Shedding at 17, but I seem to have caught it early on, and I have some questions

Treatments
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I am 17, my dad started balding at around my age or possibly even younger. I have long, thick, wavy, blond hair, and I would be pretty devastated if I lost it. It’s still at a point where it looks normal unless you look at it closely, but when my hair is in worse condition, or otherwise straighter, it becomes more obvious. There are very few dermatologists in my area so I have an appointment with my primary care physician booked but I’m wondering if there’s any specific advice of note.

I’m also wondering about the efficacy of minoxidil as well as potential side effects. Also, do people find that it stops working as well over time despite being taken consistently? Also, oral is the only option I’m willing to consider as I have cats.

I’m concerned about the side effects of finasteride. I imagine the most helpful answers I would get about that would be from my doctor, but do people know of any way to predict whether I’ll experience them or not? My goal at the moment is to avoid taking it.

Generally, since my hair is in okay enough shape as it stands, my goal is to maintain it and maybe get some thickness back. My hairline hasn’t receded too much, and I don’t have a bald spot in the back, it’s just that the hair on the front of my head and on the front half of the top is beginning to thin and I’m losing more hair than normal in the shower. Is minoxidil likely to be sufficient for maintaining my hair for several more years? I really don’t want to be bald by 20.

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I began losing my hair around roughly your age and 20 right now whose 3/5 hair is gone. Let me tell you this, if you are experiencing any type of noticable hair loss at <20 age, there is a SIGNIFICANT AND EXTREMELY NASTY possibility that you would go bald even before graduating from college. I repeat again, you may go bald in your very early 20s. The norwood reaper as I label it is my man a very, very sinister magician. He usually arrives earlier than you think and it may be too late.

My adivce for you is to stop giving a duck about PFS. I have used topical finasteride for about 2 weeks (topical goes systemic to an extent too by the way) and experienced zero side effects. Now, does there not exist people who experience side effects? Yep, there exists. But they are not many, there is a high chance you will retain your hair and even see regrowth rather than experience the said effects.

Primary thing you should be concerned is not getting on finasteride/dutasteride in the first place, it is getting on it at 17. At your age, there is some chance that you have not fully stopped growing and reducing DHT^ (DHT promotes development of male characteristics during puberty) may hinder your development.

And if you are asking about it, yes minoxidil may help you keep the fight until you reach an age where DHT blockers/inhibitors can be used. BUT you do not have to wait, my advice for you would be to consult a relevant doctor who can assess whether you are done growing or not yet. If yes, then ask a dermatologist/doc about DHT inhibitors based on that assessment. If you are not done growing yet, do NOT get on the meds. Minoxidil in its topical form is safe to get on usually, but finasteride/dutasteride at 17 may NOT be.

Follow this strategy:Fix your vitamin etc. levels if you are deficient (these won’t help much if it is male-pattern-baldness but do it anyways) and get on topical minoxidil 5%(if you do not experience any side effects and is not sensitive to it). Topical minoxidil is a vasodilator that will help you keep the fight long enough so that you may hop on the meds later, obviously not without consulting a doctor.

^(DHT is what is primarily responsible of male-pattern-baldness (MPB) which is what drugs like finasteride/dutasteride try to inhibit, fin roughly at 70 percent and dut at 90 percent for serum and hair follicle dht. For scalp dht, fin is 40 and dut is roughly 51 percent effective at standard dose. But take hair follicle dht value, as that is the most important/relevant of all.)

To answer your questions 1)You are statistically unlikely to experience the side effects of finasteride once you are done growing 2) Minoxidil alone won’t maintain it for long as DHT will keep building up in your scalp and force the hair follicles to miniaturize, hair loss at (insert any age<20) means your hair loss (which I assume is AGA) is AGGRESSIVE. DHT likely will miniaturize hair follicles, which in turn will produce smaller and smaller hairs over time, often increasing shedding too. At one point a stage will be reached where only peach fuzz (at best) types of hair will remain on the top part of your scalp, where you will reach NW6-7. At that point you will be bald, as the bald eagle.

# PLEASE IGNORE ALL NATURAL HERBS,REMEDIES, TREATMENTS WHATEVER IF YOU ARE DEALING WITH AGA. YOU CANNOT TREAT AGA WITH ANY TYPE OF NATURAL STUFF. YOU NEED PROPER, FDA LICENSED, CLINICALLY VERIFIED MEDICINES WHO HAVE CLEAR MECHANISMS OF ACTION. ROSEMARY, CASTOR, JOJOBA, PLEASE IGNORE THESE WHENEVER YOU COME ACROSS THEM, EXCEPT IF YOU OBSERVED HAIR GROWTH YOURSELF USING THESE.

