Valiant Effort But Losing This Fight Fast

[-Synergy-]

Hey everyone, I have decided to create this thread to document my progress or my continued loss and defeat. I would also like to hopefully hear from others that have gone the same direction with treatments. I am in a really bad spot right now and if not advice some support would be really helpful. Idk maybe my experience can help somebody else as well. I would like to start fighting this as aggressively as possible while keeping side effects low if possible.

First, let me explain my situation, my hair started coming out at 16 in clumps, but I started out with really thick hair. This was a shock to me, but I was dealing with a lot of stress, so I just kinda assumed it to be a chronic Telogen Effluvium. Eventually, about 4 years back I had enough and started to think about using finasteride. I did my research the best I could and was apprehensive when it came to the side effects. I decided to instead attempt minoxidil which turned out really bad for me. By this I mean, I had developed terrible dermatitis and was losing massive amounts of skin on the top of my head and was in pain. At this point, I was losing more hair and became desperate so I started taking finasteride. The results were great because so much hair came back and got thicker. Everything was moving along fine for three years up until about 7 months ago when I started using topical minoxidil again from fearing that finasteride maintenance was starting to slip. My scalp broke out into horrendous dermatitis within a month like it did years ago and my hair started dieing instantly and still is, but very briefly it seemed to work. The worst part is the casts of oil that I find at the end of a lot of my hairs. It seems like nine out of ten fallen hairs have a clump of yellow or white sebum at the end. Anyway, this wasn't normal shedding from minoxidil because the scalp pain wouldn't allow me to sleep. Where there wasn't inflammation, I did see small hair starting to grow after about a month. I actually was starting to get the outline of temporal points when I was at an N 2 - 2.5. Anyway, I stopped minoxidil because I couldn't handle the pain, dermatitis, and as a result of poor scalp health, increased hair loss. The alcohol in the minoxidil and my really sensitive scalp was to blame.

After stopping topical minoxidil about four months ago my rate of hair loss went back to normal but only briefly, after two months without minoxidil, I was shedding a lot. I should also add that I did start PRP and laser therapy about three months ago. I am beginning to doubt the efficacy of both when it comes to hair growth, and they seem like better treatments for inflammation. The hair started coming out more ever since that transition. There is a shedding phase before growth but this loss feels and seems more like the hair is being aggravated. This caused me to get some tests done and while on finasteride my DHT was 187ng, Test 755ng, and estro 34pg. I also found out I was low in iron and vitamin D from crash dieting and have positive antinuclear antibodies (ANA). This could mean that I have an autoimmune problem which I am going to look into further. To top that off I just got done battling a scalp infection which I believe was caused by bacteria. I am trying to make progress, so I jumped on dutasteride just in case the PRP and laser turn out to be complete bull shyt. After a month on duta my DHT is 76ng, Test 800ng give or take 20, and estro 24pg surprisingly because I felt slight gyno in the beginning but completely resolved and no other sides at the moment. I have got the infection almost entirely taken care of and my vitamin levels back up while consuming protein. I am still fighting dermatitis with coal tar 1% and just started taking 5mg oral minoxidil. After taking the oral minoxidil I checked my blood pressure + heart rate and everything is fine. It seems like right after I used the minoxidil topically my vitamin levels crashed and all this started happening. That doesn't make any sense though to me because I am obviously not allergic to minoxidil and didn't experience any other side effects besides severe skin irritation. I am assuming the next step would be spironolactone, but I enjoy being a dude and I am not sure how the meds I'm currently taking might affect me long term the way it is. On the flip side, Anyone struggling with autoimmune problems because I hear that can crash vitamins and cause hair loss?

If anyone has any questions about this regimen I will try to answer and if you have experienced anything positive or negative with any of these treatments please let me know. I can post some pictures even though I am embarrassed by my hair at this point even if it is on a website about hair loss because it's beyond thin everywhere. My MPH seems to affect my entire scalp like female pattern hair loss.

 

[-Synergy-]

I have decided to reduce the oral minoxidil to 2.5mg a day and take the pill instead of liquid. The 5mg dose might have been making me dizzy. I’m going to split the pills in half so I can take roughly 1mg in the morning and 1mg near evening.

 

[Ikarus]

Oral minoxidil is questionable to me, especially since it can cause bad skin. What other medications do you have in mind that you would like to try?

 

[-Synergy-]

If I see anything good I can always cut the dose in half or take one fourth for maintenance. Just trying to stop progression for a chance of regrowth. Do you think wounding could be a vehicle instead of using alcohol for super zix with caffeine and other stuff? Um have been thinking mainly prevention, but now growth and decreasing pgd2 in case this isn’t all caused by androgens. Might be small hairs on the back of my arm after a week.

