Hello I'm 24 and still in the earlier stages of hairloss. I thought I would share my experience.
My hairline started to recede when I was 16. At the time it was very small in the temples. My hairloss then stabilized through out the rest of my teenage years. When I was going on 20 my hair went being from very dense, wavy to your average person's hair with receding slightly more in the temples. I was still an early norwood 1 so it wasn't enough to bother me. Over the course of the next four years I had a very slow hairloss in my hairline, but still it wasn't enough to bother me. When I graduated college last year at 23, my hairline still hadn't really recede that much. My hairline did take a small hit but I still had pretty thick hair. It was unnoticable the way I cut my hair short and combed forward.
About 3 months ago I took a pretty big hit. The temples receded further in very quickly and I went into a panic as most people do.
I did website work for a dermatologist about a year ago and he shamelessly tried to buy me into getting work done by him. When we talked about the layout of the norwood scales on his site, he happened to mention I was an early 2. Last week after my sudden notice of increased hairloss, I did a lot researching hairloss, mainly using this site. I went to see a dermatologist last week and he said I'm a beginning Norwood 3. That was a pretty big loss in only one year and made me depressed.
As for hairloss running in my family, my mother's side has great hair and my grandfather went out last year at 90 with a full set of hair. On my dad's side it can either be moderate or none at all. My dad is 53, he has a pretty receded hairline but no bald spot growing on the back. I assumed I had my fathers hair at 19 when my temples started to show. However, I figured I wasn't going to end up bald for a long time, no need to worry. Too bad my view changed about a month ago after the notice of sudden hairloss.
The dermatologist I consulted last week has a more negative view. He said with the hair loss I have at my age, I was destined to become bald. Suddenly I thought I might not even be as lucky as my father even though my hair texture is identical to his. For comparison, I decided to take a look at my dad around my age. The closest picture of age I saw of my father was when he was 29. He had a little bit worse hairline than I do now but I realized I had lost a lot in the last year and could easily end up worse in five years.
Anyhow, I got the Doctor to write me a perscription for Propecia to make sure my hairloss stabilizes. I'm okay with my hair as it is since it is thick enough that when I gel it, comb it forward, parting the middle out you can't see through to where my temples have receded. When my hair is not styled and especially when it is wet, you can certainly notice that I have a receding hairline.
On one hand, my current hairloss hasn't affected my chances at all with the opposite sex. In fact I think I do much better now at age 24 then I did when I was 17. I returned to my hometown this summer and found a lot of girls that had turned me down in high school, were now asking me if I had a girlfriend and wanted to hang out. The fact that I recently graduated college and making better money these days might have something to do with that though. Still I don't want to risk losing anymore hair for the sake of humiliation.
Here is my current formula:
Propecia 1x Day
Rogaine 5% 2x Day
Nizoral 3x Week
Unfortunately I started looking at pictures of myself in the past and been staring at my high school senior class picture. Looking at it carefully, I saw how I used to have nice thick, wavy hair back then. A couple of my friends in high school even complimented me over my hair. They said they wish they had thick wavy hair like I did. Ironically, one of them last year pointed out that I was starting to lose my hair.
I've been thinking about getting a hair transplant to restore my hairline completely. I figure I still will give the formula and year and see what results I get back. The dermatologist I talked to said I had terrific donor sites and one session should be enough fill in those temple areas. Two at the most would be needed. Unfortunately he is very expensive at $6400 a session. However, the end result photos I have seen from him are much better than other dermatologists I have contacted. Price is worth the results I get back.
Anyhow, I'll to give treatments a year and see what happens. If I am not happy with the results I'll consider a dermatologist slicing my head open. However, the areas I recently loss still have a lot of hairs there. Only now they are a mix of thin long hairs and small hairs at the surface. If those areas thicken back in I would easily go back to being a Norwood 2. I could be satisfied with that but looking back at the days of being a teenager I'm consider more drastic action.
I'll post some digital pictures of what I look like now when I return home next week. My biggest worries is this so called shedding period. Hopefully I won't take too big a hit. If I can thicken up the recently thinned out areas and even gain some extra hairline to what I lossed in the last year I'll be thrilled.
