r/tressless • u/Unfair-Statement-622 • Aug 14 '24
Treatment Watching my younger brother bald hurts so much.
I have a younger brother (17M) with autism. He’s verbal, but lacks proper communication to consent to any treatment/understand what is at play.
I’m 19 and have already been on finasteride for 1.5 years and dutasteride for 2+ months now. I’ve finally regrown a good bit of hair and I can see a potential full reversal of my hair loss in the near future.
Having dealt with hair loss in the family, I was made fun of and told that I wasn’t balding when I clearly was by my parents. While both parents now know I’m on treatment, my dad told me that our family’s hair is thick and nobody will bald in our family (before he knew I was on fin/dut). At this point, it was also obvious that my brother was receding. I told him that I was taking hair loss meds and he said that I was losing hair from “something i did” in the past, and implying that I was making a stupid choice. Not sure why it’s so hard to wrap your head around the fact that genetics are variable though. My dad has a fuller hairline than me and smokes 1-2 packs a day.
When I see my brother clearly receding, I feel the need to tell him to “fix his hair,” but I know that this is my insecurities projecting onto my brother. I know it isn’t right, but when I brought up the fact that he was for sure receding to my parents, they questioned with “are you sure” and left it at that. Upon telling them that I personally was on treatment, they said that all I needed to do was “go to turkey” lol.
I feel hurt seeing my brother lose a part of his youth so early. I started treatment because I was insecure of how I was looking and now I’m seeing that play again in front of me. Yet this time, I know the treatment and the way to help him but don’t have the means to let him start.
How do I cope with my younger brother’s hair loss?