Losing my hair and feeling overwhelmed with all the options.

[thesmj]

For most of my life I believed I was safe from male pattern baldness as my dad still had his hair up until his mid 50s, and its just starting to become noticeable. Me being only 27 I didn't believe I had anything to worry about, until about 4 months ago when I stepped out of the shower and looked in the mirror and was shocked to find my scalp was noticeably easier to see though my hair than it ever used to be.

So with that out of the way, it seems I am losing my hair at the front, with no noticeable loss in back. The hair I do have up front and center is thinner than it used to be (I used to have very thick hair). I went to my doctor for a physical a couple of months ago and asked for his opinion. Needless to say he ended up prescribing me Propecia. I looked into it and the list of side effects make it a non-option for me. I'm still dating and I'd rather not have problems with sexual performance, etc. So, the pill route is out unless theres something out there that I'm missing.

I looked into Rogaine, and it seems that is only useful for hair loss on the back of the head (even says so on the bottle). My dad, who has the same hair loss pattern that I have (only his hair loss started 30 years later than it did for me...) said he tried it for a few months and other than staining some sheets and pillow casings it didn't end up doing him any good. Topical Spironolactone looks interesting and may work for me, as would Revivogen, but I know little about these drugs. Of course Nizoral shampoo is something I will combine with any treatment I choose, as it seems simple enough.

So I guess my questions are what kind of treatment(s) should I look at? To be honest I'm having trouble figuring out where to start since there seem to be so many options (and sooooo much money to spend on this stuff).

What do you guys think?

 

[Zeroman]

rogaine works anywhere

your dad is a complete idiot for quitting it and most likely he didnt use it twice daily. theres a very small chance he was just a non responder tho

propecia has a small chance of sexual sides, you could get on a small dose and if you have problems, you can quit. if you dont have problems you can increase the dose

anything else is pointless im gonna be frank

and yea is your hairline receding? losing hair at 27? yea not bad at all . . . . . i had the same thing, diffuse hair loss except 10 years earlier . . . . .

 

[kehcorpz]

rogaine works anywhere

your dad is a complete idiot for quitting it and most likely he didnt use it twice daily. theres a very small chance he was just a non responder tho

propecia has a small chance of sexual sides, you could get on a small dose and if you have problems, you can quit. if you dont have problems you can increase the dose

anything else is pointless im gonna be frank

and yea is your hairline receding? losing hair at 27? yea not bad at all . . . . . i had the same thing, diffuse hair loss except 10 years earlier . . . . .

Gee that's really nice of you to say about his father

See Rogaine makes good money based off the fact that people will experience a shed that puts them BELOW placebo for the first few months. It's scary so people get back on it thinking that it made such a huge difference. Now, sure it may make a big difference to some but not everyone responds. I did not respond and it just seemed to irritate my head. I used it for a year with foam and used liquid at night only for about 2 years. The liquid didn't really do anything to me that's why i tried foam. Now I've been off rogaine for 5 months and let me tell you at the 4 month time frame my hair was worse than ever, worse than before rogaine. However, I read the study that confirmed that it will "Bottom out" when quitting and return to what you had prior so i shaved my head and just trusted science. I'm at the 5 month mark now and I can see my hair growing back nicely and I should have a pretty nice hairline when it all comes back. And at 4 months after quitting I looked practically slick bald. 1 more month for the full restore process to go. I'm also taking finasteride so my hair hasn't been impacted by dht and I think finasteride is also starting to kick in. So it was really hard to tough out and I don't think anyone will be able to and this is where Rogaine will keep making money. Most people don't know about the studies where you bottom out before you go back to normal and it freaks them out.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Ok, having read the previous two post I felt like responding because this is going to get you nowhere. You should read the great guide to hair loss treatments in this forum.

Truth is, there aren't really that many things that work. You need a DHT-inhibitor like Finasteride (Propecia, Proscar) or Dutasteride (Avodart) to stop your hairloss. You are genetically programmed to be sensitive to DHT and these will keep your DHT low. Be sure to read up on them, as they are not always side-free. Speak to a doctor. Make an educated decision, and don't let people panic you, and don't try to believe everything you read.

