Common Age for Female Hair Loss to Start?

Hi Dr. Rassman,
Searching the internet and various websites I always seem to hear/read about women who have severe diffuse hair loss and have developed female pattern baldness when they are around 20-years-old. Is this very common? Some information I’ve come across says it’s very very common while other says it rarely happens. Do you have any statistics on it?

I am not aware of statistics, but from my experience, women often follow the females in the family that have genetic balding in the time of onset and the pattern. There is a strong one-to-one link between mother and daughter in this condition and it is not infrequent to see it in your mother’s mother or aunts. Female genetic hair loss is not common in very young women, but in each decade, the frequency rises until menopause when almost 50% of women experience the problem. We see hair loss after pregnancy in many of these women as well.