Should I go for surgery?

[hairloss_user]

What do you think guys, should I go for an FUE procedure now?

I have diffuse thinning and this is how it looks under harsh lighting. In normal lighting it does not look too bad. By the way, I am not sure if I have Retrograde Alopecia? Donor still feels thick though. My dad probably has some form of mild variant. He is like a norwood 6-7 now with quite thin donor, so I am not sure if it is 100% I am going to end up like that.

I am in my late 30s, and I am honestly not too happy with how it all looks. I feel like it could be so much better. I would love to get some density back and improve the temples and hairline too.

I have tried everything except for Finasteride (I really do not want to touch this). I wish Kintor would come out soon and works without sides.

I have been on minoxidil for nearly 10 years and have also been needling for over 2 years (both wounding and light needling). Minoxidil has slowed down the progression. I don’t shed much hair.

So should I go for surgery now and keep up with my regimen. Then when Kintor comes out (hopefully) add that? Or wait and do it when we have a new treatment?

Did fade 2 weeks ago

 

[Grim]

If you get a hair transplant, the surgeon will want to put you on finasteride to maintain your hair, because the hair behind the transplant region will begin to thin. I think oral minoxidil would benefit you as well. Would you at least be willing to microdose finasteride? I'm on dutasteride which is way stronger and I'm doing great.

 

[Grim]

And minoxidil doesn't work as well without finasteride because the dht is still thinning out the hair that is being treated by the minoxidil. You might not even need a transplant if you try out a solid regimen. As diffuse thinning seems to respond well to regrowth treatments compared to a receded hairline.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

I would try microneedling but again, you have to have some form of protection from DHT or you are unlikely to maintain gains. I have microneedled diligently for two years just in case HRT didn't have enough oomph, plus I use large amounts of oral minoxidil.

https://www.gourmetstylewellness.com/interact/threads/am-i-supposed-to-be-drawing-blood-with-dermaroller.133841/

 

[hairloss_user]

I am using Lipogaine and Revivogen (mild DHT blockers), but obviously they are not strong enough. The thing about microdosing Finasteride is that I hear eventually, you will still end up blocking around 70% DHT after a while. Then you have to deal with side effects. What scares me most about the potential sides is not the sexual ones, that should be reversible after stopping it, but to get gyno. That sh*t is permanent and I would hate to have to go through surgery, which will just leave me with a scar. Also do you believe finasteride would do anything for me in terms of regrowth? I have been using minoxidil for so long so Im thinking all the hair I have on top is ”minoxidil hair”, and my hairloss been progressing for a really long time, not sure of Finasteride can bring back that density I desire

I have been thinking about oral minoxidil, but I am afraid skin will turn to sh*t with that.

f*** we really do need a new side free treatment, at least for maintentance. Really hope Kintor pulls it off and that we do not have to wait for too long.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

I am using Lipogaine and Revivogen (mild DHT blockers), but obviously they are not strong enough. The thing about microdosing Finasteride is that I hear eventually, you will still end up blocking around 70% DHT after a while. Then you have to deal with side effects. What scares me most about the potential sides is not the sexual ones, that should be reversible after stopping it, but to get gyno. That sh*t is permanent and I would hate to have to go through surgery, which will just leave me with a scar. Also do you believe finasteride would do anything for me in terms of regrowth? I have been using minoxidil for so long so Im thinking all the hair I have on top is ”minoxidil hair”, and my hairloss been progressing for a really long time, not sure of Finasteride can bring back that density I desire

I have been thinking about oral minoxidil, but I am afraid skin will turn to sh*t with that.

f*** we really do need a new side free treatment, at least for maintentance. Really hope Kintor pulls it off and that we do not have to wait for too long.

The fact that I barely know who or what Kintor is might date me or show the limitations of my knowledge but you might be pining for a treatment that ends up being less than what's already available. There's sort of a half-serious/half tongue in cheek thread about new meds coming out. They rarely pan out. If any of these things worked well, guys on here would have found them since as a group, we have tried/will try almost anything. Romans used to use dung and urines from different animals have been used, which might have worked if they had used pregnant mare urine, lol, like I have, brand name Premarin. They weren't far off there with the urine maybe but dung just will not absorb into the scalp from what I have read

 

[NickyA]

I'm not sure if you'd be a good hair transplant candidate at the moment, since your hair loss at the midscalp is relatively spread out and diffuse and that may make things harder for the surgeon, so he might want to wait till you lose more to make the surgery safer. Your donor area seems solid enough and you've been losing hair for ten years, so it seems to be slow enough otherwise, but a good surgeon would probably order a scalp biopsy anyway since your dad is a Norwood 6 or 7 with a thin donor area.

