My story (long and detailed) and what should I do now.

[skychief]

Very nice to find this forum.
I am a 34 year old male and here is my story. Sorry for being so long but its nice to let this all out.

I first started noticing my thinning hair in 1999 when I was 20 years old after I shaved my head. Prior to shaving I had thick dark brown hair and noticed once i shaved it, everywhere on top of my head other than my frontal hair line was much lighter in density.

After a few months of my hair growing back after the shave it didn't seem like a problem as my hair is thick. All of a sudden a few months later I noticed my hair and scalp were extremely oily and I started shedding hair at a high rate in the middle of my head. At the time I was a gym rat who kept in good shape. I was also taking a ripp fuel supplement to burn more fat and become lean. At this point for a good year or so clumps of hair where all over my hands every time I was in the shower shampooing. I lost a good amount if hair in the middle/front part of my head during this time. I immediately got off the supplements and figured this was the cause of my hair loss.

At this point I was 22 years old and was devastated. From 22 year old and on I was constantly trying new hair styles and methods to cover up my thinning hair. I was extremely depressed and even lost the motivation to work out. I would literally cry myself to sleep many nights. Every morning I would spend a good 30min styling my hair to cover up. I would avoid swimming has wet hair really showed the true thinning of my hair.

Eventually I mastered a hair style which would cover it up and I became a bit more confident with my situation. As earlier mentioned in this post I was lucky my frontal hair line was thick and I would brush my middle hair forward, and brush my frontal hair upward which covered the middle of my head balding. My hair looked nice and thick but It was just a cover up. I met my gf around this time and would not let her brush her hands through my hair as I was terrified of her finding out my hair was really not what it was. I was terrified of anyone coming near my head, including my barber, and have been cutting my hair ever since. I cant believe I was able to hide this from my gf for so long.

I always thought about using rogaine or propecia but was terrified by the side effects. And to be quite frank I could not afford the monthly cost of using them. At this point my hairstyling cover up methods was buying me time through my mid twenties. Then around 2009 my front hairline which was full throughout this whole depressing ordeal started to thin in the middle. I was basically losing my frontal cover up and people could begin to really see my middle scalp which was actually thinning for years. At this point the same gf I have been with since 10 ears ago started really noticing it and told me I am balding. If she only knew I was balding long time ago! Luckily she is a great person and loves me to death. We are actually got engaged last year and will be getting married this May. The past year or so my frontal hair has been thinning and its obvious im balding now.

All those years covering up and now I have to deal with a wedding where I want to look my best and know my hair looks worse than ever as my frontal coverage is drastically disappearing as well now. I feel like I should of done something about my hair loss long time ago and was just happy to cover it up well. However I am losing my cover up hair now I am so devastated, especially with having a formal big style type wedding coming up. I am even trying stuff like hair cubed and micro fibers to cover it up but that stuff sucks and makes my hair look foolish. I just want this wedding to be over with so I can possibly proceed with a hair transplant on this point what should I do im beyond depressed and have serious anxiety.

[ravegrover]

Like you wrote, your GF of 10 years does'nt care about your hairloss. She accepts you the way you are. That is your answer, friend! She is the only one who matters.

Get a short haircut. Don't try to cover-up or use concealers. Enjoy your big day as a confident young man.

[skychief]

Like you wrote, your GF of 10 years does'nt care about your hairloss. She accepts you the way you are. That is your answer, friend! She is the only one who matters.

Get a short haircut. Don't try to cover-up or use concealers. Enjoy your big day as a confident young man.

Atleast I think she will accept me for whom I am. She is has been always very caring and loving to me. She is such a good person. But she recently made a comment which hurt my feelings saying she does not want me to lose my hair and does not really like bald guys and prefers hair (i mean what women doesn't right?). I mentioned taking propecia but she said the possible side effects are not worth it. I then mentioned a hair transplant and she agreed that I should look into it further