Is There A Snowball's Chance In Hell? Or Is It Over

[1212]

The backside of my head got obliterated from using minoxidil there + the top of my head and then stopping abruptly. It didn't used to be so thinned out on the back until using minoxidil for one month with dermarolling, then stopping. Since quitting minoxidil, the thinning seemed to have progressively gotten much worse all over.

I just want to hear if anyone here think I have even have a remote chance of getting my hair back. I'm a month into finasteride and have dermarolled a couple times in that month - the pictures are from today. What's possible for me realistically? Curious for opinions.

 

[Thomas Aquarius]

Get back on minoxidil. You probably experienced a shed, which usually means better days are ahead. Quitting something one month in is never a good strategy unless you are experiencing really bad side effects.

 

[BeHereNow]

Read the sticky post at the top of this forum. One month is nothing.

 

[1212]

Get back on minoxidil. You probably experienced a shed, which usually means better days are ahead. Quitting something one month in is never a good strategy unless you are experiencing really bad side effects.

I experienced some sides last time on generic liquid minoxidil. I've been on and off multiple times with the foam mostly with mild to moderate success, but it doesn't seem worth it to me with sides and hassle of applying every day.

Read the sticky post at the top of this forum. One month is nothing.

I read it. I agree, one month is nothing. My question is based on where I'm at, if I stay on it what's really possible? I'm probably Norwood 4-5 territory currently.

 

[Thomas Aquarius]

1212,

Sorry if I am stating the obvious here, but ultimately, this all comes down to how important your hair is at this point in your life and what would satisfy you in terms of maintenance or regrowth. If you're just trying to hang on as long as you can to what you have, or maybe experience some regrowth to fill in what you have, that would seem like an acceptable expectation. But as you mentioned, at your stage significant long term improvement might be too ambitious a goal unless you are concerned enough to try a surgical option.

You may want to try a minoxidil liquid instead of the foam. Also, be sure not to apply more than is absolutely necessary. I find that what is generally prescribed/advised is always more than what is actually necessary for treatment in most cases. Perhaps try a once a day liquid application instead of 2x per day, or cut your dosage in half from 1ml to .5ml. You also might want to consider other treatments in addition to this, as combining would give you the greatest chance of success.

Or you could save yourself a bunch of effort, time, and resources and simply cut it short or shave it and live with it. Focus on diet, working out, or other parts of your health & body you can control at this point. Just trying to help here, so my apologies if I am not assisting you at all. Happy to answer any questions though.

 

[1212]

1212,

Sorry if I am stating the obvious here, but ultimately, this all comes down to how important your hair is at this point in your life and what would satisfy you in terms of maintenance or regrowth. If you're just trying to hang on as long as you can to what you have, or maybe experience some regrowth to fill in what you have, that would seem like an acceptable expectation. But as you mentioned, at your stage significant long term improvement might be too ambitious a goal unless you are concerned enough to try a surgical option.

You may want to try a minoxidil liquid instead of the foam. Also, be sure not to apply more than is absolutely necessary. I find that what is generally prescribed/advised is always more than what is actually necessary for treatment in most cases. Perhaps try a once a day liquid application instead of 2x per day, or cut your dosage in half from 1ml to .5ml. You also might want to consider other treatments in addition to this, as combining would give you the greatest chance of success.

Or you could save yourself a bunch of effort, time, and resources and simply cut it short or shave it and live with it. Focus on diet, working out, or other parts of your health & body you can control at this point. Just trying to help here, so my apologies if I am not assisting you at all. Happy to answer any questions though.

@Thomas Aquarius, I appreciate you taking the time to respond.
I admit, you did state some of the obvious I guess I'm just looking for outsiders' perspectives to see if my thought process on the feasibility of hair regrowth in my situation is reasonable. I am not looking to maintain: I am hoping to regain most, if not all, of the lost ground. I understand surgery might be something that might be necessary eventually to fully achieve that. I had the same thoughts about using minoxidil once a day instead of twice and proceeding from there.

I had sides with liquid minoxidil - the foam is the one I had used for longer periods with mild/okay results and no noticeable sides. I may have to give that a try again out of necessity in order to reach my goals. Again, I appreciate your response and advice. I suppose I'm hoping now that significant regrowth from where I'm at is achievable and maintainable using primarily finasteride, nizoral, biotin, and most likely soon minoxidil foam once a day.

 

[Ikarus]

Would you go on a combination of dutasteride and oral minoxidil? You might benefit really well from those...

