My Son Is Balding at 19
I am the mother of an 19 year old son, who is now experiencing the effects of heritary male pattern baldness. My father was bald, and my son’s biological father is bald. In fact baldness on both sides of the family goes back for several generations. Poor kid; he is really distressed about this. I tried to explain to my son that just because he is loosing some hair on the frontal area does not mean that girls will not be interested in him. Of course he always says, “That is such a MOM answer!” My new husband and I live in Utah and our communication with my son is mostly over the phone to California where he lives attending college. We told him to go see a Pharmacist but I am sure they will just recommend some over-the-counter cream like Rogaine. Also he likes to work out and has been drinking these shakes to help him bulk up. Are those bad adding to premature baldness as well? What do you recommend? Should he contact is primary care physician? Should he see someone in the Santa Clara, CA area? Please help.
Sometimes these ‘shakes’ have steroids in them and they can accelerate balding in people who use them. He needs to be seen by a specialist. I have an office in San Jose so ask him to make an appointment with me personally, and I will try to diagnose him and address the problem. The longer he waits to get to the root of the problem, the more hair he will lose. To set up a free consultation, please call 800-NEW-HAIR or fill out our online info request form and we’ll contact him to setup an appointment.
I experienced the same thing at 19 and decided to try transplantation surgery to see what kind of density I could achieve in one or two surgeries… Big mistake. Now, I’m not saying I do not condone the surgeries, but I am saying that a very short haircut and a good tan can also accomplish a nice result and the cost (with multiple meanings of the word “cost”) is a great deal less. I recently came very close to shaving my head, but when I realized the scars were far worse than I see day-to-day (I shaved a sample area), it became clear that the only solutions I have are to stay where I am with a partial artificial system or keep doing surgeries until I’m done. Neither solution sounds appealing.
Right now, the smooth head thing is in. Take advantage of it!