Seeking treatment advice (with pic)

[essex2099]

Hi all,

I've lurked these boards for a long time, and I really respect the opinions here. I'm hoping to use some of those opinions, as I've become just completely overwhelmed by the potential treatment options I've read about here and all across the internet.

But first, a bit about me:
• I'm 28, first noticed thinning hair at 24, which became much worse at 26
• I started by thinning in my crown, then it started in my temples, and now I'm kind of a diffuse thinner, but with noticeably recessed temples (pic: http://tinypic.com/r/opr62c/5 )
• I started using minoxidil in January 2010, to somewhat disastrous results. After 8 months, I was still shedding way, way too much. I stopped using minoxidil, but continued to shed for another 8 months after that.
• I went on finasteride in January 2011, and I finally seem to have stopped losing quite as many hairs! Yay!
• I use Nizoral three times a week (but jeez, my scalp is still pretty flaky!)

The reason for this post is that I'd really like to supplement my current regimen with some other forms of treatment, but I don't know where to start!!

Any recommendations would be very, very appreciated.

Thanks everybody!
Arek

 

[kc444]

• I started using minoxidil in January 2010, to somewhat disastrous results. After 8 months, I was still shedding way, way too much. I stopped using minoxidil, but continued to shed for another 8 months after that.
• I went on finasteride in January 2011, and I finally seem to have stopped losing quite as many hairs! Yay!

Is it possible that your shedding due to minoxidil was just your hair loss accelerating? You mention that you were shedding for 8 months after you stopped, which would put you 4 months into your finasteride treatment, or about the time that it begins working to stop DHT-related hair loss. Shedding for eight months after stopping treatment seems like too long to be caused by minoxidil. I'd try it again if it were me.

Remember that Rogaine doesn't prevent the progression of male pattern baldness. It appears to just make hair follicles produce hair more efficiently.

 

[essex2099]

It is definitely a possibility that the timing was entirely coincidental. Though, it would be quite the coincidence, as I started to rapidly lose hair a month after starting minoxidil, after 2 years of more gradual loss