Hey, it's me. said:
My father is as bald as a coot, so I guess it was inevitable but its still a bit of a shock to the system. My girlfriend says it doesn't bother her in the slightest, and I do believe her. But its starting to bother me. Anyone else suffered from this and able to give me some insight in how to cope?
My dad went bald at a fairly young age, much younger than I am now. So all my life my parents had been warning me (and scaring the crap out of me) that I was going to bald in my early twenties. Fortunately, it didn't happen. According to several different people I've known, inside of and outside of the medical community, the whole balding aspect of genetics is more likely to come from the mother's side of the family. So a bald maternal grandfather, or your mother's bald male siblings are supposedly a better indicator than a bald father. However, there is no science to back this up.
My hairline has been drifting back over the last couple of years, and there has been some thinning.
Some people report great results with topical treatments, such as minoxidil (Rogaine), others report miniscule to no regrowth with it. If you're really concerned about it, that is your best bet. Nowadays it is really cheap and won't set you back much and you don't have to worry about nasty side effects. I think a three month supply runs about $40 USD these days. I've considered this, but have yet to take the time to be bothered with it.
Androgenic alopecia (male pattern baldness) is most commonly caused by high levels of endocrine hormones. There is a drug call finasteride that has shown to produce amazing hair regrowth results, like we're talking going from practically bald to a freaking mop in a year or so. Basically it prevents conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, preventing the dihydrotestosterone from shrinking your hair follicles and causing your hair to fall out.
Unfortunately, side effects occur in over 90% of users, and the most common ones include stuff even shittier than a shiny head, such as erectile dysfunction, yellow to brown ejaculate, as well as gynecomastia (the growing of a spectacular pair of titties). So, you get your hair back in exchange for your sex life, unless you have/find someone special who is into man boobs and doesn't mind the flaccidness. Suddenly baldness doesn't sound like such a bad thing, right? Incidentally, although it was originally marketed and approved by the FDA (oh FDA...) for treatment of enlarged prostate and hair loss, they found this drug also works great in male - female sex change hormone replacement.
Like Silverwook said, see your doctor and determine the cause of your hair loss, if it is just plain old genetic male pattern baldness and it really bothers you, give minoxidil a shot and see if it works for you. Even when it doesn't work for regrowth, it has been shown to slow hair loss in some people.