Okay, I give up. Am I balding?

[andragonous]

19 year old male. No one's commented on my crown yet but my fears have intensified after I took accutane for 6 months. What do you guys think? First one is straight out the shower. Second is on it's way to drying.

 

[Smokey55]

I don't think so, the small bald spot on the vertex of the head is present on a lot of people. Any family history of male pattern baldness?

 

[andragonous]

I don't think so, the small bald spot on the vertex of the head is present on a lot of people. Any family history of male pattern baldness?

Thanks. Yeah my dad is a probably a Norwood 5 now. Trouble is he's 65 so I have no memory of him when he was, say, 40. I have few photos of him when he was younger but he definitely had a pretty decent head of hair when he was 25. I don't think he started as early as 19. On my mother's side, they all have great heads of hair.

 

[I.D WALKER]

What impelled you to ask? I'm curious if you are noticing changes in the caliber of hair or has some else called it to your attention? Taking your photo at it's" face value" generally everyone will agree that your hair looks good If it turns out you are exhibiting early signs of male pattern baldness the good news is you caught it when the majority of us all wished we had. Keep monitoring it but don't let it enslave you. Most of us are our worst critics so try and stay objective. Get a physical exam if it still bothers you. All the best my friend.

 

[TheHandsomeLurker]

Just looks like a hair spiral to me, ie normal. Good hair on the mother's side has a very strong correlation (something like .7) with having good hair, so you're probably in fine shape.

If you're concerned, take a picture every few months. If there's a change, you'll notice pretty quickly.

 

[andragonous]

What impelled you to ask? I'm curious if you are noticing changes in the caliber of hair or has some else called it to your attention? Taking your photo at it's" face value" generally everyone will agree that your hair looks good If it turns out you are exhibiting early signs of male pattern baldness the good news is you caught it when the majority of us all wished we had. Keep monitoring it but don't let it enslave you. Most of us are our worst critics so try and stay objective. Get a physical exam if it still bothers you. All the best my friend.

Several things. Firstly, my brother (18 months older) seems to have lost some hair. But his hair loss doesn't actually seem to take the normal male pattern baldness pattern as he's lost it in sort of clumps. He lost a clump of hair once when he was a teenager; he suffers from stress and I actually think he has a habit of pulling his hair out. For reasons I won't go into, I'm not yet comfortable asking him about his hairloss or stress. But anyway since that and my use of accutane, I've been shamefully paranoid to the point where it has enslaved me.

 

[der29]

youre phucked buddy...jump on finasteride pronto

 

[andragonous]

youre phucked buddy...jump on finasteride pronto

Mind telling me why?

 

[hellouser]

Mind telling me why?

Because society WANTS you to go bald and STAY bald.

To be blunt, think of the quote from the TV show Big Bang Theory:

There's an economic concept known as a positional good in which an object is only valued by the possessor because it's not possessed by others. The term was coined in 1976 by economist Fred Hirsch to replace the more colloquial, but less precise "neener-neener".

Yeah, an individuals social standing will be determined by a combination of their privileges and your handicap. Being bald will essentially immediately put you into a lower social class standing; peers, coworkers, jobs, strangers and worst of all, WOMEN, will not give you the respect you'd have with a full head of hair.

You better pray or do something that a full on cure comes out fast... hair loss is progressive.

 

[andragonous]

Because society WANTS you to go bald and STAY bald.

To be blunt, think of the quote from the TV show Big Bang Theory:

There's an economic concept known as a positional good in which an object is only valued by the possessor because it's not possessed by others. The term was coined in 1976 by economist Fred Hirsch to replace the more colloquial, but less precise "neener-neener".

Yeah, an individuals social standing will be determined by a combination of their privileges and your handicap. Being bald will essentially immediately put you into a lower social class standing; peers, coworkers, jobs, strangers and worst of all, WOMEN, will not give you the respect you'd have with a full head of hair.

You better pray or do something that a full on cure comes out fast... hair loss is progressive.

