27 Years old. Very long hair. Major thinning!

[GoldenMane]

Hello everyone!

Well I only just found out 5 days ago that my hair was thinning. I should have acted sooner, my bro and maternal grandfather also have the male pattern baldness gene, what can I say, I was an idiot and just assumed my follicles were invincible... I seriously regret not getting checked sooner. I started taking proscar immediately, 1.25 mg finasteride, and I'm going to a hair restoration specialist on Tuesday. I am absolutely terrified, I cannot imagine a life without my long hair, it's literally not an option, I will not accept going bald...

I haven't yet taken minoxidil, I'm going to be teaching for a month and dreading a shed in that time, so I'll hold off until that's done.
Photo's speak louder than words, so here goes... Note the hair line is very high, as is my forehead particularly large, but afaik that's always been the case, even looking back to high school photos my hairline was high, though there has been some recession at the temples. What are my chances with finasteride alone? I want results as soon as feasible, but I'd like to be able to distinguish the affect of finasteride from minoxidil.

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The lighting may be different in some shots, the thinning is far more apparent with bright light. The long hair also covered up the thin spots, to such a degree that this may have been happening for some time and I just didn't notice. It feels like my hair has become much thinnier about two weeks ago though, so maybe it has been more sudden...

 

[Agahi]

I had hair even longer than that before I joined the military this year. Im also 27, and we have similar hairlines. I have been on finasteride minoxidil and nizoral for a while(2 month break for bootcamp) and have maintained for a long time 5 years or more. Bad news if I have had very minimal regrowth. If you are fine where you are congrats you will prob stay there especially if you add min and nizoral, if you want more hair you will prob need a transplant or some experimental stuff(if you find something that works hit me up lol).

 

[GoldenMane]

I can live with what I've got, but I'm not happy with it... My bro went on minoxidil and finasteride and had a significant regrowth and thickening... I really hope that's true for me too... I don't expect results after 5 days, or even a perfect thick head of hair, just something a bit better would be okay with me... Oh well I'll start on miox and pray for no dramaic sheds, and consider a transplant after a year or two...

 

[Agahi]

Not trying to destroy your hope. honestly the minoxidil foam and nizoral both have an odd way of making your hair feel and appear thicker. give it a go and you will prob love it. Also as for a shed, thats a good thing as those hairs will likely grow back thicker. There are success stories on here where people get great regrowth, btw. I was just saying I have had great maintaining but only slight regrowth.

My philosophy on hairloss is to go all out, and the big 3 is the best way to start imo. You might also try out some experiments to. Im gonna start the derma roller experiment from a topic on this site soon.

 

[GoldenMane]

I hope your wrong, but I'm not expecting miracles, like 21 year old thickness again. I'd be happy with a moderate thickening. From what I've read, the foam doesn't have as good scalp penetration as the liquid, it's generally not considered as effective. I already use nizoral, have for over 10 years, I get pretty bad dandrudd every now and then and nizoral is always my go to fix. I'll start adding that to my routine since, from what IU've read, it's also a DHT inhibitor.

 

[DoneWithIt]

How can you not notice yourself going bald? lol. Unless you always had thin hair to begin with? I had very thick hair and I noticed my hair was thinning even when it was like 2% thinner at the bangs I felt it. Sadly I was in denial that is was Androgenetic Alopecia and so were all my doctors so treatment was delayed way too long. And now it looks like it's not working :/

 

[GoldenMane]

Oh I don't know... I suppose I had other things to worry about and never noticed. I have always had thin hair, even when I had a lot more of it! I've always had a very high hairline too. I think I was a Norwood 2.5 even when I was 12 years old!. People with blond hair have more hairs on their head, but individual hairs are thinner. As my hair got longer it got tangled, knotted, caught on things, broke while combing etc, so I thought that's why it felt thinner at length. It still felt thicker closer to the roots.

Maybe it just happened so gradually, and with my hair type and colour it wasn't noticable enough to myself or anyone else until quite recently... My brother also started losing his hair a few years ago, he's had great success with finasteride and minoxidil, and he only noticed me losing my hair back in August. It definitely felt thinner abut a year ago, but I just never made the connection, the idea that it may be male pattern baldness never even occurred to me! Stupid I know, but I'm paying the price now. My hairline actually has barely changed, it's just thinning/lower density, it can be pretty insidious, it really creeps up on you...