 

[Vocalmajority]

If I see anything good I can always cut the dose in half or take one fourth for maintenance. Just trying to stop progression for a chance of regrowth. Do you think wounding could be a vehicle instead of using alcohol for super zix with caffeine and other stuff? Um have been thinking mainly prevention, but now growth and decreasing pgd2 in case this isn’t all caused by androgens. Might be small hairs on the back of my arm after a week.

I don’t want to sound like a smart arse, but I think sometimes it may seem that more is better but it is exactly the opposite. That’s why I am always slowly upgrading my regimen and give new things time to try them out. I have red in the past days a lot of stories where people add up many serious drugs into their regimen simultaneously like - Ima gonna add 100mg spironolactone 2.5 mg of duta and 5mg of finasteride and topical estrogen cream on top of that. It may seem like that powerful combo will get you an Norwood 0/1 overnight but all is does is bring powerful shock to your body (hair included) and may trigger even more hair loss than before. Again that is only my insight.

 

[bluecyclone]

This is my hair from a shower tonight. Washed 3 days ago similar loss. WTF. I get it I’m old but does hair fall out like this? I mean nothing 2.5 years ago. Please advise on the oral minoxidil will stopping it be the nail in the coffin if I can’t manage on Propecia

 

[tomJ]

I'd be more concerned with your nuclear antibodies before hairloss. Ask your dr. If taking these meds is a good idea? Especially in your case.

 

[-Synergy-]

I know you have to give any new treatment a few months to a year, but wow I will be bald before any of this stuff starts working.

I don’t want to sound like a smart arse, but I think sometimes it may seem that more is better but it is exactly the opposite. That’s why I am always slowly upgrading my regimen and give new things time to try them out. I have red in the past days a lot of stories where people add up many serious drugs into their regimen simultaneously like - Ima gonna add 100mg spironolactone 2.5 mg of duta and 5mg of finasteride and topical estrogen cream on top of that. It may seem like that powerful combo will get you an Norwood 0/1 overnight but all is does is bring powerful shock to your body (hair included) and may trigger even more hair loss than before. Again that is only my insight.

No, I appreciate your input Vocal. Actually I was just thinking that to myself the other day but I really haven’t had a choice. I just added some minoxidil topically when I started losing a little ground on finasteride. Really didn’t think this would get so bad and lose so fast. This is why I think I should continue small dose oral just in case there are any hairs minoxidil dependent from topical use after I stopped. Everything else was to improve my internal health and make my scalp healthy again. Trying to keep the addition of new treatments a month and a half apart but that might not be enough. Do you think mixing up some Vixs would be ok though because it’s just vitamins?

I'd be more concerned with your nuclear antibodies before hairloss. Ask your dr. If taking these meds is a good idea? Especially in your case.

Right, I had some intuition and got the tests done because it didn’t feel like the mph I experienced in the past. The hair stopped growing and almost shrunk and miniaturized without even falling out in the beginning. This is very strange and I have to wait two weeks for a Dr to look into this. When I lost 50% I was only seeing ten hairs in the shower during wash?? I’m afraid I have lupus after reading the symptoms and it can develop in some people that use blood pressure meds. I would not be surprised at all if I was told my immune system is attacking my hair like it’s an infection.

This is my hair from a shower tonight. Washed 3 days ago similar loss. WTF. I get it I’m old but does hair fall out like this? I mean nothing 2.5 years ago. Please advise on the oral minoxidil will stopping it be the nail in the coffin if I can’t manage on Propecia

WTF is what I have been repeatedly saying to myself now straight for seven months. What if the oral minoxidil is growing your hair and if you stop it you start losing more?

 

[-Synergy-]

The sebum plugs I am experiencing are causing me to lose all my hair really really fast because my hair was fine before this started. I did some searching and know I am not the only one that has experienced this.

@itsjustsimon - Please Help: Really Bad Scalp Inflammation, Pulling A Couple Of Hair Sticking Together

@JaxTeller - White Substance Covering Hair Root?

I'm guessing it could be this but have no idea - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedo

Please tell me how your hair is doing now and if you can offer me any advice on how to rid my hair bulbs of this strange stuff. This seems like a very common experience but there are so many different answers. I just want to hear from somebody that has experienced this to get a straight answer and know what helped them.

 

[itsjustsimon]

The sebum plugs I am experiencing are causing me to lose all my hair really really fast because my hair was fine before this started. I did some searching and know I am not the only one that has experienced this.

