Not sure if my hair loss at age 16 is inherited or not

erichansen

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Hi.

I'm a 20 year old male with a highly noticeably receded hairline. However, I'm not sure what has caused this.

At age 16 I started taking medications for a quite severe acne situation. They were called Accutane and are known to cause hair loss and hair thinning for some. I began losing high amounts of hair after a couple of months, and the loss continued for a couple of more months, until it more or less stopped. I stopped taking those medicines, and haven't had major hair loss since.

The only hair loss I've had since was at age 18 when I was living in an abnormally warm climate where I was in the sun all day long, causing my hair to become very thin. I was then foolish enough to dye my hair twice in the same day, causing more and more hair to fall out. However, from what I understand, that kind of hair loss isn't necessarily linked to hair loss caused by genetics. All of the hair lost from dying it started regrowing immediately afterwards. All of it has grown back.

It's now been four years since I last lost hair that didn't regrow. However, I lost quite a lot that time.

So, what do you think? Could it only be linked to the medicine I was on, or could it be a coincidence that I lost hair while on Accutane?

Quick information on my family's hair loss:
My older brother has the same kind of receding hairline, though slightly more progressed, at the age of 22. My father has a very full head of hair at the age of 50 without any gray hair. My grandfather at the age of 75 has moderate hair loss and white hair. My maternal grandfather had severe hair loss his whole life.


Edit: Wrote post while very tired. Fixed spelling errors and clarified a few points.
 

s.a.f

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Accutane is well known to cause hairloss, you could be ok.
 

kc444

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Yes, it is almost 100% certain to be hereditary. Any hair you may have lost from dying it or from taking Accutane would have grown back within a couple of months. There are many people who have told themselves that it wasn't getting worse until they compare pictures of themselves from before and realize how bad it is. It is well worth looking into Propecia and minoxidil before its too late.

Perhaps ironically, I also took Accutane at 16 and that is when I began losing my hair as well. I've heard many people mention this, but it may be because severe acne and early onset male pattern baldness are biologically similar. Just curious, did your brother take Accutane?
 

erichansen

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kc444 said:
Yes, it is almost 100% certain to be hereditary. Any hair you may have lost from dying it or from taking Accutane would have grown back within a couple of months. There are many people who have told themselves that it wasn't getting worse until they compare pictures of themselves from before and realize how bad it is. It is well worth looking into Propecia and minoxidil before its too late.

Perhaps ironically, I also took Accutane at 16 and that is when I began losing my hair as well. I've heard many people mention this, but it may be because severe acne and early onset male pattern baldness are biologically similar. Just curious, did your brother take Accutane?

What I lost from dying it started growing back immediately, and since then I haven't ever lost high amounts of hair. All of it grew back.

No, my brother did not, but we are very different genetically, both when it comes to our looks and brains.

Also, when I googled Accutane hair loss, many of the answers suggested that it would take years for it to grow back. Thoughts?

Are you sure that I should even consider beginning on any medications when my last period of real biologically conditioned hair loss was four years ago? I would definitely ask my doctor if I was still experiencing hair loss.
 
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