This is so hard

[TooYoungTooBald]

Please take the time of your valuable day to read a story about an 18 year old who's hair loss is slowly but surely not just diminishing the quality of his hair but also the quality of his life.

I've been losing my hair since I was about well.... As long as I can remember, that means since I was about 13. Now you're probably thinking there's no way it can be male pattern baldness from that age but frankly what else could it be, it's going through the stages like male pattern baldness and with my luck I'm probably like the only guy in the country to have that happen to. I'm currently a NW2.5, my temples are absolutely terrible but the overall shape of my hairline isn't quite at NW3 yet. But the overall thickness of my hair rivals that of a NW5.

As for what it's done to my life I was probably one of the most active guys I knew. I was in decent shape and frankly thats all changed. I don't play soccer anymore since you have to play in the rain and when my hair is wet the state of it just innexcusable, same applies to if I attempt to go swimming so slowly but surely I've turned into this fat, balding, narcissistic slob who's life is going nowhere. What bothers me is that with my hair loss I'm not looking any better anytime soon and my confidence is just falling deeper and deeper into a bottomless abyss. Now I know what you're gonna say, hit the gym and trim it down right? not gonna happen with my temples. I retract from any social situations which could turn to hair or appearance on the whole. Anybody who said you shouldn't care so much about your looks should deal with male pattern baldness.

Some days it just becomes too much, I wake up and actually dread having to go look in the mirror because of my hair, to be honest otherwise I'm not too displeased with my looks. It's not even the appearance part of it, it's the normality, I just don't feel normal like this. The worst thing is when I might be having a great day, everything going right and someone makes an innocent comment about my hair like "I didn't realise it was so light" and I just want to go home and never leave. Being angry makes it easier to not care about my hair loss, but it doesn't make it any better for my family who haven't seen me happy in months. I used to watch the news and see stories about people commiting suicide and thinking "what selfish people" but even though suicide has never been contemplated by me, I can see why mentally weaker people would see it as a way out.

So start using Finasteride, Minoxidil and Nizoral? Let me tell why I don't even want to. Firstly it just seems unfair, why the hell should I have to take potentially harmful drugs to stop a process which at worse should be starting now. Second, why do it all? to save what I have maybe grow a little more, for how long? 5 years then I'll just be a 23 years old with thinning hair surrounded by guys who still have no problems follicularly. I probably will start the big 3 but it doesn't make it fair.

If you have read all of this firstly let me say sorry and thank you. I've been holding this in for a while and if even one person has read it, it makes me feel better. Second, no I don't expect any sympathy because maybe you're not in the same boat as I am but your still in the same part of these deep unforgiving waters. I guess this should make some of you feel better, no matter how bad your life or hair is, there's a guy out there who's life is more pathetic and his hair relative to his age is even worse.

I know it could be worse, I could be diagnosed with a terminal illness tomorrow and my hair would be my last concern. But I'm a nice guy and a genuinely good person, why should I have to take solice in the fact that "oh it could be worse", but frankly why should anybody. Yes this was a "why me" thread, but frankly the two words I utter every time I look at a picture of myself or look in the mirror are WHY ME!!!?!!

 

[barcafan]

You should post pictures you might be exagerating in your head

 

[jonsie150]

just start on the big 3 immediately. it's done wonders for younger people. sure, it might not be a permanent solution, but if it can do some good for 3-5 years, that'll give you some time until something better comes out.

trust me, you'll feel better once you start doing something about it. there have been experiments evaluating the happiness of prisoners given a pot of plant to tend to. they're far happier than prisoners with nothing to do. the treatment might or might not work out for you. but either way, i think you'll feel better just knowing you're trying something.

and about the big 3 being unfair. yes, it's unfair that we have to go through this. but hey, show me a person who's had EVERYTHING go right for them and i'll show you a person who hasn't gone through the trenches of life. and about the treatments being harmful to your body. no, i don't think they're harmful. they do alter the chemistry within your body. but so does coffee and alcohol and the amount of sleep you get and the general pollution in the air. the aura surrounding the side-effects if overblown.

and hey. humans have a good tendency to just adapt to their situation. look at people who became paralyzed and went on to lead a normal life. things get bad, and sometimes they don't recover, but you just give it more time and your mind with just adjust to it. trust me, there'll be a day when you'll feel at peace, with or without hair (but i'm thinking "with" if you'll just go on the damn big 3)

 

[s.a.f]

I can totally relate to this post, this was me at 19/20.
My advice would be to get on the big 3 (I never had the chance at that age). The point is that I promise you if you dont try treatments in a few years you'll be in a much worse situation and look back on how your hair is now and however bad you think it is you'll wish you could go back to how it is now.
Also even if it does just give you another 5 yrs at least thats 5 yrs more with some hair.

