How Can I Tell If My Hair Loss is Genetic or From Poor Diet?

Dear Drs.,

I am 25 years old (Male) and have just discovered some hairloss on the upper-back or my head and it seems to be thinning on top as well. On the top and back, the hairloss is not in a circular shape, but mostly it appears to be short lines and patchy. Basically, I don’t know if my hairloss is genetic or from other factors.

For genetics, my father is bald. My mother’s father was not bald (he died at 92 years of age with hair), but his brother (my great-uncle) was bald. So I can see how baldness may have been passed down to me. Additionally, I do have a lot of body hair on my chest, stomach, forearms, legs and lower back (but not too much on the upper-back yet). I read that the genetics that promote bodyhair growth promotes baldness too.

For the other factors, I don’t eat meat and my diet usually consists of fruits and vegetables, with minimal breads and dairy. I am worried that my hair may be thinning from lack of Zinc or Iron. I have the white spots on my finger/toe nails and some slight cracked skin on the corners of my mouth (I read that this is a Zinc deficiency from the internet). Additionally, I workout a lot, some lifting, but I am mostly an endurance athlete. Also, I am a law student and am very busy and broke; basically I am very stressed out at the moment (and the hairloss thing only adds to the matter!)

So my questions are: (1) how can I tell if my hair loss is genetic or from diet/vitamin deficiency; and (2) if it is the latter, can the hairloss be reversed with supplements or change of diet?

Any help you could provide would be much appreciated; this is a very stressful event in my life and I find myself breathing very heavily just thinking about it or seeing myself in the mirror (I don’t know why this is, I can’t really help it). You may also post this question to the blog if you’d like, but I must ask that I remain anonymous. I would not like you to post this paragraph (you can post everything up to the numbered questions above).

Thank you very much.

Dietary cause of hair loss is almost unheard of in the United States even with the poor diets we keep. You would have to be severely malnourished to have hair loss. The most common cause of hair loss in men is genetic (99% or so of cases). Get yourself checked out for genetic hair loss by having your hair mapped out for miniaturization, which will tell you if you are balding from genetic causes. With your family history, that is quite possible.