glass_pockets

I am convinced that I'm going bald. I'm a 19 year old male, and over the past 10 months or so I've been letting my hair grow (you know, first year of uni and all that). For quite a while now, I've been seeing hair in the bath, a few coming out as I comb the stuff in the morning. I don't think it's thinning all over or anything, more receding. My granda on my mum's side is bald, being in his late seventies, but I'm not entirely sure what it was like in his 20s.

My friends seem to find it hilarious that I'm fretting about it, since they just can't see what I'm so concerned about. My parents are the same - I told them how worried I was about it at the start of June, and they took a good look and said they really didn't think there was a problem. After this, I was still worried, and decided to go to the hairdresser's to see what they thought (I needed my hair cut anyway). The woman dealing with me, much like my parents and my friends, said she didn't see anything wrong.

Despite this, I'm still really down about it. I'm convinced it's happening, and I just don't want it to happen for another ten years at least. My hair was dreadful-looking when I was at school, since I never bothered much with styling it or anything. Only since I started growing it has it looked half-decent. I'm starting to actually appreciate my hair, and now it would appear that it's falling out.

What makes it worse is that I really do not suit my hair short. I'm geeky and a "neat" haircut just makes me look even worse. I just don't know how I will cope, since I'm pathetically self-conscious and insecure about my looks as it is.

I booked an appointment at the health centre a few weeks ago, and had a chat with the GP about it. He examined my hair, and told me that he couldn't see any evidence of hair loss through alopecia. He then got the nurse to carry out a few relevant blood tests, which all came back normal. On the one hand, I'm thinking that, well, I've asked the doctor and he's saying that nothing is wrong, yet I can't help thinking that what I'm experiencing isn't normal.

The drugs thing really interests me. I've heard stuff about Propecia before. Would a GP really prescribe that, though? I assumed it was ridiculously expensive. I've been considering the possibility of wigs (although, how pointlessly expensive would a wig be?). I do also recall Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm expressing his distaste at men who try to cover up their baldness. I imagine this is a rather prevailing attitude. Certainly, manifest self-loathing is probably considered less attractive amongst many people than baldness itself. I dunno. I probably would consider a wig (not a toupee - a full on wig) if I was losing my hair rapidly.

Sorry that this has turned into something of a therapy session. I just needed, quite desperately, to get it off my chest. And if anyone could give me any further information pertaining to the chance of me being prescribed Propecia (if indeed it does turn out that I'm losing my hair), that'd be great. Oh, and also - Nioxin. How much would one of those systems (the NIOXIN Cleanser, Scalp Therapy and Scalp Treatment) cost? I can't see anything about prices on the website.

Thanks for reading.