 

[TooYoungTooBald]

You should post pictures you might be exagerating in your head

Ok yeah I was a bit emotional when I wrote that, it's not THAT bad. The problem is that I have really bad temples. I can grow my hair sort of long to cover it but then since it's pretty thin it just looks terrible and if I get it cut shorter then yeah it looks half decent but my temples are exposed. Damned if I do, damned if I don't really.

I think my emotions were quite exaggerated, I was just having a bad day but it does still make me feel like s**t. I will start finasteride and nizoral but I just can't start Rogaine, my hair is already greasy so putting something in it every morning and night is just going to be hell, also the sheds scare me hearing some peoples stories. My hair is naturally black but it's thinned out and is pretty much brown now, will dying it black help the appearance? Honestly man if my temples weren't SO bad I would just go for a 2 or 1 all over. I'm in the UK, I've been scanning these forums for a long and I mean long time and heard about United Pharmacies and price wise it is really good, if anyone could give some feedback on that I'd be greatful. Plus, any guys here currently using Propecia, Rogaine at college, I'm just curious about where you keep the pills and/or containers?

 

[barcafan]

this was how i felt initially do, eventually you do sort of accept it as it progresses, if you're lucky it'll be slow or even stop (better chance if you're on meds). No matter what you think, it really isn't the end of the world and as long as you're healthy you should be great full. But we always want it all, guess it's the human syndrome.

 

[question7]

Hey man, as a fellow young guy (19) loosing hair I sympathize with you. I know how it is some days, feeling like sh*t, thinking it isn't all that fair, and asking "why me at this young".

I can't imagine anyone at any point would want to loose heir hair, but I can speculate that dealing with it when your 18/19 is more difficult then when your 30 and plus. None of my friends have hair loss. Its a tough idea to get around that your unhappy with your hair at this point, and it can only get worse from here on.

Anyways, good luck with dealing with it and rest, slightly more, assured that others, myself included, will be waking up next morning, inspecting their hair in the mirror and feeling like sh*t.

 

[StandTallGoingBald]

Hey, I can understand your pain. I started balding at the young age of 15. I have continued up until now where i just turned 17. It's pretty bad now. I've receded about an inch and thinning is all on the top to the point where you can see my scalp clearly. But don't give up. I still go to the gym, I work out, I still talk to girls, I still stand taller than ever, I still dress up, I still can go to school, I worry sure. But honestly, what are you to do? You may feel insecure, but guess what? A LOT of people will be in your same shoes too. And no one will ever make fun of you, as long as you look like you know what you are doing. Steve Jobs is balding, and he runs the world. You can too!

 

[1.....]

hey man,
I know how you feel. I started losing my hair at 17. I tried propecia and got mad sides. At that point I felt helpless like there was nothing else I could do. I tried AG hair complex and that worked for about 6 weeks then mbp kicked in again. I am now using a laser helmet and it has stopped my hairloss. I also take some supplements that are good for health and hair.

 

[thetodd]

I can relate to this story, even though my hairloss didn't really start until my late twenties. Baldness is so prevelant on both sides of my family that from the age of eighteen I looked in the mirror several times a day to see if there were any signs that my inevitible hairloss was beginning. When it finally became obvious, I was to the point of not even caring that much. I had worried about it so heavily over the years that when my hair started receeding and my crown began thinning, I was prepared for it. You see, I had already mourned the loss of my hair before it started abandoning me. It did eventually begin bothering me, though, which is when I started posting here. I was already using rogaine, but then added finasteride and nizoral to the mix. The results weren't that great.Then I got into concealers, which did work quite well. Then I went into the hospital for several days a few months back and the concealer (prothick) I was using began coming off. I had bald patches in several different areas. It was humiliating. So I asked a nurse for some of the rinseless shampoo/body wash, went into the bathroom, dragging my IV cart with me, and washed all of that out of my hair (and yes, I took the opportunity to clean the rest of me, too). After I got home, I had my wife give me a military style buzz cut, and then I got a razor and shaved the rest of it off. It was one of the most liberating days of my life. Not quite as good as the making the final payment on our house, but close. Of course, I'm 40, married to a beautiful wife, and financially secure. As I stated in another thread, if I were in my twenties, still dating, and looking for a good job, maybe it would have bothered me more. Unfortunately, we DO live in a society that values style over substance. Good looking people can get away with a lot of things that the genetically less fortunate cannot.
But in the end, you have to take control of your own happiness. Your attitude about yourself really does influence how others see you. Go for a short haircut and just try to be happy. We can only control a certain amount of things in our lives, but you don't have to let losing your hair be the end of the world. If you haven't noticed, there are a lot of men out there who are either bald or quickly heading in that direction.

