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Hello, all. I am posting this thread to see if it is time to hop on finasteride and/or minoxidil. I've been hesitant to get on either one of them right away, due to costs (finasteride) and sides (primarily minoxidil's collagen reduction effect). I am 18 years old, with a mixed pattern of male pattern baldness in my family. In terms of my family:
Father:
Father- Stable Norwood 2A; hasn't shifted in forever; hair has gradually thinned out everywhere, but no recession.
Grandfather - Same as father
Grandmother's Father - full male pattern baldness by death.
Uncle - Norwood 4.
Mother:
Not much known; generally thin hair all over.
Looking at family history, there's a good chance I'll get some further recession; it could just be up until a certain point, or it could go full male pattern baldness. I have valid reasons to be concerned.
The first pictures below are a hairline photo and a temple photo. These are dated roughly 6 months ago. This is when I first noticed my hairline looked a bit off.
From these pictures, I'd self-classify myself as an early stage Norwood 2 (the hairline is clearly not straight, but the temples have not severely receded).
These next set of pictures were taken a few days ago.
From the looks of these updated pictures, it seems that the hairline and the temple region have more or less stayed roughly the same. Then I have these next two pictures that I took, one from about 3 months ago or so and the other one the other day.
When I look at these two pictures, (the upper one is the older one, the lower one is the newer one), it looks like I've lost about 1/16 - 1/8 of an inch of hairline on the right temple. Perhaps I'm just seeing things, but it looks like the hairline has receded, from the looks of these pictures, over the course of those 3 months.
Based on the conflicting evidence I have, I am unsure of whether I just got to bite the bullet and hop on finasteride, or I am seeing things. At an NW2, I'm not at a bad place for finasteride. Not preferred, but I will get on it if necessary. Yet I don't want to just throw my hormones out of whack because of an imagined decrease in the hairline. I have one more picture for an overall face view of the hairline that I took a few days ago:
So, what am I to do?
(BTW, I know the images are kind of blurry; I don't have a better camera to take the pictures, but I think one can still see noticeable differences in an image, even if it is not perfect resolution).
Father:
Father- Stable Norwood 2A; hasn't shifted in forever; hair has gradually thinned out everywhere, but no recession.
Grandfather - Same as father
Grandmother's Father - full male pattern baldness by death.
Uncle - Norwood 4.
Mother:
Not much known; generally thin hair all over.
Looking at family history, there's a good chance I'll get some further recession; it could just be up until a certain point, or it could go full male pattern baldness. I have valid reasons to be concerned.
The first pictures below are a hairline photo and a temple photo. These are dated roughly 6 months ago. This is when I first noticed my hairline looked a bit off.
From these pictures, I'd self-classify myself as an early stage Norwood 2 (the hairline is clearly not straight, but the temples have not severely receded).
These next set of pictures were taken a few days ago.
From the looks of these updated pictures, it seems that the hairline and the temple region have more or less stayed roughly the same. Then I have these next two pictures that I took, one from about 3 months ago or so and the other one the other day.
When I look at these two pictures, (the upper one is the older one, the lower one is the newer one), it looks like I've lost about 1/16 - 1/8 of an inch of hairline on the right temple. Perhaps I'm just seeing things, but it looks like the hairline has receded, from the looks of these pictures, over the course of those 3 months.
Based on the conflicting evidence I have, I am unsure of whether I just got to bite the bullet and hop on finasteride, or I am seeing things. At an NW2, I'm not at a bad place for finasteride. Not preferred, but I will get on it if necessary. Yet I don't want to just throw my hormones out of whack because of an imagined decrease in the hairline. I have one more picture for an overall face view of the hairline that I took a few days ago:
So, what am I to do?
(BTW, I know the images are kind of blurry; I don't have a better camera to take the pictures, but I think one can still see noticeable differences in an image, even if it is not perfect resolution).
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