You may also need a growth stimulant like Rogaine (Minoxidil). That alone will not keep your hair for a long time. It works on the hairline as well, they are just not allowed to write that on the packaging, because the medical tests they ran were on the vertex. It is a bit of a pain to apply and you have to do it consistently and for pretty much ever (unless you wean off slowly).

finasteride and minoxidil are a strong regimen. All other things come afterwards. After about at least a year anything is possible including this:
http://www.bernsteinmedical.com/medical-treatment/patient-photos/

Make a decision, stay on the regime for at least a year, ride out sheds and be consistent. This is the only known way to success at keeping what you got and even improving somewhat.
Good luck!

 

[Eureka]

Pics.

As it's already been stated "proven" "effective" options are limited. You should assess your personal situation further I.E you've mentioned the costs, is this because you're being practical or because your hairloss hasn't yet progressed to an excessive degree? If you're merely being practical then you can approach Rogaine/Nizoral and perhaps spironolactone with reasonable expectations. Which would likely translate to a slowing of male pattern baldness progression. However it sounds as if you are in the early stages, the very early stages. When your Hairloss becomes more pronounced you may become slightly more manic.

For truly effective results you would likely need finasteride/dutasteride. Which you've already stated (quite rightly) that the possible side-effects are scary. However those are the most effective options, if you're unwilling to travel that path, you will need to adjust your expectations accordingly.

 

[thesmj]

Sorry I've been AFK for awhile. Tomorrow I'm getting a haircut and I'll post pics.

I'm actually thinking I may give Propecia a try for a few months and see how it effects me (side-effects wise). If the side effects aren't that bad I'll keep it going as long as I can. I looked up a price for a 30 day supply and it was in the neighborhood of $90 (US), and seeing as how it could take a year to see a difference thats a lot of money to throw up in the air (to me) and hope it ends up helping without killing my sex life.

The main thing that bothers me about Rogaine and similar products is the fact that I'll have to rub greasy crap into my scalp twice a day. I'll probably end up doing it I just need to accept it before my hair loss gets any worse. And again, the stuff ain't cheap.

As for feeling "unlucky" because I'm losing my hair at 27, I know there are many guys out there that started losing it far earlier than me and I should be happy I got away with no hair loss for as long as I did. It's just that I was always under the impression that it would never happen to me for at least another 30-40 years or so.

One thing I've read is that weight training can trigger hair loss. This is interesting because I started a weight training regimen right about 11 months ago. With that, plus my lowered caloric intake for the same length of time to lose weight I'm wondering if its all connected. However, the hair loss isn't patchy like malnutrition would cause and I do take daily multivitamins and have had my diet reviewed by a doctor and spoke to a dietitian so I doubt its the change in diet. I should have the extra weight off in another few months and be returning to a weight maintaining diet, but I prefer not to stop weight training.

 

[thesmj]

Sorry, here are pics of my hair.

That is the top of my head when dry.

That is the top of my head when wet.

That is my hairline.

This is the left side, hair wet.

This is the right side, hair wet.




Now, when dry my hair does not look as bad as it does when wet. I can see considerably more scalp than I used to be able to (especially when its wet) on the front center to about the middle of my head.

What say you all?


EDIT: I forgot to mention that when getting my hair cut and talking about it with the woman cutting my hair, she said I was "being retarded about it" (we've known each other for a while) and that it "wasn't that bad". Of course the problem is while its not "that bad" now, its only going to get worse.

 

[WarLord]

You may also need a growth stimulant like Rogaine (Minoxidil). That alone will not keep your hair for a long time.

Oh, please! The old garbage again? What the hell are you talking about?! There are people taking minoxidil successfully for 2 decades, since it has entered the market!!! After 15,5 years on minoxidil alone, nobody will tell me that I can't keep my hair with it! In reality, it is an excellent treatment for hair maintenance and the long-term success with it is only a matter of dosage. The only reason why I was visiting internet forums about hair loss during the last year was that it worked so reliably that I was determined to regrow my lost 1 cm in temples back. But instead of useful pieces of information, much more often I read posts of whining losers telling people that minoxidil loses efficiacy after 16 weeks. LOL

We should eventually ged rid of the crappy "offset-regrowth theories" spread by certain senile dumbasses like Bryan the Baldy Dad, who didn't bother to read the studies, from which they take their "persuasive graphs". For your information: All the early studies on minoxidil from late 80's tell the same: Irrespectively of the general effect indicated by these graphs, there was always about 30% excellently responding patients, whose hair counts continually increased during the whole duration of the study, i.e. as much as 5 years. And that was with 2-3% minoxidil!

