What the hell is happening?

[cooliomanino]

Ok, so I noticed this thinning on front of my head when I was 19. It was weird, because my hairline and vertex are perfectly normal. I went to a dermatologist, and she said I shouldn't worry and I wasn't going bald and just gave me some biotin tablets. Next year, I noticed that the thinning spot was still there, so I went to a dermatologist more renounced about hair loss and showed it to him. He looked at my blood levels and said it seemed normal and then made me use minoxidil for 4 months. When I saw him again looked at my hair again and said that it was really strong and made me stop the minoxidil slowly over the course of 5 months (reducing dosage). Well, the thinning spot came back, so I went to him again. He looked at my hair again with that microscope thing, and showed me these really small white hairs among the thinning place. I asked if they were miniaturised hair and he said they weren't, and they were just hair growing from scratch, but the existing hair at the thinning area was apparently an extremely bit smaller in diameter.

At the end, he said I could try to work out the minimum dosage of minoxidil for me for now, since the thinning hasn't progressed at all, and I don't have any cueball-head family members (my dad has a receded hairline and overall thinning, but that happened when he was real old and stayed that way), and I could try using minoxidil once every two days for now if I had cosmetic worries. I'm thinking of using it for 6 months-a year and then REAL slowly stop it to see what happens. What do you think?




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Anyone?

 

[cooliomanino]

No one?

 

[maher]

thats weird. does it itch?

 

[rerun]

It sounds like your dermatologist is trolling you by putting you on Minoxidil and then having you stop using it when it's effective. I thought Minoxidil is something that you have to use for life, so it's odd that he had you stop it when it was working, which of course caused the thinning spot to return.

 

[marcster]

Yup, I agree with rerun.

You probably have male pattern baldness. Very common. You can have it even if your dad, brothers, uncles etc don't have it.

And generally speaking, it is progressive, so your bald spot will probably get worse. It may be one year it may be 10. You may get a bigger bald spot and it may just stop there. Or you may get more extensive balding, which is quite common.

For now, if you want a minimalist intervention, I would say use minoxidil around the bald spot once a day, probably best at night before you sleep.

Forever.

Right now, there just is no other way. All the drug treatments are not things you can take and then taper off. Once you taper off, the balding will return.

You can start with a minimal dose, but that dose is as I just said. Minoxidil on the bald spot once a day, for the rest of your life.

This is what you have to do minimally.

Although it is likely that this will get worse, requiring you to use minoxidil over a larger area and then propecia if the minoxidil by itself is not enough.

You have to face this head on, no denial, and get ahead of this if you want to succeed.

I did 3 years ago and and I'm doing pretty well now...reversed an Norwood 3.5...maybe even an Norwood 4 to an Norwood 2.

Best of luck. I think you can take care of this if you are mature about your approach to it and disciplined in your use of minoxidil.

 

[Agahi]

your derm is dumb as hell.

1st: Why a prescription for a non prescription medication, who the hell does he think he is?
2nd: obviously he knows nothing about minoxidil because it needs continual use to work and keep results.

3rd(most important): Get on finasteride, and enjoy keeping your hair(most likely)

 

[cooliomanino]

Yup, I agree with rerun.

You probably have male pattern baldness. Very common. You can have it even if your dad, brothers, uncles etc don't have it.

And generally speaking, it is progressive, so your bald spot will probably get worse. It may be one year it may be 10. You may get a bigger bald spot and it may just stop there. Or you may get more extensive balding, which is quite common.

For now, if you want a minimalist intervention, I would say use minoxidil around the bald spot once a day, probably best at night before you sleep.

Forever.

Right now, there just is no other way. All the drug treatments are not things you can take and then taper off. Once you taper off, the balding will return.

You can start with a minimal dose, but that dose is as I just said. Minoxidil on the bald spot once a day, for the rest of your life.

This is what you have to do minimally.

Although it is likely that this will get worse, requiring you to use minoxidil over a larger area and then propecia if the minoxidil by itself is not enough.

You have to face this head on, no denial, and get ahead of this if you want to succeed.

I did 3 years ago and and I'm doing pretty well now...reversed an Norwood 3.5...maybe even an Norwood 4 to an Norwood 2.

Best of luck. I think you can take care of this if you are mature about your approach to it and disciplined in your use of minoxidil.

I don't know. It's weird how this thinning spot is not on the back of my head or on the hairline, but just a little bit behind the hairline. I don't want to sound like in denial, but that's not really a normal spot for male pattern baldness is it?

If it's really male pattern baldness, I think I'll try to accept it first. Cut hair short, buzz it, etc. when it gets really worse. I think that's healthier for my mind.

thats weird. does it itch?

When I showed it to a different dermatologist when I was 19, she said I had eczema on that area on my scalp, and gave me medicine for it. Maybe that permanently hurt my follicles in that area?

 

[marcster]

It is a somewhat unorthodox place to start losing your hair. But people have different patterns and the Norwood patterns are just general tendencies. They apply to most people, but not absolutely everyone.

Some people have some very interesting patters. I know one guy who basically went bald all over the top of his head but kept his hairline, although it went thinner. This actually looks decent on him as he is older. He is bald but has a hairline and it frames his face so he still looks the same in the face.

Other people just get a bald spot on the crown which grows but that's about it. Hairline stays intact, maybe with some recession. But mostly its just a bald spot on the crown.

Then there are the typicak Norwoods 1,2,3,4 etc patterns that most men have.

It is possible that this is not male pattern baldness but not likely. Like 95% of the time it is male pattern baldness. I was there 4 years ago. It is very confusing, like this can't be happening to me.

We can get ourselves into a form of denial and not even be aware of the fact that we are in denial, because it is mixed with confusion. Is this happening to me? It can't be...maybe it's something else.

The only thing which helped me was when I went to a leader in the field, an IAHRS approved hair transplant surgeon...I would argue the best in the field, Dr. Robert Bernstein in NYC. I paid a pretty penny for him.

He took the densitometer thing he had, took a look at my scalp, and just straight up told me I was going bald. He put his hand over my head and told me that in due time, it was all gonna go. I...felt shocked. I felt like crying. And I am a 30 something year old mature man.

But it was good for me. Tough medicine but exactly what I needed. This brief consultation with the best hair transplant surgeon in the world was some of the best money I ever spent.

That was it. I was going bald. If the creator of follicular unit transplantation, the modern hair transplant, was telling me I was going bald, then I was going bald.

It was not a mature hairline. It was not some sort of balding that was going to just stop and some point. Hair loss is progressive, and I was going bald.

It may be valuable for your to put together some cash and visit the best hair doctor available in your area, and IAHRS approved guy. That way, you will know what is happening to you to the greatest degree humanly possible.

Then you can take informed and rational action.

This may mean just accepting it for you and allowing that natural balding process to take place.

For others, it means going on rogaine, propecia, or both.

For still others, it may mean hair tranplantation, alone or in concert with medical therapies.

There are also some folks who are happy what what SMP offers them.

But from my perspective, it is really important to know for sure what is going on so you can take proper action.

 

[maher]

you should try with nizoral shampoo or even better: ciclopirox shampoo to rule out fungi or viral infection...

 

[macamaca]

you should try with nizoral shampoo or even better: ciclopirox shampoo to rule out fungi or viral infection...

Try get a shampoo that contains keto but has no sodium sulphate as this can irritate the scalp further.

 

[Limitless9]

It doesn't necessarily have to be male pattern baldness, don't listen to the guy.