male pattern lower-leg baldness?

Although only in my early 30s, I am afflicted with a condition that I thought only old men had: bald lower legs. Until a few years ago, I had moderately hairy legs. Now I have large bald patches beginning halfway down my calf and continuing to the top of my ankles (ankles are still fine). The bald areas, which are primarily the outside front of my shins and back of my calves, are almost totally devoid of hair – like I just shaved. It’s a bad look on the beach, where my girlfriend and my mother have a good laugh at my expense. What is the cause and cure for this traumatizing condition?

A few possible culprits:

  • suit pants: My #1 suspect. The hair loss coincided with when I began wearing suits on a daily basis five years ago. But what to do about it?

  • socks: I have been wearing my work socks low for the past year to no avail. (I previously tried them high to shield my precious follicles from the suit pants, but that didn’t do much either.)

  • heredity: My father has had the same thing for as long as I can remember.

  • army boots: My father’s #1 suspect. We both were in the Army in our mid-20s for a few years. The hair loss occurred soon thereafter.

Any thoughts appreciated, and no, I haven’t tried Rogaine.

Great googly-moogly, I though I was the only one that this had happened to. My wife finds it amusing, but it’s never bothered. In fact I never noticed it until she pointed it out. The rest of my leg still resembles an old growth forest, but the backs of my shins are wastelands. BTW I clock-in at 35.

Now onto your theories:

  • pants. most likely culprit. Mom always said tight jeans would be the end of me, I shoulda listened.

  • socks. should deforest the rest of the ankle/foot, but that doesn’t seem to be true. They don’t call me “Hairy Toes” for nothing.

  • heredity. As opposed to me, Dad was not a hirsuite man, so I can’t really say.

  • army boots. I was never all I could be, so I can’t say.

Maybe we should form a support group -> “Hi, my name is Pete and I have bald shins.” Or maybe start a shin toupee company. Leg hair isn’t long enough to comb over (thankfully), so there aren’t a lot of alternatives.

Keep the faith bro’

pcubed

Hey! I’ve got that, too! I’m bald from about 12-3, and 5-8 on my right leg, and 10-12 and 5-9 on my left leg. Each bald patch is vaguely ovoid, and about 6-8 inches tall.

–Tim

this happened to my dad - mom claims it was from wearing his socks pulled up to his knees (wear and tear on those follicles), and from playing golf…

This happend to me in my late thirties on my right front shin bone. Thought I was gonna die from cancer or sumptin’.
Guess I gotta post this to snopes. Gal named Kathy over there usually comes up with good info.

It happens to me too, anywhere where the clothes rub, like the shirt cuffs. My guess is the hair follicle is fine, it is just that the hair gets eroded by the constant rubbing.

Ay, there’s the rub. When I experienced my first east coast hard winter, I had dry skin --especially on my shins. No matter how hard I tried not to, I would rub, itch, scratch, or whatever on my shins, sometimes to the point of bleeding. The hair never grew back. I don’t especially care.

Rogaine might well work for the posting person. I have heard of it being misapplied and growing hair much lower down than desirable on the forehead of an individual (female, no less).

I’d like to know if the person in question on this post is/was wearing wool suits (trousers) or pants of another type. It may be that a very mild reaction to wool is involved, possible causing scratching. Most dress pants fit fairly loosely, so it seems unlikely to me that the pants are directly causing hair loss by friction. If this wool pant theory is the case, then switch to cotton dress pants, like Dockers-type.

I think this is similar to what I have. I have two oval-shaped hairless patches on the back of my shins. Hair just does not grow there. The skin is the smoothest skin on my body… smooth as a baby’s behind (I’m guessing, since I’ve never touched one). It’s been that way since I began growing leg hairs.

I just always figured my body had decided it didn’t need hair back there. I don’t think it’s a rubbing effect, since there’s never been any stubble. I don’t think it’s a reaction, since I pretty much always wear 100% cotton jeans.

Upon examination, there just don’t seem to be any pores there to grow hairs from.

I also have no hair on the back of my shins. I’m nearly 100% positive it’s from rubbing in long pants. The proof: In the summer, it grows to about an inch long. I wear shorts in the summer. Right now, there’s no noticable bald spot. However, in the winter, when I’m wearing pants all the time, I end up with the back of my shins having approximately 1mm long hair…like it was shaved 3 days earlier. Only solution: Pants erode the hair.

Jman

BTW, I’m 22 and I first noticed it about 3 years ago.

