Hair is not Life but it's Pretty Damn Close; HRT and Pictorial Posts Prove it.

[JaneyElizabeth]

How far are you willing to go to restore a full head of hair?

There's been an incredibly successful thread related to HRT but I envision a situation where anyone can get their questions answered and where everyone feels welcome to post interesting comments and articles and pics. There are some real points of intersection in terms of doing this in a male context and in a female or MtF context. I personally know that it is possible to restore a full head of hair and I will be posting my pics to prove that and hopefully to inspire and to be inspired. I enjoy writing and I intend to post my own articles and be available in an advice column format.

I have fought baldness for 36 years both as a cis-male and now as a non-binary individual and I presume that I know a great deal about restoring hair and all of the nuances and pitfalls along the way. I view hair dysphoria to be every bit as important as transgender dysphoria. It can place any of us in a situation where we question whether our lives still have meaning. It does. The title of the thread is a play on the wording of that other thread but life has value regardless and it was an unfortunate implication to some on that other site that perhaps life without hair isn't worth it.

First of all, I know full restoration is possible so we don't have to quibble as to whether it is possible but only perhaps how meaningful it is. Anyone who goes the HRT route has a chance to experience life with hair again but is it worth the benefits? That's a major focus for me and I seek solutions on either end of the spectrum, from cis gals and guys and to MtF's, who have expertise in this field from having lived it, in terms of sides and heartbreak. Anyone who has a question related to hair improvement of any type, I will endeavor to answer as quickly as possible. I speak English, French, Spanish and Portuguese so please know that it is fine to post in any of these four languages and probably Italian. Anyone can DM me if they have an issue to be kept private. I have essentially restored my locks and 14 months ago I was completely bald so I invite all with pics to post and to post as often as possible.

I see hair and in particular long-growing hair to be based upon a feminine energy via Goddess above. People who troll or engage in argumentum ad hominem or who engage in epithets will find that this thread isn't for them. I am a lawyer, not a doctor and no one should take anyone's advice on here as medical advice but at the same time, many of us have expertise exceeding many doctors related to HRT and hair loss. We all have our hits and misses but this isn't a PC site and I envision many genders on here so let's remember that on this thread "guys" means everyone. I also maintain a "journey" blog related to hair loss and feminization here: My Name is Jane:

Sensitive Content Warning

All of the pics below have been taken in the last 14 months.
Goddess bless.

 

[tato123]

I think it is impossible to talk about hair regrowth without feminization, I mean comestically satisfactory (NW0).

I think the only question is how feminized you are willing to get to reach your goals , what I can say is the following, If you are losing hair and it bothers you (for real) do something real, do something! now !
A lot of people don't respond to finasteride and minoxidil, they keep backing up and they don't do anything about it, they expect a miracle cure, if it really bothers you, you'll understand.

How far would I go?
He would go as far as necessary, and try to maintain with acceptable male levels later.

A gynecology surgery will be cheaper than a hair transplant surgery, I will try to avoid gyno (SERMS) as much as possible but if it is inevitable it would reach the end

 

[Charger]

I already have slight gyno from puberty, but I'm not willing to grow a set of tits for hair, that's just weird. I'd get a hair system before ever considering a MTF regimen.

Only small doses of 5ARI's and AA's for me. If that paired with PG protocol related solutions don't do anything for me, it is what it is.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

Welcome Tato and Charger.

 

[DogoDiLaurentiis]

Thanks for the invite, I'm glad to be here.

My finances for everything are improving substantially, so I fully plan to get thousands of dollars of work to maintain my appearance as I get older regardless. I will get gyno surgery if it becomes an issue (less than a week on estriol and no adverse sides yet). I am fully willing to accept a bit more weight gain even if it means I'm not waking up ripped and ready to look like a statue of sculpted marble physically with a reasonable amount of exercise.

I would rather have a bit of extra weight, and a full head of hair and a few sides than not. Not long ago, my skin was horribly oily and that is just gone, I've been waking up with no oiliness to my skin, no inflamed pores, that battle appears to be over now, it will take months to see the benefits of the estriol on hair growth itself, but all indications thus far are encouraging.

