Will Minoxidil Help An Nw2 Hairline

[waltW12]

Looking for some advice re: my hairline. A couple years when I started parting my hair like a grown-up I realized I had bald areas above the temples and started to worry about hairloss. My wife is pretty adamant I've had this hairline for a long time, at least since my early 20s. It's hard to tell in pictures since I kept my hair longer before but she appears to be right, more or less. Its receded further, but its not receding fast.

She also points out that several people in my family have similar hairlines and none of them lost their hair much further. Some of them maybe were NW2.5, maybe NW3, late in life, but if you could guarantee my hair would end up like theirs when I'm 70 or so, I'd do cartwheels and move on.

Asked my PCP, and he basically said "yeah its a male pattern baldness hairline, but I have no idea what it will look like in the future." He said I'm average for my age (33) and to just live my life. That seemed like prudent advice for a much more secure person than me.

But I'm the worrying type, and every time I shower and see my hairline wet, I freak out again and wonder if I'm actively losing hair or not.

My PCP said not to bother with propecia but that if I wanted to do something about it, try minoxidil.

So a few questions for people who might have experience with this:
1) My understanding was that minoxidil was not for receding hairlines but the crown. Is that not the case??
2) It seems anecdotally that a lot of people have skin problems after using minoxidil. I already have pretty old looking eyes so that concerned me. Are these concerns legit or myth?
3) How can you tell at a given point in time if your hairline is actively receding or stable...and is it reasonable to think I can hold this NW2 if fellow family members have?

Any advice is appreciated - thanks.

 

[SmoothSailing]

1. It works on hairline (I went from NW2.5 to NW2, with thicker overall hair), but it doesn't actually stop balding. It just gives you a boost, after which you will continue to recede at the same rate. You are likely balding slowly, so if you do respond well to minoxidil you could probably expect a few years before you're back to where you are now. Usually for those that want to stop their balding they take procepia, which will usually allow you to keep the gains minoxidil gives you for a lot longer.

2. Only a small concern, most people don't notice anything. People even put it on their beards, or girls use it on their eyebrows. Usually without any complaints, if it was a major concern girls would notice it very quickly. If you do notice any drying out of your skin just reduce the dosage until it goes away and stay at that reduced dosage.

3. I don't think there is any way to tell for sure. Family history is your best bet. If you really have had that hairline for years, it likely will only get slightly worse in the years to come. But if it got worse in the past year or two then I'd be more worried.

Lastly, if your hair has been that way for a long time minoxidil is much less likely to gain you back any hair as it will have been gone for to long. But if you respond it will still thicken up your current hair making a noticeable improvement.

 

[Kidbako]

I've had some success with minoxidil on temple point growth but basically only peach fuzz growth on my temples. Been using for probably 3 years now. No way of really knowing how much you're going to recede or thin out. I saw how bad I was once when I buzz cut my hair and could see the pattern of thinning on top much clearer.

 

[michel sapin]

minoxidil can help an hairline . try it and keep us updated .

 

[waltW12]

Thanks all, that's very helpful stuff.

So if I use Minoxidil, does it make sense just to apply to those receding areas, and not to the rest of my hair, which seems to be OK (a couple flare-ups of seb derm aside)?

It sounds like Propecia might make sense in my case just to hold it from going further. Not sure why my PCP wouldn't recommend it. My understanding there is that the complaints on side effects is overblown. Would a hairloss doctor/dermatologist be able to evaluate my hairline and give me a concrete sense of how fast & how much I'll recede?

 

[Trichosan]

Thanks all, that's very helpful stuff.

So if I use Minoxidil, does it make sense just to apply to those receding areas, and not to the rest of my hair, which seems to be OK (a couple flare-ups of seb derm aside)?

It sounds like Propecia might make sense in my case just to hold it from going further. Not sure why my PCP wouldn't recommend it. My understanding there is that the complaints on side effects is overblown. Would a hairloss doctor/dermatologist be able to evaluate my hairline and give me a concrete sense of how fast & how much I'll recede?

There is no metric that an MD can use to precisely predict the rate or extent of potential hairloss. You could monitor effectiveness of Minoxidil by measuring hair/density/pattern but that would be more trouble than it's worth. As others above said, use the M, give it 6 months and go with your impressions. As far as Propecia is concerned, I personally, would not take it. I was at the A4M conference last year and a couple Drs. reported what they decribed as long term, permanent ED associated with the med. Scared the crap out of me. I'd rather have male pattern baldness than lose the use of the other male characteristic. But such choices are up to the individual. With what you have now, current age and father/grandfather(?), maintaining good hair, you can sleep soundly at night. Good Luck!

 

[waltW12]

Hi all,

Just an update - I ended up seeing a dermatologist who said I had some teflogen effluvium, but clear male pattern baldness, so she prescribed propecia. Aware of the sides, I am going to try it out at a low dosage. I've been on it two weeks. Being aware of the effectiveness of the medicine at .2mg, I am chopping it into smaller parts. In the meanwhile, I've had a bad flare-up of my seb dermatitis.

The derm actually noticed I'm clearly thinning on the crown, around my whorl, and specifically where my seb derm is worst. This came as a surprise to me since nobody in my family (brothers, uncles, father, grandparents) has ever thinned on top. Either I lost the genetic lottery or something else is going on. Derm thought it was male pattern baldness, and I accepted it at the time, but since my seb derm flare up, I'm wondering if that is the cause. I've read online that seb derm cannot cause hair loss, however.

In the meanwhile, I still haven't decided whether to try minoxidil. I was scared off by the skin sides (yes, I know that should scare me less than the propecia sides...), the reports of initial shed, and the fact I'd have to take it for life. Its a lot easier to take a pill everyday than it is to put something in your hair - especially if you have seb derm!

I also decided to pass on minoxidil when I went back and found some photos of me in my early 20s with my hair wet or wind pushing it back - seeing my hairline back then, its clear that it receded at the temple about a decade ago. My hairline has gotten slightly worse, but I've been an NW2 since 23 and not really realized it. So I assume that hair is dead and NOT coming back. It made sense to me to use propecia to hold the line, instead. However, the recent crown thinning has me thinking minoxidil again. If & once I get the seb derm under control, I may start it.

So, I'm trying to get back to seeing a dermatologist and see what they think. Nobody really seems to give hair problems the time of day, at least not in my health network, so I'm not expecting much insight.