You're a pretty smart fish, I always like reading your posts. I'm sure you're well aware that the next best treatment is plenty of years away and as you said, hair loss is almost always progressive. I'm curious why you haven't tried a low dose of finasteride ? I know everyone reacts different but if you at least took .5mg every 3 days, you would be doing a lot for your hair.
I'm scared of finasteride too but going bald young scares me more than anything else.
Going bald is 100% guaranteed. Getting major sides from finasteride is very low. I'm not trying to push you or anything, but I see how much work you
do to try to hang onto your hair, though you disregard a proven treatment.
My grandfather on my mothers side went from a full head of hair to a norwood 2/3 from around the age of 20 to 30. He stayed as an NW2/3 until he died when he was 77. His hair did thin a little, but other than the hairline and temples, everything was fine. I have the exact
same pattern of hair loss at the exact same age. I'm hopeful I don't progress and inherit his pattern (and it looks like I did). So to say I'll go completely bald isn't 100% certain as you say it is. I've become an NW3 (more or less) by at least the age of 25. I haven't had much (if at all) any more recession. It's pretty much stopped at this point, though I'm still not happy with my current state. On my fathers side, no one I've met in the family is fully bald. My dad's half brother has noticeably thinned out all over, but he's 52yrs old and I don't seem to have the same kind of hair loss as his (he's diffuse), so he may not be someone I should look to and worry about.
Finasteride isn't necessarily needed
every day. If youre a responder to Finasteride, DHT levels will remain lower than normal for up to 7 days actually. I had a graph of this somewhere posted on Bald Truth Talk but I can't remember which thread. That said, I've been seriously contemplating taking finasteride once a every two weeks at first and then bumping it up to once a week.... slowly ease myself in. However, I haven't yet exhausted my efforts with dermarolling so I'd like to see where things can go with that. Also, if Pilofocus' regeneration with ACELL is as it was shown in the initial presentation by Dr. Wesley, I am definitely going in for a scarless hair transplant later next year in 2014. One session of about 2,500 grafts and my harline is down to more or less an NW1 and some thickness everywhere else.
I am still on topical RU and CB.
- - - Updated - - -
day 3 since i've noticed... It seems like it's filling out more and more each day but i may be in denial... I'll Use this thread to post weekly updates and I'm not going to cut my hair for at least a month. Here is the latest
View attachment 23061
Once again, thank you for your feedback, still hoping for the best!
Three days is not enough time to make a solid conclusion. Hair grows *very* slowly, about 10-15cm per year, so roughly 1cm per month. Give it a couple weeks or so. Since you've got a pretty solid hairline already, you can easily monitor for miniaturizing hairs or if they're there already. For guys like me who are an NW2/3, its more difficult to tell if those are stabilized vellus hairs, if theyre further miniaturized hairs or if they're improved hair's from treatment.
