If you never have, watch some Youtube videos on the effects of hormone replacement therapy. And maybe look at some of the "before and after" pictures posted here.
I say this because I myself was extremely worried about not being able to truly become a woman, and worried that I wouldn't be happy with myself. But let me tell you, looking at these pictures and these videos was a HUGE motivation, that made me believe for the first time in my life that it really was possible. And once I finally was able to free myself from the social stigma of "I don't want to look like some half-male half-female person for the rest of my life," I was finally able to sort out my thoughts and make a clear decision about whether I really did want to be a girl or not. So this is really worth looking into.
(I'm just about the same age as you, by the way, currently 27 years old. And I too have a thinning hairline. But it is true, feminizing hormones really can fix that if the hair loss has been recent, let's say within the last 7 years or so. Even after only a month on HRT myself, I'm already seeing little hairs popping up all over the place in the parts that were previously receding. It depends on how severe the baldness is already, and how recently it started disappearing, but the general rule is that if you can still see hair follicles there, it can indeed still grow back, since the follicles have just been rendered inactive by the effects of DHT rather than being completely dead. And likewise, HRT can take care of a LOT of the "fully developed male body" thing. Anything that is based on soft tissue rather than bone structure can and does change on estrogen.)
Really, what I'm trying to do here is to show you that it might not be as impossible as you might think. I don't want that to end up being the factor that keeps you from exploring this further, like it did with me for so long. The real question is about who YOU feel like. Do you feel like your identity is female? That things just aren't working right as a guy, and that becoming a girl would finally make you feel right, fully able to be yourself, and feel correct? This is the real question to think about. (By the way, I used to do the same thing with assuming female aliases on the internet to let me feel like I was being my true self.)
Talking to a therapist would indeed help. As would looking at some of the many internet resources that are available on how to determine if you really are transgender. Go looking! This is all about self-discovery, finding out what YOUR personal identity is. Don't get bogged down too much over the details. Age 26/27 is still plenty young if you really do want it. Full masculinization isn't usually done until men's mid-30's or so. And even then, there are STILL a ton of trans-women who end up looking amazing even well past that age. The general rule is hormones will work much better the younger you start taking them, but it's definitely not too late. So don't let that fear stop you from seriously thinking about it.
Anyway, that's my two cents as a 27-year-old trans girl that just went through this period of self-discovery myself a few short months ago, and now indeed is on HRT and in the process of finally making my physical gender match the gender in my head.