 

[Hairicane]

Im not far behind you, I'm about a 3 vertex, I'm going to try to hold on to what hair I've got by any reasonable means.
If you grow your hair out does it gain length? If it does you'll look much less bald from the front.

 

[Thomas Aquarius]

@Thomas Aquarius, I appreciate you taking the time to respond.
I admit, you did state some of the obvious I guess I'm just looking for outsiders' perspectives to see if my thought process on the feasibility of hair regrowth in my situation is reasonable. I am not looking to maintain: I am hoping to regain most, if not all, of the lost ground. I understand surgery might be something that might be necessary eventually to fully achieve that. I had the same thoughts about using minoxidil once a day instead of twice and proceeding from there.

I had sides with liquid minoxidil - the foam is the one I had used for longer periods with mild/okay results and no noticeable sides. I may have to give that a try again out of necessity in order to reach my goals. Again, I appreciate your response and advice. I suppose I'm hoping now that significant regrowth from where I'm at is achievable and maintainable using primarily finasteride, nizoral, biotin, and most likely soon minoxidil foam once a day.

Gotcha. Regaining most if not all of the lost ground is very ambitious. I would try to keep expectations reasonable...you know, hope for the best but be prepared for other outcomes. I wish you all the best, for sure.

I think you've got it right. If the foam is not causing any sides, then I would stick with that. You may want to look into other minoxidil formulations also and apply once/day. For optimal results, you're going to have to look into the other treatments as you mentioned. Have you been on finasteride or the nizoral? Many on here would tell you to get on finasteride ASAP, combine it with minoxidil, and also add Nizoral. The biotin probably will not do much good, honestly. But there are other options you can look into if finances permit...lasercomb, copper peptides, topical DHT treatments. I'd also recommend a diet change if your current eating habits contain a lot of meat, dairy, sugar, starches, etc.. There are some alternative methods you can try as well. I have experience in many treatments and have had good success over the years.

Simply put...start with the proven treatments and go from there. But if you are serious about keeping and regrowing hair, time is of the essence.

 

[Thomas Aquarius]

Im not far behind you, I'm about a 3 vertex, I'm going to try to hold on to what hair I've got by any reasonable means.
If you grow your hair out does it gain length? If it does you'll look much less bald from the front.

Best of luck to you, Hairicane! Hope you have great results

 

[MrClean1]

You want to try t maintain what you have until something better comes along. Getting off rogaine after a month was a mistake. I would get back on it and stay on it and see if you get a good response. I don't think there is much you can do in the front but maintain what you have and hope for things like Histogen to work if this company ever gets their sh#t together.

 

[Hairicane]

Best of luck to you, Hairicane! Hope you have great results

Thanks, same to you. If you don't mind me asking how old are you?

 

[1212]

Appreciate all of the responses.

Would you go on a combination of dutasteride and oral minoxidil? You might benefit really well from those...

I'm not opposed to dutasteride or even oral minoxidil necessarily. That being said, I basically haven't heard anything about oral minoxidil or it's efficacy other than you just mentioning it, and I've been browsing hair loss forums and looking at treatments for awhile now. Is that even a thing? Dutasteride I've heard plenty of and am not opposed to like I said, but atleast for now, I'll stick with finasteride as there are no sides currently. Maybe in 6 months-1 year of using finasteride I would reevaluate and consider something like dutasteride.

Im not far behind you, I'm about a 3 vertex, I'm going to try to hold on to what hair I've got by any reasonable means.
If you grow your hair out does it gain length? If it does you'll look much less bald from the front.

Good luck with your treatment. Honestly not sure - I haven't really grown my hair out since even before I started balding. I've considered it recently but keeping it short seems to make the balding less noticeable. Buzzing seems to reduce the appearance of balding in my experience

Gotcha. Regaining most if not all of the lost ground is very ambitious. I would try to keep expectations reasonable...you know, hope for the best but be prepared for other outcomes. I wish you all the best, for sure.

I think you've got it right. If the foam is not causing any sides, then I would stick with that. You may want to look into other minoxidil formulations also and apply once/day. For optimal results, you're going to have to look into the other treatments as you mentioned. Have you been on finasteride or the nizoral? Many on here would tell you to get on finasteride ASAP, combine it with minoxidil, and also add Nizoral. The biotin probably will not do much good, honestly. But there are other options you can look into if finances permit...lasercomb, copper peptides, topical DHT treatments. I'd also recommend a diet change if your current eating habits contain a lot of meat, dairy, sugar, starches, etc.. There are some alternative methods you can try as well. I have experience in many treatments and have had good success over the years.

