17 years old, slight hair loss

[bender86]

Hey everyone,
I'm seventeen years old and people who have seen me and do not know my age swear that I look 25-30. My hair loss has only been slight so far but I want to get working on this problem right away so I won't feel worse than I do right now later on in life. Most people can't tell that I've lost hair yet and i shed quite a bit if i run my hands through my hair. I also get itchiness in my scalp. Family background: My dad is bald but he's 57 and it isn't that bad for a man his age. My mom has thin hair and sheds a lot. My younger brother has really coarse thick hair and I hate him lol. My brother who is 24 has receded alot and will probably have the whole top bald in a few years but he's also a heavy smoker and awlays had thin hair. I think im in between and maybe leaning a bit towards the "side" of my older brother.

I'm willing to spend the money req'd for this right now but since I'm living overseas I've yet to go out and check for meds. I appreciate any help as this is really depressing me right now and I sympathize with other people my age going through this its depressing I don't want to have to worry about this until I'm 50 for God's sake..

What kind of treament should I undergo? I don't have much hair to regrow(That I've shed/lost) and would like even to just maintain..

BTW if you're wondering here's a picture of me, don't laught its from a BBing board http://forum.bodybuilding.com/attachmen ... id=2885669 can't tell much because its dark...

Any help is appreciated..

 

[youngguy_uk]

from your pic it looks like you style your hair so its pushed towards the middle at the front, but looks like a V shaped receding hairline? your hair looks quite thick on top, the pic is dark though. have a search on this site about propecia, if youre looking to maintain your hair for a while. you dont look like you have much to worry about in the hair thickness department so try not to stress about it too much. look at http://www.propecia.com for the basic info on propecia then come back to this site and read lots of threads on it, get educated about it. get a prescription, stick at it, ride out the possible increased sheds and hopefully the regrowth that follows and you should be ok. again try not to worry your hairs not too bad at all.

 

[bender86]

Thanks for the reply,
My hair is pretty thick and I will take your advice on propecia but I'm still a little worried about taking it now because of the side effects and all and my receding isn't bad enough yet.. Should I just begin with Nizoral 2% and add propecia later if I notice it getting worse? I'm not sure but I think I've had that widow's peak type hair my whole life but it's been accentuated by the receding..

 

[teqeeler]

My advice bro is to go out and lay as many girls as possible and enjoy your hair.
Not to get you worried are anything. :lol:
My hair looks alot like yours now, i have that v shape thing going on to, 2 years ago i didnt have any v shape really.
I ve been on proscar for about a 9 months and have had no side effects, hell if it worked id take side effects, but thats me.
What has happened is i dont no if its the minoxidil or the proscar but my hair loss as totally accelerated.

 

[Kramer3]

Do you style the front of your hair downwards? It looks like your hairline begins very low down on your forehead. If you lost that hair in the middle of your hairline it might even make your hairline appear flatter just because how low it is.

Your definetely right about looking older. I just turned 18 and there is not a chance anyone would assume that were the same age.

 

[bender86]

Do you style the front of your hair downwards? It looks like your hairline begins very low down on your forehead. If you lost that hair in the middle of your hairline it might even make your hairline appear flatter just because how low it is.

Your definetely right about looking older. I just turned 18 and there is not a chance anyone would assume that were the same age.

Yea my hair line appears pretty flat when its combed down but when I comb it back it looks like I have 3 times as much hair. I usually style my hair by leaving the front portion kind of flat and the middle portion i pull back. I don't mind that V-shape so much I'd like to maintain all that hair I have right now and I'd be happy. I think I'll get propecia (more likely proscar divided) and nizoral 2% to use over the summer since prom is coming up soon and I don't want to risk shedding hair or anything.
What are your thoughts on using nizoral 2% and propecia/proscar? too early or a good way to prevent hair loss right away?
Thanks for the reply,

 

[The Gardener]

I don't think you are going to like my input, but here goes anyway...

Basically, I think your hair looks normal. Yes, I can see where you have some recession, but I can also see your mature beard/facial hair and if you did not know, DHT affects both your beard and scalp hair in opposite ways. Basically, as you finish out puberty and become a man, which you are, the DHT chemical that starts growing your facial hair also attacks pre-programmed scalp hair and causes it to thin and fall out.

MOST ALL men go through a period of recession at the onset of this phase. This recession does not automatically mean that you are going to have male pattern baldness, it just might mean that you are going to have a high forehead for a while.

I cite my own case, for example. My hair looked WORSE than yours at age 17. By age 19, I had a noticeable V-shaped forehead. BUT, at about age 20 or 22 or so, it stopped and I pretty much kept the same hairline until age 29.

Hairloss does not happen all at once. It happens in phases... you start to thin in an area for six months or so... then you lose it. Then, your hair stays stable for a while, until whenever the next wave of hairloss happens.

I was satisfied with my hairline until age 34! Only then, just last year, did I feel troubled enough about it to begin treatment. What I am saying is that just because you have some recession does not mean that you will lose ALL your hair in the next year.

So far, you DO have some recession, but I would not start a "Big 3" regimen yet, nor start taking Propecia. Save it for later, keep these weapons in your back pocket, and for now start off with the beginning element of the "Big 3" which is Nizoral shampoo. It is an anti-inflammatory, it helps subside some of the allergic reactions taking place in your scalp to 'force out' DHT-affected hairs and has some anti-DHT properties that have been shown to help maintain healthy hair diameter.

