18 year old suffering from male pattern baldness. Help me fight this battle? :(

[hope101]

Hey everyone,
I just joined the forum so Im just 18. A little on my family background my father has done a hair transplant, he started going bald at around 35 years. He has a brother and sister both with heads of full hair and their children too have heads full of hair.My grandfather is bald but my maternal grandfather has good hair. I have always loved my hair. Recently my front hair has started becoming so thin that at time i can see the scalp .the volume has also decreased but it wasn't like this before. It is very depressing as its affecting my self esteem and confidence and makes me cry at times I feel like ending my life literally :'( No one in my family has suffered with this at such an early age. is it this male pattern baldness if not that what is it? How can i get my hair volume back?
I hope this isn't androgenic alpoceia :'(

Please help me fight this battle
your time is really appreciated thanks

Here are a few pics

http://i61.tinypic.com/ml3408.jpg

http://i60.tinypic.com/24nodbb.jpg

http://i60.tinypic.com/24nodbb.jpg

[Notcoolanymore]

Finasteride

[J_B_Davis]

You have couple of options. See your doctor and ask about Propecia (finasteride) and Rogaine, or cut your hair really short and learn to live with it. It seems like the end of the world at your age, but try not to panic and take your time to learn about your real options.

[chrisrules]

if you don't want to go on hard drugs get yourself some nizoral 2% and use really cold water on your scalp when having a shower, should get the blood flowing to the follicles under attack.

[J_B_Davis]

if you don't want to go on hard drugs get yourself some nizoral 2% and use really cold water on your scalp when having a shower, should get the blood flowing to the follicles under attack.

If he's really concerned about his hair loss he should see a doctor and learn about his options. Blood flow is most likely not his issue.

[Notcoolanymore]

If he's really concerned about his hair loss he should see a doctor and learn about his options. Blood flow is most likely not his issue.

Right.

[Kudu]

Man, all I can say is hang on, you're in for a helluva ride my friend. As a 17 year old, I know how much this sucks. If I were you, don't wait to do something about it. Try to hop on Finasteride and at least maintain your hair for a couple of years. Better things are definitely coming, but it's still gonna be a while. Good luck.

[hope101]

I have visited the doctor and he told me to take Rogaine but after reading about it I don't want to take Rogaine for the rest of my life. If you stop it you lose all your hair so what's the point? And about Propecia that screws with your hormones and can cause erectile dysfunction, I'm so young and wouldn't want any of that to happen either. It's just depressing as no one in my family has gone through this at this age. I'm not even sure if it's androgenic alopecia, I strongly feel it's something else. This might sound weird but I have always had that feeling from within that I would never lose my hair and it's crazy but one always knows what's going on from within and I feel it's something else. But its really depressing and trying to make friends or getting girls is even harder now could you guys share your story if anyone experienced something similar? And what did you guys do?

[rdawg]

I have visited the doctor and he told me to take Rogaine but after reading about it I don't want to take Rogaine for the rest of my life. If you stop it you lose all your hair so what's the point? And about Propecia that screws with your hormones and can cause erectile dysfunction, I'm so young and wouldn't want any of that to happen either. It's just depressing as no one in my family has gone through this at this age. I'm not even sure if it's androgenic alopecia, I strongly feel it's something else. This might sound weird but I have always had that feeling from within that I would never lose my hair and it's crazy but one always knows what's going on from within and I feel it's something else. But its really depressing and trying to make friends or getting girls is even harder now could you guys share your story if anyone experienced something similar? And what did you guys do?

FIN does nothing permanent, if it gives you major sides, just get off of it and it will go away, if it gives you minor sides, those usually go away after a month or so on the drug. FIN is massive in terms of maintaining and healing the hair that is minaturizing on your head. Dont be afraid of it honestly, I havent heard of a bad story about FIN on here in a while, and if they did have sides they would just get off and be fine.

Rogaine is extremely easy to use, and I never lost hair when I stopped using it for days at a time as FIN is what keeps it, although for the first year or so you should definitely be consistent!! Rogaine is just a minor booster.

I started losing my hair at around 18 as well, started very slow at the hairline, and then just massive shed, been like a NW2-3 since 19 and kinda stayed that way when I got on fin, now I'm just a little thinner at almost 23.

