Balding guys: When did you first realize you were losing your hair?

True, every falling follicle is a needle dropping like raindrops slowly fizzling away the remnant embers of dreary old life rendering them unto cold ashes, a death of self esteem by a thousand pricks.

27, I noticed in the mirror I had spots of my head showing.

By 35 I'd given up the charade and shaved it all. That was over 20 years ago. What's the point?

You guys are lucky, I started balding at 18 yo.

At 23 I had to shave it all.

Lucky enough I have a facial shape that goes fairly well with no hair, but still it doesn't compare.

It boggles my mind that finasteride has been around for 40 years and men are still going bald.

To quote Rob Lowe, the poster boy for middle aged hairlines:

""And there’s a pill! The first glimmer that a single hair of mine was going to fall out, I was having that stuff mainlined into my veins. And that’s what I did for the next 30 years,"" he explained, suggesting he started seeing signs of hair loss around 25 years of age - a fairly typical age for Male Pattern Baldness to develop."

The majority of middle aged men who have good hairlines - especially in the public eye - are on finasteride. If you have a hair transplant, the first thing they tell you to do is take it (so all those guys are on it, too).

Sean O'Pry (highest paid male model in the world, with an immaculate hairline) started at 27, and has said agents get their guys on the stuff the second they see a mere suggestion of hairloss.

And many old men, too. They're on it for their prostate. So there's this bizarre series of events where 40 somethings don't take it, lose a load of hair, only to start taking it at 60, by which time it's too late.

I started losing mine at ago 25 and shaved it off at age 35. I’m 49 with an awesome, hot wife because of my sparkling personality, work ethic, and sense of humor, not my hairline. I wouldn’t take any drug over ann extended period of time for any reason, other than if it was keeping me alive.

Work on the things under your control. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

And what about increased prostste cancer risk?

I'm happy for you, and you're right - there's a lot more to life than hair. I didn't suggest otherwise.

But hairloss is a source of mental distress for a lot of people, and there's a very easy fix.

Mine started at about 21. I had a birds nest of messy curly hair and really did not mind losing it. Of course, if I were a kid today, I would be totally cool as my hair was perfect for growing out into the ice cream cone/cabbage styles that all the kids have now. But back in the early 1990s, all the cool hairstyles required straight hair. But if you are going to lose your hair, do it early. My wife has only known me as a bald guy. Lose it after getting married and you risk buyer's remorse.

I used to tease my dad, telling him to wear a hat because the reflection from his head was blinding. Fast forward 20 years, I’ve become his clone.

first signs during college. Came out of shower after a run and saw way more of my scalp than usual. The enemy was already well on its way by then.

Last year @ 62. 😬

It's been thinning since my early forties, developing to a small bald patch in fifties, but a still widening bald patch in my sixties. I can't see it myself in a mirror, so am surprised when I see photos of the back/top of my head.

I'm 63 and over the last year I can see I'm thinning out at the front. The classic receding hairline. My hair is still not gray though. Oh well, I had a good run. I expect within a couple years I'll start cutting it very short, as close to shaving without actually shaving. What a hassle trying to keep your head shaved.

I think it came out in 1990 as "Propecia" created by Merck initially for BPH. Several years later Merck re-introduced as a treatment for male pattern baldness & received FDA approval as a hair loss drug but at a much lower dose than used for BPH So, yeah, it's been around for over 30 yrs.

There's a plethora of studies showing efficacy & safety of this drug. Japan even did a study using a microdose of finasteride (.2 mg daily) resulting in good results in stabilization & regrowth (and extremely low side-effect profile).

Some celebrities use this drug, Trumpster even uses it:

.

estenove.com

Celebrities Who Take Finasteride - Estenove

Onur

Celebrities Who Take Finasteride Finasteride/Proscar is used alone or in combination with another medication to treat enlargement of the

Link:www.estenove.com/en/celebrities/celebr...

So, why would anyone want to go bald when there's a safe & effective treatment available?

It's inconclusive. Some studies say it increases the risk because it masks the symptoms of prostate cancer but others say it decreases the overall risk of it actually developing.

All the data on those studies basically showed an overall risk reduction in prostate cancer but a slightly higher risk of higher-grade prostate cancer for those that went onto cancer. But these BPH patients were using a higher dose that's prescribe for that particular condition.

