10 Months and I Call it Success!

[Northman]

I think the pictures will generally speak for themselves, but I am very pleased with how much my hair has improved. This is after 10 months of 1.25 mg finasteride, 5% minoxidil foam, and Nizoral 1% shampoo 2 times a week.

My old progress thread is here:
http://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/showthread.php/61029-Northman-2-months-in-(38-years-old)

 

[talmoode]

wow! congratulations!!

 

[heyyou]

i remember seeing your photos before. MAN!! that is great success there. awesome, congratz!!

 

[Mikazz]

Congratulations, you look younger!

Is it me, or your hair looks darker?

 

[Northman]

I feel younger too. In addition to the hair, I've lost about 34 pounds since September.

The hair is a fair bit darker. I associate this with both the increased density and having more hairs fully developed rather than those light colored wispy ones.

 

[Lincoln]

Woav! Seeing such examples just gives me more desire to work on my hair!

 

[Northman]

Thanks! I feel very fortunate, and at the same time, I'm confident my hair is going to improve more. There are many hairs in the frontal area that I can see that have not quite developed into terminal hairs but are growing longer and more dense than just the short little vellus hairs.

For the last 3 years due to extremely poor density I had considered myself functionally bald and would not have grown my hair out like it is now at all. Considering I'll be 40 in June and I have been losing my hair since I was about 18, I'm very happy with where I am at now. With a little more medicated improvement I think a relatively small FUE would give me back a VERY nice, mature head of hair. I'll have to think about that down the road.

 

[andrew lincoln]

Wow I am really impressed, now you are doing way better than baseline, and if you did a hair transplant in the future you could have a full recovery, very impressive!

 

[Northman]

Another long absence but I have continued to grow out my hair and improve from where I started over a year ago. In fact even at the 15 month mark now, I still feel like my hair is getting thicker. I have gone from what I considered functionally bald to having the same quantity of hair I had in 2007. I think it is pretty impressive so thought I'd pop in again and show the progress.

 

[Baldie101]

Congratulations Northman. Totally better than your first pic. We shall await for further progress. :salut:

I should note down: Wait at least 15 months to decide if it works or not. (Though I'm going with 23-24 months cuz finesterid comes in a year package )

 

[Northman]

...an added bonus too that I feel must be related to the finasteride is that I had over the last several years started developing thicker areas of back and shoulder hair. This has SIGNIFICANTLY reversed course. I would regularly ask my wife to shave the patches where it was growing. I haven't had to do that for probably 6 or 7 months. It really isn't growing at all now. Totally didn't expect that perk.

 

[medilook]

No side effects like libido or erection quality or even man boobs?

 

[Northman]

No, no, and no. In full disclosure, I did feel like I was having a little decline in quality of my erection initially, but this was short term. So I am not sure if it was medical or if I just really worried about it too much.

 

[Baldie101]

Well Northman after seeing your latest modeling for hair minoxidil, finasteride and keto recipe with before and after pictures, I just have to ask the same questions to you as I did few others.
You see, I'm beginning to see a pattern here and now I wanna see if you give me the same results as the others. No conclusions yet but I'm slowly getting there

I hope you don't mind answering the questions.

Now to my questions:
1. Do you have dandruff and if yes then was it before or after you started minoxidil?
2. If yes to dandruff then how do you deal with the dandruff? Do you apply anything on the scalp, scrap it off or just leave it alone?
I'm asking since when I get out of bath my scalp is dry, and I also get those big dandruff flakes.
3. Do you take a shower every day? If yes, do you apply Minoxidil afterwards or are the showers in the middle of the day?Lifestyle questions:
4. How's your sleeping rhythm? Do you get enough sleep? Do you stay up the night?
5. What about your eating habits? Do you eat healthy food or just fastfood most of the time? Do you miss out on any food times?

Last one is about exercising:
6. Do you exercise/train the body? If yes, how many times a week? Or do you just sit in front of the computer? If yes, how many hours a day?

 

[dickhair]

why's your hair ginger in the first pic?

 

[Northman]

why's your hair ginger in the first pic?

The best I have there is different lighting. I had combined sun and fluorescent lighting in the first picture. I used to lighten my hair YEARS ago but don't dye or color at all. My hair lightens up a bit with sun exposure to be fairly blond but not red.

- - - Updated - - -



Now to my questions:
1. Do you have dandruff and if yes then was it before or after you started minoxidil?

I had oily hair before with very minor dandruff I did nothing about. I don't really have dandruff now either but from the get go I started using a dandruff shampoo to cover my bases.

2. If yes to dandruff then how do you deal with the dandruff? Do you apply anything on the scalp, scrap it off or just leave it alone? I'm asking since when I get out of bath my scalp is dry, and I also get those big dandruff flakes.

See above.

3. Do you take a shower every day? If yes, do you apply Minoxidil afterwards or are the showers in the middle of the day?Lifestyle questions:

I shower daily. Sometimes twice. I apply minoxidil right after a shower in the morning on wet hair. Evening usually on dry hair right before bed.

4. How's your sleeping rhythm? Do you get enough sleep? Do you stay up the night?

I sleep on average 6 hours a night. I sleep fairly soundly.

5. What about your eating habits? Do you eat healthy food or just fastfood most of the time? Do you miss out on any food times?

I eat pretty well now. 3 meals a day with at least 1 snack.

Last one is about exercising:

6. Do you exercise/train the body? If yes, how many times a week? Or do you just sit in front of the computer? If yes, how many hours a day?

Since last September I train 5-7 days a week for as much as 1.5 hours. HIIT training, weights, aerobic, etc.

 

[headless]

Wow Northman, really impressive. Not just the hair, the whole routine. It looks like you've taken yourself and your body more seriously by taking such good care of it. Anima Sana in Corpore Sano?

 

[Mr White]

Well done!

 

[medilook]

its not just an illusion because you grew your hair longer so it looks like you have more coverage? Have you thought about buzzing your head again to a 1 like in your before picture. Good job on losing weight and getting in better shape.

 

[Northman]

No, not just an illusion. I think it is clear from my early photos that my hair thickened significantly. I kept it short for at least 7 months documented here: http://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/showthread.php/61029-Northman-2-months-in-(38-years-old)

I started experimenting with growing it longer afterward. Something I could never have done before. It isn't crazy thick in the front, you can see that; but it is incredibly better than it was.

I'm actually going in the opposite direction of buzzing and planning to grow it full on long again.