31 years old and started losing hair

[Losing_It]

Hi all,

where do i begin, well i am a 31 year old you just just started losing my hair, i guess the last year or so. Anyways I am the youngest of 6 sons and also the youngest of all the male cousins on both my mother's and father's side. As fate would have it of all my brothers, I am the only one you started losing my hair. The ages of my siblings are roughly, 46, 43, 41, 38 and 35. The bad/good thing is that all of them have not shown any signs of balding. So I am guessing even if they start to lose it now they may hang on to a fair amount until a good old age. Well my dad only started to thin out i guess in his 50s and still had a fair left when he passed away at 68. Did I mention none of my cousins are losing their hair either.

Anyways I finally went to go see a dermatologist and he immediately put me on propecia and 5% minox.

I guess what I want to say is that the last few months has been an absolutely horrible. I would often get up in the middle of the night to look at myself in the mirror and imagine what i would look like bald, lye awake in bed thinking that I will be the only bald man in my family and how can genetics be so selective.

I do think that I caught it early though, since I have only receded in my right temple, and my left temple still look like what it did when i was 15. I was born with a wicked widows peak, the only man in my family and my right temple was always a little higher than the left. I am not really asking much, I would just like to make it till forty, maintain what i got and then bow out graciously.

[mattj]

It's all relative, but it sounds like your loss is so minimal that it's not worth the stress it's causing you.

How does your hairline compare to the other male family members you mentioned? Is it lower, higher or about the same? I ask this because if your left temple is still where it was when you were 15, then you might be developing what we call a mature hairline. It's possible that your brothers and cousins already developed this when they were younger.

[JustJoe]

First of all you're lucky that it started at age 30! I think that works in your favor! I have a full thick head of hair, but started losing mine at age 26-27 and I'm 41 now! The key: Start early! I started Propecia at age 26-27, then I got 3 transplants with Dr. Bauman, then I started using Rogaine Foam. So, I'm 41 and should have been bald by now...instead I have a full thick head of hair.

Propecia, Rogaine, Neograft, Dr. Bauman = Me, a 41 year old guy with full head of thick hair.

Will everyone get my results? Likely not, but it is possible. Also, you might not need 3 transplants like I got........I just like thick hair. It's ALL or NOTHING for me! lol!

There is a test kit that can tell how well you will respond to Propecia. They use a swab of your mouth, send it to a lab, and the results will give you odds that you will respond well to Propecia. I think it was called HairTx or something? I never tried it because I responded well to Propecia, but it's out there!

[Losing_It]

Thanks for the reply guys. My hairline is higher than my other male siblings. However, none of my siblings are showing balding in the crown area, at least those that are in the forties. If they are then its minimal at best and I can't see it with the naked eye. I do know that my right temple area receded beyond what a mature hairline should be. I am on propecia now, so I guess looking at my siblings I might follow there pattern and will be lucky with a receded hairline and I will skip the crown thinning. One can never be sure though with hairloss, anything goes I suppose.

@JustJoe

I am at the stage where I would just like to maintain what I got for as long as possible. I am of the opinion that a receded hairline brings with it a certain sense of maturity in a man. I have seen some older gentlemen with quite receded temples but with strong frontal blocks and I must say they do look good. I am just paranoid that I will be the only man in my family to be bald by the time I am fifty.

Anyways, I took a number 2mm clipper to my head the other day, at least I don't look at myself in the mirror anymore because there is hardly anything to look at. But here is a question for some of the more experienced forumers. Can stress accelerate MPB? Say for example extreme stress can lead to early onset? Cause I have been under severe stress the last two years and considering that up to two years ago I still had hair like a horse.