27 Years Old. Am I Balding Or Is It Another Reason?

[RealSnickers]

Hi,
As all of us here I'm very afraid to be balding. My hair is such a big part of my identity, so losing it makes me depressed honestly.
I have never paid any attention to how much hair I lose, but since I did, I have been scared of how much that fall out when I run my hand thru my hair.

I did a "comb test" that said to comb from back to front for a minute and a normal result would be about ten hairs. I counted about 20-25.
I also did a "pull test". A normal result should be 5-8 hairs. Sometimes I get 3, sometimes I don't get any.

I swear I sometimes feel a tickle on my head and it feels like a couple of hairs fall out. When I gently comb my hair in that area with my hand, usually hair is lying loose there.

I'll upload images of my hairline.
The hair is dry.

What kind of gives me hope is that I found an image from 6 years ago were I appear to have the same hairline.
(Last image)

Notes: I'm not on any medication and I have not been to a doctor.

Questions to people who are losing their hair or not: Do you always lose hair when pulling your hair or running your hand thru?
Does hair always fall out when combing? Showering etc?

I can't find any hairs on my pillow and a very small amount in the shower.
Please help me, I'm going crazy from overthinking! Summer shedding maybe?

 

[ScaredOfBalding]

U got a bit of miniaturisation on ur hairline but it could be from a mature hairline. Unless it starts progressing hard i would not start treatment.

 

[Randomguy02]

There are lots of reasons you could be shedding a ton that are not baldness. Stress, Severe Sickness, weight loss, thyroid issues, iron deficiency, etc. In short you should see a dermatologist to diagnose the cause. Since if it is one of those you will also want to have it treated

 

[RealSnickers]

U got a bit of miniaturisation on ur hairline but it could be from a mature hairline. Unless it starts progressing hard i would not start treatment.

Thank you! I really appreciate the answer. Calms me down a bit as well.

 

[RealSnickers]

There are lots of reasons you could be shedding a ton that are not baldness. Stress, Severe Sickness, weight loss, thyroid issues, iron deficiency, etc. In short you should see a dermatologist to diagnose the cause. Since if it is one of those you will also want to have it treated

I'll call my doctor just to rule out any of that. Thank you so much for the reply!

 

[Randomguy02]

I'll call my doctor just to rule out any of that. Thank you so much for the reply!

While a general doctor can help use some things out, seeing a dermatologist would be the best course of action.

 

[Mandar kumthekar]

At 27 hairline is fine.

 

[Tinks69]

U got a bit of miniaturisation on ur hairline but it could be from a mature hairline. Unless it starts progressing hard i would not start treatment.

What is miniaturization?

 

[RealSnickers]

At 27 hairline is fine.

Thanks! I now just need to find a way to stop obsessing about this.

 

[RealSnickers]

Update:
I went to the doctor and had to go a few times before actually getting to see one.
Turns out I had two issues that contributed to my hair loss.
Stress had trigged shedding plus it had also trigged seborrhoeic dermatitis.

I got medicin for this and now about a month later my shedding has gone down a lot, but not entirely.
I was told it would take a long time to recover from this, so I'm just doing my time hoping for my hair to become thicker again.
Previously I never looked how much hair I loose from schampooing or how my hair looks from certain angles, so not sure what my normal is.

It was really difficult to see a doctor, because everyone I spoke to said "oh, you're a man, you loose your hair. Get over it".
Looking back I'm really mad that I could have been starting my recovery faster, but I solved it at least.

I'm posting this incase someone else is going thru the same issue.
Where I live, getting a dermatologist isn't an option, so that's why I went ot the doctor.

 

[Northface32]

Hi,
As all of us here I'm very afraid to be balding. My hair is such a big part of my identity, so losing it makes me depressed honestly.
I have never paid any attention to how much hair I lose, but since I did, I have been scared of how much that fall out when I run my hand thru my hair.

I did a "comb test" that said to comb from back to front for a minute and a normal result would be about ten hairs. I counted about 20-25.
I also did a "pull test". A normal result should be 5-8 hairs. Sometimes I get 3, sometimes I don't get any.

I swear I sometimes feel a tickle on my head and it feels like a couple of hairs fall out. When I gently comb my hair in that area with my hand, usually hair is lying loose there.

I'll upload images of my hairline.
The hair is dry.

What kind of gives me hope is that I found an image from 6 years ago were I appear to have the same hairline.
(Last image)

Notes: I'm not on any medication and I have not been to a doctor.

Questions to people who are losing their hair or not: Do you always lose hair when pulling your hair or running your hand thru?
Does hair always fall out when combing? Showering etc?

