21 yr old, desperately trying to fight my hairloss.

[pingu_992]

Hey everyone ive been reading posts on the forum for couple of weeks now and thought it was time to give my own story as its killing me not talking to anyone about it! I first noticed i was losing my hair about 10-12 months ago. Didn't really alarm me at first as it was nothing major and i was coming into college exams anyway so thought maybe i was just stressed.




However even after my exams and through to summer my hairloss seemed to be getting worse, to the point where it became difficult to hide it. This really worried me i have always had fairly thick hair. I started researching the web on hairloss and sure enough i realised it was male pattern baldness. Looking back it was pretty obvious, my dad's about a 6 on the norwood scale and my brother(5yrs older than me) is on his way there aswell. It's knocked my confidence a huge amount and the thought of losing my hair never seems to leave my mind, its torture. I gradually got to learn about the different treatments.e finasteride, regaine etc, i would have bought them straight but i didn't have the cash to spend, so as a result lost out on about 2-3 months where i could have been on them. Luckily though in october i got a job and with my first paycheck i got a 14 months supply of finasteride 5mg.




I've been taking 1.25 daily now for about 3 weeks and i have in the last 2 days added regaine 5% (2ml's daily) to my regimen. I use nizoral 1% 3-4 times a week. Ive also in the last couple of days learnt about the technique of dermarolling and have been encouraged by the results from a study done on it just in the last year. Here's the link http://www.ijtrichology.com/article...lume=5;issue=1;spage=6;epage=11;aulast=Dhurat I have ordered a 1.0 mm dermaroller and intend to use it once a week.



Il put up some pictures, i got a 1 all over haircut 2 days ago so it looks pretty baldy . Not sure if i wana get it cut that short again but hey if a couple of month's down the line i see good results i may shave it again to the same length for comparison. Also can anyone tell me what you reckon i am on the norwood scale? Its just i find it hard to tell looking at my hair and comparing to the scale. Thanks.

 

[sweetsymphony]

Thanks for sharing your story. It doesn't look too bad yet, pingu_992, and it's good thing that you're starting young and being so proactive about it.

Looks like you have some diffuse thinning. Do you see your hairline receding? Can't tell too much by the photos since I don't have a baseline pic to compare them to.

Most of us following the other threads are mimicking the study and using a 1.5mm dermaroller. I've been using it for about a few months and am starting to see some baby hairs pop up, nothing too dramatic to say there is a cosmetic improvement yet since results are very slow. Wish I knew about this sooner and started in my early 20's!

Good luck and keep us posted on your results!

 

[GoldenMane]

minoxidil and finasteride should thicken your hair up nicely, I think you'll be happy with the results. Your hairline is still a solid NW2 also and that's a big deal.

 

[pingu_992]

Thanks for replying lads sweetsymphony i cant say i've noticed my hairline recede too much, my hair is usually a lot longer than what it is in the pictures so it would have been harder to notice a change. With it cut short i does seem to be a bit high up, but its hard to tell if it was always like that or from male pattern baldness. I will say that i am not too concerned about the hairline right now, just the thinning on the crown/vertex area. GoldenMane thanks for the encouraging words, gives me a lot of hope. In work last week i heard that horrible sentence that no man wants to here, the 'you're going bald' one for the first time. gona do all i can to not have to hear it again for at least another couple of years!

Ye il keep you's posted. I plan to put up pics around the 4 month mark. If there is any noticeable change(good or bad) before then, il take some pics and show you guys. Cheers.

 

[GoldenMane]

The odds are in your favour that you will maintain what you have and thicken up thinning areas for many years to come. Prevention is important, while we all wish that we had started sooner or realised sooner, and yeah you could have started a little bit sooner, that way you're just preventing rather than trying to regrow (which adds minoxidil to your regimen) but you still caught it at a pretty good stage. Good enough that in 6 months to a year, providing you're an average responder, there's a good chance there will be no evidence of baldnes

 

[pingu_992]

lets hope so, just need to be patient now and trust the treatment.

 

[pingu_992]

ok guys so here is some pictures taken 2 months into treatment with regaine(2 1/2 months into finasteride). . . this is usually the length i would have my hair, short sides and scissor on top. Noticed a definite drop in hairloss at around this stage, on the top of my head and above the ears. gona be honest, i dermarolled very sporadically in the first few weeks and then just stopped doing it altogether, i felt the big three was sufficient enough and found it quite unpleasant to do. Thats not to say i wont return to it at a later stage but for the foreseeable future, i dont think i will use it.


And now here's pictures i took today(4 months regaine, 4 1/2 finasteride) the hair on top of my head in the pics below is a little longer than what it is in the 2month pics.


i have to say ive been pleased with my progress so far although unfortunately i seem to have started losing more hairs again in the last 2 weeks. Its disappointing but from what ive read on these forums its normal to have an initial halt on hairloss followed by a shed which usually occurs between 9-15 weeks into treatment. Im just hoping that the shed isn't too severe and doesn't last too long. Trying my best to keep positive!

 

[pingu_992]

just realised not all pics are showing from my previous post. here goes again. Pics taken 2 months into treatment.

 

[pingu_992]

and now at 4 months.

 

[Borealis]

You had any sides?

 

[I.D WALKER]

Man, at face value I would rate your hair a Norwood Perfect. Congratulations!

and now at 4 months.

 

[Tonny666]

Really impressive results! congratz man!

 

[pingu_992]

Borealis there was a period of about roughly 10 days, 2 and a bit months into treatment where my semen was pretty watery but everything is back to normal now. As I said previously I've started to lose more hair since two weeks ago, dunno if you can class this as a side effect as a shed at this stage into treatment seems to be pretty common before hair thickens up again. That's what I'm hoping it is anyway!