You should realize that there are always good and bad responders. And it is natural that the bad responders accumulate on internet forums, because they want to share their frustration. In the case of minoxidil, their numbers will be large, because the currently approved minoxidil versions (2-5%) are markedly inferior to finasteride and clearly suboptimal for many people. But it doesn't mean that minoxidil would be useless, and it doesn't mean that higher minoxidil versions couldn't match finasteride.

- - - Updated - - -

The main thing that bothers me about Rogaine and similar products is the fact that I'll have to rub greasy crap into my scalp twice a day.

Incorrect. I have never taken minoxidil twice a day - and it still worked. Again, it is only a matter of dosage. If you think that 5% minoxidil doesn't help you, when you apply it once a day, you can increase the percentage. And I apply 3,5-4 ml at once, by the way. This is a minimum. I can't imagine that someone could cover the whole head with the recommended 1-2 ml. Perhaps only if they applied it on their completely bald head. No wonder that these people lose their hair!

 

[WarLord]

Sorry, here are pics of my hair.

That is the top of my head when dry.

That is the top of my head when wet.

That is my hairline.

This is the left side, hair wet.

This is the right side, hair wet.




Now, when dry my hair does not look as bad as it does when wet. I can see considerably more scalp than I used to be able to (especially when its wet) on the front center to about the middle of my head.

What say you all?


EDIT: I forgot to mention that when getting my hair cut and talking about it with the woman cutting my hair, she said I was "being retarded about it" (we've known each other for a while) and that it "wasn't that bad". Of course the problem is while its not "that bad" now, its only going to get worse.

Man, I think that you are paranoid. You don't show any signs of the typical male pattern baldness recession. If you think that your density is lower, then the problem will be elsewhere. My younger brother has a very thin hair all over his head - he actually has a visibly bald vertex - but he shows no signs of male pattern baldness, i.e. no recession in temples whatsoever. He has been in this condition for about 10 years already, and it doesn't progress much.

 

[centrum]

Man, I think that you are paranoid. You don't show any signs of the typical male pattern baldness recession. If you think that your density is lower, then the problem will be elsewhere. My younger brother has a very thin hair all over his head - he actually has a visibly bald vertex - but he shows no signs of male pattern baldness, i.e. no recession in temples whatsoever. He has been in this condition for about 10 years already, and it doesn't progress much.

Are you sure about that? That's pretty much the same thing with me. My hair just keeps getting thinner though. The same hairline kind of and the temples r there just really tiny thin hairs. I think that's a form of male pattern baldness.... How do you find out? I would be ok with being able to just keep this lol.

 

[WarLord]

Are you sure about that? That's pretty much the same thing with me. My hair just keeps getting thinner though. The same hairline kind of and the temples r there just really tiny thin hairs. I think that's a form of male pattern baldness.... How do you find out? I would be ok with being able to just keep this lol.

I think that the first step that you should do is to measure your blood values, especially hormones. I am really not sure that finasteride would be an option for you. Minoxidil - as a growth stimulator - has a more universal use. But you would have to use it indefinitely, because hair saved by minoxidil can't be kept by any other treatment, including finasteride.

 

[Lead Farmer]

Man, I think that you are paranoid. You don't show any signs of the typical male pattern baldness recession. If you think that your density is lower, then the problem will be elsewhere. My younger brother has a very thin hair all over his head - he actually has a visibly bald vertex - but he shows no signs of male pattern baldness, i.e. no recession in temples whatsoever. He has been in this condition for about 10 years already, and it doesn't progress much.

You are kidding me right? That is severe thinning and the top of his scalp is diffusing in a NW4a maybe even 5a pattern. His hairline is practically non existent.

OP I highly recommend at least giving finasteride a go, it will be your absolute best defense and possible gain. I've been using it for over 6 months now and have had no side effects whatsoever.

 

[lobsterlobster]

Yeah, just because someone doesn't lose hair in the typical male pattern baldness pattern doesn't mean he/she's free of Alopecia (id diffuse thinning)

 

[thesmj]

You are kidding me right? That is severe thinning and the top of his scalp is diffusing in a NW4a maybe even 5a pattern. His hairline is practically non existent.

OP I highly recommend at least giving finasteride a go, it will be your absolute best defense and possible gain. I've been using it for over 6 months now and have had no side effects whatsoever.