@itsjustsimon - Please Help: Really Bad Scalp Inflammation, Pulling A Couple Of Hair Sticking Together

@JaxTeller - White Substance Covering Hair Root?

I'm guessing it could be this but have no idea - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedo

Please tell me how your hair is doing now and if you can offer me any advice on how to rid my hair bulbs of this strange stuff. This seems like a very common experience but there are so many different answers. I just want to hear from somebody that has experienced this to get a straight answer and know what helped them.

I get it when I’m under a lot of stress and irregular sleeping schedule.

So treatments: hydrocortisone (scalpicin ), Salicylic acid, mega dose of green tea (tablets), fenugreek. You can add antiandrogen (cb or ru), dutasteride if you are on finasteride right now, shampoo you hair more often, egg white mask and perilla leaves tables from somebody’s method, omega-3 oil, dermarolling ( but not too much ).

I still believe that happens when harmones are totally fucked up which is not hard to do if you’re on antiandrogen. Broscience, but that’s just my anecdotal experience.

Right now I’m kind of maintaining but I never got my hair back since that happened.

 

[itsjustsimon]

And another thing just to add, I have very fucked up immune system. I have a really bad pollen allergy, got really bad flare ups when cat bites me for example and my mother is on immunosuppressant. The other thing is, dutasteride is not in any way cure for me and I’m still losing hair. Slowly but steadily.

So for some of us it kind of seems that immune system has a big role in Androgenetic Alopecia. Suppressing DHT is still very important but it’s not the full story.

 

[-Synergy-]

I get it when I’m under a lot of stress and irregular sleeping schedule.

So treatments: hydrocortisone (scalpicin ), Salicylic acid, mega dose of green tea (tablets), fenugreek. You can add oral antiandrogen (cb or ru), dutasteride if you are on finasteride right now, shampoo you hair more often, egg white mask and perilla leaves tables from somebody’s method, omega-3 oil, dermarolling ( but not too much ).

I still believe that happens when harmones are totally fucked up which is not hard to do if you’re on antiandrogen. Broscience, but that’s just my anecdotal experience.

Right now I’m kind of maintaining but I never got my hair back since that happened.

Thank you Simon, well then I guess it is over for me because this is happening straight out of nowhere and too fast to tackle. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself to never touch minoxidil. It has been 4 - 4.5 months since I stopped topical minoxidil so a small part of me is praying that this could just be a telogen effluvium, but a larger part of me is saying your over and need to admit it. Also, I just went to a rheumatologist and was told the Ana is a false positive, but they are going to due more thorough tests. The Keanu hair in your pic reminds me man of how my hair was just as thick about a year and a half ago. Yeah “sigh”, I will pick up and try everything you have recommended above. Your hair not growing back from this really sucks for you, me, and anyone that develops these. Yeah, I am on dutasteride and was taking oral minoxidil, but I think for some strange reason that I will never understand minoxidil is poison for me. It breaks down anything it touches on my body as if I am part cat or something. Whenever I take minoxidil orally my heart beat feels faint and irregular and that’s when I take only 1mg. Strangely though my heart beat and blood pressure always stays at 120 over 80? I don’t understand, isn’t cb and ru not supposed to be taken orally? I do have a lot of stress especially now that this has happened and I like to be nocturnal, but my sleeping pattern isn’t too irregular. Unless you count staying up late because we are humans and that might throw off the biological clock and therefore effect hormones negatively. Actually, this reminds me of a article I read once on how 3rd shift workers have poorer health due to hormonal imbalances.

Well scalp biopsy here I come and if that doesn’t work I’ll have to throw in the towel because I’m exhausted.

Just wanted to maintain coverage through my 30s and some of my 40s. My testosterone is on the high side but idk if that should be messed with especially if these plugs have caused any kind of permanent scaring or loss. Is it even possible to mix cb in water and apply it topically after very slight microneedling?

