Marvin

Well another issue is how different baldness genes interact, right? So if your dad and uncle have different balding patterns, isn't it also possible that instead of getting one or the other, you could get a mix? For instance, in my family virtually all the men are bald. But they tend to stop at NW4 or NW5. There might be a few who eventually hit NW6 in their late 50's, but I can't find a single NW7. This is true on both sides of my family. So should I be planning for that kind of pattern...or does the fact that I am the combination of two families of bald men mean that I will be the first NW7 -- the ultimate product of selective breeding?

My roommate is a huge health nut. He goes jogging every day, he crams his refrigerator with fresh fruits and veggies, and his shelf is lined with supplements. He's also the baldest guy in his mid 20's that I personally know. I'm pretty sure that he will be a NW6 by the time he hits 28.

I can certainly see where you are coming from, though. Not only are you going to be immortalized in your wedding picture, but you are probably going to see a lot of people at your wedding who you haven't seen in years. I dread the day, 5-10 years from now, when I meet somebody I haven't seen from high school or college, and they'll see that I have gone bald.

In the USA, women generally care a lot about their weddings. This is something that our culture encourages little girls to dream about. So I would never want to tell an American woman that something I want to do would delay her wedding, which she probably views as the single most important day of her life. Maybe in the UK it is different. And obviously not all people are the same. But I would not risk saying such a thing.

Yeah, an identical twin would be bald too.

But there are people for whom meds stop working.

Well, if you fix your hairline now, and then continue losing hair to the tune of a NW6-7, then you are going to end up looking quite unusual, right? Sadly, it seems that HT's are not likely to be the answer for guys like us who start losing early.

I never knew that a hair transplant left that kind of scar. Until I came here. Most people would probably just assume you got into an accident or something.

When I was growing up I never really cared that my dad was bald. Sometimes I made fun of it with friends, but it wasn't because I was embarrassed. It was playful joking. One day, when I was 14, I saw my dad and my mother's dad together (both are bald) and suddenly realized that I was most likely going to be bald too one day. I was kind of upset for a week and then found other things to worry about. But never before that.

Unfortunately, it looks like your baldness is so aggressive and advanced that you hair transplantation probably won't do much for you. At least not with many, many procedures. And the result is never going to give you a full head of hair; just make you less bald. Hair restoration is an expensive, painful thing that requires multiple surgeries and a lifetime of drugs. Don't do it just because you think somebody else wants you to. There are plenty of bald guys out there with attractive girlfriends and wives -- I know plenty of them and could rattle off examples all night. Do it only for yourself.

If you only need to have hair for your music career, a wig might be a good option, no? You can take it off when you aren't performing or shooting a video. I don't think John Travolta or William Shatner wear their wigs all the time.

Also, I don't know about you guys, but once I have gray hair I don't think I'll really care about being bald. For some reason, baldness looks more passable on a guy with gray hair. Maybe its because a lot more people are bald at that age. Or maybe its because the white hair blends in with the scalp, while colored hair contrasts with it. Unfortunately, gray is a good 30 years away for me, while NW6 is more like 7-8.

Wow, are those pictures all from around the same time?

Maybe try Avodart. Even if Propecia doesn't seem to be working, it seems worthwhile to keep taking it. If it doesn't work, well, you were going to lose that hair anyway. You're not losing anything by staying on it.

Going from a NW1 to an NW7 in your 40's beats the hell out of going from an NW1 to an NW7 in your 20's. I'd trade up to McNamara's genes any day.

What is your family history?

You sound like a diffuse thinner. At 25 you should be aware that things could backfire horribly if you get a hair transplant now and then progress to complete baldness.

I get to have both! (Though the baldness isn't a surprise here. Virtually every man in my family has it)

I don't know. Even chimps go bald, so maybe the reason applies to apes but not to us.

I am the only person in my family with blue eyes. Which is a recessive gene! So things like these can and do happen.

I wouldn't worry about it. The free market will create incentives for companies to study baldness treatments. Powerful ones. The thing stopping a cure is scientific difficulty, not people thinking it is immoral.

You guys are assuming that MPB is sexually/naturally selected. I don't think this is necessarily the case. After all, early man probably reproduced at a very young age, before the onset of MPB in most people. But not all people

If you cannot afford prescription Propecia you can get generic finasteride off the internet for pretty cheap. You have very aggressive hair loss and you should do the strongest treatment.

Who says there has to be a reason? A random mutation that gives no disadvantage or advantage can survive just fine due to luck or due to the founder effect.

I guess I assume that since bald men are losers in one area (hair), they are also losers in other areas (such as intelligence).