Aggressive balding at 17, can it be stopped?

I read some comments around here on posts from people who are 17, 18 years old. Many say that there is not much that can be done in those cases, and that one should simply accept that all is lost. I’m 18 and I think my baldness is aggressive. My hairline has always been high, but at 16 I saw it was receding a bit. Two years later, I have a nw2.5-ish hairline, and it turns out that my alopecia is retrograde. However, my hair is very thick on top. On the sides and back, not much, due to the fact that it is retrograde.

One year ago, I realized that things were getting a lot worse. From May to December, I can say that I went from quite-good-hair to obviously balding. I started topical minoxidil in November, and I’ve been using it to this day. Finasteride only started being part of my regimen three months ago (almost four), at the end of January. I’m losing about 100 hairs a day in the shower, but I can say that my hair is still the same as it was at the beginning of the year. Considering how aggressive the progression was, I don’t know what my hair would look like now if I hadn’t done anything to combat the baldness.

I’ve heard reports of guys saying that they started going bald around the time I did, that they had started treatment, but at 24-27 years old ended up losing all their hair. Therefore, I would like to know if it is true that attempting to combat aggressive baldness at a young age is in vain.

I have seen men 17-18 whose fathers had a Class 7 pattern by the age of 22 and they are now looking just like their dads.  I am not sure that today’s medications can stop this balding process, but it is worth a try.  Most men can get a hair transplant and prevent the balding appearance; however, most reputable hair surgeons will not tackle a 17-year-old even with parental consent because of maturity and financial issues.  Too many young men can’t handle the decisions on hair transplants at 18.