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Hair loss open discussion
Experiences, past or present? Age, medical, genetic, no reason? Anything worked for you or a waste of time / money ? What works, what doesnt, or just acceptance?
Intended for open discussion for everyone interested
I'll be 42 soon and it's just really started to become more noticeable for me. My hairline has clearly receded and according to my wife, I have a vague baldspot on the top of my head. This is genetic for me, as my dad was sporting the Picard by his 30's (and supposedly lost most of it by 18ish), but my hairline is clearly very similar to my maternal grandfather. I still have a good amount of hair, but again, it's most clearly on my forehead where I'm losing it.
As for how I feel? Eh...I'm not sure, really. My wife isn't going to divorce me over it and I can't really shave my head because I have lots of weird moles and like some sort of blood vessel that pokes out (I can feel it, but it's a blood vessel according to the dermatologist and would require surgery to fix) and I haven't bothered to take or do any medication for it. I'm sort of...mixed feelings, I guess.
I feel that losing my hair is the last vestiges of my youth leaving me and there's some anxiety about trying to hold on to that. At the same time, I feel like it's kind of beautiful in a way, if that makes sense? I'll have the hairline that my grandfather had and in someway, it makes me feel closer to him; something I've inhaireted from a long genetic line and it feels sort of callous to try and reverse that process. I've always been in to the idea of aging gracefully and even if I won't necessarily be handsome anymore, I'm also not trying to impress anyone and never have been.
I appreciate you
Chocobean's case
I've always had jet black, extra thick, shiny wavy hair. I've donated good lengths a few times. My stylists would mention how healthy my hair was, with no split ends. I've only coloured my hair twice; I didn't bleach first either times so I gave up after that -- black just doesn't take on colour. Having too much hair was most of my life's concern, except for a number of teenage years when it was FRISSY; then it settled down for a long time as merely wavy and much more manageable.
Now, my hair doesn't feel thick at all, and I'm low key terrified by how many strands I'm losing throughout the day. It was such a slow progression I didn't notice until I saw a much younger person walk by with hair like I used to have: the contrast was so great I couldn't not see it.
Should I make dietary changes? Try fancy shampoos? Or just shrug and learn to grow bangs? Give up and buy a good wig?
Hair loss has a number of causes, so it’ll depend on what’s causing yours. Hereditary, age, menopause, stress, malnutrition, etc. Identifying the root cause for your situation is the first step, which likely involves a doctor if it’s not obvious.
I noticed increased shedding from chronic stress and very poor sleep when my kids were very young, which cleared up when everyone could finally sleep through the night on a regular basis.
As far as I’m concerned this is a medically solved problem. That is, as long as you address it quickly enough. The two most common drugs, applied topically every day, have almost entirely reversed my hair loss that had progressed to the point where no amount of combing could address it. I’m using minoxidil and finasteride in a combo tincture I apply to my front and center scalp areas once per day. My hair loss is hereditary. My dad had lost about half of his hair by my age.
Things to keep in mind:
Hmmm I am woman with a cat, but at no risk of becoming pregnant. Wonder if just minoxidil alone would work as well. Glad to hear you found something that works -- these doesn't sound crazy expensive.
They’re both generic.
Ah, if you're looking into prescription medication, it might be worth speaking with a physician/hair loss clinic? There might be an underlying cause which is more easily addressed, e.g. low iron, tight hairstyles, etc. Minoxidil (and finasteride, for anyone looking to address male pattern baldness) is pretty well tolerated afaik, but taking an iron supplement is waaaaay less costly (and stands less of a chance of side effects).
It depends entirely on your response to it. I don't respond to minoxodil whatsoever. Finasteride is slightly better for me, but lots of people don't really respond to it either. Unfortunately they're the best we have, but they're not a panacea.
Sadly the alternative would be $10-15k for a hair transplant.
...i've taken finesteride orally since my fourties, started oral minoxidil a couple of years ago, too: wouldn't risk topical application around our cats...
...my hairline receded a bit in my twenties and thirties and late medication didn't remediate that, but i started soon after my hair had thinned enough for my scalp to burn, and medication arrested the thinning...
I worry about oral because minoxidil can cause hair growth all over and finasteride can cause... blood in your semen. I assume targeted application helps with both.
I had clear hair loss happening by 19. I tried making some hair styles work for a while but eventually just decided to take clippers to the lot of it.
No regrets. I think I can pull off the look just fine as long as I keep it very short.
My hair is fine but I’m of the age when many/most of my friends are losing hair. Shaving it off seems like a great option, and it’s what pretty much all of my friends in that situation have done. One friend of mine shaved and got tattoos that simulate hair follicles and it’s actually indistinguishable. Personally, I’m going to just shave and accept it if/when it comes.
My hair thinned out not so much post puberty but like post college ish. I definitely caused some of it with tight ponytails but I went from really thick hair as a kid to much thinner hair and my very pale scalp was very visible.
