Shaved my head, and it's STILL hard to stay positive.

[thedarkcolor]

So, I'm a 24 year old male...I've been dealing with real hairloss for about a year or two now. This past April, I shaved my head out of desperation. It didn't help my confidence at all and I'm depressed as ever. In fact, it made my hairloss even more apparent. I had shoulder length hair before and no one in my social life seemed to know I was balding until I shaved my hair and my hairline was exposed.

Here are three photos of me as of mere minutes ago. I let it grow out a bit to see what my options were...it's been about 2 months since I shaved my head. I have daily scalp itchiness and burning in the places that I am balding: temples, forelock, and the crown. It drives me absolutely insane. Today the itch was INSANELY bad. I shower daily and use 1% Nizoral and rotate that with my normal shampoo. Good god, I can feel the hairloss happening with this itch and burning. It's the worst.



To think that I went from this:


To the above in exactly ONE year is absolutely frightening. And the worst part about is that finasteride gave me incredibly awful sides when I did try it about 1.5 years ago. Should I give it another go? It screwed me up really bad for the better half of an entire month.

Any tips, pointers, advice, or constructive criticism is welcome. Also, feel free to go through my post history. I've got photos, progress of my hair loss, and even my "post finasteride syndrome" nightmare of side effects when I first created this account.

Thanks everyone for listening to this rant.

 

[RoyD]

What were your side effects on finasteride? I take 5 mg daily and have testicular pain every now and then, lower libido and watery semen but nothing that is really causing trouble for me.

Get back on 1 mg finasteride again and stop thinking about the sides. Most people just overthink and then drop finasteride. finasteride is your only hope so try and deal with the sides as I am doing.

 

[F2005]

It is extremely hard to stay positive, and you always hear from people with next to no hair loss that we should stay positive and have confidence. A common theme on this forum is how hair loss gets marginalized because it's mainly a men's issue. I've heard from plenty of people how women supposedly are attracted to positivity and confidence yet I'd like to see your average young woman with hundreds of photos on facebook stay positive and have confidence if she was losing her hair.

 

[EvilLocks]

Hi there, sorry to hear about your situation. I know how much it sucks, as I also suffer from both hair loss and the scalp burning you describe. The burn/itch just makes everything worse, because you can actually feel yourself going bald.

I think you should try finasteride again, depending on what kind of sides you got when you first tried it. Who knows, it might help you?

 

[RoyD]

Women are just like men. They are attracted to looks just as much as we are. Stop making media brainwash you into thinking that they like a nice guy who has confidence and a great personality.

 

[GoldenMane]

What about topical stuff? Have you tried RU? I don't know how effective it is, but there's also some minoxidil solutions with topical finasteride in solution. It's not as effective, but topical spironolactone could also be an option. Perhaps a multi pronged approach could compensate for the lack of finasteride? Or as others have suggested, you could just try finasteride again, slowly increase your dose...

 

[swingline747]

There is absolutely no scientific evidence that women are attracted to positivity and confidence.

However, there is an overwhelming body of evidence that shows that women are attracted to facial symmetry, height and good health (balding makes you look ill).

Being positive, confidence, humour, charisma may all make a woman liking you more in a friendly manner, but it won't make her more sexually attracted to you.

But when it comes to landing a wife all those mental aspects come into play more I think.... and then you get a decent wife you worked your *** off for, youre lucky to get motionless sex once a year on your birthday and the other 364 she getting it from behind by the hot NW1 guy in her office!

 

[dudeofbro]

Dude, you look now so much better than with long hair. Srsly, that beard is awesome. Even without hair at all you will look manly and cool. I envy you.

 

[EvilLocks]

If you wanna look into transplants at least you've got a good amount of beard grafts

 

[thedarkcolor]

What were your side effects on finasteride? I take 5 mg daily and have testicular pain every now and then, lower libido and watery semen but nothing that is really causing trouble for me.

Get back on 1 mg finasteride again and stop thinking about the sides. Most people just overthink and then drop finasteride. finasteride is your only hope so try and deal with the sides as I am doing.

I tried 1.25 mg of generic finasteride that I got from a doctor's prescription and within a few hours of my first dose I developed testicular ache. A day days afterward, I developed acute anxiety, brain fog, insomnia, and depersonalization. I was hospitalized twice. I was essentially a zombie for about a month straight. No energy, couldn't think straight, couldn't sleep. I sat at home, alone in my bed...doing nothing.

Libido was fine, however, which is the weird thing. It took me about 40 days or so to feel remotely normal. You can check my post history. My first post here with this account was during this time and I was asking about side effects and how to overcome them. Finasteride scares me to death now because of this.

I had a visit with a dermatologist in February of this year and received a prescription for 1mg of brand name Propecia because according to this dermatologist, some get side effects with generics and don't with brand name. I have this bottle sitting on my dresser and haven't touched it since I filled the prescription out of fear from my previous experience.

I'm running out of time to make the decision if I wanted to give it another go....

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Hi there, sorry to hear about your situation. I know how much it sucks, as I also suffer from both hair loss and the scalp burning you describe. The burn/itch just makes everything worse, because you can actually feel yourself going bald.

I think you should try finasteride again, depending on what kind of sides you got when you first tried it. Who knows, it might help you?

I've silently followed your story for awhile now and I must say I am truly sorry for what you have had to go through. It must be ten times harder.

