Balding Blog

Firstly i’d like to say this site is a great resource! and has been extremely useful reading over the last few months.

Some background…I’m a 21 year old male, with extremely thick hair (both in hair diameter and in density). Around a year ago i began to develop my mature adult hairline and since then there doesnt appear to have been much if any miniaturization past the future hairline.

I had two questions, firstly i know most mpb loss starts at the temples before balding at the crown is evident, but i was wondering if it was possible (or has happened in your experience) for a person to begin balding at the vertex before there is any significant recession from the temples? as hair loss in this area would be much more distressing to me than progressing to a norwood 3 for example.

My second question is to do with predicting my future pattern, my father is a norwood 7 who says he had significant thinning at the temples and crown by my age and from looking at wedding photos was a norwood 4 or 5 by 23. His father also followed a similar pattern.

The other side of my family i.e. my maternal grandfather had a norwood 3/ 3vertex pattern until into his 70’s. So my question is seeing as my hair loss is at least slower than my father could i be expected to have avoided a norwood 7 future or can this advanced pattern start at say 22-25? (basically, at what age would you say i was ‘safe’ from suffering my dads fate!)

You can certainly have balding at the vertex without any frontal recession.

There is no definitive way to predict your hair loss by just looking at your father or uncles or grandfathers. It may offer a clue, but there is no good way to predict balding at this point. I tell men to find someone that they think that the look like (hair loss pattern) in their family and find out what age each step took in the development of the hair loss. That will give you just an idea, because there are probably many genes involved and varying expressions of those genes that may skip generations, so it may be impossible to determine who you might take after or what you pattern might be. If you are asking for some sort of assurance that you will not go bald, the best way to to this is to have a miniaturization study and following the progress of the miniaturization over time.

Hello there,

I’ve been wondering if I was going to end up bald. My grandfather on my father’s side is bald, as is my own father. Nobody on my mother’s side is bald (though she had no siblings and her mother’s brothers had their hair).

My bald grandfather said he started to bald around 18. A picture of my dad when he was around 19 1/2, he looked like a NW3. I’ll turn 19 in four months and was wondering if I don’t see any symptoms by the time I turn 19 or 19 1/2, will I go bald?

Thank you again.

There is no way to easily tell if you’ll develop the balding pattern your male relatives showed around your same age. You can have the HairDX test done and get an idea if you have the genes for balding, or you can see us and get a hair bulk assessment yearly to show when and if the balding/thinning process kicks in.

Of course, you can also just watch and wait.

I no longer get morning wood and my erections are only about 70% what they were before fin. Been telling myself it’s all in my head, it’ll resolve itself in time, and even that it’s probably caused by other meds I’m on (SSRIs). Well it’s been around 9 months now and there’s been no improvement and I’m no longer on SSRIs. So what now? Should I go to my doctor and ask for a hormone panel, or just stop fin immediately? I’m only 21 and it feels like my choice is between having no hair or no sex life.

If I stop fin for a few months to see if my erections come back, will I likely lose a significant amount of hair? Would jumping back on fin after a few months recover most of that lost hair?

Really unsure what to do, so any advice from people who’ve been in similar situations would be really appreciated

You might want to cut it out for 3 weeks as I advise my patients, then restart it as one pill every 4 days and try that for a week. IF that works, then increase it to one pill every three days for 3 weeks and if that work then try 1 pill every other day and stop there. IF the ED comes back, then you either have found the dose you can tolerate, or may not find any dose that works. Best, of course, to discuss this with your doctor.

Im a 25 year old female and I started to notice that i was losing my hair about a year ago. About six months ago my husband started to notice the same hair loss. What really scares me is that now my 4 and 6 year old kids are losing their hair too. The hair loss is diffused throughout the head and sometimes we all get scalp pain as well. Ive seen Dermatologists and Endocrinologists and all the tests that have been done have come back negative, so all I can come up with at this point is that its environmental because this has been happening ever since we moved to our current home.

Please what could this be? What could I have my family tested for as far as toxins among other things?

Thanks in advance!

If you, your husband, and your children are all losing hair, an environmental cause sounds like it is the most logical reason. It could be something in your home, in your food, in your water, etc. Are you just seeing hair loss and some scalp pain, or is there anything else that your family is experiencing (like nausea, skin issues, seizures, etc)?

I wish I could provide you more, but this is outside of my field of specialty. There are government agencies that can check the environment in situations like yours. I would probe that direction.

My dredlocks are falling out one by one. I have no history of balding in my family. What could this be?

Traction alopecia is the most common cause of hair loss in people with dreadlocks. This is due to the tight pulling on the scalp. I wouldn’t expect each dreadlock to just fall out one at a time, but I really couldn’t say what you’re experiencing without an exam.