However I'd strongly urge you to try Finasteride, topical Finasteride at least if you're worried about side effects. Or starting with a lower dose of oral finasteride and titrating upwards, like two Australian Doctors suggest in their Youtube channel (The Hair Loss Show). Your hair loss seems slow enough and Finasteride may be enough for you to thicken up your midscalp and maintain for a long time. And you could always use hair fibres if that area bothers you.

Gyno is a very rare side effect (1-2% incidence) and Finasteride side effects are already very rare (10%-12% tops) and it isn't something that happens overnight, there are signs of discomfort before it. It also goes away on its own after stopping treatment for a lot of people.

 

[hairloss_user]

What dosage of topical should you go with if you want to microdose it? 0.25 mg finasteride per 1 ml solution is too much or?

Would applying it every other day be a good starting point?

Is Ethyl Alcohol and distilled water enough for a good carrier? How much alcohol and water would I need for a 100 ml solution?

What are usually the signs if you are developing gyno, so I can take precaution?

If I go to the doctor and tell them I want them to prescribe finasteride for me so I can make my own topical, it should not be an issue right?

Also do you think any doctor would be okay to do bloodwork on me pre usage just so I can have my hormone levels documented? Then do another test a few months after to see if / how much it has affected my hormone levels.

 

[NickyA]

0.50 mg per ml would probably be the minimum dose to have some effectivity if you're planning to apply it every other day. Getting bloodwork done before starting finasteride is a good idea, there's a thread in the more plates more dates website with the most important things to look at while getting bloodwork for this. I'd strongly urfe buying topical finasteride from a good pharmacy instead of crafting it yourself. You'll know if you're getting gyno for sure, it isn't necessary to know much about any "signs" and it would only aid in a possible nocebo effect. You can ask any sisters or friends how they felt when their breasts grew during puberty.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

I am mostly convinced that a person who wants to regrow or maintain hair has to throw gyno/breast growth concerns to the wind. You will be looking over your shoulder the entire time wondering when gyno is coming or whatever side effect. People who worry about gyno more than hair are not wrong at all to do so but I don't consider them to be serious in their attempts to regrow hair. Maintenance, maybe but finasteride doesn't grow much hair; what it does is it gives you something like a baseline so you don't have to worry the rest of your life and getting a transplant without finasteride is not recommended. To me, the guys mixing all the stuff up in the basement, it never pains out, ever, to anything worth noticing in terms of cosmetic significance. You can stack 20 experimental and hope so-meds like castor oil and zix and it won't be close to as effective as finasteride for maintenance and estradiol is the only thing that regrows hair although some on microneedling can if they use finasteride but otherwise, microneedling is a waste of time. It will all blow away when you quit microneedling and I am at 24 months now. Anybody else made it to two years? If not, then why don't you want this?

I wanted hair and I wanted to regrow hair and I had no qualms about finasteride since I was considering estrogen since I was 20, 36 years ago. But this needy bit about "oh, I will use a diluted topical for this and RU486 for birth control and maybe hair too" or whatever is defeatist from day one. Are you going to be mixing things for 60 years? Just take the pill or don't do it but I feel the same about the guys who try low-dose estradiol and you try to tell them and of course, it never works except to grow boobs or cause gyno since hair requires higher levels of estradiol by far but neither MtF's nor guys just in it (HRT) for the hair understand the concept that less can be more and vice versa but it depends on the circumstances.

If you go NW7 though, at least you won't have flabby boobs albeit with no chicks caring since you'll be the bald guy, in your mind, more than hers. Going on MtF HRT is a very tough decision. If using finasteride in .5mg is upsetting, then drop out now cause there's very little here for you. People who don't microneedle once a week have no business even asking questions but they won't do that for five minutes while they spend all this time ordering junk from China and keeping it at the right temperature and not a one of them ever grows any hair. Just me and that guy named Bridgeburn. I just copied him and dropped the AA and added microneedling and poof. It worked perfectly and I had been balding for well over 30 years but everyone else wants to re-create the wheel; then they end up shedding and freaking out and they stop. I shed to NW7 and I got my beard removed and put on a wig. You have to plow through sheds to baldness and hope or there's no hope even with oral minoxidil and for some people, maybe microneedling. You have to want hair more than you want to breathe or this site is a complete waste of time. We know what works: oral minoxidil, finasteride/duta, Estrogen above all, some times AA's slightly and microneedling. These all grow hair if people would just shut up and do them or take them.