As appreciative as I am of the Marxist critique of western civilization (nothing like a few light thoughts to ease one into Monday morning), I was actually referring to my scalp. It seems to have gathered mixed reviews so far. 4 saying no signs to worry about, 2 saying that I'm damned to spend my life a jobless, lonely hermit in the bowels of our society.

 

[hellouser]

As appreciative as I am of the Marxist critique of western civilization (nothing like a few light thoughts to ease one into Monday morning), I was actually referring to my scalp. It seems to have gathered mixed reviews so far. 4 saying no signs to worry about, 2 saying that I'm damned to spend my life a jobless, lonely hermit in the bowels of our society.

There is NO way to tell if you are actually balding. It is a slow process that will creep up on you and rob you of your identity.
However, does it appear that you have had hair loss thus far? NO.

Like I said, pray for a hair loss cure...... and a cure for society's disgusting nature.

 

[I.D WALKER]

It's difficult not to compare the physical status of your own hair to other men's crowns, in particular to that of your own family member(s). In time you will easily discover it offers little solace. From the starting line and quite like so many of life's uncontrollable circumstances, our hair loss journey truly takes on a unique identity and precarious destiny of it's own. Although the outcome or fate of all sufferers may look similar our personal experience and the ways or means we cope or are equipped to face it down are exclusively our own. Your brother's condition or your business partner's, should not/need not vicariously influence how you plan to manage your own hair affair. Same as I will not undermine the power of prayer nor will I underscore emphatically enough the power of positive action. Try not to allow your distractions to overwhelm you and drive you off the straight away. Continue to be proactive in your pursuit for answers and resolve. All the best.

 

[andragonous]

It's difficult not to compare the physical status of your own hair to other men's crowns, in particular to that of your own family member(s). In time you will easily discover it offers little solace. From the starting line and quite like so many of life's uncontrollable circumstances, our hair loss journey truly takes on a unique identity and precarious destiny of it's own. Although the outcome or fate of all sufferers may look similar our personal experience and the ways or means we cope or are equipped to face it down are exclusively our own. Your brother's condition or your business partner's, should not/need not vicariously influence how you plan to manage your own hair affair. Same as I will not undermine the power of prayer nor will I underscore emphatically enough the power of positive action. Try not to allow your distractions to overwhelm you and drive you off the straight away. Continue to be proactive in your pursuit for answers and resolve. All the best.

Thanks for your kind thoughts and advice. I know it will affect people in different ways. Being a student with aspirations to travel and do lots of interesting things, cost is one of the major things that could influence how I treat hair loss. I can't easily afford drug treatment right now and as a matter of principle I wouldn't want to make sacrifices like that just to keep my hair, unless we really do live in as bleak and hopeless a world as Hellouser describes. If in a few years I can afford it easily, great. But I won't giveup living a good life for the sake of hair. Plenty of good looking bald guys around. But I think seeing my brother has actually made me a bit better prepared for it at least. The possibility is on my mind now and I've thought more carefully about how I can maintain a sense of self worth and a sense of pride in my appearance even with the problem of hairloss. So in a way I think my brother helped me.

 

[TheHandsomeLurker]

Thanks for your kind thoughts and advice. I know it will affect people in different ways. Being a student with aspirations to travel and do lots of interesting things, cost is one of the major things that could influence how I treat hair loss. I can't easily afford drug treatment right now and as a matter of principle I wouldn't want to make sacrifices like that just to keep my hair, unless we really do live in as bleak and hopeless a world as Hellouser describes. If in a few years I can afford it easily, great. But I won't giveup living a good life for the sake of hair. Plenty of good looking bald guys around. But I think seeing my brother has actually made me a bit better prepared for it at least. The possibility is on my mind now and I've thought more carefully about how I can maintain a sense of self worth and a sense of pride in my appearance even with the problem of hairloss. So in a way I think my brother helped me.

Very good attitude. I applaud you.