It should definitely help with your itching and irritation, and hopefully you will maintain your hairline and improve your scalp condition overall. If you start seeing further thinning that is indicative of a male pattern baldness condition, i.e. thinning on the sides up to the area behind your center forehead, and/or thinning at the center back of your hair, i.e. the makings of a 'bald spot' then consider some of the stronger regrowth agents.

Right now I recommend you try Nizoral, and see if it's scalp-healing properties plus anti-DHT effects soothe you a bit. If you are not satisfied with that, I would recommend spironolactone 2% applied to your hairline in the evenings. spironolactone 2% is cheap, easy to apply, and is a potent anti-DHT chemical.

Good luck, and keep us posted. Cheers, Gardener.

 

[youngguy_uk]

hey bender, post a photo of your hairline with your hair pullde back. i think its hard to make judgements based on that photo with your hair styled and pushed towards the middle.

gardener, sounds like good advice. however, id say it depends on 1) how fast your hairline is receding right now, and 2) if youre happy with the situation or not. seems youre not too bothered by the V shape, which is good. just a lot of people wished they started treatment sooner than later.

maybe you should wait a while then, and keep an eye on your hair (maybe even take pics every month for 6 months?) to see if it stops or is receding quickly, and then make a judgement based on that.

 

[blue]

i must add to what gardener said..

i would have done that regimen the spironolactone and just nizoral,buti got greedy and went with the minoxidil too.
i look alittle worse then you at this stage in my hairs life but if spironolactone works for me i wish i had not started the minoxidil.

I went for the finishing move when i should have kept jabbing.

 

[bender86]

Thanks for the posts everyone. Actually gardener your post made me feel better about my situation.

I took more pics some with flash and beneath a light and others beneath light without flash. The ones with flash make it look 10x worse than it is and when I pull my hair back it goes all over the place and you can see my scalp but without any hair missing.

I don't want my hair to recede and the front anymore(I have a scar there), I can see the little hairs that have receded, they are pretty thin and short now. Will spironolactone and nizoral make them grow back?

Weird it looks awful with the flash on and too dark without it.

Combed down
Flash: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/attachmen ... id=2898017
No flash: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/attachmen ... id=2898007

Combed back:
Flash: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/attachmen ... id=2898033
No flash: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/attachmen ... id=2898025

 

[youngguy_uk]

id say it looks like you have some thinning all over too, particularly on the left and right sides behind the temples (can see it most in the combed down with flash pic).

i guess you could get on spironolactone for the hairline, i dont know much about this though. mabye gardener is right (hes been in this game longer after all). but personally id get on the propecia bcos my hair condition was about the same as yours around 6 months ago, and it went quite quickly before i got on finasteride.

 

[The Gardener]

I am less concerned about your 'V hairline' which looks completely normal to me as I am about the thinning I see on your forehead. That thinning is exactly what I told you to keep an eye out for in my initial post. I didn't see it on your first pix, but see it now.

I think you should look consider propecia, but definitely use Nizoral and spironolactone 2%.

 

[Healthy Nick]

You should use Rogaine.

 

[bender86]

Is spironolactone availabe at most pharmacies? I started with the nizoral 2% and I'm considering adding the spironolactone or rogaine.. I don't want to start shedding hair right now.. Will I get that from spironolactone/rogain? The flash pictures are exagerated kind of but they are the better detailed of the two kinds of pics.. This sucks I want to start treating this right away, College will suck if this gets worse

 

[bender86]

I think I was overreacting I just used nizoral 2% one try and combed down and I took some pics of the sides again with brightest flash and directly under the light and for some reason it looks like I've gained a load of hair in a couple of hours..
WTF?
Maybe my hair was just badly tangled I use hair gel frequently..
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/attachmen ... id=2899165
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/attachmen ... id=2899179

 

[The Gardener]

Yeap, Nizoral and spironolactone would be a GOOD regimen for someone with your hairloss pattern at age 17. I think your hair is crying for spironolactone 2%. I'd give just that a shot before getting involved with the more powerful, costly, and lifestyle complicating treatments. After 4-5 months, you can reevaluate and see what you think about your hair situation again then. Just my opinion.

I get my spironolactone at http://www.minoxidil.com, but I think you can find it from other places as well.

 

[youngguy_uk]

gardener, spironolactone inhibits dht on the scalp right? so is it basically a less dht inhibiting version of propecia?

 

[The Gardener]

spironolactone inhibits the synthesis of DHT in the scalp, and helps block the androgen receptors on the hair follicles. Because it allows continued DHT synthesis in other parts of the body, it does not eliminate DHT in the bloodstream on the whole. The bad part is that DHT synthesized in other parts of the body can still get to the follicles. The good part is that it has no side effects.

 

[Axon]

Will spironolactone and nizoral make them grow back?

Neither of those drugs are a stimulant, so unfortunately, no, they will not. Minoxidil is your best best.

 

[Becks]

Same Hair shape like u but i noticed it when I was 18 1/2. No temples or recession, but diffuse thinnning back of the hairline. I used rogaine for 6-7 months with some succes...u can look at my pics...but had to stop caus eof the flakes...now I#m in round 2 with minoxidil but on Dr. Lees...and it's like putting water on your head...great..!

Current Regime :
1 mg finasteride
2 xMinox
2x Innovate Hairline
30 mg Zinc
1000 mg MSM
1000 mg Arginin
Vitamin B Komplex

May add spironolactone to hairline soon....