Day after day, the same questions about "oh, I won't use minoxidil; I won't microneedle cause I have a tender scalp"; I won't use finasteride because I might trip out and see a flying saucer or lose the wood that I never will use as a bald man anyway. Keto is too harsh for my hair? Well your hair looks like hell anyway so you need to worry about DHT first and not so much for a way to avoid using Keto. I am an old head and if finasteride caused trips, I would be seeking it out for that effect on it's own but all of these guys who claim to hallucinate when they used it one time or whatever; I simply don't believe that happened unless a sugar pill can make you hallucinate too. But I don't care; go off finasteride; it's your hair, not mind but don't think that you can come on here and use say Alpha Estradiol, RU and some other experimental med and have it add up to finasteride, eh, I highly doubt it but again, it's your hair not mine. They might stack for maintenance or sort of work for that but they don't grow cosmetically significant hair ever.

Nothing works then but those mentioned above and maybe Keto a tiny, tiny bit. If they do work a tiny bit, it's usually for the under 30 crowd and even then usually the guys are still in college or that age from what posts I read. Nothing works to regrow male hair in a cosmetically significant way so don't waste your time if you aren't even going to do maintenance and take your pill like a man and this is not to anyone in particular but the whining on here is incessant. I have to take finasteride for life, wah! I was thrilled when finasteride came out and finagled a prescription that was covered for my prostate. Can't tell I am on it or the duta that I added five years ago. finasteride feels like zero; nothing; dutas the same but it made me really horny maybe and finasteride probably did too since they raise T and DHT is not, contrary to what some claim, essential to anyone's health. You guys just hear that finasteride lowers the more powerful type of T and freak out and that's not how receptor sites work. We don't even have it fleshed out completely what T and DHT do except we know that DHT causes dandruff, acne, severe dermatitis, contact rashes and um, hair loss. I think I will double down on T and sell my faith in DHT unless there's some more news about T doing bad stuff and it might contribute to hair loss and yes, it can be converted at times to DHT but DHT is already DHT and is the suspect in female versions of acne, dermatitis, dandruff and hair loss.

Estrogen is a mind-f****r psychologically and few can handle it who are invested in being XY's but there's nothing wrong with that notion but estrogen at least does something besides just maintenance potentially but eh, virtually no one on here has any hair prospects so it's turned into incel posts and lace systems posts almost entirely without one person on the entire site posting impressive recovery pics except me and while I am proud of my recovery, I look and look on here in vain for even one other guy whose results are impressive who is past the age of 25.

Sigh. Not using finasteride/min or microneedling is like tying your hands behind your back before you begin. Don't waste your time, guys and if any experimental meds worked well, they would have gotten word out on the black market but again they do little to nothing, same as Zix, same as Castor Oil. I post weekly pics and all thanks to Goddess for Her blessings but this is a lot of work. Tranny folks know this area better than most and some of it is instinctual but if anything experimental worked we would be using it too. Stacking meds only works with the so-called big three and really, it's a big two and if someone only uses topical min then poof, he is down to maintenance only with finasteride. Try anything else and more baldness is coming and without reductase inhibitors, it's a waste of time as is putting different junk on your scalp except for minoxidil or Estrogel and Estrogel only works in feminizing amounts. I tried low dose for several years and it was lackluster at best. Laser caps or comb? Nope. PRP? Nope. Massage? Only if you do it forty hours a week from what I have read and that's literally massaging your scalp always when watching television or something and I do plenty of that too because it does potentially work a tiny big when "stacked" with other things as do finasteride and microneedling.

Most people, I beg you. Just take the regular finasteride and min and have a beard and relax. If you do HRT then copy Bridgeburn and read his posts carefully instead of just willy-nilly starting and stopping. He was already shed-proof when he began and that's actually an advantage compared to most guys who drop out immediately whenever they see ten hairs come out in the comb. Wigs are socially acceptable in my peer group so I had that as a back-up. People need to have a plan to make it through sheds and if you don't then indeed, you might be making your baldness progress more quickly. Nobody shed on minoxidil two percent so I try to tell people what we used in the olden days when nobody shed but nope, they all want five percent in the non-pink bottle.

 

[hairloss_user]

Thanks for the input. I think I will try it, but first I will do some tests. Then use a topical version every 2nd or 3rd day to start with.

I am looking at the topicals from fueclinic and minoxidilmax. What do you think?

 

[NickyA]

Thanks for the input. I think I will try it, but first I will do some tests. Then use a topical version every 2nd or 3rd day to start with.

I am looking at the topicals from fueclinic and minoxidilmax. What do you think?

Some people here have used minoxidilmax here with good results, no idea about fueclinic. Another premade topical finasteride formula that has been reported to be trustworthy is Farmacia Parati's from Italy.