Balding Progression

[benmcd]

I'm kinda interested to know, how the balding process advanced with the guys who have MPB.
I was sure that this was a bullet I had dodged!
I am now 43, and about 12 months ago saw a photo of myself and thought, "Sh#t .. I'm getting thin on top"..
I have noticed what I would probably class as a pretty steady thinning going on all the way from the front of my head to the back, and a very clear horseshoe pattern is evident.. I however do not have any area that technically bald. Can anyone tell me what is to be expected, I am OK with balding, in fact now it has started I kinda wish it would just get on with it.
Is/was anyone at my age when they started balding and how long did it take to progress?

[BuzzKC]

I'm 43 and have had either a close buzz or shaved head since about 1989. I've receded at the temples and thinned out some but its really hard to gauge it unless you grow it out for at least a month.

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

I am OK with balding, in fact now it has started I kinda wish it would just get on with it.

You have spoken for all w/ mpb.  Mine started in my 20's, and in my early 30's my now older daughter seeing me in the backyard from her bedroom on the second floor, said, "Dad's got a hole in his head!"  That hurt.  Recently, the guy who is that daughter's godfather, and one my oldest and best friends commented while visiting that I should consider regrowing some hair, and I told him there wasn't that much to regrow.  He said, "Well you've been losing it since you were in your twenties!"  Everyone knew, I knew, but I kept thinking it's slowed down, yada, yada, yada.  
I didn't shave it until 10/12/07, but I should have done it--in hindsight [okay no pun intended]--at least 10 to 15 years before even in my early 40's.  I've used enough hairspray to hold the combover in place to make a substantial contribution to the decline of the ozone layer.  I used premium priced "thickening" shampoos and conditioners, I fluffed it carefully with a blow dryer, but I should have been shaving.
Now when I look in the mirror, I've got a shadow that has the "runway" to the long standing hole, but after 12 hours, but I can feel sparse hairs, and if the light is right, I can see the little hairs that make the stubble.  I can also feel without looking the limits of the shadow.  Yes, I wish that it would just all fall out, and it is but not fast enough for me.  But why can't mpb do what I want it to now.  Oh well, my shadow stands as a monument to the only safe and sane solution to mpb, and--this is strange--I not only fully accept it, I have also come to sort of like the look.  That's a good thing because I have enough white hairs that even if I wanted to I couldn't get it lasered.  Maybe someday they will be able to, maybe at that time I'll still be vain enough to consider it and undergo that process. But my shadow and I are one now.  I still want that cr_p off the runway though, I'm shaving mostly skin now.

[FR8TRAIN]

My balding started, I believe, in my mid thirties; I'm 48 now, and it started pretty gradually with noticeable thinning at the crown. This eventually led to a pretty good size, nearly bald spot on the crown by the age of 40. By the time I actually went sly in March of '08 (though I had shaved my head a few times before in the mid '90's) I pretty much had an island in front with a definite horseshoe/toilet seat forming on the sides.

As with you Will, I wish it would just get on with it. As it is, I save every day and though I erroneously slipped from the way of the sly for a few months; I actually though being sly was preventing me from gaining employment, I wouldn't replace that smooth feeling for anything in the world. 

[Razor X]

I've got very sparse growth all over the top, not much more than peach fuzz, really.  And it is surprisingly difficult to get the thinnest areas smooth.  The fuzz seems to be too fine to get grabbed by the razor.  Has anyone else experienced that?

[benmcd]

On reading my original post, it reads as a "how long is a piece of string" question. I was off the belief that guys who start balding in their 20's and perhaps 30's will most likely have more complete baldness than someone like myself who did not start till into the early 40's. In saying that what seemed like just some thinning going on in front, now is all the way across the top to the crown giving the horseshoe shape. Interesting Razor X that the peach fuzz is difficult to shift. I notice now that the area that is thinning has a much lighter shadow when I shave, this is for me a good thing.     

[FR8TRAIN]

Speaking of that "little bit". I happen to have a cowlick right at the front of my scalp that requires me to hit it from every angle in order to ensure a slick, smooth noggin. It just happens to be the most persistent part of the island.

[Razor X]

Interesting Razor X that the peach fuzz is difficult to shift. I notice now that the area that is thinning has a much lighter shadow when I shave, this is for me a good thing.     

The shadow is lighter, but it seems to be more difficult to get those hairs shorn off really close to the skin.  It just doesn't seem to grow fast enough for the razor to really grab hold.  It seems to be the opposite side of the coin where you get a much closer shave if you skip a day.

[benmcd]

Razor X.. good to see you are a fan of "Down Under".. Good choice of t-shirt !

[Razor X]

Razor X.. good to see you are a fan of "Down Under".. Good choice of t-shirt !

Glad you approve.   

[mangosink12572]

Hope you are SLY by now and  enjoying the greatness of being BALD - - - -My hair just got thin from getting old - - - -and then thinner and then nothing on a spot in the back panel  - - -The hell with it  I said  - - - -I went bald a week before Halloween  - it was my costume and no one knew me - - - - -I love being BALD 

[marshd1000]

I do believe that there are different degrees of balding and to how fast it happens.  My I noticed at about age 29 that I was losing hair on the front of my head.  I had a thin patch that was quite see through.  Now the hair at the front is gone.  When I was 36, I started to shave my head.  Since then I have grown it back a few times.  One of the last times I grew it back, a co-worker noticed that my hair was thinning in the back.  I am now 49 and have a rather small area that might be considered bald in the back.  But a few months ago a friend commented to me that he could see why I shaved my head as my MPB fringe shadow is  becoming more noticable.  Looking in the mirror I can see it but I can also see that the lighter area would be very thin hair and not totally bald if I grew it back.  But I think sly looks better than thinning hair.  But I have baldness on both sides of the family.  One side is slick bald and the other is very thinning.  So who knows how mine will end up!  It can just all fall out...I really don't care!

[Morthen]

I dont know how to explain it other than, My hair looks like an M because of the frontal recession, plus it just grows thin overall on the top, so when i Let it grow I get a bozo the clown sort of thing going on, its not super noticeable yet but Im sure its only a matter of time

[kenny57028]

My hair started going away about a year and a half ago when I was 17. It started with my hair just getting thin all over the top. It thinned out from the back to the front. And than my hairline started to recede.

[Morthen]

Mine started falling out around age 18, and progressed pretty bad up until late 19. I'm sly now so I don't know how bad it is, last I saw I had the "hole" in the crown and lots of frontal recession