I managed to get some 17b estrogel, it's coming in the mail, I had a meeting with my hair Doctor and he chickened out, said my endo should be responsible for that, even though I have two other doctors, one of which who has a doctorate in biochemisty saying it's fine if I use estrogen to some degree considering how unrelenting my testosterone levels are without any sign of aromatase.

The biochemisty phd has told me they are willing to also get me estrogen but it will take time, my only issue is the formulation, I don't want anything other than an alcohol based hormone gel, so we'll see.

My hair has stabilized for the most part, the issues with my scalp seem to have subsided, so we'll see what happens when I have a few more weeks to a month of my skin calming down to see how it helps my hair in general.

Funny thing is I'm still not gaining tons of weight and my face in general seems more hydrated, it's not as sucked in and dry like it was when my testosterone was unopposed. If you saw pictures of me when I was younger, as I kid I always think I had slightly higher estrogen levels, maybe a bit too high, but I do think there are phenotypes as it were of people who handle certain ratios of hormones better, and I simply do better when my estrogen is a bit higher.

My hair Doctor was seriously worried that my estrogen levels would get out of control had no confidence that I could manage anything, even though I've told him that I lost 30 pounds by learning how to methylate estrogen out of my body reliably. I told him, I'm just going for it and he said he'd like to see my progress in a year, but I don't think I'll go back to him, if you're not behind me when I need help, I'm certainly not going to reward you with data once I've proven you wrong.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

Thanks for the invite, I'm glad to be here.

My finances for everything are improving substantially, so I fully plan to get thousands of dollars of work to maintain my appearance as I get older regardless. I will get gyno surgery if it becomes an issue (less than a week on estriol and no adverse sides yet). I am fully willing to accept a bit more weight gain even if it means I'm not waking up ripped and ready to look like a statue of sculpted marble physically with a reasonable amount of exercise.

I would rather have a bit of extra weight, and a full head of hair and a few sides than not. Not long ago, my skin was horribly oily and that is just gone, I've been waking up with no oiliness to my skin, no inflamed pores, that battle appears to be over now, it will take months to see the benefits of the estriol on hair growth itself, but all indications thus far are encouraging.

I managed to get some 17b estrogel, it's coming in the mail, I had a meeting with my hair Doctor and he chickened out, said my endo should be responsible for that, even though I have two other doctors, one of which who has a doctorate in biochemisty saying it's fine if I use estrogen to some degree considering how unrelenting my testosterone levels are without any sign of aromatase.

The biochemisty phd has told me they are willing to also get me estrogen but it will take time, my only issue is the formulation, I don't want anything other than an alcohol based hormone gel, so we'll see.

My hair has stabilized for the most part, the issues with my scalp seem to have subsided, so we'll see what happens when I have a few more weeks to a month of my skin calming down to see how it helps my hair in general.

Funny thing is I'm still not gaining tons of weight and my face in general seems more hydrated, it's not as sucked in and dry like it was when my testosterone was unopposed. If you saw pictures of me when I was younger, as I kid I always think I had slightly higher estrogen levels, maybe a bit too high, but I do think there are phenotypes as it were of people who handle certain ratios of hormones better, and I simply do better when my estrogen is a bit higher.

My hair Doctor was seriously worried that my estrogen levels would get out of control had no confidence that I could manage anything, even though I've told him that I lost 30 pounds by learning how to methylate estrogen out of my body reliably. I told him, I'm just going for it and he said he'd like to see my progress in a year, but I don't think I'll go back to him, if you're not behind me when I need help, I'm certainly not going to reward you with data once I've proven you wrong.

Thank you my friend.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

Everyone is welcome here, especially Mtf's because those are the folks who have battled baldness on both sides of the gender spectrum. Those are the folks who can say that spironolactone's sides are miserable because like me, they experienced them for months.