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Thanks for the response. A few questions and notes:

Around how long does minoxidil maintain the hair I have left? Also, topical is not an option for me because I have cats and I am NOT INTERESTED in exposing them to anything poisonous to them. How would the effects be different with oral minoxidil?

Also, would DHT blockers allow me to keep my hair for several years? Do you have any estimate for how long I would be able to maintain my hair? Ideally I wouldn’t go bald but that seems very unrealistic, but perhaps until 30 or even older?

One more thing, you said you began losing your hair at around my age and have now lost about 3/5ths of your hair. When did you start trying treatments for it? If you had started sooner, do you think you would have been able to keep more of it?

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Q:How long does minoxidil maintain the hair I have left?
A:What kind of question is this bub, minoxidil does NOT retain hair. It grows it, but without anti-dht medication it typically won’t last you for long esp. given that you have an aggressive case of AGA, I suppose and this is nothing but speculation maybe a year?

Q:I don’t want to use topical, what about oral.
A:Oral is often said to be more effective, but I don’t honestly know whether this is true or not. It likely is however, and I just began using it since the past week or so myself. My current dose is 2.5mg per each day. I pair it with oral dut 0.5mg every day and I am golden (I take proscar 1mg, divided into 5 too, but will take it for only a month or something until dut takes effect).

Q:When did you start treatments for hair loss (you ask this question at me)?
A:It is very complicated my man. I am noticably thinning since 17, I realized it when I shaved my head sometime in late 2023 (I like the buzzcut :slight_smile: ) and realized 30-40 percent of my hair was gone. At first, you don’t even realize that you are balding, it is that the hair does not grow in the way it used to grow. I noticed hair at top decreasing. I noticed that hair also became way, way more curly, frizzly etc. instead of growing slightly wavy. Probably DHT had affected them in some way for that to happen. And probably way before that (before 17, probably by 15-16) when it was not really observable without specialized devices for that purpose. I don’t want to make it very long as it already is so in general minoxidil here in Turkey is very expensive in its topical form and ineffective/inconvenient for my use case of diffuse thinning, lasts two weeks only and I could also not get oral minoxidil here. I used it for a week or something and had to forcibly ditch it. I did not also know you could get propecia/proscar/avodart/minoxidil without prescription here. Basically, I was dumb as duck. I also thought I stabilized the situation (boy I was wrong) and stopped caring about it. After 5-6 months had past like this, I began learning more about turkish online hair transplant forums, about prescriptions etc. and stuff so I became more informed. Which basically ignited me to wonder about whether I can actually restart the fight against AGA esp. given that my thinning did not stabilize but got actually a bit worse over this period.

So, in the past few weeks, I found some places that make oral minoxidil (compounding pharmacies) and had them ordered, about 100 capsules for affordable prices. I also discovered that some places sell minoxidil powder, there are also various methods one can make them home (I DO NOT RECOMMEND MAKING DIY CAPSULES, but this was like my backup plan if everything goes downhill, eg. pharmacies stop compounding oral minoxidil.). I also had gained a few acquintances who could bring with prescription (original oral minoxidil) from abroad etc. Since oral min is relatively cheap compared to topical here, I decided to renew the battle against the hair loss. And yes, sadly i could have kept more hair, but i don’t think it is too late, it never is too late. I also lost a ton of time with stupid as duck dermatologists who did not even know that the underlying cause of AGA is nothing but DHT. I had to explain it to them, like imagine being licensed dermatologist and not at all knowing what causes balding. They believe it is testesterone, while I had to tell them it is DHT and so on. I lost 6-7 months, which is especially vital if you have diffuse thinning. I suppose about 20% of my total hair volume was gone within that timeframe.

Do not ask me about prescriptions, neither avodart/proscar or oral minoxidil requires any prescription here. If it was, I would have had no choice of battling the hair loss, maybe I could have obtained finasteride, maybe but in topical form only. Stupid dermatologists here barely prescribe finasteride and only in topical form. I hope you have better doctors or end up finding them. I was literally about to get beaten by a doctor at his clinic for asking about (not asking as to prescribe, just asking about it) dutasteride, he began yelling oh like that you know what kind of serious side effects, are you a doctor, who the hell are you etc. I currently use oral dut 0.5mg for a week and (yet) nothing had happened. Though, for legal and ethical reasons I cannot recommend any medication without doctor prescription so this reply, all of it, is NOT a medical advice.

Follicles take years to go dormant in diffuse thinning (my type of hair loss),since I began late but not too late I assume they will work and terminal hair will regrow :slight_smile:

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Alright thanks for the advice man, I’m hopeful I can keep my hair for years longer.

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it’s not too hard to keep pets away from topical min. i have dogs, and i use topical min. just be responsible and you’ll be fine. in regards to dht blockers, you’re best off consulting an endocrinologist given you’re age, if you’re still going thru puberty you can negatively impact penile growth, as that’s dht driven.