24M, significant diffuse thinning and receding hairline - is this salvageable?

[JaneyElizabeth]

I haven't seen your hair this long before, so it's hard to gauge exactly where you're at. But it seems like you are pretty much holding ground at this point. A lot of people do the needling once a week and get some wounding, pressing most of the 1.5mm needle in. Some things to consider: tretinoin (retin-A) could make minoxidil more effective by promoting the sulfotransferase enzyme, so maybe that's something to add to your stack. Something else to consider is more frequent rolling, maybe every other day, but avoiding bleeding, lightly rolling just enough to get the scalp pink, like SomebodyAlex does. It will also improve absorption of topicals. Might be worth trying. He's had great results.

I am just playing around with this but microneedling seems so fantastic that I have been adding at times, a second weekly session with much shorter needles. It's not that they hurt less, necessarily but it feels less intrusive and we have reports of people using a variety of needle lengths and intervals who are reporting excellent success on scalp but also on face. Microneedling appears to rejuvenate all skin tissue, hair-bearing or not. I do my neck and hands as well as it's great for sun damage. People always pine for stem cells but this is a low tech way apparently of inducing stem cell revitalization of skin tissue and reparation, in terms of scar tissue. Microneedling has blown me away, along with oral minoxidil, in terms of its utility right when everyone is waiting for the next big thing. The next big things are here.

 

[welshman123]

Crazy good results! You're a really good responder. How's the minoxidil beard going?

As I understand you no longer take oral finasteride?

Back on it now. Symptoms are on and off tbh. Today and yesterday my dicks felt alive af.

beards going good man!

 

[welshman123]

 

[DoctorHouse]

View attachment 167084

Nice transformation. One of the best success stories in recent years on this forum. Just goes to show if you want something really bad you should at least make the effort with hoping for the best. And in some cases, you see success. Happy for you!

 

[DoctorHouse]

@welshman123, time to start your own YouTube channel on fighting hair loss. You can give hope to the hopeless.

 

[Norwoody]

Quality folliculature

 

[Jeju]

Happy for you dude, but make sure you have a very good skincare routine otherwise long term you’ll be worse off.

 

[welshman123]

Happy for you dude, but make sure you have a very good skincare routine otherwise long term you’ll be worse off.

Because of the min? What sort of skincare would you advise? My skin is normally pretty good, I’m lucky there

 

[Jeju]

Wrinkles weren’t the problem for me with my minoxidil beard experiment(three months). My skin started to sag and thin. I looked haggard years after. I live in South Korea and the skincare products are the best in the world. That has helped. I don’t know how old your are but where I have circles was a big problem area for me after using min on my face. Facial drooping/sagging is real with this stuff and it’s worse that a plump face with wrinkles IMO.

Make sure you’re using a decent cleanser abs toner. Hyaluronic acid serum is great for hydration. Some low level dermerpen once or twice a week? Obviously moisturise and oils are great, too. I look very young for my age but minoxidil on my face nearly wasted my good genetics. My beard thickened up over the next few years anyway lol NOT worth it mate.

 

[Jeju]

Note that all the studies done have been done in vitro and no direct human studies on minoxidil and collagen has ever been done. This is an important point that gets missed a lot when people point out the minoxidil and collagen aging subject. We don't know how much percentage minoxidil was used and other various conditions to get to their conclusion.

Another point is once we start taking a chemical to change the appearance of our face we start to stare at ourselves a lot more to see gains and will notice aging that we might not noticed before.

The other thing I noticed on hairloss forums, where a lot of the concern for aging the skin really came from is people, usually mid 30-40 year olds that said they took it for 5-10 years then blame it for poor aging of skin but that could be so many other factors why they might aged like sh*t. It's also just at an age when a lot of people's looks tend to take a decline when getting older. I can't say it wont speed up aging and collagen loss, but a lot of things I think get overlooked.

I agree with what you’re saying to an extent. If I had used minoxidil on my face or even head from age 30 to 40 and then complained I had aged in those ten years, well that would be silly. I used minoxidil at age 31 for three months. I wouldn’t say it aged me it just made me look haggard and tired. When I quit this never went away. At 34 most people think I look like a tired 25 year old. No more wrinkles but thinned out the skin rapidly. I have no reason to slag off minoxidil. I think it’s a good product for growing hair. The beard and body hair grew well. I think the guy posting is a decent bloke so I’d hate to see him worse off. Just sharing my story. I’m tempted to use min on my head sometimes but I know the way my skin reacts. It’s a shame.

@welshman123 I know how nice it to see a sh*t beard filling out, but it’s just not worth it IMO. Put your efforts into your scalp hair and your beard will thicken naturally. At 33 and 34 my beard has started to grow thicker. I can imagine by 40 it will be much better. Wear sunscreen, get a good skincare routine and stop putting min on your face.
good luck

 

[welshman123]

Before

 

[welshman123]

Now.
Regret shaving :/ it looked good. Ill grow it back! I think there has definitely been improvement now.

 

[welshman123]

Update. Pictures from today. Density is looking better. Shorter hairs at my hairline starting to come through.

 

[Raccooner]

Update. Pictures from today. Density is looking better. Shorter hairs at my hairline starting to come through.

Amazing! From where you started this is the greatest success I've seen. What is your current regimen?

 

[welshman123]

Amazing! From where you started this is the greatest success I've seen. What is your current regimen?

1.5 dermapen needle 1 time a week.

min foam in the morning, wash it off after 30 ish mins

Min liquid with a dropper in the evening before bed

finasteride 1mg 3x a week

biotin/vit d spray

 

[Norwoody]

Yep! Your hairline is getting lower. Derek might have to do another video about you soon.

 

[welshman123]

Would anyone like to see a video of my full regime and how/why I do things the way I do?

 

[Jeju]

Would anyone like to see a video of my full regime and how/why I do things the way I do?

I can imagine you rub min on your head and face and swallow finasteride. You do it because you want hair?

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

Would anyone like to see a video of my full regime and how/why I do things the way I do?

I would like to see. I have been thinking about doing the same thing but I meander through microneedling most times in between answering questions.

 

[welshman123]

I can imagine you rub min on your head and face and swallow finasteride. You do it because you want hair?

Nice