NW 3 hairline thinning at 16

[JesseHeisenberg47]

Hi, this is my first post on this forum. I am 16 years old and have a badly receding hairline (NW3), and thinning on the hairline. I believe this partly to be due to early puberty as well. It started at around 12, and accelerated at 13/14, but I don't know if there's been a lot of change since, however I am unsure whether I had the thinning as I didn't realise at the time. My father has been NW7 since his late 20s early 30s, but that was more due to TE than MPB. I hate the thought of becoming bald at a young age, and acceptance is not an option, as I would sooner invest in a system if it came to it. I plan on hopefully starting regaine and nizoral in the near future. At the moment the hair loss doesn't affect my hairstyle and is easily covered. It is difficult to tell I'm losing hair without pulling my hair back (I get no comments thankfully). What I wanted to ask was:
1.) Could I stall propecia until 18 and would it be effective enough to keep me from the higher nw scales?
2.) Could regaine be effective for me?
3.) Do I have a good chance (with treatments and possible hair transplants in the distant future) of keeping a bit of hair?
4.) Approximately how many years are we from a cure?
I understand these questions might be hard to answer but any guess would be appreciated. Many thanks.

[fred970]

Oh god that's harsh! You have all my sympathy man.

1) If you think you can take it, start taking finasteride when you turn 18, you might still benefit from it.
2) You should start minoxidil right away.
3) With the help of the meds, you might be a candidate.
4) It depends how you define a cure. New treatments that could help potential NW7 like you? Realistically, I'd say 6-8 years.

A full-blown cure from something like gene therapy? I'd say 60-80 years.

[JesseHeisenberg47]

Yeah it's been tough, but it's only noticeable like that. Would you agree I have hope? And is there a definite chance I can avoid NW 4+?

[fred970]

There's always hope!

Take your treatments religiously, search information about hair transplants or even SMP smartly, don't fall in the trap of snake oils, and you should be fine.

Hope is the most important thing when it comes to hair loss. I wish I knew I would be able to have a hair transplant someday when I was 19 and severely depressed because I was told "there was nothing I could do about it"

Here's the topic about my recent FUE hair transplant: http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthread.php?t=16218

I did not start as early (only at 17, that's weird to say) as you and I don't know how my hair transplant will turn out, but it might give you some hope and perspective.

[JesseHeisenberg47]

Also would propecia do well at all at maintaining my hair, or is there nothing really that can help me that's out atm?

[somethingsomething]

Also would propecia do well at all at maintaining my hair, or is there nothing really that can help me that's out atm?

I started loosing my hair really early aswell. At the age of 15 was when I noticed it. Just like you I didn't know it before my hairline had receded back. Just a bit but it had still receeded.

I stated using rogaine at age 16 with much, but still thin hairs.
The rogaine did wounder to me and I used it until I was 17. At this stage my scalp started to itch as HELL. Went off the rogaine and lost alot of hair.
This was when I noticed propecia and went to see my doctor. As my age was not 18 yet she was not allowed to give me propecia (which is understandable as it f*cks arond with hormones as I understand it.)

The worst part about this was that my female doctor just told me to shake it off and move on. No sympathy from no one except my mom.

Slowly lost more hair until I was 19, went on a hairtransplant and started using propecia.

The thing for me is that my hair is really thin. Which actually looks pretty decent if I buzz it.

I feel for you kid. No one should go through what we do, especially at such a delicate age.

Anyone that would comment it in a mean manner to me today (as 21 years old), is simply to laugh at them look them up and down and calmly explain to them that hairloss was a wake up for me. That I really take care of what I can with my apperance.

Hitting the gym will give you more selfesteem if you ask me. Aswell as a buzzed head with a big and shredded body actually looks really good.

Really long post and what I'm telling you is.

1. Do not care what other people say. Do what you want. If you want to get a hairsystem don't be worried what other people think about you comming to school with a full head of hair. It is your life and it's too short for you to go around worrying. This fixed itself with age and self esteem for me

2. There is people that is and have gone through what you feel. You are not alone and many at this forum know the extreme ups and downs of being a youth with hairloss.

3. My hairloss would probably not have been a problem at all if I got my propecia when I noticed hairloss. But in many ways life is a b*tch and we just got to keep your chin up and be a warrior.

[JesseHeisenberg47]

Thank you very much for the comments. So with medication and hair transplants, will I be able to keep my hair?

[JesseHeisenberg47]

BTW I'm sorry for not making this clear, but most of the time I do look like I have a full head of hair (or at most nw2, but mostly nw1 ).

[Notcoolanymore]

First of all I just want to say sorry. I often complain about losing hair in my early 20's, but damn 16!!! I would get on minoxidil ASAP. It is also worth trying propecia when your doctor approves. As far as treatment options go, that is pretty much it. Who know what the future holds when it comes to treatments, but I am not holding my breath. We will see.

You are a magician when it comes to disguising your hair loss.

[JesseHeisenberg47]

Thanks, tbh I don't really want too much sympathy at this point, it's hit early, I know I have it, and I'm just determined to keep a bit of hair for later on in life. I'm not sure whether I can get propecia or not. I went to see 2 doctors 18 months ago, but as in England you get told "there's nothing you can do about it". One of them who I knew for a long time just said casually "Yep you're going to be bald when you're older". That got to me initially but then I researched finasteride and minoxidil, and ironically, 6 months from that appointment, my local pharmacy started selling online finasteride that you can pick up in the local pharmacy. I also think that finasteride could potentially work well for me, not necessarily regrowth on the front, but preventing further hair loss on the front and more importantly, keeping the hair on my midscalp, as that is quite thick at the moment and is how I don't even need to try and cover up my hair loss yet. The key for me is to try and avoid the higher norwoods for hopefully a decade, which is tough, but I have faith propecia could prevent me losing more, or at least not be nw7 by early 20s.