Not sure what is going on.

[Snake126]

Hello everyone,

I am 22 years old. All the men on my moms side of the family had full heads of hair well into old age. My dad, however, is completely bald and lost his hair in his 20's. I have two older brothers, 30 and 28 who are balding, but have a LOT more hair than my father did at their age. All of this started roughly 2 months ago for me. I have never had any hair issues before, but I noticed that my temple areas were receding. I researched this online, and found out that it is pretty normal for men to lose their temples, but I have been extremely paranoid ever since that I am going to lose the rest of my hair. In the last two weeks I have noticed that the hair up front hasn't receded any, but it is thinning out. I can definitely see more of the scalp. During this whole time, I have also noticed that my face has been much more oily, and I have had some acne breakouts because of it. I have had an itchy scalp and dandruff as long as I can remember, but it seems that my scalp has been itching a lot more since all of this started, especially up front. (it may just be in my head). Right now I look fine since I have always parted my hair, but I am getting worried. I recently ordered some saw palmetto and other natural things to try. I want to stay away from procepia unless i have no other option.

I would say my stress level has been a consistent 9 out of 10 the last 4 months. I began a diet roughly around the same time I lost my temples, and have lost roughly 10-12 pounds since then and am getting a lot more exercise now. Also, this may be from all the exercise i have been getting lately or something, but my sex drive has increased considerably in the last few weeks. I take a multivitamin daily (centrum). Also, I don't seem to be shedding more than normal. I have the normal amount of hair in my bathroom (I blow dry my hair), and cannot find any anywhere else in my apartment. None on my pillow, couch, etc. If i run my hand through my hair, even my thinning front, i only come up with 1 or 2 hairs if any. It seems that the hair is just falling out naturally and not growing back there.

Its been roughly 10 years since I have had a physical or any blood work done, but is it possible this is some sort of a deficiency? would a deficiency or thyroid issue cause me to just loose hair up front like I am? I looked up thyroid symptoms, and I definitely have have some serious bowel issues for about 2 or 3 years now and it just so happens it is at its worst this week. I figured I have undiagnosed IBS, but who knows. Depression and panic attacks every so often. I am also pretty tired even after getting a lot of sleep the last 6 months or so. I dont have a demanding job, it just requires standing for long periods of time. Lately I have been having to sit down a lot more often, getting worn out even though I haven't done anything at all. This may be unrelated, but I don't remember having dreams for the last 10 or 15 years, but for the past month I have been having them almost every night, and they are usually not very pleasant (possibly from the stress).

I can take pictures if you guys think i should.

Please help me figure out what is going on

[Erick]

It sounds like a case of male pattern baldness. I know you really want it to be something else and sounds like you want to convince yourself it's something else. The best thing you can do is go to the doctor and ask for a prescription for propecia and then you could go get it at walmart cheaper. The worse thing you can do is ignore it, I wish I had taken propecia long time ago.

[ryan555]

If your hairline and temples are thinning, then there are two things that could be happening:

1) You're seeing the beginning stages of hair loss.
2) Your hairline is maturing.

Forget the stress thing. I don't really believe stress causes hair loss unless you are talking about serious physical stress, such as terminal illness or a traumatic injury. Even then, it falls out all over, not just in the hairline. At your age, there is a very good chance you are just getting a mature hairline, where your hair recedes a little bit in the front and then stops (look at the hairline of a 40-year-old man vs. a teenager, this happens to almost all men). The only way to tell for sure is to see a doctor who can do a miniaturization mapping to find out if you have future loss showing up in your scalp. If that is the case, then try Propecia - the stuff really works.

Ryan