I encourage all forms of content related to "best rock and roll" hair or "hair in Hollywood" because those are often the folks that we want to emulate. And I make clear, this is far more than a quest for coverage for some but for others, we realize that you can only go so far. I am looking for solutions for everyone.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

One of the nice things about copyright is that all of us own content that we produce. I have a large amount of such content. Anyone who is interested more so in an article related to a certain subject, please ask and I am pretty quick usually to put something together. My hair recovery has been so profound that I want as many others as possible to know that joy.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

What Almost Nobody Gets Right


1. You fail to titrate your doses
2. You can't stop tinkering; This is a cis-male thing; we tinker but if you can't leave your hands off the dial for a few months, then the situation is impenetrable.
3. Few of you are using enough estradiol.

I believe that there is a huge amount of confusion regarding estrogen in the MtF community and some of that bleeds over to here. We still have huge gaps in knowledge but it appears that MtF's, at least initially, might have to opt for either breasts or hair but not both. Why? Because mega-doses of estrogen tend to halt breast growth immediately and forever for MtFs. Since everyone uses too much estrogen all through HRT, our fora are choked with whiners about breasts. By the way, not everyone on HRT even gets external results so we have tons of these familiar posts: "Help! HRT is not working for me". People on HRT feel entitled to cis-female-like breast growth and that just doesn't happen for many of us. I mean, it did to me but probably because I used too little estrogen starting out and took many breaks from my DIY beginnings on HRT.

So, on the MtF side, initially, at least, it appears that MtFs have to choose either a breast goal or a hair goal but not both. Why? Because hair regrowth requires far more estrogen than does breast growth. I know because I looked exactly like a female from the neck down for several years and I got no "results" above my neck, except my eyes opened up some. So, I was a really hot babe from the neck down and still an aging troll from the neck up. I started HRT on .30 mg of Premarin, a well-known contraceptive composed of the different natural estrogens found in female pregnant horses. Premarin is slightly stronger than estradiol but not that much so say .5 mg of estradiol titrated upwards after six months to .625 mg. This was my whole first year of formal HRT which most indicate is too small a dose to cause any feminization at all, nor was I taking an AA except for dutasteride and finasteride. This was because I am non-binary and I was trying to avoid breast growth. Ha ha says my Goddess above. "I will give you great youth and beauty but outstanding breasts are non-negotiable if you want your locks back".

The Goddess above has given hair to females. Men are silly. Abundant, flowing locks aren't for them. With Brad Pitt being a one in a million exception but still, Mr. Pitt's own wife, Jenn, still has better hair and it's not that close. These boy bands that people keep posting, yes, they have great density but it comes in the form of a hair helmet, Who wants that? Female caucasian hair is the most sexually dimorphic hair not just in terms of growth but also in terms of color, plus whites have more shades of hair than other races (sorry, race is rarely relevant but with hair, you can't not mention race). Then there is thing with hairlines being too low. It looks crappy. AntiDHTor or whoever, to me looked absolutely hideous with his regrowth. He went from a normal, nice male head of hair with recession that was barely cosmetically significant to Eddie Munster and literally had hair all over his face where it didn't belong.

So here's the gig. Because far more estrogen is needed to grow hair than even big breasts, you guys have to pass through the breast stage at the beginning but the hair regrowth stage only happens at the end. Why are my breasts so developed? Well, I started with estriol, bi-estro cream and then tiny amounts of E, titrated upwards every six months. This is an extremely conservative protocol and it did the opposite of what I expected. Instead it drew out my "2nd puberty" and my breasts now have been growing for six plus years and my hair still isn't quite finished although my hairline appears to be dropping rapidly.

So paradoxically, those of you using tiny amounts of E as part of your cocktail are probably doing the opposite of what you mean to. Instead, you guys should flood your systems (within reason, always titrate if you have sides) right from the beginning. That has a good chance of fusing your breast ducts right away and voila, like 90 percent of MtFs on HRT, you will experience little to no breast growth. Then you want to continue titrating upwards until you meet the Wpath target numbers for E and T.