I’m confused…isn’t “the back of my shins” my calves?

Also, my husband has this on his shins (the front of his calves?) all year round. It may be from the ‘rubbing’ effect as he does tend to pull his socks up to his navel.

THANK GOD I AM NOT ALONE!!

I’ve got a pronounced bald spot on my right shin, and slight thinning on my left.

Yep. Me and my 3 brothers are all afflicted. We have (to the best of our combined recollections) never had hair on the lower portions of our shins.

Welcome to the brotherhood!

Yup. I am likewise hirsuteless in the above named spots and my women have always thought it cute or quaint. I’m convinced it’s an evolutionary development losing hair where it is closest to the “protection” of fabrics (socks are the tightest garment men wear) rather than the friction of those garments. I prefer to consider myself on the crest of new, evolutionary progress and am looking forward to development of my new giant head.

I too have no hair from my ankle to 7 inches above. I DID have hair there once, but I noticed it dissapearing there when I was about 19. I started losing my crainial hair when I was 18. I wonder if it’s related? I always thought that it was from me wearing knee-high tube socks…

Hi, my name is Feynn and I have no hair on my shins.

My hair loss is on the outside lower front of my shin and yes, it is as smooth as my baby daughter’s butt. There is a spot above my left knee that is also hairless.

I would suggest another cause for this, my hair loss occurred after spending some time soaking my feet in a hot tub, I was also spending a great deal of time in the pool. I developed a mild rash in the described area and soon after I noticed that what used to be a very hirsute area had no hair. It hasn’t grown back.

It could be a reaction to chlorine…

About 4 years ago, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and my doctor asked to see my legs. He looked at the pattern of baldness on my legs, and said, “you’ve been diabetic for about 7 years.”

I bet you, also, are diabetic, whether or not you’ve been diagnosed. I suggest you get a physical right away, because the longer you don’t get treated, the worse are the consequences.

Good luck.

Hmm…looks like I have some bald spots on my calves also. On my right leg, the most prominent spot is on the left side of the calf. The left calf doesnt have much of a bald spot, but it’s right where the pant leg would rub against it. I generally wear loose pants, so my baldness may not be as bad because of that. However, on my ankles, they are bare from the ankle to about three to four inches up. I believe that it’s because this is where my socks eventually end up at the end of the day. There’s some very thin, sparse hairs there, but it’s pretty bare. The hair loss isnt very noticeable, because my legs arent that hairy to begon with.

Thanks for the thoughts and, more importantly, the camaraderie. Next time I see one of you on the beach I will only nod, but that will convey my gratitude, fraternity, and respect.

It appears that there can be many causes for this condition. Thanks to the scientific research of Jman, as well as anecdotal evidence from others, I am now convinced that the primary culprit in my case is wool suit pants, perhaps aided and abetted by dress socks. At first I began to doubt my own hypothesis: Why, if it were the pants, was there no follicular (?) clear-cutting on my thighs and knees, where wool-to-skin friction is more frequent? Then I discovered that my suit pants are lined with silk or a silk-like fabric down to – you guessed it – just below the knee.

I think heredity plays some role, too, in that certain folks have shallowly-embedded and therefore easily-uprooted follicles. (I can easily pull out a clump of eyebrow hairs without pain or a visible bald patch, but that’s a whole 'nother thread.)

Action plan: Get a job where I can ditch the monkey suit. An alternative solution might be to get some high-quality, over-the-calf socks that won’t slip down (and therefore won’t pluck nascent hairs). As a last resort, I am considering shaving the rest of my legs and telling people I am training for the Tour de France.

Thanks again.

P.S. Is anybody else scared s-less by that diabetes post?

Sorry if my post scared you…but…

I’d be interested in knowing if anyone else with this type of baldness actually KNOWS whether or not he’s diabetic.

And also whether you have other symptoms, such as unusual thirst, frequent urination, night sweats.

BTW, the ancient Greeks had a great test for diabetes: the person would urinate on the ground; if the urine had too much sugar in it, it would attracts ants.

I have no hair wherever my clothes consistently touch me except the crotch (where I have less than most people I’ve seen). I’ve always attributed the problem to Native American genes. I used to get a little hair back in the summer when I wear less clothes but now it doesn’t come back at all. My girlfriend like the smooth feel and has suggested I go ahead and shave the rest. Of course, she’s bisexual so you might expect that. Next she’ll ask me to wear high heels.