Where on your scalp did you start noticing baldness?

[Gusto]

For me it was very strange. I was 17 years old at the time, and I had wavy hair. Not a strong wave, but I longed for stick straight hair.

Anyway, I went out and bought a product called TEEDA (or something like that name). It was a liquid hair straightner that would relax the hair once applied to the scalp, a bit like hair dye.

Anyway, this formula was a bit irritating on my head so I washed it out after 30 minutes. The top of my head where the crown is, I remember it being very itchy. So I looked at the top of my head with a mirror. I noticed where the itch was a very small area where hair was missing - about the size of a very small shirt button. Anyway, I had assumed the liquid product had burnt my skin and also made a small bit of hair fall out.

To cut a long story short, I think this was the start of my male pattern baldness. Because from that date and for next 10 years, I went from having thick wavy hair to what I am now, like a billard ball with a bit hair on the back and sides!

Yeah, I know it had nothing to do with the hair product but that's how I first discovered I was balding.

[Fazlaa]

When I had my haircut pretty short in December. Could see the tuft at the front of my head starting to form as my temples were becoming more noticeably receeded. Funnily enough I've always noticed a decent amount hair on my hands when showering since I was about 17 and made jokes about going bald with my friends and I had such a head of hair on me they'd say I was crazy. Luckily for me the only thinning seems to be happening at the hairline/ temples and i still have pretty good density everywhere else. I just hope I caught it in time and can maintain now with fin. Did you take any meds yourself Gusto? Good luck to you man and it's nice to see someone talk about hairloss in such a light hearted way. I think I'm starting to get there myself after months of self pity

[Delphi]

I had no idea that I was balding until my girlfriend at the time pointed it out. She said” I think your going to be bald you should do something about that.” Needless to say we are no longer together, but it hit me very hard and I began to obsessively look at my hair in the mirror and get down about it. People can be so cruel, but it did get me interested in doing some research and that’s how I found this forum. Mine began in the hairline.

[Gusto]

When I had my haircut pretty short in December. Could see the tuft at the front of my head starting to form as my temples were becoming more noticeably receeded. Funnily enough I've always noticed a decent amount hair on my hands when showering since I was about 17 and made jokes about going bald with my friends and I had such a head of hair on me they'd say I was crazy. Luckily for me the only thinning seems to be happening at the hairline/ temples and i still have pretty good density everywhere else. I just hope I caught it in time and can maintain now with fin. Did you take any meds yourself Gusto? Good luck to you man and it's nice to see someone talk about hairloss in such a light hearted way. I think I'm starting to get there myself after months of self pity

No, not on meds, but I have worn a few wigs and toupees in my time. I'm still looking for that definitive hair system!

I never always found it funny. In the mid stages of baldness I hated my hair. Absolutely loathed it. But I think we're at the dawn of something brilliant in hair restoration in today's day and age. Fake hair is getting better and that medical cure might be round the corner.

Thanks for the reply.

[Gusto]

I had no idea that I was balding until my girlfriend at the time pointed it out. She said” I think your going to be bald you should do something about that.” Needless to say we are no longer together, but it hit me very hard and I began to obsessively look at my hair in the mirror and get down about it. People can be so cruel, but it did get me interested in doing some research and that’s how I found this forum. Mine began in the hairline.

Yeah. Lucky I found out before anybody else did and I could keep a check on it and make sure it was covered.

[KeepTheHair]

I found out at the hairline about 3 years ago...slowly back then though.


I thought I would only have problems way later in life. Here I am at 20...now also starting to thin at the back.


eh

[Gusto]

I found out at the hairline about 3 years ago...slowly back then though.


I thought I would only have problems way later in life. Here I am at 20...now also starting to thin at the back.


eh

I see: 17, about the same age as me.

[Fixed by 35]

I probably started losing hair at about 18 or 19 but I only noticed when I was twenty. I never really paid any attention to my hair before then!

Seven years on, I'm at a crossroads not really knowing what to do next. I'd like a transplant, but I'm not convinced I'd be happy with the result or that it would last very long, especially considering the slow creep will probably see me at a Norwood VI by 50. Of course, it could be much earlier than that too.

I just wish it was easier to just give up. I have an unchallenging job I hate, because my baldness stops me getting promoted (see Emmid Institute study to back up the claim) and I've become socially awkward because people treat me differently than they used too. My ambitions to work in politics have been thwarted, because it's an image obsessed profession, and my interest in acting came to a dead end as the only roles I could see myself getting as a tall balding person was an extra for a villain! Will absolutely nothing going for me whatsoever, I do wonder what on earth keeps me going, yet I've somehow been spared the depression and just spend my entire life in a state of irritability and being pissed off with everyone and everything.

[[mcr]]

Started around 18 or 19.

I used to be one of those cool kids with spikey hair. I lost hair around the temples and had to start combing my hair forward to try to hide the hair loss. It was and still is very depressing.

Around 22-23 I started noticing massive shedding all over my head to the point where you could see my scalp. Finasteride gave me back a huge amount of hair and made my hair much thicker.

If I could get hair on a 2" x 1" area around my each of my temples, my hair would look completely normal and I'd be very happy, but I'm not sure how to go about that.

One big false assumption people make is that because my hair loss is significantly less than theirs, it means my "suffering" is significantly less also. It isn't. Hair loss is hair loss. I look at myself in the mirror everyday and wish it wasn't so, with the same passion as you, which is equal to the power of a thousand burning suns.

[Fixed by 35]

You may well think that now, but if you think it feels bad now just you wait until chunks of scalp start showing through! I thought it was bad when it was a bit of recession, now it's like the world is caving in and I've lost all will to spend any time on my appearance at all.

