I’m a 25 year old guy. A few weeks ago, I went to get a haircut. I’ve been going to the same hairdresser for years now, so you’d think she would know my hair pretty well. She casually remarked that she thought my hair seemed a bit more coarse directly on the top of my head, compared to the sides, but didn’t seem to think I had to worry too much about going bald.
Ever since then, I’ve been monitoring my hair loss, and I can’t decide if what I’m seeing falls under the “normal” category or not. I’m aware that it’s quite normal to lose about 100 hairs a day - the thing is, I’m only aware that I’m losing hair at certain times. More specifically, after a night’s sleep, I tend to see about 8-12 hairs on my pillow, and I also tend to see a hair or two in my comb after combing my hair. I also noticed a few hairs in my hands after shampooing my hair, just a few minutes ago.
If I were to carefully count all of these hairs that I’m losing, they’d probably add to up less than 30 per day. Maybe 50 at the most. But I’m not aware, of course, if hairs are flying off my head when I walk down the street, so I don’t know how close to the 100-mark I’m getting.
I’ve already made an appointment with a dermatologist, but I’ll only be seeing him at the end of the month (earliest appointment I could get). But in the mean time, the thought that I could be going bald is worrying me like crazy, and I can’t wait a few more weeks to find out what’s the deal. Does the hair loss that I described sound normal for a guy my age? To the bald or thinning dopers out there: how quickly did your hair start falling out?
I wouldn’t worry about it. My father is pretty bald and both my younger brothers have very thin hair cover. Years ago I remarked to my barber that I guessed I’d be getting bald soon and he told me, “No your hair is nice and thick, I still have to thin it. Once you get this far without signs your sweet.” Many years later it turns out that he knew what he was talknig about - I still have plenty of hair and other, younger guys are going bald. Still, who gives a shit, nearly every guy over 40 is balding to some degree.
I meant to say I don’t pay any attention to hair loss but evry once in a while my hairbrush needs a good clean out, but it did when I was a longhaired teen. As to the pillow and shower my eyes wouldn’t pick up anything anyway.
Thanks for the replies don’t ask. Can I ask how old you are? Just interested in how old you need to be for your barber to declare you’re going to keep a full head of hair. So I guess I should be actually be asking, how old were you when your barber said that?
Sometime in my 40s. I’m 53 and have been going to the same barber for maybe 15 years.
I had really long hair in the 70s, down the middle of my back and suddenly got sick of it and had it cut. For a while I worried like you and would pull back my hair to check my receding hairline but it wasn’t receding as fast as all my friends. After Marco told me I would not ever be bald I just forgot about it. Nothing changed -just as much hair in the brush and down the drain but I didn’t worry.
He did mention that it had something to do with me being blonde (more so as a kid) - apparently blonges have more hair??
Sounds normal to me - my hairline started receeding at about 23 or 24… I’m pretty sure that my friend (who always seemed to have thin hair) started losing his on top when he was around 20.
If sometime in the future you do start losing you hair (in the crown area), you might want to look into Propecia.
My brother (he’s older) and I are less than a year apart and have very similar hair. About 10 years ago when he was 43, he started losing his hair around the crown area of his head. Soon after wards the same thing started to happen to me. I started taking Propecia at that time. Now, almost 10 years later, he’s pretty much bald on top and while my crown is not as thick as it once was, it certainly isn’t close to bald.
I realize that this is far from a scientific experiment and that even though my brother and I have hair that looks alike, we could have very different hair genetically. I just wanted you to know that it seems to have worked for me.
Thanks for the replies. Mangosteen, thanks for the tip, although I’m hopeful I won’t need anything like Propecia.
Any other opinions on whether or not the hair loss I described means I’m going bald, or if I’m losing just a “normal” amount of hair? Do I only have another 6 months of a full head of hair, or do you think I can make it into retirement without a comb-over? I’ve heard hair loss/growth goes in cycles - hopefully meaning that my hair loss is normal - any truth to that?