I'm 52. I started losing my hair at 16 and there was nothing available to treat it at that time. At about age 20 I was part of an early minoxidil study at NYU and I think it saved my life .I no longer had to collect mounds of hair from my pillow every morning. (Minoxidil was 2% at the time and we were told to apply it twice a day for the first six months, then drop to once a day.) I had great results with Propecia but stopped taking it due to side effects. Now I keep my head shaved but the meds saved my soul.