Worried About Receeding Hairline, Would Like Second Opinion

[Randomguy02]

Recently I have noticed my temples starting to thin and despite being told by two different dermatologists not to worry about it, I can't shake my fears over it.

I am currently 25, turning 26 in two weeks. Is my hairline just maturing, or am I going bald.

 

[Randomguy02]

I keep worrying about this, as I am not sure if its just a maturing hairline or if its the start of balding?

 

[tqb43]

Maturing

 

[Randomguy02]

I am also worrying about my crown as it feels like its gotten a bit thinner. Does this look normal?

Here are some pictures from today.

For comparison here are three pictures from about 3 months ago.

 

[Randomguy02]

Have you noticed a increase in shedding? You don’t appear to be balding by the looks of those photos.

For about a two month period (from end of January til the end of March) I had noticed a lot of shedding, but that has stopped now and I havn't noticed anything out of the ordinary in terms of shedding amount.

I had actually gone to a dermatologist about it mid February and they did a scalp biopsy that said it was Telogen Effluvium. That said I am still getting very anxious about how the hair feels thinner there to the touch and how it looks like there are fewer hairs in the area to the top left of the whorl.

 

[Randomguy02]

I just am worried its gotten worse, though I can't exactly tell. Does the thickness look like its changed at all in those 3 months or does it look about the same?

 

[Randomguy02]

So does it look liks there is any thinning? I know my hairline is very low and seems to just be maturing so far, but I keep worrying about it and the crown area.

 

[Randomguy02]

I guess my fear right now is that there are some early signs of hair loss I an missing and that if I keep waiting it will get worse.

So context:

In terms of family history my dad had a full head of hair with a NW1 hairline up until he was 50, as which point he has started to have defuse thinning across his whole hairline. My paternal grandfather went bald in his 40s, though he had a successful hair transplant to cover that up. No idea on what the balding pattern was. Maternal grandfather had his hairline recede and crown thin, but never went fully bald (was a Norwood 3 when he died)

I went to two dermatologists back in January and February. The first looked for 5 seconds and said it was nothing to worry about, said I had bad dandruff, and had me use Nizorol 2% twice a week for a month then once a week for the next several months (still on that).

The second dermatologist looked closer and did a scalp biopsy (slightly above and to the right of the whorl), which they said showed no signs of minification but did show more hairs were in the telogen phass than expected, meaning I likely had some form of Telogen Effluvium. This at least is consistent with the increase shedding I've seen, which lasted from mid January until the end of March. In the month and and half since then I've seen the observed hairfall decrease to about half as much as before, which I hope just means that the Telogen Effluvium has stopped

That said I have noticed my temples definitely start to thin, but since my hairline seems to currently be about a Norwood 0.5 by my estimate, I hope this is just my hairline maturing and won't recede past the Norwood 1 my dad has. (Will add more pictures of my hairline, as I'd like an assessment on that hairline). The crown I am worried about due to how thin to feels around the whorl, but I guess that could just be the defuse thinning of the Telogen Effluvium making the existing whorl more noticeable.

I guess my fear is that I could be doing more and if I wait too long it could get worse and by then it will be too late to salvage anything. I am currently taking multivitamins with Biotin, using a DHT reducing shampoo, and using Nizorol 2% once a week. Is that enough at this stage? I just keep worrying about this and its driving me crazy

 

[looking for hair advice]

with your hairline it's really impossible to tell. could be the very, very earliest stagesof hair loss, but it might as well not be. you'll have to wait it out - no one on here will be able to tell you for sure. but if you went to a derm and they told me you're not balding atm, I would just trust that if I were you.

 

[itchymadscalp]

Your hairline is perfect, especially considering you’re 25..........
Enjoy your hair and leave us in our misery.