Are there cheaper ways to get finasteride? At $90 for a 30 day supply, Propecia seems expensive. What other options are there?

I live by the US/Canada boarder if that helps.

 

[Lead Farmer]

I order from a place called "Nippon Pharmacy" (lol), yes it sounds and looks dodgy but it is absolutely legitimate and has the best prices I've come across (for where I live anyway).

You can order 90 tablets (3 month supply) of finpecia (generic propecia) for $49 US. Or you can order fincar (generic proscar) which is 5mg finasteride tablets that you can cut into quarters, this works out ridiculously cheap at $69 US for 100 tablets (over a year supply when split). Both are legit and are manufactured by Cipla which is a highly reputable pharmaceutical company.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Oh, please! The old garbage again? What the hell are you talking about?! There are people taking minoxidil successfully for 2 decades, since it has entered the market!!! After 15,5 years on minoxidil alone, nobody will tell me that I can't keep my hair with it! In reality, it is an excellent treatment for hair maintenance and the long-term success with it is only a matter of dosage. The only reason why I was visiting internet forums about hair loss during the last year was that it worked so reliably that I was determined to regrow my lost 1 cm in temples back. But instead of useful pieces of information, much more often I read posts of whining losers telling people that minoxidil loses efficiacy after 16 weeks. LOL

We should eventually ged rid of the crappy "offset-regrowth theories" spread by certain senile dumbasses like Bryan the Baldy Dad, who didn't bother to read the studies, from which they take their "persuasive graphs". For your information: All the early studies on minoxidil from late 80's tell the same: Irrespectively of the general effect indicated by these graphs, there was always about 30% excellently responding patients, whose hair counts continually increased during the whole duration of the study, i.e. as much as 5 years. And that was with 2-3% minoxidil!

Well isn't that nice? Why didn't you stay away from forums, I don't think anybody needs you going around insulting people. I'm talking about my own experience and there are plenty other people backing that up. You may be an exceptionally good responder (pics or it never happened) but for the majority of people it is not enough to keep the hair from going, only when combined with finasteride. Whiney loser? STFU I never had a problem with minoxidil, it was my first treatment and I'm still on it. It is just not enough. Oh and please post the studies you alone have read and "senile dumbasses" dare to quote that show 30% of people maintaining their status over 5 years.

 

[thesmj]

Just ordered Finpecia from inhousepharmacy.biz. Sounds like a very reputable site based on reviews and they take AmEx, so if they do try and screw me I can reverse the charge.

180 pills for $82 shipped is a damn good deal. Heres hoping my balls don't fall off?

 

[The_Mentalist]

inhouse is a legit and popular one alongwith few others. They are from India, and they do not need to make fake as making fake would cost more and would hurt their business.

If you ordered 180 pills 5mg, then it should last you 180x4 = 720 days which is about two years. Make sure that you take into account expiration dates on them. They are usually good for two years roughly.

And to minoxidil, the gentleman above is right. I started minoxidil in about 1994 at the age of around 26 and had been on it continously since then-there was only 2% available in thoise days and with pres. and very expensive. I would have been hairloss if it were not for minoxidil that kept me alive for over decade by now. Hwever, I also started finasteride 8 years ago, and then just couple of years ago, I kinda got lazy and cut down on minoxidil until quitting completely several months ago. It was a biggest mistake. I have become incredibly thin in just last few months to almost no hair. I attribute this to mostly quitting minoxidil. I am so sad about that mistake and I am like hairless now that I had never been in my life, and I restarted minoxidil quickly last couple of months and had to switch to dutasteride to rescue me from my trauma.

So, yes minoxidil helps a lot and for many many years or perhaps forever, that even finasteride can not match

 

[thesmj]

DO you plan on going back to minoxidil or staying with finasteride? As I understand it quitting minoxidil like that will cause a shed.

My mother showed me THIS article today. Anyone have thoughts on it?

 

[The_Mentalist]

The article is based on observation from users who appear on propeciahelp forum and the forum is for those who have such complains. So, obviously, the populace is all indigant and the study depending on that populace would have skewed percent. So, few men had allegedly long term side effects; what about miliions and millions around the world who are fine. So, I would not look up to whiners. Just dont take it. People die from Aspirin everyday, die in car accidents every minute...........