Balding Younger?

[Fixed by 35]

Just a straw poll study I thought I'd run out of idle curiousity. Does the bald gene get worse with every generation and are we going bald at a progressively younger age?

Both my grandfathers began losing hair in their 50s but it was rapid and one was a Norwood V before he died, the other is now a Norwood VII (possibly now with DUPA - but he didn't begin losing hair until his late 50s).

Only one of my great grandparents ever lost their hair, in their 30s, and became a Norwood VII.

My father and his brother both began to lose hair in their early 20s, about age 24 for my dad I think. This occurred very slowly he was still Norwood 3a at 40. He's now a Norwood V going on VI, his brother is a VI.

I began losing hair, presumably, at 19 and it became noticeable at 20 (I really didn't notice until it was starkly obvious). At 27, I'm a Norwood 4 with thinning progressing to Norwood 4, the worst case of baldness I think my family has ever seen.

I can't help thinking then that the genetic defect gets worse every generation (hence my thread don't have children - I don't want a bald 15 year old son!)

[mattj]

My Grandfather began losing his hair very young. I have an old photo where he's no older than 16, perhaps several years younger than that, and he was about a NW3. He progressed to a NW6 or thereabouts (always had a strip of hair over the top of the head). No one else in my family since then has lost hair so young or, as far as I know, progressed as far. Thankfully I don't have exact copies of his genes.

[Weedwacker]

I have read books by eminent geneticists such as Bryan Sykes and as far as I know, it takes hundreds or thousands of years for a genetic mutation to occur. Perhaps there are environmental causative factors involved in premature baldness, but I don't know. I don't think there has been enough research to know if guys are balding at a younger age;furthermore, no one has kept records of hairloss patterns or garnered statistics on the phenomenon. Male pattern baldness is generally under-researched and misunderstood.

I once had an Indian guy(who was a neighbor) ask me how I lost my hair; he thought I just shaved it for style. I explained to him that I genetically lost my hair when I was 17, and he was perplexed and sympathetic. It amazes me how many people have not a clue what male pattern baldness even is. They think it is either a corollary of chemo-therapy or some other anomalous thing. People are so ****ing ignorant, it's scary.

[mlao]

Just a thought, it seems teenagers both men and women seem to be going thru puberty earlier.