What are the signs?

[BobbyLondon]

Hey guys, I had a baldness scary a few months ago, but after getting a lot of feed back and growing my hair a little longer I am fairly sure that I am not going bald, yet. The part of my hair in qustion was the crown, but after checking it out I am pretty sure it is just a segment. It looks pretty much like a natural part when i pull the hair down kinda in a zig zag formation.

Having said i do have baldness in my family. My mothers dad was fully bald, although everyone else (his sons) my dads side has not baldness. My general question i guess is now that i am on top of the issue, what signs shoudl i be looking for? What are the sure fire signs that baldness is starting? BTW i am 27.

Thanks in advance for any tips

 

[Brains Expel Hair]

A sure fire sign that you're at a pretty high risk of going bald is having your mother's father be bald. Considering none of his sons (your uncles) were bald and your father wasn't either, that most generally means you are at a high risk for having the X chromosome androgen-receptor gene related form of baldness. I don't believe "just a segment" is properly translating here unfortunately.

Contact your main doctor as he will give you a much better estimate of what you are looking at and he could also help you with medication that could help slow down any hair loss you could possibly be looking at. If your doctor does tell you that you are balding definitely consider taking him up on a prescription medication for it along with getting on Nizoral shampoo and possibly Rogaine as well.

 

[Axl_Rose]

A sure fire sign that you're at a pretty high risk of going bald is having your mother's father be bald.

So basically what your saying is that if your mothers father is bald then you have a high chance of being bald yourself? What if your mothers father isn't bald but your uncles (his children) are?

 

[Brains Expel Hair]

You certainly have an elevated risk of having an X chromosome related disorder if one of the people who gave your mother her X chromosome is showing signs of an X chromosome related disorder. There are additional genetic markers on other other chromosomes that may be related to baldness but the most commonly known one is on the X chromosome.

Since you are a male you have one X and one Y chomosome and during reproduction you can either give an X chromosome or a Y chromosome. A female however is XX and so she can give either X chromosome. If the primary factor in your baldness comes from a mutation on your X chromosome the only person who could have given it to you was your mother as any mutations your father would have passed down on this pair would be connected to his Y chromosome. Your mother however being a female could have acquired that same mutation from either your grandmother's X or your grandfather's X. If your mother's father's baldness was primarily related to a mutation on his X chromosome he would have been incapable of passing it on to any of his sons (your uncles).

Certain genetic mutations have less of an effect if there is an additional copy of the gene on the other pair of the chromosome but as a male you are missing the second X that could partially mediate these effects. Your mother on the other hand can attain 1 X with the mutation and 1 X without the mutation in which case the effects of such a mutation would be severely lessened and so might not exhibit any of the noticeably visible effects of such a mutation even though one of her Xs would still contain that mutation. When she would have a child each child would have about a 50/50 chance of either getting the X with the genetic mutation or the one without because no matter the sex of the child they would always get an X chromosome from her.

If your mother carried only one mutated X and she got the healthy one from her mother and the mutated one from her father then you've got a 50/50 chance of getting it, but her brothers would have odds based on what the male family members of their mother (your grandmother) looked like.

If your uncles baldness is primarily due to a mutated X then they received that from their mother and their father's fathers hair would have not much an effect on their odds. If your uncle's X is mutated and your grandmother has hair that means that your mother had a 50/50 chance of getting that mutated X as well and without knowing if she had it or not, you would have a 25% chance of getting the mutated X.

That was probably way too long of an answer.

 

[Axl_Rose]

That was probably way too long of an answer.

And one that went way over my head but i appreciate the response to my question, i can sort of get what your saying.

 

[BobbyLondon]

Thanks for the response. When i said hair segment, I meant that taking a close look at it it appears to just be a normal cowlick. There are no hair loss doctors where i live. My doctor said it would be a waste to use propecia and would not subscribe it to me because he does not think I am balding.

As for the mother father baldness. I have done a little looking around on my own before my post. Although it does highten your risk, from what i have read it is no where near 100%. The research currently suggest (from what I have read) that bladness can skip a generation, and that it may be not as simple as getting your x from your mother. Personaly I have a friend who's mother father had a full head of hair and he is balding pretty bad.

Having said all this (sorry for long post) I kinda was hoping for people that are going bald would share some things they noticed on their way to baldness, so that I may keep an eye on it. Thanks for the response thus far.

 

[treeshrew]

my baldness was pretty obvious, i was losing ground on my temples starting around age 24. one day i used a digital camera to take a pic of the top of my head and was shocked to see a bald spot developing i never knew i had.

i think if you look closely at your hair and can't be certain, then even if you ARE balding it's way too early to consider medications, so there's not much you can really do at this point.

if it gets noticeably worse then you'll know for sure and can start meds, until then try not to worry about it.

edit: you could also post pics here, the hair loss talk guys are better than most dermatologists at diagnosing male pattern baldness

 

[BobbyLondon]

Here I will throw in a few pics so you guys can get a sense of what I am talking about. FYI from the front I am fine, I have a mature hairline I think, and looking at pictures of myself today and from 5 years ago i have a same hairline from the front, so I am really not worried about the front at all.

You may be right as my family Doctor prob does not know too much about hair loss, so perhaps he just took a quick look and thought I was fine. So any thoughts would be great, perhaps I should go a hair loss Doctor out of town? there are a few about an hours drive from where i live.

So anyways here are few pics of the area in question taken today.

 

[treeshrew]

those aren't very good pics. how about some in direct light that show the entire top of your head, then one with your temples pulled back. these are too dark and close up to tell at all.

 

[timbo]

Agreed, better lighting and further distance would be nice. Nobody would be able to tell from these pictures.

 

[BobbyLondon]

Ok here are some under my bathroom light....The front I am not really worried about I checked to some pics from 5 years ago its same. As for my little widows peek, I have had it for about as long as I can remember, i have kinda been shaving it since I was a kid.

But input would be good I guess, so perhaps I can go to a doctor that deals with hair loss instead of my gp.

 

[macimate]

Looks fine to me.

 

[timbo]

Good hairline from what I can see. I am pretty sure the crown is fine. The spot where you can see the scalp is just a natural part where the hair changes direction from front to back.

 

[BobbyLondon]

Thanks for the input, I went to my Doctor and he told me I was fine but he is just a gp. Anyways i am kinda on high alert because like I mentioned my mom's dad was a full norwood 6.

So anyone with xp on the matter have any advice for what I should be looking now that I am keeping an eye on it. Other than taking pics and checking my hair every few months any other signs I should be loooking for, because I am willing to give propecia a try at some point, i Just dont want to start it too early because you have to take it for the rest of your life, so the later the better.

Thanks to everyone who posted this form is very helpfull getting proper information.

 

[treeshrew]

i don't see any male pattern baldness at all.

even if you have it, it's too early to do anything about it.

enjoy your life and hair until it gets noticeable (if it ever does)!

 

[Brains Expel Hair]

The pics make it really hard to see any noticeable signs really, so you might just be worrying for nothing. Do you notice a lot of itching on your scalp?

 

[BobbyLondon]

No itching on my head...is that one of the signs?

 

[Brains Expel Hair]

YES. While you can bald without noticing the inflammation it is a very common warning sign. So the fact that your hair's pretty thick still, your hair line looks decent and you're not experiencing an itchy scalp means you've probably got little/nothing to worry about.

 

[BobbyLondon]

Ok thanks for all the response guys. I guess I will just keep an eye on it, check to see if my hairline goes back, any itching or sheading. This kinda puts my mind at ease a bit.