing in a few other threads, because my hairline wasnt great when I started finasteride 5 years but now its 10 times worse! I actually got on finasteride because it was my crown going more noticabley initially. Now the crown is pretty good but the hairline is GONE. There is a few interesting threads about fragile hairlines actually being more sensetive to testosterone than DHT (see michael barry's posts) and as we all know finasteride reduces dht but increases testosterone. So there may be a link there. Its worth thinking about or at the very least investigating.

 

[Sean68]

get on propecia and nizoral, see how it looks in six months and then take it from there.

 

[decro435]

Wait... Finasteride increases testosterone? Okay this is news to me.

I thought all finasteride did was limit the amount of Testosterone being converted into DHT?
and since when did testosterone damage hair? I thought it was just DHT that did...

 

[Quickstrike]

Thanks for all your helpful comments.

Would you guys suggest just applying the minoxidil to my hairline? or to my whole head?

Should I be starting with once or twice a day treatments?

Nizoral a couple times per week sound good?






Thanks again.
-Quickstrike

 

[metalheaddude]

Wait... Finasteride increases testosterone? Okay this is news to me.

I thought all finasteride did was limit the amount of Testosterone being converted into DHT?
and since when did testosterone damage hair? I thought it was just DHT that did...

Do a search for a forum member called Micahel Barry. He has very informative scientific posts relating to studies on everything like this.

In one of this posts he talks about how its not only dht but testosterone that can minaturize hair follicles (but testosterone to much lesser extent) Its well known that finasteride suppresses DHT and the side effect is increased testosterone levels.

Again search through his posts. Very interesting stuff.

 

[plusryan]

I was getting paranoid about my progress thus far. So I just went in my bathroom and wet my hairline, I can see very closely that all my hair that had been lost has grown again. The hairs are short but dark and strong in diameter. So I'm very pleased to have had taken the medication. I'm using Gen. Dutas, and Nizoral.

 

[abcdefg]

The whole mature hairline thing is the biggest joke ever. What a cop out saying some hairloss is normal. They only say that simply because science has no idea why it happens so we just use that as an excuse. Really we could just lump hairloss in with wrinkles, and weight gain as things that just happen with age really. Even though really through unknown processes something really does cause every one of these age related things.

Back to the topic at hand though if your hair was thicker before or you had hair where there is no hair now then you have hair loss. Whether its worth treating with our current state of crappy treatments is up to you.

 

[metalheaddude]

The whole mature hairline thing is the biggest joke ever. What a cop out saying some hairloss is normal. They only say that simply because science has no idea why it happens so we just use that as an excuse.

I tend to agree.

But having said that mature hairlines really do suit some people and look more masculine. I prefer a THICK mature hairline look as opposed to a NWO who has hairline like a latino female.

I would be VERY happy with a mature hairline if I could maintain everything else THICK. Just my opinion.

 

[Quickstrike]

Regret.

This is what happens when you ignore hair loss for 6 years.

Been taking Finasteride now for a week, so I am [hopefully] not going to be totally bald in a few years time.

There is no backtracking in life. I am the kind of man that waits until he is 20 pounds overweight before he decides to tackle the issue, procrastinates and pushes everything to the last second. Sadly, with cosmetics [and many other things in life], you twiddle your thumbs and there is no way to bring back what you once had.

For a decade now, I have gotten used to growing my hair longer - like a laid-back dude / or slob depending on how you perceive it. Get out of the shower, towel it quickly, give it a few shakes and let it lay where it wants to.
It has gotten much curlier over the years.. I think that really allowed me to look past the receding hairline. My long bangs used to lie flat on my forehead, but now they [or used to when I had bangs] curled up tight, hiding gaps where my temples were heavily receding. Over time my hairline was getting higher and higher -- "ahhh but my bangs merely curl up tighter than they have in the past.. no need for alarm."

The shedding seemed pretty gradual. I always found some hair on the shower floor when I was done shampooing, but nothing that excessive.
That is until about 3 months ago when I noticed hundreds of hairs everywhere.
"Hmmm, it has been awhile since I have inspected my hairline. OMG! That phallic protrusion coming down the center. Sky-high temples. Yep.. that is some pretty advanced male pattern baldness ."

I think I went from the beginnings of NW1 to advanced NW3. What do you guys think?

Damn that regret. Damn those thoughts of "well my mothers father still has a good set of hair, I will be OK".


Yeah. I have a huge head. I tried to cover it for most of my life, but I guess I didn't care enough about the issue to be proactive.

 

[Quickstrike]

Any idea where I'm @ on the Norwood Scale?

Gotta snap out of it. Been like a zombie for the past few months. Perhaps it is a Finn side - I have never been so depressed.

 

[e45]

Man it doesn't look like your hair has changed a bit

 

[Quickstrike]

Man it doesn't look like your hair has changed a bit

Yeah. Kind of a good and bad thing. Good thing is, I can hide it better than most people. Bad thing is, I fooled myself in the process and wasn't proactive.

In the above picture I lined up 2 shots of my forehead [2008 vs 2014], and highlighted green where my hairline used to be.

I think I've lost like 80% of my hair density in the last 3 years. Because of the wave in my hair, it probably doesn't show well when my hair is damp. But when it is dry, or sopping wet [just getting out of the shower], it is flat and lifeless. Originally I thought this new soft, smooth feeling to my hair was from conditioner that I recently added to my regimen. But now, after months of not using conditioner, I realize that smooth feeling is from extremely thin, wispy hair.

There used to be major resistance just running my fingers through my hair, whereas now I can slide a fine-tooth comb through it with absolute ease.

Ugh.

 

[SayifDoit]

I'm pretty much 100% certain his hair has changed, its recessed further back giving him a much largerr forehead with addition of your sides deepening out further.
Currently in nw3 realm, only way you are going o get some ground back is you get on the big 3.
Try zinc supplements, I always suggest this.

 

[Quickstrike]

How many posts before moderator approval is removed?

I like this forum, but the wait is kind of annoying.


Thanks.


EDIT: Hmm this one showed up right away. Perhaps it is just for messages containing images.

Since the other post hasn't appeared yet [waiting for approval], let me try just posting a link of the image.

http://i.imgur.com/T4ijSBQ.jpg

In that image I took a frontal shot of my hairline that matched [as closely as possible] another one that I took in 2008. I superimposed the 2 images together and highlighted the loss of hair green. If you look closely, you can see vellus hair of where my hairline used to be.

 

[Quickstrike]

I have a hair transplant consultation lined up.

Gah. I waited too long.

I have some 5% minoxidil foam, do you think I should try applying it to the green region in this pic?
http://i.imgur.com/T4ijSBQ.jpg

Probably should just crew cut / buzz all the hair down and get used to walking around with a five-head for the rest of my life.

Is anyone here is hesitant to try Finasteride, let this be a lesson to you. Get on that **** ASAP.