24 and pretty much already bald.

[cdub]

I am 24 pretty much already bald.

Attached are a few photos. It should be fairly obvious which one is which. The one with more hair is me 3 years ago. Right now my hair is really long, if I cut it it'll be significantly worse.

I don't really know what to do. I tried a few shampoos and topical sprays recently, but I don't really have faith that anything will happen after spending all that money. Even on this forum, is something like this normal?

I don't know what happened. I may not work out, but I'm not overweight and my diet is fairly decent. My dad is in his 40's with all of my hair, and his dad's dad (now in his 90's and still going) has more hair than he does somehow.

I may try to see the doctor soon in case it is a sign of something really bad, but I just wanted to hear from some other people first.

[Diffuse33]

Hello, you may have inherited the MPB gene from your Mother's side. Sometimes some males have no significant balding on both sides of the family and still lose their hair, as long as you are male it can happen. When you say is something like this normal, do you mean your balding? If so then yes, many males begin to lose their hair at 24 (including my own father), and your hair lose follows a very common pattern. TBH, the only things that will improve your hair situation is Finasteride & Minxoidil, are you aware of these treatments? All the best.

[cdub]

Hello, you may have inherited the MPB gene from your Mother's side. Sometimes some males have no significant balding on both sides of the family and still lose their hair, as long as you are male it can happen. When you say is something like this normal, do you mean your balding? If so then yes, many males begin to lose their hair at 24 (including my own father), and your hair lose follows a very common pattern. TBH, the only things that will improve your hair situation is Finasteride & Minxoidil, are you aware of these treatments? All the best.

By normal I mean is it normally that fast?

I have heard of Finasteride, but that seems like a nuclear option.

I've read some studies that include minxoidil, but does it actually reverse MPB or just stop/slow it? Some other threads on here also scare me a bit with permanent effects.

[Diffuse33]

Hello, within 3 years to go from a full head of hair to where you are now isn't particularly unusual, it can happen in a few months for some guys. Min reverses MPB in a sense that it stimulates dormant follicles and also to some extent reverses miniaturisation with continued use. The science behind it all isn't really understood. Without finasteride some users of min seem to struggle to hold on to the newly grown hair, whereas some maintain and have regrowth lasting years and years, I think it depends on what kind of balding you have and how aggressive it is. Ultimately, the best chance you have of keeping your hair is constant use of fin and min combined.

[cdub]

From Changes in hair weight and hair count in
men with androgenetic alopecia, after
application of 5% and 2% topical minoxidil,
placebo, or no treatment:

"By 24 weeks after treatment had
been stopped, the weight and number counts of the
treated groups decreased to become similar to those
of the placebo and untreated groups, showing the
growth offset produced by topical minoxidil. This
loss of treatment-stimulated hair growth is expected
since treatment does not alter the underlying genet-
ic predisposition for androgenetic alopecia."

That kind of sucks. Thanks for your help though. I'll have to think about it.

[pajason]

From Changes in hair weight and hair count in
men with androgenetic alopecia, after
application of 5% and 2% topical minoxidil,
placebo, or no treatment:

"By 24 weeks after treatment had
been stopped, the weight and number counts of the
treated groups decreased to become similar to those
of the placebo and untreated groups, showing the
growth offset produced by topical minoxidil. This
loss of treatment-stimulated hair growth is expected
since treatment does not alter the underlying genet-
ic predisposition for androgenetic alopecia."

That kind of sucks. Thanks for your help though. I'll have to think about it.

Minoxidil is a waste of time and money for most people, if it helps it will only be a small amount and typically it won't help for a long period of time. Propecia is your best bet. You might get some growth, give it 1 year and see where you are. With your light hair you might be best going with a crew cut. It might make it appear that you have a little more than you do, Plus your going to end up completely bald if your not on propecia.

[clee984]

Yeah, I'd get on propecia while you can mate.

[Diffuse33]

I agree with @clee984, unless you're already 100 percent okay with going bald, then I'd jump on fin or min asap. Both treatments have draw backs, but I'd make your own mind up as to whether they're right for you by experiencing them first hand, rather than putting too much emphasis on other people's experience.