# When did you start balding? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 8, 2012, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-balding/643390 "2012-12-08T03:36:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-balding/643390/41 "2012-12-10T03:08:14Z")
> [@ReticulatingSplines](#): > > There are people who START balding at age 60-69? I dunno, I think once you reach age…maybe 30 or so and you haven’t started balding yet, you’re more or less in the clear. > > With that said, I guess it depends on how we’re going to define “start”; by the time you notice your hair is thinner, you’ve been balding for a while. Almost everyone misses noticing the initial recession at the corners of the hairline. People do naturally lose hair as they age, if not in the balding sense (male pattern baldness, there’s also female pattern baldness which is basically a gradual thinning of the hair), perhaps that is what they mean. Also, according to [this page](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003246.htm), there is no fixed age beyond which you don’t have to worry about baldness: > [@](#): > > Both men and women tend to lose hair thickness and amount as they age. Baldness is not usually caused by a disease. It is related to aging, heredity, and changes in the hormome, testosterone. Inherited or “pattern baldness” affects many more men than women. About one-half of men begin to bald by the time they are 30 years old, and most are either bald or have a balding pattern by age 60. Also, as I mentioned previously, my father had recession of his hairline by his late 20s (forehead perhaps an inch or two higher than normal) but didn’t have much progression until around 60, when it started receding again (now going over the top of his head); thus it appears you can bald in separate stages. **Johnny Bravo** , I (and others) previously posted that the idea of inheriting baldness exclusively from the maternal side is bunk (good thing for myself too, as I previously mentioned, didn’t seem to inherit it from my father either, but then again I probably have a near 100% chance of some balding as stated above; [this article](http://www.baldingblog.com/2005/05/12/when-will-i-go-bald/) makes it sound like 95% of men will go bald (those who hairline “matures” from that seen in girls and women), and my hairline does fit the description given for a “mature hairline”; see [here](http://www.virtualffs.co.uk/In_a_Nutshell.html) for the differences between male and female hairlines, although it doesn’t clearly state if that will lead to baldness in all cases). ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-balding/643390/42 "2012-12-10T03:26:03Z")
At about age 23, when I began shaving it off. ---
**Author:** ![geneb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e4f/32.png) [@geneb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geneb)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-balding/643390/43 "2012-12-10T17:57:05Z")
I started noticing that I was losing my hair when I was 17. Kind’ve disheartening to be going bald before even graduating high school. ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-balding/643390/44 "2012-12-10T19:33:13Z")
Late 20s. My barber had been lying to me for years. I was best man at a buddy’s wedding and they videotaped it from the church balcony. Watching the tape, it looked like I was wearing a little white yarmulke. It was the shine off my bald spot. ☹ Mid 50s now and I still have a few stragglers on top, but mostly just have ‘the ring’. Also going very grey, especially the beard. ---
**Author:** ![Finally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/67e7ee/32.png) [@Finally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finally)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-balding/643390/45 "2012-12-10T21:43:49Z")
Oh dear, my son is 17 and he’s already thinning. One of his friends was teasing him about it the other day. I was definitely more upset than he was. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-balding/643390/46 "2012-12-10T21:58:43Z")
For all of those who picked “never”, I am wondering how their ages break down (probably towards the young side), and how many of them would pick a different choice if we repeated this poll in 10 years (or for that matter, was there a poll like this 10 years ago?). ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-balding/643390/47 "2012-12-10T23:40:43Z")
Early 30’s. Out of the total hair that I have lost, probably 95% of it disappeared within 4 years or so. Since I was 40 I don’t think my hairline has changed significantly. Or maybe I’m kidding myself. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-balding/643390/48 "2012-12-12T13:18:05Z")
Men reaching 30 are certainly not in the clear. I’m 35, and my hair has been thinning for the past five years or so. Curiously, my hairline hasn’t moved at all, there’s just an even overall reduction in the amount a hair per square centimeter on the top of my head. All the male relatives of mine (from both sides) are badly balding, and my father and my mother’s father had prominent widow’s peaks at my age. I have cousins who are 10 years my junior and have no hair left above the ears, so I count myself lucky. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-balding/643390/49 "2012-12-12T17:15:49Z")
I put 80-89. I was 19 years old in 89 and you could already see it starting. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-balding/643390/50 "2012-12-12T17:33:55Z")
I have a friend who went bald at age 18. He grows thick hair everywhere else. He has to shave his neck every day, but he’s bald as a cue ball from the ears up. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-balding/643390/51 "2012-12-12T18:08:47Z")
Never. But I preemptively shaved my head two years ago to show support for my gf’s breast cancer situation. Ironically, she required only radiation therapy and not chemo. The only hair loss she experienced was her armpit. I remain smooth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-start-balding/643390.md?page=2)