I have no helpful comments. I do remember the comment of a guy at church. The discussion was about what we would ask God when we got to heaven. The (bald) guy said, “I would ask why he thought it was a good idea for me to start losing my hair when I was 22.”
If it is just male pattern baldness and not alopecia, don’t worry about it.
Rogaine worked for me 20 years ago, but I stopped after 6 months. Messy, smelly, expensive, and the hair it grew back was just long, fine peach fuzz.
Trump takes finasteride.
Those genetic rules of thumb (maternal grandmother) are just old wives tales.
I would suggest not going overboard with any advice to your son. He may be offended that you think something is wrong with him, looks freakish, etc.
And like others have suggested, sunscreen and hats. That freshly exposed skin is like that of a baby!
Lots of good advice and comments from everyone – I appreciate it. @OhiBro good point about treading lightly.
Same happened to a friend. He was pretty young when he went almost totally bald. It didn’t bother his wife at all (or anyone else) but it certainly did him. He tried Rogaine but it gave so-so results (and was expensive back then). He finally had a hair transplant (pretty new at the time) and had excellent results. It was expensive and quite a process but it made a huge difference to him.
My understanding is that Rogaine is only effective on balding at the crown, but not at the hairline in front. Not completely sure about that, though.
I have an uncle who is 6 years older than I am and I remember when he started going bald in his very early 20’s. He said he had hoped to have at least a few carefree years after acne before he had to worry about baldness, but no such luck.
Don’t worry, it is not uncommon. Runs in some families. My dad, brothers, my 3 sons, multiple nephews all started losing their hair in their late teens-early 20s. H was already balding when we met–he was 25. I recently noticed that an 18yo neighbor I hadn’t seen in awhile had a receding hairline and bald spot it the back. If I didn’t know him, I’d think he was in his 30s. (He could probably buy alcohol without getting carded.)
H and sons don’t really care about hair loss. It seems normal to them, so they haven’t tried any treatments.
@1Dreamer — you’re correct about Rogaine. Only good for certain baldness patterns and has to be used continuously.
Prince William and Prince Albert are a little light on top. Maybe your son should consider becoming a prince?
S has super thick hair, unfortunately poor D has a lot of grey at 24, as I did and my mother and my grandmother…
I had a friend who lose most of his hair in his mid 20s. He was a super sexy bald man!
I think bald absolutely can look great and that’s the message I would want my child to hear.
My H started losing his hair when he was 19 (when I met him, he was 23). My S is now 25 and has not shown any signs of hair loss. My father will be 91 in a month, and he still has very thick, curly hair. I had wondered whether S would take after his father, but so far, no.
I know his hair loss bothers my H, but it has never bothered me.
I would not draw attention to it. You can’t imagine the number of people who will outright say in person, or on a Facebook photo, “wow, you really lost your hair!” to my H.
They would never say “wow you really put on some pounds” or “gee, you really had a lot of Botox” or any other comment on someone’s appearance like that. Especially something you have absolutely no control over!
Sorry it’s a pet peeve of mine.
Sounds very familiar. I also did a couple bottles of Rogaine in my mid 20’s, and then asked my wife if she cared. She said no, and I didn’t either so I let it go.
My husband started balding in his early 20’s. It bothered him at first, but by the time I met him when he was 30, he didn’t think twice about it and neither did I.
It was actually a career advantage because people assumed he was more experienced/senior, and tended to listen to his ideas and defer to him more.
After 22 years, he’s still the most attractive man to me.
In my family there are men who lost their hair and those who didn’t, but in every generation those who did lose it tended to lose it earlier. Makes me wonder if there’s some environmental component adding in.
I agree that the less said the better. At our 10th high school reunion the committee had a Telly Sevalis award for the man who had lost the most hair. I wanted to go onstage and nominate the woman doing the presentation for the Mama Cass award and see how she felt. But I’m too polite for that so I just muttered it to my husband.
It doesn’t matter what we think. It’s how your son feels. It’s a matter of how he feels about himself and how this affects him but we cant guage that.
Everyone is different. Some care a lot and some not at all.
Just support him. When or even if he decides on a path then pursue more advice.
He’s got options from “let nature take its course” to surgery. And I personally think there isn’t a bad path to take—just depends on what he wants.
@dragonmom well at least Telly Savalis was considered hot.
@mathmom I think Patrick Stewart – especially in Star Trek: The Next Generation – was MUCH hotter than Telly Savalas.
I think it’s similar to the number of people who say “you got glasses” to a child who shows up in school with eyeglasses for the first time. I asked my son to count the number of people who said it on the day when he first wore his glasses to school in the fourth grade. It was more than 50.
What makes people think that a person who (1) went bald or (2) is wearing eyeglasses for the first time is not aware of it? What quirk of our mental processes is this?
What did the GP and dermatologist say about the hair loss? Did they think it was standard androgenic alopecia (male pattern hair loss)? Was the shampoo something with ketoconazole (Nizoral)?
LOL, I’ll agree with you there. Patrick Stewart is also hot!