Baldness prevalence in young people

[Guest]

Maybe I just notice it more now, but around my law school where the average student's age is around 26, I notice a TON of balding guys. If you look at the stats, they'd tell you that only something like 25% of guys should have male pattern baldness affecting them by this age, but I'm sure that an even smaller % would be showing it, because by the time Androgenetic Alopecia is visible, it's on, baby.

I notice a TON of shaved heads,and with a couple days growth on them, it's easy to see the outline of the horseshoe. I haven't seen any NW7's but I've seen more than a few NW6's(these young guys at this stage are all shaved here), and plenty of NW3 and NW4 guys as well. Lots of mature hairlines too. I see some kids with juvenile hairlines but the Caucasian ones are few and far between- the juvenile hairline kids are mostly Asian, Hispanic or black.

Just an observation of course, but it seems everywhere I go around town even, that I see so many more younger guys in various stages of hair loss. I see it all- beginnings of temple recession, moderate temple recession, crown thinning without temples, diffusing in the frontal third, diffusing in the back, etc. Androgenetic Alopecia presents itself in many different forms which we already knew, but wow. The sheer numbers of balding people are just astounding. And to think that for every 50 balding young guys I see, probably 1 or 2 at most are on any credible treatment for it.

Do you guys think that the baldness % is increasing? Or is our diet kickstarting it sooner than we thought? Maybe other environmental factors are starting it earlier? All I know is it's actually not the norm these days to see a guy my age with a full thick head of hair. Of my 5 or so good friends here who are my age, 4 are balding and one looks like he's about to start if he hasn't already. Two keeps it buzzed down, one just grows it long and lets the bangs hang over his forehead, etc.

 

[s.a.f]

Its probably just that you are subconciously looking out for them. So you will notice it more. Its easy to find signs of hairloss just like its easy to subconciously see general signs of ageing on people in their 20's.
There's hairloss and there's m.p.b. I can see that plenty of the guys I know in their 30's no longer have the great hair they had 10 yrs ago but they are not going bald and nobody else sees them as losing their hair.

 

[DoctorHouse]

Jayman, you are right about Hispanics, its very uncommon to see them balding at any age. They always seem to manage to have a thick full head of hair with little to no recession.

 

[pratc]

Jayman,

Firstly, welcome back.

I'm only on this forum for interest's sake and for my sons for whom you gave me advice about a year and a half ago. Your quick reply and advice to my message for what to do when I saw my son balding on top was appreciated.

Not being directly involved, I think I can look at the matter reasonably objectively.

I agree. Balding seems to occur more frequently in a younger age group (UK). Both my wife and I have noticed it in everyday circumstances and also on TV where a comparison can be made for people now and those appearing on repeated programs from say, the 80s. More people shave their heads so one could argue that there appears to be more balding, but looking at the shaved head you can still see if there is balding and discount others for which it is a 'style' of haircut.

 

[alkulk]

I'm sure it is increasing.

 

[ghg]

I'm sure it is increasing.

Yeah and the explanation is quite simple: the gene is spreading amongst whites who normally marry and have kids with other white people. And the bad western diet of today probably triggers it earlier (you can see many people also suffer from various other skin diseases because of our high carb low fat diet). Skin needs and likes fat! Fat doesn't make you gain weight, it's the carbs and sugar. I'm pretty convinced about this since I've been on low-carb diet for 3 weeks and I've lost weight although I eat like a horse.

 

[antonio666]

Jayman, you are right about Hispanics, its very uncommon to see them balding at any age. They always seem to manage to have a thick full head of hair with little to no recession.

european hispanic is no diffrent to the rest of europe in terms of balding but i agree that mexicans and cubans seem to have better hair genes must bew the mixture of races,so it is false to say hispanics have the best hair,i would not be on this site if that was the case

 

[Pondle]

I'm sure it is increasing.

Yeah and the explanation is quite simple: the gene is spreading amongst whites who normally marry and have kids with other white people. And the bad western diet of today probably triggers it earlier (you can see many people also suffer from various other skin diseases because of our high carb low fat diet). Skin needs and likes fat! Fat doesn't make you gain weight, it's the carbs and sugar. I'm pretty convinced about this since I've been on low-carb diet for 3 weeks and I've lost weight although I eat like a horse.

I'd like to see some actual evidence that the 'baldness gene' is spreading!

Look, modern developed societies (which are mainly white European) are ageing. People in developed countries tend to live longer and have fewer children than previous generations, or contemporaries in less developed countries. The net result is that the average age of these societies is increasing. As baldness becomes more common with age, one would expect an 'older' society to have more bald men than a younger society.

 

[ghg]

I'm sure it is increasing.

Yeah and the explanation is quite simple: the gene is spreading amongst whites who normally marry and have kids with other white people. And the bad western diet of today probably triggers it earlier (you can see many people also suffer from various other skin diseases because of our high carb low fat diet). Skin needs and likes fat! Fat doesn't make you gain weight, it's the carbs and sugar. I'm pretty convinced about this since I've been on low-carb diet for 3 weeks and I've lost weight although I eat like a horse.