 

[itsjustsimon]

Thank you Simon, well then I guess it is over for me because this is happening straight out of nowhere and too fast to tackle. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself to never touch minoxidil. It has been 4 - 4.5 months since I stopped topical minoxidil so a small part of me is praying that this could just be a telogen effluvium, but a larger part of me is saying your over and need to admit it. Also, I just went to a rheumatologist and was told the Ana is a false positive, but they are going to due more thorough tests. The Keanu hair in your pic reminds me man of how my hair was just as thick about a year and a half ago. Yeah “sigh”, I will pick up and try everything you have recommended above. Your hair not growing back from this really sucks for you, me, and anyone that develops these. Yeah, I am on dutasteride and was taking oral minoxidil, but I think for some strange reason that I will never understand minoxidil is poison for me. It breaks down anything it touches on my body as if I am part cat or something. Whenever I take minoxidil orally my heart beat feels faint and irregular and that’s when I take only 1mg. Strangely though my heart beat and blood pressure always stays at 120 over 80? I don’t understand, isn’t cb and ru not supposed to be taken orally? I do have a lot of stress especially now that this has happened and I like to be nocturnal, but my sleeping pattern isn’t too irregular. Unless you count staying up late because we are humans and that might throw off the biological clock and therefore effect hormones negatively. Actually, this reminds me of a article I read once on how 3rd shift workers have poorer health due to hormonal imbalances.

Well scalp biopsy here I come and if that doesn’t work I’ll have to throw in the towel because I’m exhausted.

Just wanted to maintain coverage through my 30s and some of my 40s. My testosterone is on the high side but idk if that should be messed with especially if these plugs have caused any kind of permanent scaring or loss. Is it even possible to mix cb in water and apply it topically after very slight microneedling?

Yeah sorry, I meant topical Ru or CB, not oral lol that would be insane.

Minoxidil is shitty drug anyway. Maybe you should try some pgd2/pge angle and add dermarolling. I believe it can be a great alternative.

I’ve also missed keto shampoo. Can be very helpful for many people. I personally don’t like it, but I use it once a week anyways.

Upgrade your regimen, wait and you’ll be fine. I also believe it could be telogen but its kind of grey area. Try not to think about too much, I know it’s hard but you’ll just be more stressed over everything.

 

[Capone]

Thank you Simon, well then I guess it is over for me because this is happening straight out of nowhere and too fast to tackle. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself to never touch minoxidil. It has been 4 - 4.5 months since I stopped topical minoxidil so a small part of me is praying that this could just be a telogen effluvium, but a larger part of me is saying your over and need to admit it. Also, I just went to a rheumatologist and was told the Ana is a false positive, but they are going to due more thorough tests. The Keanu hair in your pic reminds me man of how my hair was just as thick about a year and a half ago. Yeah “sigh”, I will pick up and try everything you have recommended above. Your hair not growing back from this really sucks for you, me, and anyone that develops these. Yeah, I am on dutasteride and was taking oral minoxidil, but I think for some strange reason that I will never understand minoxidil is poison for me. It breaks down anything it touches on my body as if I am part cat or something. Whenever I take minoxidil orally my heart beat feels faint and irregular and that’s when I take only 1mg. Strangely though my heart beat and blood pressure always stays at 120 over 80? I don’t understand, isn’t cb and ru not supposed to be taken orally? I do have a lot of stress especially now that this has happened and I like to be nocturnal, but my sleeping pattern isn’t too irregular. Unless you count staying up late because we are humans and that might throw off the biological clock and therefore effect hormones negatively. Actually, this reminds me of a article I read once on how 3rd shift workers have poorer health due to hormonal imbalances.

Well scalp biopsy here I come and if that doesn’t work I’ll have to throw in the towel because I’m exhausted.

Just wanted to maintain coverage through my 30s and some of my 40s. My testosterone is on the high side but idk if that should be messed with especially if these plugs have caused any kind of permanent scaring or loss. Is it even possible to mix cb in water and apply it topically after very slight microneedling?

Do you get an itchy scalp?

 

[-Synergy-]

@Capone

Well when it started my scalp was only a little bit itchy and crawling but had a lot of stinging and burning. Now that all the hair is gone a lot of that went away along with some oil production and possibly flacking. The pic below is a close up I took 6 months ago while it was happening and had a ton more hair. I thought then it might be useful. I have studied it and might see regrowth that didn’t make it, dermatitis, and miniaturization.

 

[-Synergy-]

How far apart are this photos? It looks worse in those photos yes. However, lighting and angles are different. You hair is also wet in the bad photos. That makes a huge difference in itself.

Ok the better photos were taken 6 months ago and the bad pic was taken about 5 days ago. I agree lighting and angle matters but at this point I need makeup and tricky film as well to fool anyone. I have another one and tried to match the lighting the best I can. I had dry hair the day I took this but thin hair gets oily fast if you sweat for 2 seconds.

 

[1212]

I started and stopped generic minoxidil abruptly after a month or so of use. My hairline/crown have deteriorated rapidly since stopping about 5-6 months. Thinking of starting up again for the 4th time as I've just started finasteride.