Turned 50 - all hair is now very very fine

[Sam07]

I guess I've been balding for a while but I just didn't notice because my hair was thick enough that I barely noticed it. Now all of my good hair has fallen out and I have this baby fine hair, front and back, basically covering up my balding areas. It's so fine I can no longer comb or brush it.

I'm doing a comb forward with my fingers until I figure out what to do and wearing hats everywhere. finasteride seems to have slowed the thinning but I wonder if this is just a stage toward ultimate baldness. The hair just sits there barely covering my head.

I'm thinking of a piece since I had fairly good hair only a year ago.

Has anyone else gone through this sort of thing?

 

[Quantum Cat]

hair pieces are probably your best option now - they're better than they used to be

or you could try minoxidil

 

[Sam07]

My hair grows very slowly. I did try minoxidil and it wiped out the remaining good thick hair on top. Since it's thinning all over including the back it was only a matter of time but after a few weeks I just stopped to prevent further loss.

Apparently it may not be effective with older folks since the thinning may be due to age rather than male pattern baldness and after reading Dr. House's comments I decided to stop before things got even worse.

If you're visibly balding *or* have good hair that is thinning out slowly then absolutely give it a shot. In the first case, what have you got to lose by trying it and in the second even if you lose some hair it's not the end of the world.

 

[WR1981]

Hi Sam,

I'll admit that it seems a little curious for all of your hair to thin so rapidly in one year's time at age 50. Could there be another cause, potentially, besides male pattern baldness? I will need to look again, but I read a journal article recently by a dermatologist who thinks male pattern baldness and senescent alopecia after the age of 55 are different entities as the hormonal profile and scalp levels of hormones are significantly different. This may explain that thinned out look that older males get even for those that kept a full head of hair through young adulthood into middle age.