What Do You Wish You Did At The Start Of Your Hair Loss Journey?

[Stratman95]

Hi everyone,

Brand new member here. 25 y/o, Perhaps just at the very start of my own hair loss journey. I've always had very fine hair, but lots of it. However, I suspect the writing is on the wall.

So I come to you looking for the gift of hindsight. What do you wish you had done at the very beginning? My goal is to try and maintain my hair long enough for me to get a hair transplant, preferably when I'm 35+ and can actually afford such a thing.

I have never taken any drugs, besides using nioxin shampoo / conditioner for the past couple of years. HUGELY afraid of finasteride, after seeing so many people suffer PFS...seeing a lot of sides coming from minoxidil as well. Am I doomed? What do you wish you had done right at the start, to maintain the hair you had?

Any input is greatly appreciated.

 

[-G-]

Get married.

 

[Stratman95]

Get married.

I'll get right on that. They can come in the mail as well, right?

 

[pegasus2]

I wish I had jumped on finasteride or dutasteride and minoxidil right away. I also wish I'd gotten a hair transplant after one year of growing back everything I could from those medications.

 

[Stratman95]

I wish I had jumped on finasteride or dutasteride and minoxidil right away. I also wish I'd gotten a hair transplant after one year of growing back everything I could from those medications.

Did you not go on finasteride due to fear of sides?

The sides are why I won't go on it.

 

[pegasus2]

Did you not go on finasteride due to fear of sides?

The sides are why I won't go on it.

Yes. I didn't want to mess up my hormones. When I hit NW4 I threw in the towel, and guess what? No sides!

 

[Stratman95]

Yes. I didn't want to mess up my hormones. When I hit NW4 I threw in the towel, and guess what? No sides!

That's good for you. I just can't bring myself to take that risk.

 

[baba_yaga]

Hi everyone,

Brand new member here. 25 y/o, Perhaps just at the very start of my own hair loss journey. I've always had very fine hair, but lots of it. However, I suspect the writing is on the wall.

So I come to you looking for the gift of hindsight. What do you wish you had done at the very beginning? My goal is to try and maintain my hair long enough for me to get a hair transplant, preferably when I'm 35+ and can actually afford such a thing.

I have never taken any drugs, besides using nioxin shampoo / conditioner for the past couple of years. HUGELY afraid of finasteride, after seeing so many people suffer PFS...seeing a lot of sides coming from minoxidil as well. Am I doomed? What do you wish you had done right at the start, to maintain the hair you had?

Any input is greatly appreciated.

I am 18 and am taking finasteride, although not for a long period of time so could still have sides later. If you really want your hair, you should hop on treatment as soon as possible. Most are preventative.

 

[Stratman95]

That's what I said when I was a fullhead too. You'll change your mind when you look at your rat nest in the mirror as a norwood 4. Look at the studies instead of the fear mongering.

The thing is - I'm not convinced by the studies. Who's to say they're conclusive or accurate? I've seen this video. It's hugely persuasive. Has no one read the Reuters article?

 

[Stratman95]

What Reuters article? How do we know anything is conclusive or accurate?

Agreed, with that philosophy, everything is an unknown.

I can't send links right now, but I found the article with a fairly quick google search. It's pretty damning for Merck. My issue is, the risk DOES exist. Merck have more reason to lie about their products than people do to warn others against Finasteride. I agree some people may be blaming other issues on PFS, however, to suggest everyone is wrong about this is seeming more and more unlikely.

 

[Xenophon]

Not listened to people who say 'your hair looks fine,' and 'don't do anything.'

of course my way is to not listen to people so I didn't make this mistake, and that is precisely why I have a full head of hair. Remember — man wants you to be mediocre, to accept whatever comes your way however trivial it is, including this. They will tell you your hair looks fine now and in five years when they're mad at you they will use it to insult you. Women will reject you. You know how the world works. I'm the friend you need (or needed).

 

[MKP05]

I would’ve started finasteride slower at lower doses and built up. I think the sudden change shocked my hormonal balance and caused an episode of Telogen Effluvium. I also would’ve laid off minoxidil for at least 6 months to see what finasteride would’ve done on its own. When I switched to dutasteride I wish I had not stopped finasteride cold turkey. That led to another shock which I have yet to recover from. Good luck.

 

[Stratman95]

It's HUGELY tempting to take finasteride. PFS is a much worse scenario than going bald, however, and by not taking finasteride I'm eliminating the worst outcome entirely. I'm aware the risk may be small, but I'd be constantly worried about the sides every day of taking finasteride. Plus, I'd be afraid to stop. Stoked for you guys that it's working out well.

 

[Stratman95]

By not leaving your house you eliminate the risk of getting run over by a semi-truck. Life is a series of choices where you weigh the risk versus the reward. Small risk of getting flattened by a truck vs the reward of enjoying a nice night out. I'll take the night out and the hair.

Agreed, but I can look both ways when crossing the road, I can drive slower, there are factors that reduce the risk of the truck getting me. With finasteride, it's down to pure chance that I can't control. Besides, there's other alternatives I can take with much less risk. I think I owe it to myself to give those a go first....