I tried finasteride once before and the side effects were pretty damn bad. If you (or anyone else) cares to read my first thread/post here on this forum, it chronicles my side effects...

http://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/showthread.php/78677-I-d-like-some-opinions-help-Side-effects-and-PFS

If I could at least preserve what I have now and stop this damned itch/burning I would be satisfied. I would be the happiest person in the world if I could take finasteride without issue, but I'm scared to death due to my previous experiences.

 

[Dench57]

I have daily scalp itchiness and burning in the places that I am balding: temples, forelock, and the crown. It drives me absolutely insane. Today the itch was INSANELY bad. I shower daily and use 1% Nizoral and rotate that with my normal shampoo. Good god, I can feel the hairloss happening with this itch and burning. It's the worst.

This is the hardest part. I never had ANY itching or burning before I tried Propecia, now I have it all day, everyday, 5 months after I stopped using Propecia. Self-inflicted male pattern baldness that I'm trying to live with everyday.

If you had anything vaguely like post-Finasteride syndrome then stay the hell away from it man. Your hair is still absolutely fine, and you can grow a kickass beard which makes being bald look natural. Spare a thought for us who can't grow facial hair.

 

[RoyD]

I tried 1.25 mg of generic finasteride that I got from a doctor's prescription and within a few hours of my first dose I developed testicular ache. A day days afterward, I developed acute anxiety, brain fog, insomnia, and depersonalization. I was hospitalized twice. I was essentially a zombie for about a month straight. No energy, couldn't think straight, couldn't sleep. I sat at home, alone in my bed...doing nothing.

Libido was fine, however, which is the weird thing. It took me about 40 days or so to feel remotely normal. You can check my post history. My first post here with this account was during this time and I was asking about side effects and how to overcome them. Finasteride scares me to death now because of this.

I had a visit with a dermatologist in February of this year and received a prescription for 1mg of brand name Propecia because according to this dermatologist, some get side effects with generics and don't with brand name. I have this bottle sitting on my dresser and haven't touched it since I filled the prescription out of fear from my previous experience.

I'm running out of time to make the decision if I wanted to give it another go....

Well I don't want to discredit your sides but testicular ache, lower libido, less sperm count or watery sperm are usually the most common side effects for obvious reasons. Brain fog and anxiety I suspect are very rare because it's very indirect. Finasteride just inhibits DHT which shouldn't really change you mental issues. Sides such as insomnia and depersonalization are unheard of by me and not even listed as side effects of Finasteride. Most of the people who take Finasteride have read 1001 side effects of it on the internet and then are on red alert to identify any of those in themselves. It's like a confirmation bias. There were days when I first started taking Dutasteride and I would be like damn I feel so tired today ... must be the Dutasteride. I would blame Dutasteride for getting bad marks in exams also to some extent. Just a few months back I did a test and realized that the dutasteride I was taking had 0 effect on reducing my DHT. Apart from this a few days back I thought I was having gyno but then I did some more research on the topic and realized I don't. It's just that I put on some weight.

What I mean to say is that you should definitely get back and not switch on a scanner in your brain to identify any small discomforts and link it to Finasteride. Remember that consistent sides are reported officially only for 2-3% of the population. You're not that unlucky. If you have testicular pain, just bear it unless it's unbearable. Most of us do but it subsides. Unless you're planning on having kids in the near future ignore your sperm count. It will get back to normal. That's all I can say.

 

[Dazzel]

Baldness is a curse against most men.

 

[RoyD]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who doesn't like Finasteride. I took 1mg every other day and felt so strange. I take liquid (.5mg with 30% Minoxidil), and I still won't take the full amount. I really don't know why people don't believe this, because I had side effects to. Not libido, but I felt "strange" and spaced out.

I think you got me wrong there. I never said I dislike Finasteride. I am on Finasteride atm. I just said that there are sides you can get on Finasteride but most of the time it's limited to your sexual system and functioning ex: testicles, penis, semen. I feel people who keep complaining about gyno and brain fog and being spaced out are just making **** up in all honesty. They take Finasteride with a thousand thoughts in their mind which then develop into a million. I mean I wouldn't be surprised to see people complain about having a bad stomach (diarrhea), rashes (fungal infection) or some other problem and blaming it on Finasteride. I mean these days I hear people complain more about brain fog and depression and whatever while they're on Finasteride rather than the more common sides like testicular pain.

I bet there's hardly anyone who has ACTUALLY had brain fog BECAUSE of Finasteride and not read about it before taking Finasteride. Again I don't want to discredit anyone's complains but half of you seriously don't have any sides and just make that **** up in your mind.

- - - Updated - - -

I think they should include "imaginary side effects" as a side effect of Finasteride on the label.

 

[xetudor]

So many people complain about finasteride because they are healthy young people. When I was in pain they gave me a med that had a 1% of stroke and had sudden death listed on the side effects. Of course I took it, it hurt like hell for months.

If you search about birth control you will find a lot of women complaining about horrible side effects yet women still take them, even my girlfriend.

 

[Armando Jose]

thedarkcolor, I think that you only have a natural receding hairline, even with long hair we can see it. have you relatives with this pattern?

Please, grow your hair and stay happy

 

[shookwun]

Confidence

 

[Wolf Pack]

:laugh:

 

[Wolf Pack]

I never understand the whole beard thing. I can grow a mean a** beard to rival OPs too but that doesn't mean I wouldn't fight hair loss. Without good hair on my head it would seem like compensation and the upside down look which I hate myself too. Other people will see it like that as well.

I suppose everyone finds peace with their losing battle in different ways.

 

[Notcoolanymore]

No you wouldn't.

Thank you!!!