 

[cuebald]

Been dealt a bad hand too.
Skinny, quite short, but I have bad features to go bald with.

Big bushy eyebrows, a sharp nose, etc. Very pale skin. I look like a throwback to a past evolutionary stage in Human development. Simian.

No reasonably attractive women will find this attractive. With hair, I had long, thick black hair that framed my face, and I did alright with it.
With baldness it's a bad joke.
I'm willing to put up with sides to avoid this, which is why I take spironolactone. It also gives me hope, no matter how misplaced.

 

[TooYoungTooBald]

First off I'd like to say thank you guys for the response, I honestly feel better that I'm not the only guy out there even at this age going through this. I've always been a huge fan of Rocky and watching Rocky 6 I came across this scene which just just deeply inspires and motivates me so much. I hope it can help others like it helps me every single day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tWLqFmaNdQ#

 

[s.a.f]

What do you think of Stallones wig?

 

[Runninghair]

That right there is some desperate marketing. You need to call Doctor and marty mcfly to help this guy

 

[Omega2327]

Please take the time of your valuable day to read a story about an 18 year old who's hair loss is slowly but surely not just diminishing the quality of his hair but also the quality of his life.

I've been losing my hair since I was about well.... As long as I can remember, that means since I was about 13. Now you're probably thinking there's no way it can be male pattern baldness from that age but frankly what else could it be, it's going through the stages like male pattern baldness and with my luck I'm probably like the only guy in the country to have that happen to. I'm currently a NW2.5, my temples are absolutely terrible but the overall shape of my hairline isn't quite at NW3 yet. But the overall thickness of my hair rivals that of a NW5.

As for what it's done to my life I was probably one of the most active guys I knew. I was in decent shape and frankly thats all changed. I don't play soccer anymore since you have to play in the rain and when my hair is wet the state of it just innexcusable, same applies to if I attempt to go swimming so slowly but surely I've turned into this fat, balding, narcissistic slob who's life is going nowhere. What bothers me is that with my hair loss I'm not looking any better anytime soon and my confidence is just falling deeper and deeper into a bottomless abyss. Now I know what you're gonna say, hit the gym and trim it down right? not gonna happen with my temples. I retract from any social situations which could turn to hair or appearance on the whole. Anybody who said you shouldn't care so much about your looks should deal with male pattern baldness.

Some days it just becomes too much, I wake up and actually dread having to go look in the mirror because of my hair, to be honest otherwise I'm not too displeased with my looks. It's not even the appearance part of it, it's the normality, I just don't feel normal like this. The worst thing is when I might be having a great day, everything going right and someone makes an innocent comment about my hair like "I didn't realise it was so light" and I just want to go home and never leave. Being angry makes it easier to not care about my hair loss, but it doesn't make it any better for my family who haven't seen me happy in months. I used to watch the news and see stories about people commiting suicide and thinking "what selfish people" but even though suicide has never been contemplated by me, I can see why mentally weaker people would see it as a way out.

So start using Finasteride, Minoxidil and Nizoral? Let me tell why I don't even want to. Firstly it just seems unfair, why the hell should I have to take potentially harmful drugs to stop a process which at worse should be starting now. Second, why do it all? to save what I have maybe grow a little more, for how long? 5 years then I'll just be a 23 years old with thinning hair surrounded by guys who still have no problems follicularly. I probably will start the big 3 but it doesn't make it fair.

If you have read all of this firstly let me say sorry and thank you. I've been holding this in for a while and if even one person has read it, it makes me feel better. Second, no I don't expect any sympathy because maybe you're not in the same boat as I am but your still in the same part of these deep unforgiving waters. I guess this should make some of you feel better, no matter how bad your life or hair is, there's a guy out there who's life is more pathetic and his hair relative to his age is even worse.

I know it could be worse, I could be diagnosed with a terminal illness tomorrow and my hair would be my last concern. But I'm a nice guy and a genuinely good person, why should I have to take solice in the fact that "oh it could be worse", but frankly why should anybody. Yes this was a "why me" thread, but frankly the two words I utter every time I look at a picture of myself or look in the mirror are WHY ME!!!?!!

Bro a cure could be here by the time you're in your 20s. Then you have so much life ahead of you. Think of your youth as an ADVANTAGE. And go check out the Tsuji thread as a very big step was made towards a cure

 

[blackg]

Bro a cure could be here by the time you're in your 20s. Then you have so much life ahead of you. Think of your youth as an ADVANTAGE. And go check out the Tsuji thread as a very big step was made towards a cure

He is now in his mid 20's. The OP was dated October 2009.