[hope101]

FIN does nothing permanent, if it gives you major sides, just get off of it and it will go away, if it gives you minor sides, those usually go away after a month or so on the drug. FIN is massive in terms of maintaining and healing the hair that is minaturizing on your head. Dont be afraid of it honestly, I havent heard of a bad story about FIN on here in a while, and if they did have sides they would just get off and be fine.

Rogaine is extremely easy to use, and I never lost hair when I stopped using it for days at a time as FIN is what keeps it, although for the first year or so you should definitely be consistent!! Rogaine is just a minor booster.

I started losing my hair at around 18 as well, started very slow at the hairline, and then just massive shed, been like a NW2-3 since 19 and kinda stayed that way when I got on fin, now I'm just a little thinner at almost 23.

I have read many horror stories about Propecia and I know people who have applied Rogaine. If you stop using it for a few months everything is pointless again. Why does this happen? I'm taking some biotin capsules as of now. I feel like giving up on life honestly. I'm 18 and have never done anything wrong to damage my hair

[rdawg]

I have read many horror stories about Propecia and I know people who have applied Rogaine. If you stop using it for a few months everything is pointless again. Why does this happen? I'm taking some biotin capsules as of now. I feel like giving up on life honestly. I'm 18 and have never done anything wrong to damage my hair

Any drug has horror stories, even simple things like Advil or Tylenol. some(very few) people just react poorly to drugs and so that really small minority will make alot of fuss online, the vast majority have had no issue with this drug.

Rogaine is a vasillator and simply regrows hair by increasing blood flow to that area of the scalp that you apply, so if you stop doing it the blood flow will decrease and any hair that you grew from that will disappear if you do not have a maintanence drug like FIN to keep it.

[Notcoolanymore]

I have visited the doctor and he told me to take Rogaine but after reading about it I don't want to take Rogaine for the rest of my life. If you stop it you lose all your hair so what's the point? And about Propecia that screws with your hormones and can cause erectile dysfunction, I'm so young and wouldn't want any of that to happen either. It's just depressing as no one in my family has gone through this at this age. I'm not even sure if it's androgenic alopecia, I strongly feel it's something else. This might sound weird but I have always had that feeling from within that I would never lose my hair and it's crazy but one always knows what's going on from within and I feel it's something else. But its really depressing and trying to make friends or getting girls is even harder now could you guys share your story if anyone experienced something similar? And what did you guys do?

Rdawg is speaking the truth. You don't find much of that on these forums unfortunately.

Hope101, it may sound like I am being an a$$hole, but I am really not. All this "I strongly feel it's something else" is just a bunch of denial and BS. You are balding, and if you need to be told that by a doctor, then go see one so that he can tell you the same thing.

"I have always had the feeling from within that I would never lose my hair and it's crazy but one always knows what's going on from within and I feel it's something else." HAHA! Really? Your pics show significant hair loss. When will you be convinced, when you have reached NW6?

Again, not trying to be a jerk, but you really need to wake up and realize what is happening to you. The longer it takes the worse off you will be.

[Illusion]

Get on fin. Yeah it sucks but it's your best shot right now. Besides, You're probably going to maintain what you have right now for a pretty long time if you get on fin and you're probably going to thicken up your hair because it 'reverses' some of the hair that has thinned a bit. It most likely won't give you any regrowth though, but even thickening your hair would be improvement.

You're being delusional about two things btw:
1) "I have always had the feeling from within that I would never lose my hair and it's crazy but one always knows what's going on from within and I feel it's something else." Well, what else could it be? It definitely seems like MPB. I'm sorry man, it's just the way it is.

2) "I have read many horror stories about Propecia". And there you have it. Thanks propeciahelp. Surely there are people who took fin and got very bad, sometimes irreversible sides, but those people are in the far, far minority. I guess a decent amount of people do get light side effects but if you experience those and think they're too uncomfortable to continue treatment, then just quit propecia.

My advice is to get on fin ASAP. Add minoxil if you want, but AT LEAST start with fin. That's really the first approach to treating hair loss. I'm sure many posters here will agree with me.

Better times will come, but not soon. Sometimes, when reading the "cutting edge" section on this forum, I get really excited. But really, most of those things are far away in the future. Though you could start with experimental drugs if you really want to. But that's not advised because you should start with fin and see how that works out for you first. Besides, if you're having a hard time taking fin you probably aren't going to feel comfortable doing an experimental treatment (even though they proably have less sides than fin).