so is thickening face hair a bad sign?

[jabbathehair]

Im 27 now and I cannot grow a full beard at all. I've noticed though as im ageing its getting thicker and growing in places it didn't before. the past year my hairline has started receding and facial hair growing thicker, do these two have anything in common? my dad said he could not start growing a full beard until his late 20s early 30s. my dad also said he started to lose his hair in his early thirties. now he sports the horseshoe shape.

im thinking my dht levels are either increasing or the hair follicles are becoming activated for male pattern baldness on my head and my facial hair is now starting to kick in.
can all you guys grow full beards or any of you still only grow a small amount?

pics are 2 weeks without shaving:

 

[Still_Ill]

I don't think thickening facial hair is necessarily a bad sign. Plenty of men don't go bald, yet are able to grow thick beards by their mid to late twenties. My brother has an amazing head of hair -- a very thick bush of a Norwood 1 at the age of 26 -- that is now accompanied by a fairly thick beard he couldn't have had a few years ago. On the other hand I have a few family friends who are clearly losing their hair -- one is 20 and is already showing a NW4 pattern -- but still have a "baby face." They don't have any need for a razor.

I know what it's like when you're searching for answers to an issue that troubles you, but always remember that correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation. While not everyone on this site agrees with Dr. Rassman, here's a relevant post from his blog. The finasteride part doesn't apply to your case, but note the first sentence of the Dr.'s reply.

Dear Doctor.
I have been slowly losing my hair for some time now. I am 30 years old and have been on finasteride for a few years. I have always lacked a lot facial, chest, and backhair. Most of my peers have full beards and tons of hair on their chest while I have only a little bit.
In the last year, I have noticed that my facial hair has been growing in quicker (not thicker), instead of taking a week to 10 days to grow in, its been coming in at 3 days, and as a result of that I have been losing hair faster now. I am no doctor, but couldn’t there be a correlation between facial hair growth and hair loss?

Thank you kindly. God bless

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I do not believe facial hair has any correlation with scalp hair in terms of growing or balding. Finasteride does not affect facial hair. It only affects scalp hair (mostly on the top crown area). Rarely I have heard a few patients (under 10 in the last 10 years) report less body hair growth from finasteride use.

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Edit: to answer your other question, I have been able to grow a really nice curly beard since I was 17, but I don't grow it anymore because people were assuming I was a terrorist. I now use a DE safety razor. Even with the right tools and proper technique, I'm still left with a stubble and ingrown hairs! Arrgh! irate:​

 

[abcdefg]

Of course there are exceptions but I would say the majority of men lose head hair as they gain more/denser facial hair as the androgens start to go to work slowly over years. 80 percent of men have male pattern baldness at some point so odds are if you have androgen levels enough to cause facial hair you also probably are sensitive to it. Yes some men arent but they are tiny minority
So yes its a bad sign in terms of your hair, but it all depends on if your hair is sensitive to the androgens and maybe your not

 

[DonaldAnderson]

lol sporting a horse shoe shape. You make it sound like fun. I am 24 and cannot grow a full beard at all.