Balding runs in family help!

[Medicfuh99]

Hi everyone. I am 21 years old. The last few months I have been noticing massive thinning and balding on my crown and back of head that I’ve never had, I started nizoral shampoo but don’t know what else I should do and if I should start something ASAP to grow back and preserve my hair long term! Help please

[Dekka]

Get on minoxidil once daily immediately. It's indicated for use on the vertex which is the exact spot where it looks like your hair might be thinning.

Take minox for a year and wait it out. Take pictures with same exact lighting and no flash every month so you have a timeline. After a year if it's thinner then it's time for finasteride.

Since 25 or even now with your current thickness is still very early I would suggest taking a much smaller dose of 1/4 or 1/8mg daily. For me I take .05mg daily right now + minox once daily. No symptoms at all. Extremely small and it works.

Everyone's body chemistry is different so every man will have a lowest therapeutic dose. Mine is somewhere between .05 to .10mg. My and others experience is that 1mg daily is overkill and hard for a good chunk of men to take. Here's the study supporting micro-doses of finasteride: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10495374

My brother is bald (not on fin or minox) and my hair is thick. Temple recession very slightly, but it's still a NW 1.5.

As an interesting note. My grandfathers both had full heads of hair well into their 60s and 70s. My father, full head of hair at 71 with expected thinness of age, but still full nonetheless.

My 3 male cousins from my fathers brother and his 3 sons--all full heads of hair. And yet somehow me and my brother both diffuse thinners. So the recessive or dominant genetic component can skip generations. I've not looked up studies of 1 brother being bald and the other having no balding. I'm sure it exists but it wasn't relevant to my situation.

If i hadn't started 5 years ago when i was 25, I'd be obviously thin on top of my head with some aggressive temple recession, hairline wasn't affected till my brother hit 31 - 33.

GL, wait it out, be patient and keep a photo album/journal on this as it's extremely difficult to objectively tell whether your hair is thicker or thinner-- especially when we're worried that it might be thinning.