 

[Mandar kumthekar]

I had same hair when in was 26 and now at 33 I am Norwood 2.5. If I paid attention to it I would have saved some hairs . at your photos I couldn't see any recession but I could see some baby hairs near hairline. May be they are growing but could be miniaturized ones. I suggest you start microneedling with 1 mm needles once a week and use minoxidil once a day too keep would be male pattern baldness at the bay. That's all I can advice BC I only doing that so far. But overall I should say you have great hairline at 26 and if there is little or no family history of baldness from both sides then you are probably going to keep all your hairs most of your life. Good luck.

 

[Randomguy02]

I had same hair when in was 26 and now at 33 I am Norwood 2.5. If I paid attention to it I would have saved some hairs . at your photos I couldn't see any recession but I could see some baby hairs near hairline. May be they are growing but could be miniaturized ones. I suggest you start microneedling with 1 mm needles once a week and use minoxidil once a day too keep would be male pattern baldness at the bay. That's all I can advice BC I only doing that so far. But overall I should say you have great hairline at 26 and if there is little or no family history of baldness from both sides then you are probably going to keep all your hairs most of your life. Good luck.

As I said only my paternal grandfather went bald and since my father had pretty much no recession (and his thinning now is almost certainly just age related) I hopefully have had very little chance of having inherited his balding pattern. On the flip side both my parents started gray in their 30s, but that I can live with.

I was adviced by the dermatologist not to use monoxidil unless it gets worse, so I think I will hold off on that at least. That said would microneedling be a good idea at this point? Would like a few opinions on this.

Right now the hairline itself is pretty much at a Norwood 0 I think, but is less dense for the first 1/4th ofan inch at the center and first 1/3ed inch at the temples compared to the hair above that, so at the very least it does look like I'm receding into a Norwood 1ish territory.

 

[Mandar kumthekar]

As I said only my paternal grandfather went bald and since my father had pretty much no recession (and his thinning now is almost certainly just age related) I hopefully have had very little chance of having inherited his balding pattern. On the flip side both my parents started gray in their 30s, but that I can live with.

I was adviced by the dermatologist not to use monoxidil unless it gets worse, so I think I will hold off on that at least. That said would microneedling be a good idea at this point? Would like a few opinions on this.

Right now the hairline itself is pretty much at a Norwood 0 I think, but is less dense for the first 1/4th ofan inch at the center and first 1/3ed inch at the temples compared to the hair above that, so at the very least it does look like I'm receding into a Norwood 1ish territory.

I have started needling after reading succy stories on this forum and I do believe it will work for me too. Still I have some gain at temples but not sure it will fill in. But give bit a try and see if that thinning thickens or not.

 

[Randomguy02]

So if the hairline looks good for my age (though there is slight thinning), what about the crown?

 

[Mandar kumthekar]

So if the hairline looks good for my age (though there is slight thinning), what about the crown?

Crown looks perfect . that thinning area is whirl

 

[Randomguy02]

Sorry to keep bothering people, I have one more set of scalp pictures. Do these look fine? I looks like the area towords the back is thinner? Or am I just seeing things.

 

[Gregor59]

Sorry to keep bothering people, I have one more set of scalp pictures. Do these look fine? I looks like the area towords the back is thinner? Or am I just seeing things.View attachment 119187 View attachment 119186

Hair is not a carpet. So the scalp is normal to appear. Also, crown zone is curved, other areas are flat

 

[Randomguy02]

Hair is not a carpet. So the scalp is normal to appear. Also, crown zone is curved, other areas are flat

Okay, I guess that makes sense. I just keep worrying with how it looks like the hair is thinner there when it parts compared to the top, but if its just due to the scalp being curved there then I guess that makes sense.

 

[Randomguy02]

I am gooing to leave one last picture, this time a super close up of the area that feels the thinnest to me. Is this normal density?

 

[Randomguy02]

My fear at this point is that the Telogen Effluvium diagnosis I got was incorrect and that if I keep waiting it will get worse and turn out to be male pattern baldness. I know I should probably just trust the diagnosis since a scalp biopsy was involved, but I can't shake that fear. That and I can't tell if its gotten worse in the past 5 months.

For the sake of completeness, here are some pictures from 4-5 months ago.