Desperate for some advice on where to start treatment.

vurog · Feb 2, 2016

I want to start treatment but don't want to jump on the finasteride bandwagon immediately, Because till now I'm not sure if this is temporary hairloss (Telogen Effluvium) or if it's MBP.

I'll take over from the start and try to explain as clearly as possible

I had been growing my hair for 5-6 years, Where in December I had a surgical procedure done to get 3 of my wisdom teeth removed, Shortly after this I noticed the parting on my hair get thinner so I began to look around, Without finding any proper answer I just got abit paranoid and decided to shave my head.

Now after shaving my head I noticed a whole bunch of red patches on my scalp, I always had a terrible case of dandruff since I was a child but I never had any terrible itching or so, I'll include a picture of those patches aswell.

Some days my dandruff was terrible some days it was okay, But I could always pick my scalp and manage to scrape something up.

After shaving my head I could see what my hairline looked like I wasn't sure if I was receding or not and I made a post about this on here aswell and many of you thought it was fine (I always had a hairline that looked somewhat like this)

Lately I've been taking pictures of my crown and it appears to be thinner than the rest of my head, with an awkward bald spot, But I do want to mention I also had a cowlick around that area aswell.

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Pictures:

http://imgur.com/a/Yy6qN (My parting when I had long hair, this is when I first noticed that I might be balding)

http://imgur.com/a/OxFQc (My scalp right after getting it shaved, I wasn't able to see a doctor at the time because I shaved EXACTLY 1 day before xmas eve and most doctors we're on their holidays, However after a week or so those red spots vanished, along with my dandruff, I'm not sure what it looks like is it just dry skin? Perhaps some form of eczema?)

http://imgur.com/a/MGb5w (Hairline currently)

http://imgur.com/a/RxPLs (Crown)

This is all I have for the moment and I don't want to loose my hair, I still have a good head of hair and want to maintain it for as long as I can

TLDR: I think I'm going bald I need some advice on where to start treatment without going for finasteride right away.

wakka12 · Feb 2, 2016

vurog said:
I want to start treatment but don't want to jump on the finasteride bandwagon immediately, Because till now I'm not sure if this is temporary hairloss (Telogen Effluvium) or if it's MBP.

I'll take over from the start and try to explain as clearly as possible

I had been growing my hair for 5-6 years, Where in December I had a surgical procedure done to get 3 of my wisdom teeth removed, Shortly after this I noticed the parting on my hair get thinner so I began to look around, Without finding any proper answer I just got abit paranoid and decided to shave my head.

Now after shaving my head I noticed a whole bunch of red patches on my scalp, I always had a terrible case of dandruff since I was a child but I never had any terrible itching or so, I'll include a picture of those patches aswell.

Some days my dandruff was terrible some days it was okay, But I could always pick my scalp and manage to scrape something up.

After shaving my head I could see what my hairline looked like I wasn't sure if I was receding or not and I made a post about this on here aswell and many of you thought it was fine (I always had a hairline that looked somewhat like this)

Lately I've been taking pictures of my crown and it appears to be thinner than the rest of my head, with an awkward bald spot, But I do want to mention I also had a cowlick around that area aswell.

-------------------------
Pictures:

http://imgur.com/a/Yy6qN (My parting when I had long hair, this is when I first noticed that I might be balding)

http://imgur.com/a/OxFQc (My scalp right after getting it shaved, I wasn't able to see a doctor at the time because I shaved EXACTLY 1 day before xmas eve and most doctors we're on their holidays, However after a week or so those red spots vanished, along with my dandruff, I'm not sure what it looks like is it just dry skin? Perhaps some form of eczema?)

http://imgur.com/a/MGb5w (Hairline currently)

http://imgur.com/a/RxPLs (Crown)

This is all I have for the moment and I don't want to loose my hair, I still have a good head of hair and want to maintain it for as long as I can

TLDR: I think I'm going bald I need some advice on where to start treatment without going for finasteride right away.

Well before you panic please have yourself diagnosed by at least one derm as definitely suffering from male pattern baldness. And if you are suffering from male pattern baldness you will need to start finasteride or you will eventually become bald.

big_head · Feb 2, 2016

Your hairline and density look great, so if you do have male pattern baldness it's in the very early stages. You look like you could have a bit of recession but it just looks like a mature hairline or your natural hairline.

So for one thing, stop panicking.

Secondly, at your stage there's no way of knowing if you have male pattern baldness unless you go to a dermatologist who will do a very thorough examine of your scalp under a microscope to determine if you have male pattern baldness.

The red patches don't mean anything, I used to get that when I grew my hair out. Just an overly oily scalp/thick hair or something.

For now, you are right not to start any medication. It's good that you are proactive, but if you are losing hair you'd be in the very early stages. You have plenty of time to deal with this.

As I said, the only way to know is to go to a dermatologist and explain your position. Tell him you think you're in the very early stages of male pattern baldness and you'd like him to do an examination to figure out if that is the case and catch it early. There is really no other way for you to tell at this point. If you do have male pattern baldness, you will have a great chance of treating it and preventing it from getting worse.

vurog · Feb 3, 2016

big_head said:
Your hairline and density look great, so if you do have male pattern baldness it's in the very early stages. You look like you could have a bit of recession but it just looks like a mature hairline or your natural hairline.

So for one thing, stop panicking.

Secondly, at your stage there's no way of knowing if you have male pattern baldness unless you go to a dermatologist who will do a very thorough examine of your scalp under a microscope to determine if you have male pattern baldness.

The red patches don't mean anything, I used to get that when I grew my hair out. Just an overly oily scalp/thick hair or something.

For now, you are right not to start any medication. It's good that you are proactive, but if you are losing hair you'd be in the very early stages. You have plenty of time to deal with this.

As I said, the only way to know is to go to a dermatologist and explain your position. Tell him you think you're in the very early stages of male pattern baldness and you'd like him to do an examination to figure out if that is the case and catch it early. There is really no other way for you to tell at this point. If you do have male pattern baldness, you will have a great chance of treating it and preventing it from getting worse.

Thanks alot for the reply, Glad those red patches didn't mean much I was worried for abit that It might be eczema or something, Thing is it will take around 2 months to get an appointment with a dermatologist, but I guess it's the right thing to do. As I mentioned earlier it's not my hairline im worried about at all its mostly my crown, but I guess it'll be easier to tell once my hair grows out abit more (These pictures are taken around 14-15 days after shaving my head again)