Here's what's different. The MtF community argues vociferously about every single med and every single ingestion method. We are tinkerers just like you folks but for MtFs the focus is all but invariably breast growth and not hair regrowth. Maybe because breast growth is semi-permanent or maybe because so many of us even with full heads of hair simply don't have the right look with our own hair. Anyway, if people come to for instance, AskMtFHrT, they are going to basically only discuss new protocols or how to improve protocols but always it is directed towards improving breast growth. Unlike what folks think, MtFs struggle to grow breasts at all.

So, for growing boobs, a lower-dose estrogen protocol is called for and boobs can grow big with marginal amounts of estrogen and no t-blockers. You don't have to come anywhere close to meeting proposed targets for breast growth. For results above the neck, however, in my experience, an MtF needs to hit Wpath targets or only marginal hair improvement is possible/likely.

So first of all, none of you are using enough estrogen which is the inverse of the MtF community where people use far too much starting out, chasing "results". Second, you have got to meet these Wpath targets for some consecutive period of time before you are likely to see results. There is a well-known article cited previously on here from 2016 related to spironolactone and the need to hit targets to restart hair growth and then maintain these targets. FtMs go bald right off the bat so that's of no interest except to show that T is involved and seriously involved in male pattern baldness.

A crux of the article is that it's hard to hit targets for many MtFs and this is where the AA's and progestins come in. E2 only works fine for hair regrowth with nothing else (except Duta for protection against missing targets) but particularly for those who ingest tablets and swallow them, using an AA like Bicalutamide or spironolactone or Cyproterone Acetate can ensure that they hit target E on much less estrogen. Buccal and Sublingual folks don't have to worry about this but I don't believe that they have better "results". It's just cheaper to go the buccal method if you don't have health insurance buying your meds, which I do.

Instead, you guys tend to use marginal amounts of estrogen, often without an AA and that seems to just be a recipe for frustration. I was using topical E years ago and getting minimal results related to hair improvement. My breasts were big and full but not my hair so even though I am non-binary, I decided that I had to try to hit targets now for six months to a year before desisting. You guys give up on everything right away. You all moan about these multitude of sides that strangely enough, MtFs don't tend to get and then you give up.

So, in May, I stopped using 200 mg of spironolactone daily and dropped finasteride since it was unlikely to provide any benefits not supplied by dutasteride and I switched from premarin, which is highly controversial in the MtF community to Climara 100 patches and bam, I hit targets right away and I had never even come close before. I am entering month five of my estrogen blast-off and all has been photographed and I will see if the hairline finally comes down but mostly I expect thickening and changes in texture and ability to grow it long. Always, the temples come last and I have some opinions on why that is and also as to why beards might be incompatible for most guys who want perfect hair.

My initial goal had been to help transgender females over college age learn to pass but that is fraught with danger and not worth the hassle because of our community's rigid groupthink. We are not suppose to even intimate that a large percentage of older "gals" as is the term that we go by, look like hell. Instead, our motto is that all women are beautiful.

Um....no, they are not and many transgender females don't appear to even be trying; they can just say that they are non-binary nowadays though. Well, I am non-binary but between hair and big breasts and marginal dutasteride guy hair and no breasts, that is an easy choice for me; I already reproduced and was married to a beautiful woman.

Long story short, since I am verbose, 1) use more estradiol and titrate upwards towards Wpath target E and T levels as fast as possible to minimize breast growth and then get you to the target regions where hair regrowth is greatly facilitated and 2) Stay on a regimen for at least six months and try not to keep adding and subtracting things. Of course, I am a tinkerer too but I am only in this for the hair and I am not ashamed to admit it but being female is addictive and many of you won't want to come back:

Here is a bit of creative writing that I have done related to entering the Goddess's domain and not wanting ever to leave:

"A funny thing happened to me on my way to the ball. I don't disavow anything prior to this and deep down, I knew that this was probably going to happen....

But I must confess that the Goddess took a hold of me, and when the Goddess called, I was powerless not to follow, powerless not to emulate Her.

