I got a appointment to get checked for male pattern baldness from a dermatologist. Hopefully a miniaturization test or something similar. Done extensive research on the subject to the point of obsession.
None of the men on my mom's side of the family are balding. That is good news. They have mature hairlines(large foreheads) into late age(uncle's and grandfather), I never noticed these things before. My dad has what appears to be a juvenile hairline at 60 years old. I have a paternal grandfather that I don't know much about(died in 1969) that appeared to be balding. Like that would really really suck that I would get his genes out of all these good options since the chances are so damn low. That is my major fear, I read so much about the unpredictability of male pattern baldness and there is a chance I got his genes and it freaks me the hell out. Finally, my older brother(turns 26 soon) has a juvenile hairline too.
My "mature hairline" came in about a year ago and has stayed the same since. That is good news I suppose. I have been studying it for that long too, taking pictures every week. I really want to get this out of my mind, I'm hoping the derm can bring some peace to me. I can't stand it anymore. I look at the mirror every five minutes and see different things every time. Sometimes I make my hair as wet as can be and look at the scalp with the brightest possible light and seeing the scalp drives me insane. As soon as I wake up I check my pillow immediately and thoroughly with a bright light for hairs(I found three one day, nothing the past two days). I carefully wash my hair in the shower looking for any hairs falling out(average is 1 or 2). Sometimes a hair will randomly fall out when I'm doing something during the day, I can't stand that and it can ruin whatever I was doing. I keep a daily count, I never notice more than 10 hairs throughout a whole day but I have read we don't see majority of the hairs that come out.
Overall, the best case scenario is that I go to the derm and they say that there is no evidence of thinning(haven't noticed any myself) and that the hairline won't get worse. I'm hoping I will stop thinking about my hair after that. Everyone in my family is begging me not to go, I make them look at my hair all the time and they don't notice anything. They don't even notice the "mature hairline" so I think they are full of sh*t. My mind has totally changed since I started noticing my hairline. I look at everyone I see and examine their hairline(in public and on tv etc). Like I can see a favorite show of mine and be like "whoa, that guy is balding? I never noticed that before".
Alternatively, they can detect that I'm in fact balding and I will go on propecia and rogaine asap. I'm hoping that all those super stem cell cures(follica, histogen, etc) will be available for me when it gets really bad. I think I have been preparing myself mentally if that were the case. Either way I will get some sort of closure with this problem.
