17 and either losing my hair or my mind.

[jaikar]

i am a 17 year old dude. i have long hair down to my shoulders and have had it this long for some time now. I have never even thought or been concerned about hairloss, but for some reason I started to become more so recently.

for a while now I've noticed that the hair on the right side of my head is weaker, more brittle, more easily pulled out, etc. This has been the case for about two years now though. when I pull my hair up to expose my forehead, the right side is a few centimeters higher than the left. i part my hair on the side and this is the side that gets less hair.

otherwise, my forehead is quite small (about 2.5 finger above my eyebrows).

For the past week or so that I've been concerned about this, i haven't noticed large amounts of hair falling out, except for today. i usually have no hair on my pillow, and about 10 fall out in the shower.

today however, I had about 20-30 hairs fall out in the shower and also more while drying my hair afterwards.

This freaked me out enough to come here and post about it, but i also read that it could just be "seasonal shedding" since it is fall.

as for my family hair patterns: My grandpa, uncle and dad(on his side) are all bald/balding. grandpa on my mom's side has a full head of hair at near 90. i take a lot more after my mom than after my dad.

what are the chances of me experiencing MPB? (sorry I have no pictures to provide atm)

[Jack93]

This is exactly what happened to me. Back in March I started having hairs on my pillow, I googled it and saw losing 50-150 hairs a day was normal so I thought no biggie, it's just shedding or w/e. Fast forward to now and my hairline has noticeably receded to the point I have to style my hair to hide it. I'm only starting to do something about it now.
I'm not trying to scare you and obviously I may be wrong but I would say it is MPB and that you should look into doing something about it.

[jaikar]

^ Damn man, now I'm even more paranoid than I was before...

Is it more likely for people with long hair to shed a lot more than those with short? I've seen how much my mom/sister shed when they brush their hair, and it's scary, I shed nowhere near that though.

And no hair falls when I'm sleeping, only in the shower.

Edit:
One more question: I'm not sure whether I am balding or not, but still want to try rogaine. i have a job so i can buy rogaine on my own, but i dont even want to mention that i am concerned about hairloss to my parents, and i'd have to in order to get to a dermatologist. that's just how they are, and i'd probably get scolded/picked on for caring this much about it.

so my question is: What happens if rogaine is applied to non-balding hair? Will it damage it?

[Kevin85]

Rogaine will cause shedding at first.

[jaikar]

Originally Posted by Kevin85

Rogaine will cause shedding at first.

Yes but will it damage hair which is not balding in the long run?

[BigThinker]

Bottom line: Go get it looked at. Hopefully you have a healthy relationship with your parents, where you can express your concerns and have them be supportive. I take after my mom hair color wise, skin wise, most facial feature-wise (her family doesn't lose their hair), but my dad's side most guys go bald.\

Your maternal grandfather isn't the sole predictor in whether on not you will go bald, it's an old wife's tale (though there is some reasonable genetic reasoning behind it). Don't lie to yourself and ignore hairloss until it gets bad

A doctor can tell you with more confidence than any of us. However, this forum is a good place to express your problems because most people here have had the same problems.

-Eat healthy, stay active
-See an MD of some sort
-Learn all your options, and their costs and side effects
-TRY not to worry about it, and keep trucking with the rest of your life.