So all that stuff about being non-binary.... well, I have moved on but since I am one who doesn't claim to be "female", I still feel as though I am somewhere in between "female" and mtf non-binary.

I have become captured by the experience and it is now too late for me to escape. I don't want to escape.

Beware all who enter here that this might be a one-way ticket in that I think that estrogen can become like a drug and like any drug that you like, you just want more and more.

There's definitely, for me, an ecstasy, an euphoria from taking estrogen. So if you just want to see what breasts are like or just want to see if estrogen improves your hair, and then slip back to what you were before, well there's a good chance that you won't make it back. Just saying.... Be careful what you wish for.

Beware to all those who enter and taste estrogen's wonderful delights. It's like the Greek sirens who pull you in and in and in and then you happily dive right in. Many enter the Goddess's chambers, very few of us ever leave".

Last thing I remember
I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
"Relax," said the night man
"We are programmed to receive
You can check-out any time you like
But you can never leave....

Eagles-Hotel California-1976

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

I already have slight gyno from puberty, but I'm not willing to grow a set of tits for hair, that's just weird. I'd get a hair system before ever considering a MTF regimen.

Only small doses of 5ARI's and AA's for me. If that paired with PG protocol related solutions don't do anything for me, it is what it is.

PG solutions and knowledge thereof is something you can help us learn more about and maybe those can be part of the puzzle in a cis-male context.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

blessed be thy thread with many success stories

Hi my friend. Your knowledge at such a tender age is remarkable and you have such great results with unforgettable hair. If you could post some of your recent pics, that would be great so that we can start off with a bang where people looking in will see just what is possible.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

I have reached out to everyone who has PM'ed me and asked them to continue to contribute and to stay on the path towards hair success and we know everyone on here has different limits and has their own personal context. I especially reached out to Noah. We want him posting all of his pics; how that crowds out anyone's discussing hair loss medications is beyond me. When making assertions about hair loss, not only do we need current pics but also we need progression pics because that way nobody can blame a result on lighting or doctoring or what have you. I wouldn't have faith in any treatment without pics.

I admire anyone doing research on their own and we know that most such attempts will be more miss than hit but every treatment or non-treatment as the case may be that is weeded out helps the balding cohort. I make every attempt not to post in between or on top of active discussions. Finally, like Noah and his style of pics, I encourage people to be creative and have fun. Let's see that "oh my Goddess" my hair is back attitude. It's the greatest feeling of my life. (disclosure, not including the birth of my children or maybe my wedding).

 

[ReturnOfExtreme]

This is a great post.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

This is a great post.

Hello my friend. You are another who knows a huge amount at a tender age and you have had such becoming results.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

Here is my hair journey from the summer of 2015 through this year. Like most, I wouldn't post this unless I had a good outcome because the trauma of alopecia and sheds is staggering:

Sensitive Content Warning

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

Serms and Sheds

I welcome in particular using Serms because now that the breast fusion route seems untenable, Serms are especially important in a cis-male context. Looking into Serms on my own will be a point of focus and I will try to put together a preliminary article.

Another thing that made me want to get involved has to do with sheds. Including me, so many using anti-androgenic medications have experienced sheds to the point of baldness and I was never bald. Perhaps, it makes my story more compelling but I hope to put forth routes that are gentle on the hair. HRT meds that are non-endogenous really have to be treated with the upmost respect. I got cocky with spironolactone and used too much, too fast, not to mention that I had terrible sides with that med from the get-go. For many of us, all we need is love and estradiol but all the different meds used by different folks give us new data points that we can use to each of our own benefits.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

I wish I could figure out how to add another poll but finasteride and dutasteride are hormonal meds and many, if not most of us have experience with them and we know about titration and sides and placebo effects. I am also using oral minoxidil as are some of the others and oral minoxidil and reductase inhibitors might be a breakthrough for cis-males, freeing them from using feminizing meds. I encourage all oral minoxidil users, if possible, to take journey pics because this could be a path that provides both maintenance and some level of possible regrowth. Except for derma-rolling, nothing seems to "regrow" hair in a cis-male context.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

https://www.reddit.com/r/tressless/comments/kemfek

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

What Almost Nobody Gets Right


1. You fail to titrate your doses
2. You can't stop tinkering; This is a cis-male thing; we tinker but if you can't leave your hands off the dial for a few months, then the situation is impenetrable.
3. Few of you are using enough estradiol.

