New photos of my crown/vertex

[cc89]

I posted some photos of my crown/vertex area here on November 15th and was told that there was no balding in that area at the time. One of the responders, mattj, recommended that I take another photo of the same area in a few months time to see if any change has occurred. It's now March 1st, and here's what I got after three and a half months...

 

new1: http://i51.tinypic.com/eq4bhe.jpg

new2: http://i54.tinypic.com/d9sn7.jpg

 

For comparison purposes, here are the old photos I posted in November.

 

old1: http://i54.tinypic.com/ev3lao.jpg

old2: http://i51.tinypic.com/bg4vpu.jpg

 

I've tried to take the photos at the same angles, but I don't know if I did a good job of that. Does anyone see any change or balding patterns emerging?

Edited March 2, 2011 by cc89

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

I do not see any real difference in the old and new photos. Remember that people who have dark hair and light skin often feel that they are experiencing hair loss in the crown where their swirl starts from. This is because all the hair is leaving the center area and fanning out in all directions. There is not a lot of feathering effect in the center of the crown as there is in othere areas of the scalp.

[cc89]

That makes sense, though I'm also wondering if there's any miniturization there. Here's a closer magnification of the same area: http://i54.tinypic.com/r2q4vl.png

 

If I pluck some hairs from my donor area, I get the same type of variation in hair strand thickness where a few of the strands are thin and the rest are thick. However these individual thin hairs are rare and seem to be present all over the scalp amongst the thicker hairs. As such, I don't see or feel any thinning at this point in time.

 

So my question is this: is it normal to have hairs of varying thickness on the scalp in this manner or am I seeing the early signs of miniturization?

 

I'm 21-years-old, and my father didn't see any signs of baldness until he was in his mid thirties. I have a photo of him with thick long 70's style hair which was taken when he was around 30-years-old. He's now 58-years-old and is stable at NW3. He and his younger brother are the only two balding men in either side of the family. No one on my mother's side of the family is balding, but given my usual bad luck, I doubt that'll help me at all.

Edited March 4, 2011 by cc89

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

You do have hairs with varying hair shaft diameters. However, that is something that can be observed in persons who are not experiencing male pattern baldness. In your case at this time it does not appear that you have a significant percentage of hairs in the miniaturization process. Keeping a close eye on the area of concern with serial photos is always a good idea.

[gillenator]

Anyone can purchase a magnifying glass at the dollar store and begin to compare hair shaft diameter in any area of the scalp. Simply take a sample from the area that you believe or suspect that miniturization is taking place. Take several terminal hair samples from the donor zone by just plucking them. Then lay down the miniturized hair samples next to the terminal hair and tape to a white sheet of paper and start comparing over future time periods.