I'd like to see some actual evidence that the 'baldness gene' is spreading!

Look, modern developed societies (which are mainly white European) are ageing. People in developed countries tend to live longer and have fewer children than previous generations, or contemporaries in less developed countries. The net result is that the average age of these societies is increasing. As baldness becomes more common with age, one would expect an 'older' society to have more bald men than a younger society.

Wasn't this about more and more males balding at a young age?

 

[Pondle]

Wasn't this about more and more males balding at a young age?

OK, but my first point still stands - there's zero evidence!

 

[ghg]

Wasn't this about more and more males balding at a young age?

OK, but my first point still stands - there's zero evidence!

You're right, it's just an observation. Doesn't make any difference either way.

 

[pratc]

OK, but my first point still stands - there's zero evidence!

There may be evidence (for or against), but nobody has collected it :whistle:

 

[phish]

our diets and lifestyle has been proven to start puberty earlier and ealier by each decade. there was a study that found sum girls geting their period as early as 9. When you have the american diet and lifestyle so many people live, with meats and dairy pro hormones in milk exct, its easy to see why people go through puberty earlier and and earlier each decade, throw in kids are less outside and more inside playing video games they are geting fatter and fatter. then youtake guys in hs that are taking steroids and supplements that boosts testerone and dht a ton, and even more guys in 20s working out. this is all a formula for increase rate of balding in young people.

 

[RaginDemon]

I am 27 and out of 10 of my friends who are around my age, 6-7 have already shown early sign of hair loss. It is just ridiculous that we start losing our hair at this age.

 

[ghg]

I am 27 and out of 10 of my friends who are around my age, 6-7 have already shown early sign of hair loss. It is just ridiculous that we start losing our hair at this age.

I am 25 and none of my friends (most 23-26) is balding. Just me and my bro. Well I guess one is receding and his frontal tuft is getting weaker. Probably will be very noticeable next summer. But he's the only one.

 

[phish]

Wasn't this about more and more males balding at a young age?

OK, but my first point still stands - there's zero evidence!

there actually is evidence, because its been noted many times in america that girls and boys are hiting puberty much much earlier then they did in the 80s 90s. if you do the math if boys normally would hit puberty at 15-16 in the 80s and in the 2000s are hitting it at 11-12 thats 4 more years earlier we would see male pattern baldness arise. the main factors we see kids hiting puberty much earlier is diet, and lifestyle. Kids today in america are inside alot more and weigh on average 20-30 lbs more then they did 20 years ago. their increased size from their diet in meats from fast food and dairy products injected with steroids and prohormones its not to hard to see why kids would reach puberty faster nowadays.

 

[ghg]

Wasn't this about more and more males balding at a young age?

OK, but my first point still stands - there's zero evidence!

there actually is evidence, because its been noted many times in america that girls and boys are hiting puberty much much earlier then they did in the 80s 90s. if you do the math if boys normally would hit puberty at 15-16 in the 80s and in the 2000s are hitting it at 11-12 thats 4 more years earlier we would see male pattern baldness arise. the main factors we see kids hiting puberty much earlier is diet, and lifestyle. Kids today in america are inside alot more and weigh on average 20-30 lbs more then they did 20 years ago. their increased size from their diet in meats from fast food and dairy products injected with steroids and prohormones its not to hard to see why kids would reach puberty faster nowadays.

I personally hate the fact that kids aren't really kids anymore. It's just so groce seeing a tad over 10 yr olds trying to act and dress like adults. When me and my friends were 10-15 we really were kids and we did kids stuff.

 

[Pondle]

Wasn't this about more and more males balding at a young age?

OK, but my first point still stands - there's zero evidence!

there actually is evidence, because its been noted many times in america that girls and boys are hiting puberty much much earlier then they did in the 80s 90s. if you do the math if boys normally would hit puberty at 15-16 in the 80s and in the 2000s are hitting it at 11-12 thats 4 more years earlier we would see male pattern baldness arise. the main factors we see kids hiting puberty much earlier is diet, and lifestyle. Kids today in america are inside alot more and weigh on average 20-30 lbs more then they did 20 years ago. their increased size from their diet in meats from fast food and dairy products injected with steroids and prohormones its not to hard to see why kids would reach puberty faster nowadays.

Onset of puberty is one thing, but I've never seen any anthropometric studies comparing, say, the proportion of 25 year old males balding in 1960 with the proportion of 25 yr old males balding today.

 

[ghg]

Onset of puberty is one thing, but I've never seen any anthropometric studies comparing, say, the proportion of 25 year old males balding in 1960 with the proportion of 25 yr old males balding today.

That kinda thing would probably never ever have been studied in the 1960s.

 

[s.a.f]

I personally hate the fact that kids aren't really kids anymore. It's just so groce seeing a tad over 10 yr olds trying to act and dress like adults. When me and my friends were 10-15 we really were kids and we did kids stuff.

[/quote]
This is due more to society than biology. The media is sexualising young people with the things they are exposed to.
As for young baldies when I was in my 20's (I'm 33 now)I'd say looking around about 20% of my peers had signs of m.p.b so we were definatly in a minority.