I'll try to keep you guys posted as I go.
My hairline started to recede when I was 16. At the time it was very small in the temples. My hairloss then stabilized through out the rest of my teenage years. When I was going on 20 my hair went being from very dense, wavy to your average person's hair with receding slightly more in the temples. I was still an early norwood 1 so it wasn't enough to bother me. Over the course of the next four years I had a very slow hairloss in my hairline, but still it wasn't enough to bother me. When I graduated college last year at 23, my hairline still hadn't really recede that much. My hairline did take a small hit but I still had pretty thick hair. It was unnoticable the way I cut my hair short and combed forward.
About 3 months ago I took a pretty big hit. The temples receded further in very quickly and I went into a panic as most people do.
I did website work for a dermatologist about a year ago and he shamelessly tried to buy me into getting work done by him. When we talked about the layout of the norwood scales on his site, he happened to mention I was an early 2. Last week after my sudden notice of increased hairloss, I did a lot researching hairloss, mainly using this site. I went to see a dermatologist last week and he said I'm a beginning Norwood 3. That was a pretty big loss in only one year and made me depressed.
As for hairloss running in my family, my mother's side has great hair and my grandfather went out last year at 90 with a full set of hair. On my dad's side it can either be moderate or none at all. My dad is 53, he has a pretty receded hairline but no bald spot growing on the back. I assumed I had my fathers hair at 19 when my temples started to show. However, I figured I wasn't going to end up bald for a long time, no need to worry. Too bad my view changed about a month ago after the notice of sudden hairloss.
The dermatologist I consulted last week has a more negative view. He said with the hair loss I have at my age, I was destined to become bald. Suddenly I thought I might not even be as lucky as my father even though my hair texture is identical to his. For comparison, I decided to take a look at my dad around my age. The closest picture of age I saw of my father was when he was 29. He had a little bit worse hairline than I do now but I realized I had lost a lot in the last year and could easily end up worse in five years.
Anyhow, I got the Doctor to write me a perscription for Propecia to make sure my hairloss stabilizes. I'm okay with my hair as it is since it is thick enough that when I gel it, comb it forward, parting the middle out you can't see through to where my temples have receded. When my hair is not styled and especially when it is wet, you can certainly notice that I have a receding hairline.
On one hand, my current hairloss hasn't affected my chances at all with the opposite sex. In fact I think I do much better now at age 24 then I did when I was 17. I returned to my hometown this summer and found a lot of girls that had turned me down in high school, were now asking me if I had a girlfriend and wanted to hang out. The fact that I recently graduated college and making better money these days might have something to do with that though. Still I don't want to risk losing anymore hair for the sake of humiliation.
Here is my current formula:
Propecia 1x Day
Rogaine 5% 2x Day
Nizoral 3x Week
Unfortunately I started looking at pictures of myself in the past and been staring at my high school senior class picture. Looking at it carefully, I saw how I used to have nice thick, wavy hair back then. A couple of my friends in high school even complimented me over my hair. They said they wish they had thick wavy hair like I did. Ironically, one of them last year pointed out that I was starting to lose my hair.
I've been thinking about getting a hair transplant to restore my hairline completely. I figure I still will give the formula and year and see what results I get back. The dermatologist I talked to said I had terrific donor sites and one session should be enough fill in those temple areas. Two at the most would be needed. Unfortunately he is very expensive at $6400 a session. However, the end result photos I have seen from him are much better than other dermatologists I have contacted. Price is worth the results I get back.
Anyhow, I'll to give treatments a year and see what happens. If I am not happy with the results I'll consider a dermatologist slicing my head open. However, the areas I recently loss still have a lot of hairs there. Only now they are a mix of thin long hairs and small hairs at the surface. If those areas thicken back in I would easily go back to being a Norwood 2. I could be satisfied with that but looking back at the days of being a teenager I'm consider more drastic action.
I'll post some digital pictures of what I look like now when I return home next week. My biggest worries is this so called shedding period. Hopefully I won't take too big a hit. If I can thicken up the recently thinned out areas and even gain some extra hairline to what I lossed in the last year I'll be thrilled.
I'll try to keep you guys posted as I go.