I believe that there is a huge amount of confusion regarding estrogen in the MtF community and some of that bleeds over to here. We still have huge gaps in knowledge but it appears that MtF's, at least initially, might have to opt for either breasts or hair but not both. Why? Because mega-doses of estrogen tend to halt breast growth immediately and forever for MtFs. Since everyone uses too much estrogen all through HRT, our fora are choked with whiners about breasts. By the way, not everyone on HRT even gets external results so we have tons of these familiar posts: "Help! HRT is not working for me". People on HRT feel entitled to cis-female-like breast growth and that just doesn't happen for many of us. I mean, it did to me but probably because I used too little estrogen starting out and took many breaks from my DIY beginnings on HRT.

So, on the MtF side, initially, at least, it appears that MtFs have to choose either a breast goal or a hair goal but not both. Why? Because hair regrowth requires far more estrogen than does breast growth. I know because I looked exactly like a female from the neck down for several years and I got no "results" above my neck, except my eyes opened up some. So, I was a really hot babe from the neck down and still an aging troll from the neck up. I started HRT on .30 mg of Premarin, a well-known contraceptive composed of the different natural estrogens found in female pregnant horses. Premarin is slightly stronger than estradiol but not that much so say .5 mg of estradiol titrated upwards after six months to .625 mg. This was my whole first year of formal HRT which most indicate is too small a dose to cause any feminization at all, nor was I taking an AA except for dutasteride and finasteride. This was because I am non-binary and I was trying to avoid breast growth. Ha ha says my Goddess above. "I will give you great youth and beauty but outstanding breasts are non-negotiable if you want your locks back".

The Goddess above has given hair to females. Men are silly. Abundant, flowing locks aren't for them. With Brad Pitt being a one in a million exception but still, Mr. Pitt's own wife, Jenn, still has better hair and it's not that close. These boy bands that people keep posting, yes, they have great density but it comes in the form of a hair helmet, Who wants that? Female caucasian hair is the most sexually dimorphic hair not just in terms of growth but also in terms of color, plus whites have more shades of hair than other races (sorry, race is rarely relevant but with hair, you can't not mention race). Then there is thing with hairlines being too low. It looks crappy. AntiDHTor or whoever, to me looked absolutely hideous with his regrowth. He went from a normal, nice male head of hair with recession that was barely cosmetically significant to Eddie Munster and literally had hair all over his face where it didn't belong.

So here's the gig. Because far more estrogen is needed to grow hair than even big breasts, you guys have to pass through the breast stage at the beginning but the hair regrowth stage only happens at the end. Why are my breasts so developed? Well, I started with estriol, bi-estro cream and then tiny amounts of E, titrated upwards every six months. This is an extremely conservative protocol and it did the opposite of what I expected. Instead it drew out my "2nd puberty" and my breasts now have been growing for six plus years and my hair still isn't quite finished although my hairline appears to be dropping rapidly.

So paradoxically, those of you using tiny amounts of E as part of your cocktail are probably doing the opposite of what you mean to. Instead, you guys should flood your systems (within reason, always titrate if you have sides) right from the beginning. That has a good chance of fusing your breast ducts right away and voila, like 90 percent of MtFs on HRT, you will experience little to no breast growth. Then you want to continue titrating upwards until you meet the Wpath target numbers for E and T.

Here's what's different. The MtF community argues vociferously about every single med and every single ingestion method. We are tinkerers just like you folks but for MtFs the focus is all but invariably breast growth and not hair regrowth. Maybe because breast growth is semi-permanent or maybe because so many of us even with full heads of hair simply don't have the right look with our own hair. Anyway, if people come to for instance, AskMtFHrT, they are going to basically only discuss new protocols or how to improve protocols but always it is directed towards improving breast growth. Unlike what folks think, MtFs struggle to grow breasts at all.

