Author: Dr. William Rassman

This is a great drug for someone your age. It might slow, stop, or reverse the hair loss. The younger you are, the better it works.

19M Receeding Hairline – is fin worth it at this age? from tressless

I don’t know why I’m typing this, I’ll probably regret this in the morning, since I’m on vyvanse right now. I know you focus on transplants and your not a therapist but, I just want to write to someone. This hairloss fear is getting to me, I’m only 16 and I’m pretty sure I’m not going bald now but the predisposition in my family is so high, my dad AND my mums dad went full bald in their late 20’s that’s just a fucking double whammy, I always hear when people talk about baldness in their family (on Reddit, etc) and its always only one; dad, or mums dad, at least they have hope. What can I do?

At 16, I doubt that you are now losing hair. That may not be the case in the future, but worrying is not going to change anything. Speak with your parents about your fear. At some point if you feel that you might be starting the balding process (rarely before 18), then getting a HAIRCHECK test (https://baldingblog.com/haircheck-test-how-it-is-done-video/) might be the way to go, as this will tell you absolutely if you are losing hair, where and how much. Wait a couple of years before doing this.

I have have a really bad, receding hairline with dense hair and no crown problems. I was going to start minoxidil and add finasteride in 2 to 3 years since I still haven’t finished my puberty. I really want to try to recover my hairline, the thing is, I am okay with getting a HT in a few years.

I often prescribe finasteride to 18 years old men. This drug often works very well with a high degree of reversal. If after one year it doesn’t reverse, add oral minoxidil to your routine and worst case, add microneedling 6 months after than it it doesn’t work. Actually, I don’t think that the first or second will fail. A hair transplant is out of the question for at least 7 years and by that time, if you don’t treat it now, you may bald far more than you see now.

I’m 19 and play college football. My Dad experienced hair loss around my age and was a Norwood V by the time he was 30. His hairloss was gradual and then slowed way down.

I have a lot of stress right now because of playing football and tough academics and I broke up with my gf. It seems this is accelerating some of it. But, I try to calm myself down. What would you recommend me trying to take for now? I will get a transplant or something later after I play college. I just need to get through another 4 years!
Thanks in advance.

As you are finding out hair loss is genetic. In general many men who have the trait of Norwood 5/6/7 patterns will have the pattern show in their 20’s. It does slow down in their 30/40s.

If you want a medical treatment, you need to see a doctor to explore your options such as taking Propecia or Rogaine. It is the only two medication that work. Shampoos, vitamins, and products you may find on the Internet despite the great advertising persuasion, does not work to stop or regrow hair. At best it may be “good” for your hair in terms of keeping the hair’s shine and body.

Other options would be simply shaving! Bald is beautiful (or handsome)… as they say.

This is an amazing response to finasteride and minoxidil in just 2 months suggesting that the stem cells were responsive to the 5 alpha reeducate blockade from finasteride.

I’m 19 and went to a doctor about my hair and he refused to give me finasteride. What can I do? I am very depressed about this situation.

Find another doctor! Connect with me at williamrassman33@gmail.com and we can talk and I will prescribe it if indicated. You may not be balding and just maturing your hairline but I can work with you on this over the phone to find out what it is that is bothering you.

The internet has spread a great deal of information and misinformation about Propecia (finasteride) which is much over-blown. You need to put the decision in perspective. The risk of these sexual side effects are between 2-4% depending upon the sources you read. My son has been on this drug for 15 year and found an increased sexual drive, not a decreased sexual drive which his girlfriend appreciated very much. How often do you hear about an increased sexual drive? Answer: very, very rarely.

If you were one of the unlucky men to get the sexual side effect, 99+ % of these men find that the side effects go away within 2 weeks upon stopping the drug. Some very small percentage report long term sexual side effects; however these risks are very, very infrequent (less than 1% of the 2-4% people who get negative side effects that persists). Many of the people who reported these sexual side effects may have had sexual dysfunction (normally present in 30% of men 40, 40% of men 40, 50%+ in men over 50) so it is easy to blame this drug for sexual side effects when reduced sexual drive is unfortunately, a sign of aging in many men. Rarely do we see this in 19 year old men, however, you can have a placebo effect if you believe you will be one of them.

The real decision before you, of course, is the problem of progressive balding which this drug is very effective in treating in men of your age. It even reverses the hair loss in many men under 20. You are clearly in the drivers seat, so be careful about what you read and put everything you research into a proper perspective.

This proves my point that young men (under 25 and especially under 20) have a higher benefit from taking finasteride than men over 25. Good job and stick to it and maybe you can avoid more hair loss for many years. The photo shows that the miniaturized hairs in the front seem to have become thicker ‘terminal hairs’ which are essentially normal growing hair.

The pictures show a reversal of the finasteride with an almost perfect hairline that is obvious in the photos

I’m young (19) and had perfect hair growing up. However, I have had trichotillomania (hair pulling disorder) develop in my teens (symptom of OCD) and now I’ve lost a lot of my hair. It’s concealable but I plan on maybe getting a transplant (FUE?) done at some point as I grow older since I’ve beat my disorder and now am regrowing my hair. Does anyone have any recommendations as to what to do or results they got from a transplant ? Thank you.

My extensive experience with Trichotillomania is that most people really don’t quit and transplants just enter the cycle again with recurrence. You must build a relationship with a doctor like me in your area over time so that this problem can be eventually transplanted once you know for sure that the primary problem is solved.