I can't find any hairs on my pillow and a very small amount in the shower.
Please help me, I'm going crazy from overthinking! Summer shedding maybe?

I would've guessed for sure male pattern baldness but glad you got a good diagnosis, keep us updated how it goes as far as regrowth and healing.

 

[RealSnickers]

Update:
The shedding as said toned down, but it's still there.
I went a couple of more times to the dermatologist and they stuck with Seborrhoeic dermatitis for a while.
I use ketokonazol and other dandruff schampo to keep the itch away and I have minimun flakes coming from the scalp.

The shedding is always there, but one week is bearly noticeable and other the hair is f****** everywhere.
In my own opinion it's thinner overall and more so on top. The crown and temples are thinner.
The right temple have always been higher for as long as I can remember.

Two weeks ago I went back to my derm to talk about the shedding. They seem to not give a sh*t, but they care about why my scalp itches, so a doctor looked at some pictures of me and said the hair loss was androgen. (My derm sent pictures to another doctor).
After that my doctor prescribed me with finasteride 1mg a day.

Now, I know about the finasteride risks and so on, but I'm not sure I have MBP. When looking at other people, they have a pattern, but mine seems just to be thinning.

Will Fineasteride help with this?
Looking at the pictures, does it appear that I have male pattern baldness?

 

[Niki99]

Diffuse thinning can also be a male pattern baldness pattern. Your hairline still seems solid, especially for your age even tho there is some miniaturization. Your crown could be thinning because it seems the hair is a bit lighter there but that could also be the lighting. However if your derm said you have male pattern baldness and you think your hair is overall thinner it's best to assume it is indeed male pattern baldness before it gets worse.

 

[Ollie]

I think you clearly have a miniaturising and receding hairline . Might want to consider treatment if you don’t want it to get worse .

 

[RealSnickers]

Thank you both for the replies.
It's really strange. Before the finasteride I was 100% sure I was balding cause the shedding never stopped, but now that I have it, I'm suddenly unsure.
Think I'm just nervous to start with finasteride.

I'll try to update this if anyone is interested. I had really thick hair about 1.5 year ago, so I hope I might get some of that back.

 

[Hair-pun]

I also had difficulty diagnosing my own male pattern baldness using the tests you used. Essentially those tests are used by derms to diagnose telogen effluvium rather than male pattern baldness, so don't rely on the numbers they use- Telogen Effluvium is usually more of an acute shed. Be aware that in my experience most derms, even hair specialists, are very badly informed on male pattern baldness. Everyone sheds hair differently but when I am maintaining my hair literally nothing comes out when I do a pull test, maybe one hair every three pulls. Any more than that I know to worry. I think if you are getting many out then it's pattern baldness so you definitely need to take finasteride daily and don't stop taking it. male pattern baldness is extremely common, at 27 it's like 25/30% of men so if you think you are losing your hair then you probably are. Finasteride is an extremely inert drug that is well tolerated by the body and safe for long term use. Don't believe all the online fear mongering. The real risk is that you don't take it- severe hair loss can be absolutely devastating

 

[Sseoud86]

Op your definitely receding/thinning that was clear in your first pics years ago. You should've started treatments then, the longer you wait the harder it is to get back and maintain. Sebboric dermatitis is usually a sign of male pattern baldness anyways. start treatment immediately to stop it from getting worse

 

[Lolrus]

Yeah, it looks like baldness, but you caught it at a good stage. Just get on finasteride, and minoxidil too if you don't mind the hassle. Then try to live your life as normal. You probably won't be bald, at least not when you're young if you do. I've been on finasteride for 9 years and still have almost all my hair (32 this year).

 

[RealSnickers]

Op your definitely receding/thinning that was clear in your first pics years ago. You should've started treatments then, the longer you wait the harder it is to get back and maintain. Sebboric dermatitis is usually a sign of male pattern baldness anyways. start treatment immediately to stop it from getting worse

Yeah, I should have, but at that time male pattern baldness was something that happened to old people and the doctors kept saying it was nothing.
If I had not kept going back to the doctor, I probably would have kept losing more now.

 

[RealSnickers]

Yeah, it looks like baldness, but you caught it at a good stage. Just get on finasteride, and minoxidil too if you don't mind the hassle. Then try to live your life as normal. You probably won't be bald, at least not when you're young if you do. I've been on finasteride for 9 years and still have almost all my hair (32 this year).

I've been on finasteride since my latest update. Started with 1mg/day, but I changed it to 0.5mg/day now.
I might be placebo, but I just felt better with half a dose then the full.