i just wanted to tell everyone about my long term experience fighting male pattern baldness. i figure i can help some guys struggling with hair loss and also get some help of my own. i am 42 years old, and have been losing my hair since i was in my early 20's. hair loss runs in my family, my father, 3 brothers, all uncles, cousins, are bald or balding. i started losing my hair slowly during college, hair line slightly receding, and a general thinning of the hair on top. i started using 2% minoxidil when it became available over the counter. it really did not do much for me other than making my head itch but i took it for a few years anyway just in case it was preventing further loss. eventually about my mid 30's my hair loss became worse and i decided to begin using proecia and 5% minoxidil. now i have to say at that time i had pretty good coverage, my hair line was somewhat receded, and there was some thining at the crown and of course my hair looked better short, but i was far from bald. the results from using the minoxidil and propecia , were amazing, basically my hair thickend from my hairline to the crown , i no longer had any real thin spots on my head, my hiarline was still somewhat high but basically i grew a thick full head of hair. i was able to wear my hair longer, i had curls in my hair again. it was amazing. this happned within a year. first thing i did after growing this hair was to stop using the 5%minoxidil because it irritated my scalp. well within a few months i lost basically everything i grew. so i began re-using the minoxidil again. i suffered a major, major shed, scared the hell out of me(by the way i also shed a great deal when when i first began using the 5%minoxidil and propecia, it scared me, but it all grew back and then some) but eventually it regrew to a full head of hair again. so i have been using this combination for about 7 years now, i could not be more happy with the results. the stuff works, i look at pictures of myself from 10 years ago and i have more hair now, amazing. now for my question, about 2 years ago i think i started to thin again. not bad, and for my age i feel i have a pretty nice head of hair, but if it is possible i would like to stop the loss from going any further . i have heard that after 5 years or so propecia starts losing some of it's effectiveness, i assume that is what is going on. does anyone have any ideas about what i can do next?
