Philosoraptor's Story - 24 (Big 3 + miconazole)

[philosoraptor]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

July 18, 2009: Week 20

Shedding still. And still it is only bad hairs. I still have thick healthy hairs all over my frontal area and in my hairline/temples but density is very low. Hoping to get thicker hairs coming from those fallen hairs soon. Nothing else to say really. Still keeping to my regimen. Almost at 5 months and I'm looking for some results by 6 months. If not, well I'll keep living my life.

Until next week.

 

[philosoraptor]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

July 24, 2009: Week 21

My hair looks worse every week. Density is low up front, but my hair line hasn't budged at all. In fact my right temple and moved down some. But the entire frontal area is just awful.

It's frustrating as all hell to know I am being active about this problem and get no results. I know there is still time for improvement as nothing is slick bald yet, but I feel like I am in a bad relationship now with my hair.

Still hoping. Until next week...

 

[philosoraptor]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

July 31, 2009: Week 22

MONTH 5

It has been exactly 5 months since beginning my regimen. And it looks like I have done nothing at all. Advanced thinning in the temples. Frontal area is a mess. Crown is starting to thin and through the vertex. The weird thing though is that my hairline hasn't budged. Sure they aren't the greatest of hairs, but it is still there and in fact my left temple has rounded out and my right is lowering slightly.

I was looking at old pictures and saw one from back in 2005 and I had minor thinning then in the temples. I had never realized it. It was never noticeable to me until late 2007. So it has been happening for a long time slowly, but these past 5 months have been brutal.

My (hopeful) theory is that getting on the meds caused the weaker hairs to go into telogen phase. As back in April I had a lot of thin hairs but decent density so I wasn't too bothered. Now my density is awful, but I still have thick hairs all over the frontal area. I started shedding pretty badly beginning in mid May and I feel lately that it has mostly stopped.

When I would do a tug test I would pull out club hairs but they were always weak hairs. So my hope is that when these areas go back into anagen phase that they are producing thicker hairs. My shedding started happening heavily in May so by the end of August-mid September they should restart the anagen phase. If by then I am worse off I am going to try doing dutasteride every other day with the finasteride.

Longer post than usual for the 5 month mark. Until next week.

 

[philosoraptor]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

August 8, 2009: Week 23

Continuing the trend of worse every week. Crown thinning is becoming more noticeable. I seem to have stopped shedding for the moment. I can't even pull the hair out anymore.

I'm starting to think that this is just what is going to happen and there isn't anything I can do about it. I'm going to keep trying though.

 

[philosoraptor]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

I deleted my earlier pics of when I started my regimen because I hated looking at them. So here are two pics. One from Mid April and one from last weekend. Taken at slightly different angles and slightly different hair lengths.

In April I had decent density, but they were mostly miniaturized hairs. Since then a lot of these have fallen out, and density is bad.I still haven't seen any thick hairs falling out, only thin ones. Hoping for some thickening/regrowth end August/mid September as that will be 90-100 days after my bad shedding began.

So here they are.

 

[Tyler_Durden]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

Yeah pretty big shed dude, sorry to hear, I hope it picks up in the coming weeks.

Are you using foam or liquid? You could think about chucking in something like spironolactone maybe? Or I read Emu Oil had some good signs in growing hair in the frontal region

 

[philosoraptor]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

Using liquid. Got a bunch for cheap.

I will look into other treatment options in September if I continue to worsen.

 

[Tyler_Durden]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

Using liquid. Got a bunch for cheap.

I will look into other treatment options in September if I continue to worsen.

Yeah I wouldn't be to worried yet, just be patient. You are still relatively early in your treatment, I think after a year it should have come back in a bit thicker and finasteride will be doing its job.

Keep us updated, you look like you have a good head for it shaved which is always a good thing/

 

[philosoraptor]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

August 15, 2009: Week 24

I feel like my shedding has stabilized this week. Density is low, but I still have thick healthy hairs up front. Temples are still bad, but still there. There is a quarter sized circle on my crown that is thinning. Hard to get a good look at it, but it doesn't look too noticeable. Going to add spironolactone if my shed hairs don't grow in thicker in the next couple of weeks.

 

[BodyDysmorphic]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

Using liquid. Got a bunch for cheap.

I will look into other treatment options in September if I continue to worsen.

Yeah I wouldn't be to worried yet, just be patient. You are still relatively early in your treatment, I think after a year it should have come back in a bit thicker and finasteride will be doing its job.

Keep us updated, you look like you have a good head for it shaved which is always a good thing/

agreed

it's wise to wait a year with one regiment before you go adding variables to the mix

 

[philosoraptor]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

August 22, 2009: Week 25

Shedding has dropped off. What little shedding I had this week, continued to be really thin hairs. My hair is kind of long (for me) now and it makes it easier to see certain areas. The length makes it look like there may be slight thickening in my left temple.

My crown seems to have stabilized, but it is hard to get a good look at it and it is only in the early stages of thinning.

Next week will be 6 months on treatment. Until then...

 

[philosoraptor]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

August 29, 2009: Week 26

*6 MONTHS*

So it has now been exactly 26 weeks, half a year, pretty much 6 months into my regimen. Results? Not much of anything. Frontal region is at it's worst yet. Mid scalp is slowly thinning through to my crown, but isn't visibly all that bad yet.

According to the propecia timeline, at 6 months, a decrease in hair loss may be noticed. And I have noticed that my shedding has slowed significantly, to where I can't even pull the hairs out sometimes.

