Experiences starting to bald in late 30's early 40's

[benmcd]

Hi All,

as this is my age group and I am starting to thin out quite quickly on top, I am interested to know if others are having the same experience. I was off the opinion that if baldness started later in life it would be a slow gradual process, in contrast to guys balding earlier in life (late teens or 20's).
Yet another factor that made me think I was safe, is the fact that I have relatively coarse hair and I was sure it would be attached to my noggin with super glue, seems not.

Interested to hear any experiences that match my own.

[GaryT]

Yeah, mine didn't really start to become obvious until late 40s. I don't know about speed. It does seem to be falling out much slower than many I know who started balding early in life. Who knows??

[Papa Don]

Well, I am in my mid-60s and it has just started thinning.  I too have course hair.  I have gone bbc since last year (on & off) and I am starting to notice that the shadow is getting lighter. Also the hair in an area right on top of the noggin, about the size of a lemon feels odd.  Sort of like it is dead.  I don't know if it is starting to go by the wayside or just feels this way due to shaving.  Personally, I wish the whole mop would fall out completely.  I DO love being Sly!

[BReady]

I started losing my hair when I in my early 20's.  Just recession at the temples,  but my vertex and crown were still thick.  It wasn't until my early to mid 30's did I start losing it in the back and top.  It just gets to the point that you might as well shave it.... I just happen to get to that point this year.

BReady

[DCdome]

I always had a "high forhead" as the saying goes.  But I really started to lose my hair in my 30s.  I was swimming laps a lot in my 30s and 40s and that may have contributed to the hair loss, but I don't know that for sure at all.

[D.A.L.U.I.]

It's a hard thing to say "when it began."     I had always noted mine to my early to mid thirties when my oldest said, "Daddy's got a hole in his head!" --But I can tell you when she said it I didn't find it amusing at all, not at all.  It just kept creeping through my 30s, then the 40's, and 50's, and now I can say, it should have been shaved either in the late 40's or 50's.  But I hung on, until it was just too obvious to ignore any more. 
My come uppance and the point of this post was brought to the forefront again this past Easter when one of my oldest friends, we literally met our first day of college.  We're driving around, and he asked if I was going to grow it out again.  Obvious answer "No!", duh.  Then the stomach punch, he said, "Well you did start losing it in your twenties, right after we got out of school!"  I just had ignored it, but you know, that was a shock, not quite painful, but a shock anyway.  Damn, I really was 10 to 15 years denying the fact I should have shaved it.   
There's a happy ending though, now I'm sly--
The "take away" we probably don't acknowledge we're losing it until it's been going on for a LONG time.  Sad, but true.

[Mikekoz13]

Mine started in my early 20's buyt I knew for years I would be bald one day because i am from a long line of horseshoes.

[benmcd]

My genes have only baldness on my maternal side, my grandfather was up there in the 5's on the Norwood scale, my uncles on my mother's side also had baldness big time. On my paternal side it is not such an issue, only minimal receding temples if that.. Interesting as I would have said I took after my old man.

[marshd1000]

I noticed I was balding in my late 20's.  But it was frontal recession and the loss of the widow's peak in the front.  So the front kept getting larger in terms of hairless area.  Photos made it noticable.  So then I finally went sly.  One time when I grew it back, a co-worker noticed that I was thinning in the back.  Just recently a friend noticed that my shadow was darker where the "rim" would be and that the top shadow is much lighter.  So now I would say that I am a "Norwood 3".  But it has been slow.  I am now 48.