Teenage hair loss is more common than you may think. Around 25% of men with male pattern baldness start losing their hair before the age of 21 [1], and between 15.5% and 38.5% of teenagers worldwide experience hair loss [2].
Fortunately, if you’re a teenage guy experiencing hair loss, you have lots of effective hair loss options available to you. Plus, many experts have in-depth knowledge about lifestyle and how it affects hair loss.
If you’re wondering how to stop hair loss in teenage guys, read on to discover:
The best treatment choice for male teenage hair loss depends on the reason you’re losing hair. The most common type of hair loss in adolescent boys is early-onset male pattern baldness, followed by alopecia areata and then telogen effluvium [3].
Depending on your age and the cause of your hair loss, your trichologist may recommend hair loss medication, lifestyle changes, or other treatments. If you’re noticing hair loss in your teens, there is some good news — you caught it early.
It’s much easier to hold onto hair that you haven’t lost yet than to regain hair once it’s gone. Hair doctors can advise you on a long-term plan to help you keep your hair into your twenties and beyond.
Before deciding on a treatment plan, you need to know which type of hair loss you have. Let’s explore the most common types of hair loss in teenage guys.
Also known as male pattern baldness, this is the most common type of hair loss for teen boys and affects 80% of men by the age of 80 [4]. While it’s much more common in adults, androgenetic alopecia can affect children as young as six years old. This is, however, very rare and is linked to abnormal androgen levels due to a strong genetic predisposition [5]. Learn more about male pattern baldness in this video:
If you have male pattern baldness, the first signs of thinning and balding may include:
As hair loss progresses, some men become completely bald in time. However, this happens over many years. If you’ve started noticing early signs of hair loss, you’re not likely to go bald any time soon.
Alopecia areata is the second most common cause of hair loss in teenage boys. It’s an autoimmune condition in which white blood cells attack your hair follicles, causing small, round, bald patches.
It usually affects the scalp but can also affect other body areas. Hair loss can be unpredictable, with cycles of regrowth and hair shedding.
Telogen effluvium is a type of hair loss caused by physical or mental stress [6]. In teenage guys, triggers may include severe stress, rapid weight loss, surgery or certain medical conditions.
Hair usually starts to grow back within a few months in 95% of cases [6]. Fortunately for guys, chronic telogen effluvium (causing long-term hair loss) only seems to affect women [6].
Other causes of hair loss in teenage guys include:
Learn more here about the most common causes of teenage hair loss.
Male pattern baldness responds very well to medications like Finasteride and Minoxidil, but they’re not generally recommended for under 18s [7-8]. In some cases, Minoxidil can be prescribed off-label to teenagers. If your doctor advises that you’re not old enough to take these medications yet, your trichologist can recommend non-prescription treatments to help stabilise your hair loss until you’re 18.
If your hair loss is caused by alopecia areata, you may need steroid medication to resolve your symptoms. Often, this may come in the form of steroid creams that you apply directly to your scalp or areas of hair loss.
In some cases, you may need steroid injections for hair loss. Oral steroids tend to be used only in the most severe cases because they can cause more side effects.
Depending on the cause of your hair loss, you may also be a candidate for platelet-rich plasma (PRP) hair treatment. There’s very limited research on the use of PRP in teenagers, but early case studies show positive results [9].
PRP is a type of regenerative medicine which uses a concentrated sample of platelets from your own blood. This sample is injected into areas of hair loss and can stimulate your hair follicles to regrow hair. It tends to work best for pattern baldness [10], and there’s also some early evidence for its use in alopecia areata [11], but further research is needed in this area.
Your clinician may recommend natural treatments for teenage hair loss, particularly if you’re too young to take common hair loss medications. These treatments may include lifestyle changes and diet advice, such as eating a balanced diet for healthy hair growth and making sure you don’t have an iron deficiency or other mineral or vitamin deficiencies.
Stress can cause hair loss, so stress management is often a part of treatment for hair shedding in teens. Your trichologist may also recommend natural remedies such as caffeine shampoo or rosemary oil (which is a natural alternative to topical Finasteride).
Tight hairstyles can cause traction alopecia by putting too much pressure on your hair follicles. Instead, try one of these styles:
Hair loss can be tough at any age, but as a teenager, it may feel particularly devastating. Talking to someone can make it feel easier, even if that’s difficult at first.
Your friends and family are a good place to start, and having the support of someone you trust can make things feel a lot easier. If that still doesn’t feel like enough, consider talking to a therapist about your hair loss.
Teenage hair loss support groups can also be helpful. Dealing with your symptoms feels easier when you’re not doing it alone and have other people who understand how you’re feeling.
A natural-looking hair transplant is often considered the gold standard treatment for male pattern baldness. If you are a teenage guy and you’ve started losing hair early, you may be keen to learn whether this is an option for you.
Unfortunately, hair transplants are not recommended in your early twenties and definitely not for under 18s [12]. The first step to treat androgenetic alopecia in your teens is medication [12] or non-prescription treatments if you’re not old enough for this yet.
Once your hair loss has been stabilised with Minoxidil or Finasteride, your hair doctor will aim to improve your hair density with medication before considering surgery. This can be frustrating, but immediate hair transplantation at a young age is not advised because it can [12]:
If you think you’re losing hair as a teenage guy, book an appointment with an expert trichologist. Our clinicians are experts in hair loss for people of all ages, including teenagers.
A hair doctor can examine your scalp using diagnostic trichology tests, such as a hair pull test or blood tests for hair loss. If you have a hair loss condition, they can recommend age-appropriate treatments to get your hair back on track.
Getting a hair transplant too early can lead to worse outcomes in the future, but getting the right treatment as a teenager can set you up to be a good candidate for a hair transplant in the future — people can often get a successful hair transplant at 25. Book a consultation at your nearest clinic location to find out how we can help.
Losing a small amount of hair every day is completely normal, even as a 15-year-old boy. It’s normal to lose 50 to 100 hairs per day, but it may be worth seeking expert help if you’re losing more hair in the shower or on your hairbrush than normal.
Frontal balding caused by androgenetic alopecia is unlikely to grow back on its own, but hope is not lost. With the right treatment, frontal hair loss can often grow back, and there’s always the option of a hair transplant in the future if it doesn’t.
Male pattern hair loss is the most common cause of a receding hairline for 15-year-old boys. Though it usually starts in your late twenties or early thirties, some boys are affected by this condition at 15 years old.
You won’t necessarily go bald if your dad is bald. However, male pattern baldness is genetic, so you’re at higher risk of experiencing this type of hair loss than someone with no family history of the condition.
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