Went shorter and shorter with my hair and shaved my head about 8 years ago (edit. Around age 33) and I love it. It stands out as more queer on a femme person and when I can keep up with it it's perfect. When I'm struggling with stress and mental health I do a worse job of caring for myself and not shaving my head is the first and "safest" thing to let slide. I may treat myself to a Great Clips cut to start over this weekend though....wonder if there's a super bowl sale on hair cuts 🤔
I think my hair is healthier now, but it's still thinner than I want. I'm not balding but i feel like I have closer to old lady hair if I let it grow out and I don't want that. So shaving it is. I recommend a skull shaver for folks that want to try, but clippers do a decent job with a bit more fuzz
Oh, wear sunscreen. And/or hats or whatever during the day. Don't get skin cancer.
I started balding at around 23 or so, and I'm in my early 40s now. By the time I was about 33, my hairline had receded so much that I was shaving my head. I went through a lot of personal stuff that started making me self conscious of it in a way that I wasn't really before so I started trying to actually solve it. Finasteride, caffeine and minoxidil topically 2x a day. It sooooorta worked? Not really noticeably though. In the end, I got a hair transplant when I was 37, and it's one of the best decisions I ever made.
You can't tell I was ever losing my hair unless you look at some thin areas very closely, and I don't ever really think about it anymore. I never really thought of myself as a bald guy, so it was always jarring looking in the mirror after I started shaving my head. I just didn't have the build or skull shape to pull it off. It kinda reminded me of the Matrix, when in the real world, Neo is bald, but when he's in the matrix his residual self image is of him with a full head of hair. Even after years of shaving my head, I still felt like that. Having a hair again has helped me feel like "me" a lot more, of that makes sense.
I chose to start shaving my head during the pandemic and haven't stopped since. It takes only a few minutes twice a week and is actually quite a relaxing part of the shower routine.
I appreciate that due to social norms, this might be less viable for women.
And yet it's amazing
i started noticing some hairloss at 26 or 28 or something, 2019 i think, at like 30 if that year is correct, i started taking finasteride and it halted and MAYBE THE TINIEST BIT reversed my hairloss
idk about sideffects cause around that time i started taking anti psychotics as well
i dont even care about my hair now at 37 really, maybe i should stop taking the fin, my hair is buzzed shorter then a millimeter right now, although i do like that i have shadow all over and not a bald spot in the middle, but i dont even grow my hair out any more like i did when i started taking the fin
My dad went bald in his early twenties. I went bald in my late twenties. I never stressed about it because I could see it coming from a mile away.
(There was an awkward period where I was bald-ing but not yet bald, where my pre-balding hair style very gradually morphed into a combover. These days I get my hair cut short, but making that transition felt awkward, and I probably should have done it earlier than I did.)
I do have extremely bodacious facial hair, which as a cis man more than makes up for any self-image issues my baldness could otherwise cause. =)
I'll second @DefinitelyNotAFae's note about sunscreen or a hat. I wear a hat outdoors religiously. Cancer risk aside, sunburning your scalp is no fun at all.
I had some temporary hairloss in late 2024/early 2025 with a condition called alopecia areata. I learned that alopecia isn't one condition, but this specific type of alopecia is actually split into 3 variants. There's alopecia totalis, which most people would imagine when they hear the word alopecia. It is total hair loss on the scalp. There's then alopecia areata where you lose hair in small areas (or patches) on your head. Finally, there's alopecia universalis where you lose hair all over your body. I only had the mild alopecia areata.
When I first noticed it, I immediately felt dread and immediately understood the plight of all the balding characters I've seen in movies and TV shows and felt bad for laughing at them. I also immediately felt self-conscious, constantly trying to hide my bald patches. This was made worse by the fact that I noticed these bald patches the night before a 2-week long trip (in December!). After I got back, I scheduled an appointment at a local dermatologist after the new years and they confirmed it to be alopecia areata.
Treatment was fairly straightforward. I had a cream (I will get the name of the medication in a bit) that I had to apply twice a day in 2-week stretches. I also then got steroid injections monthly. This aggressive treatment meant that my patches were gone within 5-6 months of me first noticing them. They haven't returned since but I still check out of fear haha. In all, the saga really made me more grateful for having the hair that I do have. I do expect to start balding more once I'm in my late 30s due to genetics but I don't mind it as much anymore. I do worry about having a weird head shape so if I have the financial means, I might consider a hair transplant but that's an issue to deal with down the line.
On my 29th birthday my twin brother and I were looking at a picture taken from behind and we knew we were screwed.
It didn't bug me that much, but being taller than everybody else, nobody can look down and go "Hey, you're losing it." I had lived with my hair buzzed most of my life anyway, between JROTC at school, the years after high school, and as a requirement of my first job, and I always wanted to start shaving, so to me that was the time to start.
That wasn't as bad as looking back. When I was 25 a coworker of mine asked if I was balding. I was a little defensive after being made fun of for my hairline most of my school days and insisted I wasn't, but, looking back at pictures, especially from when I was a teenager, I had definitely been balding, because I don't remember my widow's peak being different from 25 to 29, which meant damage had been done.
Mine is hereditary, likely from my mother's side (grandpa balded like I did, my dad's went super slow). My one regret is not growing it out long for more of my life, I really liked that. But, I got blessed with a sick beard so I'm doing that.