In my April picture I had good coverage, but a vast majority of those hairs were already thinned. None of the hair follicles are dormant yet. So I am hoping that it will take a few hair cycles for these to start thickening up.

In order to facilitate thickening I plan on adding spironolactone cream and possibly xandrox15+. I have also thought about going EOD with duta and finasteride considering I have had no persistent sides from finasteride.

I'm thankful my hairline is still in the same place if not slightly lower. I am not looking for any regrowth, but strictly thickening.

Here is a picture taken today at a similar angle to the other ones. The flash seems a bit harsher though. Hair is about the same length as the early August pic. Also there is dried minoxidil on my head making certain areas look lighter.

Until next time.

 

[blink]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

keep us updated dude. thanks for the updates so far. hopefully youll get back to where you started and then some.

 

[philosoraptor]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

September 6, 2009: Week 27

Haven't really noticed much change this week. I have good hair days and bad ones. Still have thick healthy hairs right up front on my hairline, but density is still really low. Also, I have noticed dramatically less shedding, but at the same time don't look for it as often. As always it is only thin hairs

I have read that some people have gotten bumps on their scalp from treatment. I got a couple of small areas ofr 3-4 bumps, but they were both in front of my hairline. Don't know what to make of this.

Looking to order spironolactone cream this weekend. Any recommendations as to where I should purchase it from?

 

[philosoraptor]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

September 12, 2009: Week 28

Let my hair grow out a little bit this week. I'm not so sure, but there may have been some minor thickening in my left temple.

What I can be sure of though are some strong hairs sprouting out a few millimeters in front of my hairline. What I am most excited about are the hairs in my right temple. My hairline has been crooked for as long as I can remember. A couple of months after starting my regimen I had some vellus hairs sticking out from my right temple but they stayed that way for awhile. They are now definitely thickening up and it is making my hairline look straighter. So I am getting some hair that I either never had or has been dormant for a long long time.

As always low density up front with healthy hairs in the mix. Density may be improved, but I think it is just the longer length of my hair right now making it appear so.

That is about it. Until next week.

 

[philosoraptor]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

September 19, 2009: Week 29

I haven't cut my hair in a few weeks now. Partly because I like not having to do it and probably because I am feeling more comfortable with the current state of my hair.

Good news to report. I had almost no shedding this week at all. I couldn't even rip the hairs out of my scalp. I think I managed to pull out maybe 10 hairs the entire week. The right side of my hairline is lowering and my left side appears to be thickening up. Also my crown/anterior area looks much better.

I have slightly altered my regimen. I have not added spironolactone yet as I had talked about earlier. I used to not apply minoxidil on weekday mornings as I have to go to work. I have started applying a small dose of it (maybe 1/8 mL) on these mornings. And I have dropped off on Nizoral almost entirely. I was using that and head and shoulders and the combination was way too harsh on my scalp and as a result my skin would overproduce sebum. Besides I don't really need them than bad as I don't have inflammation and never did. I still use nizoral maybe once a week, but have switched to a much gentler shampoo for all the other days. Still taking the same dosage of finasteride every day. I'm going to continue this way until I see signs of increased shedding again.

I hope this is my turning point. Where things start to get better. As always, see you next week.

 

[blink]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

can ya take some pics of how your hair is now? or maybe in your next week's update?

 

[philosoraptor]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

September 27, 2009: Week 30

*7 MONTHS*

So I have been on my regimen for 7 months. Over the past 3 weeks I have been growing my hair out. Mostly out of laziness. I let it get longer than I normally did without hairloss. And it helped me make more observations about my hair.

Shedding was still minimal. The weird thing though was the all the hairs I shed were all the same exact length (shorter than the length of normal hairs) Also while checking for shedding I managed to pull out terminal hairs (black root) from my temples that were decently thick.

I cut my hair because it was starting to look bad again. The hair in my balding pattern feels a little softer, but appears denser in the mirror. And the hair in my temples feels stiffer. Slightly more shedding, or maybe just more noticeable when my hair is shorter.

I do believe I might have some thickening. There are a couple of specific spots in my hair line I had been studying over a period of time and it looks as if there are more hairs in those areas. For now I'm just happy that it looks denser from the front.

I think I have reached my maintaining point. I haven't noticed any major change in the past month. Hoping for thickening in the coming months. As it is now I seem to be following the propecia timeline pretty closely.

Pictures attached are just before cutting my hair and brushed forward(which I never really do) and immediately after cutting it and showering.

Until next week.

 

[philosoraptor]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

October 3, 2009 Week 31

Not much change this week at all. Noticing around the same amount of shedding. Which isn't much. Hair looks a little more dense than last month and hair in the temples feels stiffer.

Haven't noticed any large changes in the past couple of months. I consider that a good thing. Thinking about adding some stuff to my regimen to see what happens. But my logical side is saying to wait until I see some degradation to do that. And I don't feel it has gotten worse in the last 6 weeks.

Not much to say to say this week. Until next time.

 

[philosoraptor]

Re: Philosoraptor's Story - (23/Big 3)

October 10, 2009 Week 32

Again nothing really changing. I cut my hair with no guard for the first time in a month or two.

I took a pic earlier this week and put it side by side with my April pic. Hair is almost the same length and there doesn't seem to be any difference at all between the two pics. So I seem to have retained relatively well in the past 6 months.

So far zero recession. slight lowering of right temple. Random thick hairs growing a few millimeters in front of the hairline. Frontal thinning with slight crown thinning.

Starting to considering spironolactone and dutas more seriously now. Until next week.