[KeepTheHair]

Yeah....that is what is starting to happen at the back for me now.

The temples loss ruined a good deal of my looks. Now the back is going just to kick me down further. Not only that I think it has started to slightly thin all over on top in a way.


My hair feels awesome since using a new shampoo though, really awesome. My scalp doesn't feel as itchy and there is much less inflammation...or at least I assume so.



Lately though I feel less productive since something is causing me to feel really tired/nauseous.

damned either way

[Fixed by 35]

You're probably just exhausted. You've been through a lot of stress lately, compounded by the fact that like many of us none of your friends or family understands/cares.

I wouldn't be so quick to blame the drugs if I were you.

[KeepTheHair]

Well you correct about that to a certain extent. But I am almost certain it is the the minoxidil. I will continue using it though.

Only once a day until i am side effect free.

[hindsight2020]

I have an unchallenging job I hate, because my baldness stops me getting promoted (see Emmid Institute study to back up the claim) and I've become socially awkward because people treat me differently than they used too. My ambitions to work in politics have been thwarted, because it's an image obsessed profession, and my interest in acting came to a dead end as the only roles I could see myself getting as a tall balding person was an extra for a villain! Will absolutely nothing going for me whatsoever, I do wonder what on earth keeps me going, yet I've somehow been spared the depression and just spend my entire life in a state of irritability and being pissed off with everyone and everything.

Fixed by 35 - you need to take a serious look in the mirror and stop blaming other people for who YOU are today. 'Baldness stopped you from being promoted' is one of the most naive things I've ever read in my life. Take responsibility for what you let your baldness do to you and stop looking for the easy way out with some makeshift study. Don't feed us lines about how politics is an image obbessed profession when most high ranking politicians are, in fact, bald. Also, stop talking about this "Bald people are discriminated against and I have a statistics to back that up..." BULLSH*T!

If you read past all the bullsh*t written in that article (Emmid Instutue Study) and actually do your research instead of only reading what your hoping to read, you would see it was FUNDED by Bosely Medical, who does hairtransplants. OF COURSE they are going to tell you your discriminated against and there is no hope for you but to come in and get a hairtransplant immediately. They don't even talk about the sample size, methodology, ect. IT ISN'T A LEGITIMATE STUDY! IT WAS SPONSORED BY A HUGE HAIRTRANSPLANT COMPANY!!!! Open your mind and consider other options... maybe all those who were studied gave up on life like you seem to be doing... why the hell would you get promoted, you sound like you mope around all day talking about how your discriminated against. You blame everyone else but yourself for who and where you are today. All you want to do is be the victim, you make yourself the victim and no one else. Your statistics about being discrimated against are null and void... it isn't real man. Get it out of your head.

Stop posting as if your opinions are so 'matter of fact' ... I haven't even been here for a week and I can already tell you drag people down with you. I am not trying to be an a**hole, or pick you out... but every post I see from you includes this study you always talk about (which now that I have researched it, thoroughly, is complete bullsh*t) and how your life sucks and everyone who is balding is in the same boat as you. I am really, really sorry you feel that way and I hope nothing but the best for you... but do YOU want the best for you or have you already given up?

Millions of people all over the world deal with life threatening issues daily, kids die before the even see thier 10th birthday from serious illnesses they were born with... they don't get to experience falling in love, driving a car, drinking thier first beer, overcoming a challenging situation and coming out stronger as a result. MILLIONS of people suffer from diabetes... they are FORCED to take medication mutliple times daily, they are limited to what they can eat, they sometimes get so ill they lose a limb, and sometimes thier lives. Car accidents happen every second worldwide... often times resulting in paralyzation or loss of life. Thos people don't get to chose how thier life goes from that point on. You lose your ability to walk and you'll never feel what its like to run through sprinklers again, or jog down the block. You lose your hearing and you'll never wake up to birds chirping, you'll never hear when the microwave is done cooking your easy-mac, you'll never hear voices of those you love ever again. You lose your sight and you can never see the sunset, watch Kelly Slater catch the perfect wave, or see how beautiful your children grow up to be. You are dealing with hairloss. A naturally occuring, male dominated trait that has no effect whatsoever on your lifespan or ability to do and get whatever you want with your life.

[[mcr]]

hindsight2020, allow me to disagree with you.

While Fixed_by_35 isn't exactly a ray of sunshine, I completely understand how he feel. Moreover, he is entitled to feeling angry and depressed because he is facing a condition with far-reaching psychological effects.

While he seem to go overboard in his opinions, I cannot condemn them. Who am I to tell him how angry he should be, or to get over it? In fact I encourage him to let it all out, vent and rage, and I am glad he has found that outlet here. Otherwise he seems like he is two steps from killing himself. I do agree however that taking it out on other people is unacceptable.

It is a fact that baldness does make one look older and less attractive, and in today's image-obssessed society, you really feel ostracized because of hair loss. Pop culture does contribute to perpetuating the idea that bald people are 'not winners'.

To see how important looks have become, look at the top of the ladder. Male models make up to $20k+ a day just for looking good. Open any men's magazine like GQ. You likely won't see any balding models in the ads.

It is true that there are people out there facing life-threatening conditions, but I am not sure the comparison is valid here. Those conditions actually inspire sympathy in people and make them want to gather around you and help you, whereas with hairloss you feel there is a silent conspiracy to exclude you. You feel ostracized and rejected by others. It's a very bad feeling. One of the worst actually. While this is GREATLY exaggerated in bald people's mind, it is not completely imaginary. There is an element of truth to it.

It takes a great deal of fortitude to break free of 'hair tyranny.' I glad you were able to do it, and hope we can all do the same one day.