Balding, Mature Hairline Or Just Freaking Out?

[anonymous108]

Hey,

about 8 months ago a few friends of mine started telling me my hair looked kind of thinner than usual. So, naturally, I freaked out and started realizing gaps in my hair (picture at the bottom) and my hairline being higher up than I remembered (could be imagination).
I am currently 21 years old and neither on my dad's nor on my mothers side there have been any cases of balding as far as I know. Since then I have been taking different brands of Minoxidil 5%; first a japanese product called RiUPx5 (I was in Japan at that time), 3 months later QGAIN 5%, and 4 months later Rogaine Foam.
Now the weird thing is, that I looked through some older pictures of me and realized the exact same gaps that I thought were new, maybe even worse than they are now. Also the hairline on my right side is higher than the left for some reason.

So am I just imagining things? Or have I been going bald for 3-4 years and haven't noticed it? And do you think I should keep using Minoxidil?

A few other things I thought I should mention: At that time (8 months ago), I was in quite a stressful situation, didn't eat healthy and dyed my hair. I did notice more hair loss on my pillow and when taking a shower (never really exceeded 50-70 hairs), but I don't really think that stress was necessarily the cause.

As for the pictures:
The "Before" pictures were taken 8 months ago when I first realized thinning.
The lighting is obviously different so it may look worse on some than on others (sorry for that)

Any opinions, comments, etc are welcome! Can upload more pictures if requested.
Thank in advance!

 

[anonymous108]

Please can anyone help me with this? Whether you think I'm balding or not or anything

 

[kj6723]

To me you don't appear to have male pattern baldness at this time

 

[davesmith420]

Your hair can look "thinner" due to it being greasy or just having a bad hair day so I wouldn't really worry about your friends saying that. Since you don't have a family history and don't have anything that sticks out to me based on your pictures I would just keep monitoring your hair.

I would drop the minoxidil too. If you're really paranoid go get the opinion of a derm.

 

[anonymous108]

Thanks for the replies! The thing is, I stopped losing that much hair around the time I started using minoxidil so now I'm afraid that I will start to shed again when I drop it. The reason I haven't visited a derm is that they need me to stop washing or doing anything with my hair for about a week and I haven't found the time for that yet.

 

[Raphael13]

Looks more than fine to me.

As the gentlemen above said. When hair is greasy it appears thinner.

 

[Unacknowledged]

Looks more than fine. No signs of baldness.

 

[baldidiots]

if you keep stressing about your hair and rubbing weird sh*t into perfect healthy hairs you might lose it
get off this forum please for your own good

 

[jack the trades]

This may help you

 

[anonymous108]

Okay, so quick update.
I'm pretty sure I am balding after all; I took a video of my wet hair when combed from above, here are some screenshots:

Should I go see a doctor after all?

 

[Raphael13]

Wet hair will always look thinner, specially at the corners. I dont want to say ur safe or dont have male pattern baldness, but judging only from this pictures, i dont think u have male pattern baldness.

 

[anonymous108]

Wet hair will always look thinner, specially at the corners. I dont want to say ur safe or dont have male pattern baldness, but judging only from this pictures, i dont think u have male pattern baldness.

I have looked at some other people/friends hair and while it sometimes does look thinner at the corners it's never as thin as at my corners. Also the scalp is quite visible both at the corners and the middle of the front when combed back and wet (as in the pictures). When I lift up my hair I can see the outline of the scalp through it. Is that normal? Also do you usually have more hair at the back than at the front? Because I can clearly feel the difference when I'm grabbing through my hair.

 

[Raphael13]

I have looked at some other people/friends hair and while it sometimes does look thinner at the corners it's never as thin as at my corners. Also the scalp is quite visible both at the corners and the middle of the front when combed back and wet (as in the pictures). When I lift up my hair I can see the outline of the scalp through it. Is that normal? Also do you usually have more hair at the back than at the front? Because I can clearly feel the difference when I'm grabbing through my hair.

Everyones hair and scull shape is different. Me for instance, I have very fine low density hair, so it always looks thinner, specially when it gets oily or wet. My little brother has a straight hairline with no male pattern baldness at all, but when his hair is wet or greasy it looks really thinn. I have some thinning going on on my left side, when my hair is clean and dry it doesnt look bad at all. When my hair gets greasy or wet that spot looks a lot worse. I think wet hair does seem to make things look worse. Just keep an eye on it.

 

[AnxiousAndy]

I dont see any male pattern baldness. Lucky man.

 

[OldnBald]

Idk, judging by those last two pictures, it's starting to look like it's thinning in the front. I know it's wet, but that's the start. I can see lower density in that frontal region. That's my opinion on it. Although I don't know what it looked like a few years ago to compare. I'd bet it was thicker.

 

[anonymous108]

I really hope I don't have male pattern balding but I am going to the doctor in the next few weeks just to be sure. The mental pain is just too much...
I will post the results once I have them! Thanks for all your help

 

[Seeker988]

Follow-up?

 

[anonymous108]

Yes, sorry it took a while. So basically what the doctor told me is that

1. I have a Vitamin B and D deficit (or something of the sort, it will be on the prescription I receive in about 1 week from now)

2. The results of the TrichoScan looked really good; she said something about 72 hairs on the front being in growth stage and 80 on the back.
This could also be due to the usage of Minoxidil, so she couldn't tell me whether I actually do suffer from male pattern balding or not unfortunately. So basically either I respond exceptionally well to minoxidil or it's not male pattern baldness.
I forgot to tell her that I hadn't used any Minoxidil on the part where they took the tests, though (not sure if that changes anything).
Also they scanned the side of my head and not the top, where I feel thinning has been the toughest.

I asked her to put finasteride/propecia on the prescription as well, as I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to lose any more hair.
Now the problem is, how can I tell whether my genes are at fault and all that is just a waste of money and time or I have some other problem?