So, for growing boobs, a lower-dose estrogen protocol is called for and boobs can grow big with marginal amounts of estrogen and no t-blockers. You don't have to come anywhere close to meeting proposed targets for breast growth. For results above the neck, however, in my experience, an MtF needs to hit Wpath targets or only marginal hair improvement is possible/likely.

So first of all, none of you are using enough estrogen which is the inverse of the MtF community where people use far too much starting out, chasing "results". Second, you have got to meet these Wpath targets for some consecutive period of time before you are likely to see results. There is a well-known article cited previously on here from 2016 related to spironolactone and the need to hit targets to restart hair growth and then maintain these targets. FtMs go bald right off the bat so that's of no interest except to show that T is involved and seriously involved in male pattern baldness.

A crux of the article is that it's hard to hit targets for many MtFs and this is where the AA's and progestins come in. E2 only works fine for hair regrowth with nothing else (except Duta for protection against missing targets) but particularly for those who ingest tablets and swallow them, using an AA like Bicalutamide or spironolactone or Cyproterone Acetate can ensure that they hit target E on much less estrogen. Buccal and Sublingual folks don't have to worry about this but I don't believe that they have better "results". It's just cheaper to go the buccal method if you don't have health insurance buying your meds, which I do.

Instead, you guys tend to use marginal amounts of estrogen, often without an AA and that seems to just be a recipe for frustration. I was using topical E years ago and getting minimal results related to hair improvement. My breasts were big and full but not my hair so even though I am non-binary, I decided that I had to try to hit targets now for six months to a year before desisting. You guys give up on everything right away. You all moan about these multitude of sides that strangely enough, MtFs don't tend to get and then you give up.

So, in May, I stopped using 200 mg of spironolactone daily and dropped finasteride since it was unlikely to provide any benefits not supplied by dutasteride and I switched from premarin, which is highly controversial in the MtF community to Climara 100 patches and bam, I hit targets right away and I had never even come close before. I am entering month five of my estrogen blast-off and all has been photographed and I will see if the hairline finally comes down but mostly I expect thickening and changes in texture and ability to grow it long. Always, the temples come last and I have some opinions on why that is and also as to why beards might be incompatible for most guys who want perfect hair.

My initial goal had been to help transgender females over college age learn to pass but that is fraught with danger and not worth the hassle because of our community's rigid groupthink. We are not suppose to even intimate that a large percentage of older "gals" as is the term that we go by, look like hell. Instead, our motto is that all women are beautiful.

Um....no, they are not and many transgender females don't appear to even be trying; they can just say that they are non-binary nowadays though. Well, I am non-binary but between hair and big breasts and marginal dutasteride guy hair and no breasts, that is an easy choice for me; I already reproduced and was married to a beautiful woman.

Long story short, since I am verbose, 1) use more estradiol and titrate upwards towards Wpath target E and T levels as fast as possible to minimize breast growth and then get you to the target regions where hair regrowth is greatly facilitated and 2) Stay on a regimen for at least six months and try not to keep adding and subtracting things. Of course, I am a tinkerer too but I am only in this for the hair and I am not ashamed to admit it but being female is addictive and many of you won't want to come back:

Here is a bit of creative writing that I have done related to entering the Goddess's domain and not wanting ever to leave:

"A funny thing happened to me on my way to the ball. I don't disavow anything prior to this and deep down, I knew that this was probably going to happen....

But I must confess that the Goddess took a hold of me, and when the Goddess called, I was powerless not to follow, powerless not to emulate Her.

So all that stuff about being non-binary.... well, I have moved on but since I am one who doesn't claim to be "female", I still feel as though I am somewhere in between "female" and mtf non-binary.

I have become captured by the experience and it is now too late for me to escape. I don't want to escape.