 

[DoctorHouse]

Avoided joining a hair loss forum. Now I can't leave it.

 

[TomRiddle]

Not listened to people who say 'your hair looks fine,' and 'don't do anything.'

of course my way is to not listen to people so I didn't make this mistake, and that is precisely why I have a full head of hair. Remember — man wants you to be mediocre, to accept whatever comes your way however trivial it is, including this. They will tell you your hair looks fine now and in five years when they're mad at you they will use it to insult you. Women will reject you. You know how the world works. I'm the friend you need (or needed).

Your the friend who needs therapy and no other people around him that's for sure

 

[TomRiddle]

Avoided joining a hair loss forum. Now I can't leave it.

Lmao

 

[TomRiddle]

Agreed, but I can look both ways when crossing the road, I can drive slower, there are factors that reduce the risk of the truck getting me. With finasteride, it's down to pure chance that I can't control. Besides, there's other alternatives I can take with much less risk. I think I owe it to myself to give those a go first....

Dude, with just a few exceptions, this forum, the reddit hair loss one, are filled with neurotic 18 year olds who would cut their balls, some even did it, they grow b**ch titties, they are impotent and with a very low iq and will never understand it, get it? I made the same mistake in trying in reasoning with them, but it's impossible. The science says it's impossible to reason with people on forums, especially with the ones that spend their whole life on them, transforming them in their realities, not differentiating anymore real life from the internet one. Most of them are mentally ill and your invading "their private space" and attacking their emotionally invested treatments and it's their life understand?

They have distorted realities and because they never leave the house ever in their life, the internet became their life. Do your own research and don't listen to none of these freaks, regardless of their projections of their lives on your life or experiences. Misery likes company and if they wanna die or grow tits and cut their balls to save their hair then that means that you should do it also, because if they do it and believe it's the right way, in their sick minds, it means that everybody else should do it also...

 

[TomRiddle]

Here, read this and maybe you will get a glance of all the studies ever made on finasteride...

Adverse Event Reporting in Clinical Trials of Finasteride for Androgenic Alopecia A Meta-analysis

Abstract
IMPORTANCE:
Two meta-analyses conclude that finasteride treatment of androgenic alopecia (Androgenetic Alopecia) is safe but do not assess quality of safety reporting.

OBJECTIVE:
To assess safety reporting for clinical trial reports of finasteride for Androgenetic Alopecia.

DATA SOURCES:
MEDLINE, ClinicalTrials.gov, and a clinical data repository for an academic medical center.

STUDY SELECTION:
Published clinical trial reports for finasteride treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS:
For each trial, we assessed quality of adverse event reporting, extracted the number and type of adverse events in treatment and placebo groups, and assessed duration of safety evaluation and adequacy of blinding. Two observers independently extracted the data; differences were resolved by consensus. We assessed generalizability in a large cohort of men prescribed finasteride, 1.25 mg/d or less, by assessing for eligibility in the finasteride-Androgenetic Alopecia pivotal trials.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES:
Quality was assessed as adequate, partially adequate, inadequate, or no events reported. We used funnel plots of the hazard ratio to assess bias.

RESULTS:
Of 34 clinical trials, none had adequate safety reporting, 19 were partially adequate, 12 were inadequate, and 3 reported no adverse events. Funnel plots were asymmetric with a bias toward lower odds ratio for sexual adverse effects, suggesting systematic underdetection. No reports assessed adequacy of blinding, 18 (53%) disclosed conflicts of interest, and 19 (56%) received funding from the manufacturer. Duration of drug safety evaluation was 1 year or less for 26 of 34 trials (76%). Of 5704 men in the clinical data repository who were treated for Androgenetic Alopecia with finasteride, 1.25 mg/d or less, for Androgenetic Alopecia, only 31% met inclusion criteria for the pivotal trials referenced in the manufacturer's full prescribing information and 33% took finasteride for more than 1 year.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:
Available toxicity information from clinical trials of finasteride in men with Androgenetic Alopecia is very limited, is of poor quality, and seems to be systematically biased. In a cohort of men prescribed finasteride for routine treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia, most would have been excluded from the pivotal studies that supported US Food and Drug Administration approval for Androgenetic Alopecia. Published reports of clinical trials provide insufficient information to establish the safety profile for finasteride in the treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25830296

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.692.4105&rep=rep1&type=pdf

The Dark Side of 5α-Reductase Inhibitors' Therapy: Sexual Dysfunction, High Gleason Grade Prostate Cancer and Depression

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4064044/

After draw your own conclusions and who would you like to trust, not just because some insecure mental ill idiots from an internet forum say it's safe just because they would do anything to save their hair, and comparing to killing themselves and cutting their balls off, taking finasteride is nothing. Use your brain that's why you have it.

 

[OldnBald]

I would've taken finasteride years ago. For about two years prior I was a not worried about the sides. But really I just never did proper research; I just didn't think it would work that well. It has, at least in my case, resurrected my once laughable head of hair to at least decent.

If one is to not take finasteride, and they have male pattern baldness, they will go bald, or have such a bad head of hair they might as well be. It's just the way it is. If you're fine with it, good for you, if not, consider the pill.