Am I Thinning Bad Or Terribly Paranoid

SidewaysBeardBro

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Hi.

I'm 22 almost 23 and I think my hair is thinning.
Since forever I've always had a thick head of hair and I've never really thought about hair loss before, and was never aware. My dad always had a really thick head of hair (56 and still has the same haircut he had when he was 25) and I never thought to consider I would be different.

Starting 6 months ago I noticed my hairline seemed a little further up and back than I had remembered it being so I started monitoring it. I have a little bump/scar on the left side of my front hairline that I have been using to gauge the thinning since it took me a while to start taking photos.
I'm still living with family so I have tried to get opinions from family members & my brother. My mom didn't (still probably doesn't) believe me, my brother doesn't believe me either, and my dad makes fun of me and tells me to deal with whatever happens. I was also aware that I've heard that if your maternal grandfather was bald, it would give you a higher chance of losing hair.
My moms dad was pretty bald by 30 and had light hair, and my moms brother (my uncle) still has hair, though his hairline is pretty high and he just wears it right. All things considered, I am sure they just weren't taking me seriously, so I saw a family dermatologist who gave me a look over hoping for a more professional opinion.
She gave me a brief examination and said there was slight temple recession & that she could see no real evidence of thinning/concerning miniaturization throughout the rest of my hair, and recommended I use Rogaine just on the receding sides. I am not entirely convinced she gave me a sufficient or real examination, it felt like she just quickly checked and shrugged me off or it could just be paranoia. Regardless, I plan to see her again soon.

Since then I feel like my hair has felt lighter & thinner. My scalp is visible whenever I try to gel it, & whenever it is wet after a rinse. I also have trimmed it in places to get a better sense of how my hair density is and if there appeared to be any evidence of lost hair, but i feel there are not enough reference images on the internet to get a good assessment myself.
My hair is still straight and it doesn't look to bad when it's dry right now (I would liken it to Tom Hardy on a good day) but I just can't tell.

Of course just like any other person here, I would definitely prefer a full head of hair to a bald one, but if my fate is to lose it, I do not mind the idea of being completely shaven when I'm much older. What I am having a hard time dealing with is not knowing if I'm actually thinning a lot and how much is overreaction/looking into the mirror too close. It's gotten to the point where I've collected and counted the hairs I lost in the shower (which from what i remember, I lost about 12-23 per shower, but obviously I must have lost some).

I've been exploring options to thicken what I've got, using Pur a'dor hair loss shampoo & conditioner (which brags about all of its DHT blockers), occasional coconut oil massages, biotin pills, & Rogaine which I use topically frequently (some days I miss it when I am very busy with university). I am reluctant to consider Propecia because while I'm not having that much sex at the moment, directly messing with hormones to that extent doesn't rub me too well and I don't fully know if it's worth it for me. Not even sure if hair transplants someday in the future is a good idea because I hear about how it can case the loss of remaining natural hairs that are still there (so much for dense packing) & that additional operations would be needed in the future.




TL;DR Thank you for anyone who read all the way through because my biggest problem has been people not taking me seriously. I hope these pictures prove to be telling enough for some good advice...Sorry if how short I have it cut makes it hard to tell but I was trying to see if the density & thickness on the sides were similar or obviously different, and I am growing the top out again, but if they are not good enough, let me know and I will post more.

1 What it looks like in public.jpg

^^ What it normally looks like outside
3 Dry Poofed Up.jpg

What it looks like dry and poofed up. The hair at the bottom of the peak was cut a little short a while back so it's like that right now
2 Top down normal under light.jpg

Top down under a light as it is now
11 hairline.jpg

hairline rn
6 tussled.jpg

tussled a bit
9 cowlick parting.jpg

i have a cowlick here where it grows in different directions
8 close up.jpg

Just a closeup.

I have a few more. I wanted to give as many as i could lol
 

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SidewaysBeardBro

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Sorry for any reposts, here's a couple more.
14 left hairline.jpg

15 right hairline.jpg

18 Crown.jpg

12 From the side.jpg

13 parted upward.jpg
 

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biddybomb

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afraid to say it seems like you are thinning in the frontal region and most likely the crown too. It is super early and ur hair still looks great so if you start treating it now you will be good for at least a decade.
 

g.i joey

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looks like you've receded and thinned out a bit. The rest of your hair looks pretty healthy though, also temple points are strong af. You can probably get decent results if you were willing to take finasteride. Its pretty much take propecia or lose your hair.
 

SidewaysBeardBro

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afraid to say it seems like you are thinning in the frontal region and most likely the crown too. It is super early and ur hair still looks great so if you start treating it now you will be good for at least a decade.
looks like you've receded and thinned out a bit. The rest of your hair looks pretty healthy though, also temple points are strong af. You can probably get decent results if you were willing to take finasteride. Its pretty much take propecia or lose your hair.

Thanks for having a peek. Definitely feels better to have folks who actually know more about something like this make comments than people who are dismissive & unknowledgeable. I notice many people mention how early detection & treatment is for the best as it is easier to keep hair than regrow it, and nobody I've asked irl seems to care about that.

I think I want to try Propecia/finasteride and see how things go. I'm not exactly scared of the sides (if my sex life becomes more important to me, I will bow out), it's more about potential long term side effects and my age that make me apprehensive.

My derm had me start on Rogaine and said she didn't want to put me on Propecia yet unless things were worse, and told me about the potential sides of it including the diminished sexual functionality & ALSO the rare occurrence of breast cancer after prolonged use. The latter is what made me raise an eyebrow because I have not heard that here, but I also wondered if it is considered a very rare side effect that she mentioned as a sort of disclaimer.
I would be very grateful for any advice/warnings/comments on using finasteride/propecia for a newbie my age such as myself. I will press for a more thorough examination & most likely a finasteride prescription next time I see her.

Any further advice would be very reassuring :)
 

artursco

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looks good but I think your crown is showing first signs of thining...take some action now as you still have plenty of hair left. As some Nizoral to slow down process too.
 

SidewaysBeardBro

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looks good but I think your crown is showing first signs of thining...take some action now as you still have plenty of hair left. As some Nizoral to slow down process too.
I do have Nizoral shampoo as well. I do think my crown looks pretty thin no matter the circumstances but the cowlick there is particularly bizzare and goes in all directions. I'll have to see how it's doing when it gets longer again.
 

SidewaysBeardBro

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Went to see a derm again, who was a different lady this time. Looked me over and gave me the same feedback, some minor recession, but thought my crown was fine and that the cowlick is just crazy. Overall says that the hair diameter might be smaller, but thinks it's likely just finer hair since there's no real gaps, patches, and that the roots are strong.
The biotin pills & nizoral/nioxin might be helping with that.

Asked her if I could try finasteride anyway, since i have little to lose and worst case I can just drop it if I have sides and she thought that sounded good if I just start by trying out 1mg for now.

Also slightly unrelated but still linked, is it true that Trump uses propecia?
 
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