Simply put...start with the proven treatments and go from there. But if you are serious about keeping and regrowing hair, time is of the essence.

I agree, it probably is ambitious. It seems worth a shot though at this point. I've been on finasteride for a month and nizoral for months, maybe years now. It doesn't seem to do anything at all, except possibly counteract inflammation from other treatments. I've taken biotin as well and I would agree that on it's own, it seems to do nothing as well except maybe make my nails longer. What treatments have given you the best success in your opinion? Again, thanks for taking the time to response. Just trying to get my hair back

 

[Thomas Aquarius]

Thanks, same to you. If you don't mind me asking how old are you?

I am ancient! Began noticing thinning when I was 26 and just turned 42 a couple of months ago, so the I've been waging the battle for 16 years. I went to this site and the forums about that time, did tons of research and read a lot of the old timers on here here, a few of which were always very helpful. That's why I recently joined and began posting here...trying to give back or pay it forward.

Appreciate all of the responses.

I'm not opposed to dutasteride or even oral minoxidil necessarily. That being said, I basically haven't heard anything about oral minoxidil or it's efficacy other than you just mentioning it, and I've been browsing hair loss forums and looking at treatments for awhile now. Is that even a thing? Dutasteride I've heard plenty of and am not opposed to like I said, but atleast for now, I'll stick with finasteride as there are no sides currently. Maybe in 6 months-1 year of using finasteride I would reevaluate and consider something like dutasteride.



I agree, it probably is ambitious. It seems worth a shot though at this point. I've been on finasteride for a month and nizoral for months, maybe years now. It doesn't seem to do anything at all, except possibly counteract inflammation from other treatments. I've taken biotin as well and I would agree that on it's own, it seems to do nothing as well except maybe make my nails longer. What treatments have given you the best success in your opinion? Again, thanks for taking the time to response. Just trying to get my hair back

I have been on some form of minoxidil for probably 15 years. I tried finasteride but had very bad sides and dropped it after a couple of years and will not take it again. I tried to target inflammation in my body by radically changing my diet over time, and I think that helped a lot. I was having quite a bit of scalp irritation at one point and that has not been an issue for a long time now. I also use copper peptides, revivogen, and Dr Proctor's solution in rotation, and use apple cider vinegar as a topical 2-3 times/week. Also the laser comb 2x per week. So I definitely went with the kitchen sink approach. I've eventually made all of this quite cost effective since I have learned a smaller dosage achieves similar results.

 

[Hairicane]

I am ancient! Began noticing thinning when I was 26 and just turned 42 a couple of months ago, so the I've been waging the battle for 16 years. I went to this site and the forums about that time, did tons of research and read a lot of the old timers on here here, a few of which were always very helpful. That's why I recently joined and began posting here...trying to give back or pay it forward.

I'm 44, so more ancient, and my hairlines like yours, but my crown has more hair, still thin enough that you can see my scalp under bright light.

I noticed my recession at 22, but it was a long slow retreat for 20 years. I thought I'd just have one of those "mature hairlines" but in the last year or two sh*t got real on my head. I'm trying finasteride, and will see what it does for me.

 

[Thomas Aquarius]

Haha, sorry things got real. Hopefully finasteride will work well for you without the sides I experienced.

Oh, and you probably have mistaken me for 1212. Those pics at the top are of him, not me.

 

[Michael1986]

If I was in your shoes, I would go straight for dutasteride.

 

[1212]

If I was in your shoes, I would go straight for dutasteride.

I might get on dutasteride eventually. I'm a little skeptical about sides because I know it does more than finasteride pharmacologically, but I might give it a try once my current 3-month finasteride prescription runs out.

 

[Pequod]

You made the right choice by going on finasteride and dumping minoxidil, especially the oral form as that is a heart medication. You won't know for a year if finasteride has saved your hair, but you will have to let it grow out more. Maybe do a small hair transplant in a year and if you get some back from finasteride, it is a bonus.

 

[1212]

You made the right choice by going on finasteride and dumping minoxidil, especially the oral form as that is a heart medication. You won't know for a year if finasteride has saved your hair, but you will have to let it grow out more. Maybe do a small hair transplant in a year and if you get some back from finasteride, it is a bonus.

That's why I quit abruptly after only a month - liquid minoxidil + dermarolling once weekly was giving me persistent chest/heart pains. I value hair but not that much. Thanks for the input. A hair transplant/fue might be something I end up doing in the future.