I've notices i've been losing hair on the sides as you can see and now i think my front line is thinning. What do you see?
Am I Really Losing My Hair? (18 Years Old)
- Thread starter Jimmy21
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I see minor recession. It's possible. I started going bald at 16.
And how is it going now? How old r u now and r u bald?
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I'm 20 now. Not bald. Norwood 2.5
Jumped on finasteride and minoxidil as soon as I got the word from my derm at 16
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What Norwood were you when you first started fina and minoxidil ?
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One. I had really aggressive hairloss at 16.
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Thanks for the reply. How long did it take you to get to 2.5 ?
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Come on man, simple math. If I told you I started going bald at 16 and was a NW1, and i'm 20 and a Norwood 2.5, how long did it take?
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Ok mr math professor you could’ve gotten to 2.5 at age 18 and stayed there ya ?? Ever think of that ? Thank you for the lesson
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This will always be poor advice. Don’t buzz it, find treatments !!
Well i stopped eating junk food and bought a new sampoo around 2 weeks ago and i can say by the time i was losing around 40-50 hair when showering now i just lose around 10 or 15. Obviously havent noticed any difference of new thick hair but i think its a good sign. What do you think?
Also take into account that i dont go to any barbeshop i just cut my hair alone and im having my final exams so since the last year it has been a very stressful period. Considering these facts what is your opinion ?could be maturing, balding or just stress?
Did you check what i mentioned right above?
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Healthy diet and lifestyle changes may slow the rate of your balding. But typically only to a very smal degree. No one is trying to hurt your feelings nor sugar coat the matter, as this would only hurt you.
You have the tell tale signs of androgenetic alopecia. Recession, miniaturization, and thinning in a a pattern similar if not identical to definition male pattern baldness. You are still very early stage, so don’t fret. But now is the time to act if you want to keep your hair, otherwise you may continue to lose ground. People on here spend years and hundreds of dollars on treatments in attempt to regrow lost hair and some never even succeed. Best to keep what you have and it’s important to not go into denial.
Make sure your diet includes good sources of iron, zinc, vit b, c, d, lycopene.
Dht is your enemy. It’s a natural hormone that is shrinking your hair follicles and in turn literally choking your hair until it dies. The hairs will come back thinner, weaker, and lighter in color with a shorter life span until eventually no hair comes back at all. This is the process of miniturization.
To lower dht: Eat pumpkin seeds, flax seed, foods containing soy isoflavones, eat foods that are anti dht, anti-inflammatory, and good for circulation. You want to focus on getting bloodflow to the scalp. Dht will eventually stop this. Daily massage will help combat this, as will excersise. Limit your amount of weight training, this will raise dht. Limit anything you do that raises testosterone, as free test becomes free dht which becomes a bald scalp. You want to keep healthy t levels, you just don’t need any excess.
The above will help to some degree. The only thing that will stop your balding in its tracks and help you keep your hair for many years to come is finasteride. A drug that inhibits 5ar ruductase, an enzyme that converts testosterone into dht. This drug will plummet your serum dht levels and therefore no longer allow androgens to harm your hair. You want to see a dermatologist to get a prescription and discuss this drug. Do your own research as well. It’s very easy to take, one pill a day. If you are responder this will be the cheapest, most convenient, and most effective way to keep your hair through the years.
Look into a ketoconazole shampoo, 1%. This antifungal will help clean the dht out of your scalp. This should be used maximum 2-3 times per week as it can dry out the hair and cause irritation if used too often. Nizoral is very popular and accessible brand, doesn’t cost much.
You want to take finasteride for atleast 6 months to see if you get any results. At which point if you are not completely satisfied you may add in the use of minoxidil (most proven and effective growth stimulant.) Although many would advise you wait and save minoxidil for later in life once you start to lose more hair and drugs can no longer help.
It’s important that you understand that diet and life style can only help so much. They are good supplements to things like finasteride. But the reality is that if you don’t get on an anti androgen like finasteride, you’re going to lose your hair. It could not be more cut and dry, this is just what happens. The sooner you act the better, healthy choices will not starve off further loss on their own.
Like I’ve said you caught it very early, so no need to stress. Just make an appointment with your derm to discuss finasteride. Good luck.
first of all thanks for all the help. Well I've visited my derm around 2 weeks ago and he gave me a ketoconazole shampoo. That's the one i mentioned above. He also game me a minoxidil 5% lotion to put on every night. He refused finasteride as she told me that it can cause hormone disorders. She also told me that the hair loss cause is mainly stress and maybe genetics as my father and grandfather started losing their hair noticeably at their 30s. But she mainly focused on the stress cause. That's why she told me to follow this therapy i mentioned only for 2 months and then stop it. I also had a haircut and as i can see the temple sides have been growing again as i shaved them and little blonde hair started grow again. But still i got a long way until i may come back to a nw1 phase. The good thing is that this hair loss she is seeing is temporary as she told me. I had the same problem last year due to another exam circle stress. But when i finished my hair would grow back. So what i've been exploring the last 2 years is that when summer is coming and i'm having my final exams i'm stressing a little bit and my face becomes full of acne and i start losing hair. Once i stop and go on vacation everything goes back to normal. What kind of issue would that be? I also had some thyroid tests and the results were normal so no hormone problems.
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Finasteride does’nt cause ‘hormone’ disorders. It can have very nasty side effects but most don’t get them. The decision is yours!
Sounds like you’ve got a pretty good coping method going there, best of luck.