Beware all who enter here that this might be a one-way ticket in that I think that estrogen can become like a drug and like any drug that you like, you just want more and more.

There's definitely, for me, an ecstasy, an euphoria from taking estrogen. So if you just want to see what breasts are like or just want to see if estrogen improves your hair, and then slip back to what you were before, well there's a good chance that you won't make it back. Just saying.... Be careful what you wish for.

Beware to all those who enter and taste estrogen's wonderful delights. It's like the Greek sirens who pull you in and in and in and then you happily dive right in. Many enter the Goddess's chambers, very few of us ever leave".

Last thing I remember
I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
"Relax," said the night man
"We are programmed to receive
You can check-out any time you like
But you can never leave....

Eagles-Hotel California-1976

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Thanks for the likes. I apparently lose my points when I remove content from the other thread.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

Thanks for the invite, I'm glad to be here.

My finances for everything are improving substantially, so I fully plan to get thousands of dollars of work to maintain my appearance as I get older regardless. I will get gyno surgery if it becomes an issue (less than a week on estriol and no adverse sides yet). I am fully willing to accept a bit more weight gain even if it means I'm not waking up ripped and ready to look like a statue of sculpted marble physically with a reasonable amount of exercise.

I would rather have a bit of extra weight, and a full head of hair and a few sides than not. Not long ago, my skin was horribly oily and that is just gone, I've been waking up with no oiliness to my skin, no inflamed pores, that battle appears to be over now, it will take months to see the benefits of the estriol on hair growth itself, but all indications thus far are encouraging.

I managed to get some 17b estrogel, it's coming in the mail, I had a meeting with my hair Doctor and he chickened out, said my endo should be responsible for that, even though I have two other doctors, one of which who has a doctorate in biochemisty saying it's fine if I use estrogen to some degree considering how unrelenting my testosterone levels are without any sign of aromatase.

The biochemisty phd has told me they are willing to also get me estrogen but it will take time, my only issue is the formulation, I don't want anything other than an alcohol based hormone gel, so we'll see.

My hair has stabilized for the most part, the issues with my scalp seem to have subsided, so we'll see what happens when I have a few more weeks to a month of my skin calming down to see how it helps my hair in general.

Funny thing is I'm still not gaining tons of weight and my face in general seems more hydrated, it's not as sucked in and dry like it was when my testosterone was unopposed. If you saw pictures of me when I was younger, as I kid I always think I had slightly higher estrogen levels, maybe a bit too high, but I do think there are phenotypes as it were of people who handle certain ratios of hormones better, and I simply do better when my estrogen is a bit higher.

My hair Doctor was seriously worried that my estrogen levels would get out of control had no confidence that I could manage anything, even though I've told him that I lost 30 pounds by learning how to methylate estrogen out of my body reliably. I told him, I'm just going for it and he said he'd like to see my progress in a year, but I don't think I'll go back to him, if you're not behind me when I need help, I'm certainly not going to reward you with data once I've proven you wrong.

Thanks for reminding me. The over-arching goal here is to help people become more attractive so that they can pursue their life goals with confidence. People just like being around attractive people, ceteris paribus. I have a fair bit of knowledge related to which salon treatments actually work and which aren't worth paying for. So anyone undergoing any parallel treatments such as micro-needling or hair removal please speak up and let us know what works. I know that filler and botox can do amazing things for pretty much anyone.

People have mentioned that perhaps I look young for 56. To me the rejuvenation effects of estrogen treatment are so profound that I have felt essentially that I have a second half to my life to start all over again and young enough to enjoy it, as I began with estrogen at 49 and it has taken me 7 years to refine my techniques and finally see hair regrowth out of bald areas. It's thrilling; when I first saw that incipient bald spot at 20, I was determined to not let that be the end. I had two parents with perfect hair (why Goddess? why me?) so that made it even more frustrating since hair loss was all but overlooked as even being a possibility. But for those focused on family histories, neither of my siblings or I had hair as good as either parent until now as I reclaim my birthright.