Finasteride is not dose-dependent & smaller doses can suppress serum & scalp DHT nearly as good as the standard FDA-approved 1 mg a day dose.

The hair loss docs from Australia start their patients on 1 mg 3x week & have seen good results in over 20 yrs of experience with the medication:

The Japanese study from 2004 used .2 mg daily & saw comparable results with the higher 1 mg a day dose. In fact, Japan makes a .2 mg tablet for the treatment of androgenic alopecia:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Finasteride in the treatment of Japanese men with male pattern hair loss - PubMed

Finasteride is a type 2 5 alpha-reductase inhibitor that inhibits conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, a key mediator of male pattern hair loss (androgenetic alopecia). The objective of this study was to identif...

Link:pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15319158/

when I was going through chemo and radiation treatments

When I was 22. I was on my way home from a job interview in St. Louis that hadn't gone well and my parents were picking me up at Sea-Tac International Airport. I was seated in the front passenger seat and my mom was in the back seat. About 5 minutes into the drive home, my mom suddenly says something to the effect of, "I'm not sure if it's the lighting, but it looks like you're going thin at the back of your head...". I remember suddenly feeling a pit in my stomach. My dad has a full head of hair so hair loss was never something I had even considered before. I was a VERY vain young man who was into lifting weights and sort of had a "looks, money, status" mentality so this made for a very anxious drive for the next 30-40 minutes.

When we got back to my parents' house, I ran, yes, ran up the stairs to a bathroom where I could take a hand mirror and investigate what was happening in the larger bathroom mirror. I was met with a sight I would grow to hate and be insecure over for the next 4 years. Unmistakablely at my crown was a thin patch. I had no idea this was happening and was wondering how long ago this had started.

At the risk of a dear diary, I did what a lot of balding men do. I entered a legitimate... depressive funk... for about a month. Then I was in denial for a while until it became apparent it was getting worse and then it became a massive insecurity. I hated having people seated behind me and as it got worse, I would die a little inside when people's eyes drifted up to it when I was with them. Again, I was very vain, so I was not taking this well. Also, the guys I used to hang with at the time were all too happy to see me taken down a peg by going bald.

I think a big benefit to losing my hair was that it successfully killed the vain and superficial part of me. For the first time, I was faced with a situation that was outside of my control which rendered me subject to a certain level of prejudice from a sizeable portion of the population. I was not going to take finasteride, use minoxidil, or get a hair transplant. It truly was my first age related change that came with baggage.

At around 26, I was getting my haircut and I told my barber to shave it all down one day. He tried to talk me out of it, but I insisted. He refused to go lower than a #1 guard which annoyed me, but I accepted so he'd get on with it. I went home and then shaved it down even further. I remember the reaction being pretty interesting. For older people, think the baby boomer generation, like my parents, there definitely seemed to be this impression that a completely shaved head was atypical and sort of a social outsiders look. Think about how many older guys you see whose hair is completely gone yet they still style what's left like a guy who has a full heads of hair does. My parents were very ambivalent about it at first but I didn't care, I hated my hair and was glad it was gone.

For younger people my age, it was definitely received well. I remember walking around my office the next day and seeing people's reactions. It was funny... People who had seen me before would just stop and stare at me in silence, not in a creepy or judgemental way, but with obvious surprise and curiosity. Again, the vain part of me died sometime shortly after losing my hair, but I do think I look better bald... I have an athletic build, good shaped head, Mediterranean complexion, and very chiseled facial features with good dark facial stubble. I remember distinctly walking down the hall and a few women at different points just eyeing me with a slight smile on their faces. One even said when it came up during a meeting later that week, "you look SO different" It was a complete 180 for me and I kicked myself for not having shaved it off sooner.

For anyone who thinks I'm making too much out of this, take note that this was how other people at my office reacted to the young guy whose ugly, balding hair must have looked bad shaving his head and not being perceived as ugly because I was balding but looking better as a bald man. Everyone else made a fuss over it, not me. So powerful is the contrarian outcome in our world that it totally throws people for a loop. I had 'friends' in college who delighted when I began losing my hair in part because it was supposed to be the end of me cosmetically. Bald men are SUPPOSED to be ugly and unattractive, right?

Being the fit, accepting bald guy is a much better energy than the insecure balding guy. Sorry for the novel, I've never written about this so I guess I had more to say about it than I thought.