19 years old

[Marktwain]

Hey, I’ve been on the boards for a while, but this is my first actual post.

Background: my family has no real history of MBP on either side. I have eight uncles, some older than 60, and all of them have their hair. My grandfather died youngish in his 40s, and had his hairline had receded, but no vertex balding.

So... I was understandably surprised when I noticed my own hair line had receded. I panicked, and started noticing a lot of hair coming off in my hands in the shower. I have seen a dermatologist, who didn’t say much, and I went to Hair Club for men just to get a scalp microscopy. The people at Hair Club told me I was in the beginning stages of MBP, and recommended minoxidil.

A couple of questions:
I’m 19 years old, so does the fact that I’ve already notice my hairline receding mean that I will surpass my uncles in terms of hair lost? Or could the process slow down?

Right now I’m using minoxidil 5% twice a day. I’ve been doing so for a couple of weeks. In the last couple of days, though, I’ve become really nervous and concerned about reports from people about rapid aging. Is this a common side effect? Are there any steps I can take to avoid it? If I notice the signs and stop taking minox, will the process stop?

I’ve been thinking about taking minox once a day instead of twice to limit possible side effects. I figured this wouldn’t be too bad since I haven’t experienced all that much loss yet. Would this decrease the likelihood of the side effects? And I know it differs case to case, but how much, generally, does this diminish the effectiveness compared to using it twice each day?

Lastly, in case other people my age are looking at this, I just wanted to say not to panic. When I first started noticing this it was pretty much all I could think about. I go to one of the top colleges in the world, have a beautiful girlfriend and great friends, but was pretty much miserable because I was so concerned about hair loss. It became an obsession. I would spend hours on these boards searching for clues, trying, at times, to prove to myself that I wasn't balding, and at other times to have my suspicions confirmed. Finally I realized that the problem wasn't my hair loss, it was my worrying. I decided to take a break from talking about it, researching it and I tried to keep myself distracted. I worked out, went out, and studied. And I felt sooo much better. Looking up cutting edge treatments can give hope, but don't let this keep you from enjoying life. I still get sad or nervous, sometimes, but it's a lot less often. Anyway, any input for the above questions would be great!