PapaShango
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Hey guys,
I figured I'd tell everyone my story and see what they recommend as far as trying treatments or if they would even be worthwhile for me.
Family History:
On the maternal side of my family, my grandfather still has pretty much a full head of hair at age 75. He has very recently developed a thin patch only at the crown of his head, but this was after radiation treatments. I have one uncle on that side of the family and he is a Norwood 0 at age 43.
On the Paternal side my grandfather was around a Norwood 5 by around age 30 I would estimate. My father kept all his hair until about age 40 or so when he slowly receded to a Norwood 2 pattern over the next 10 years or so with no noticeable diffuse thinning, just temporal recession. He is now 53 years old and is about a Norwood 2.5-3 with the rest of the hair on top finally starting to diffuse thing out, but still has good coverage at the back overall. My Dad has no brothers so I have no uncles on that side of the family.
My younger brother has been slowly losing his hair since his early twenties it would seem. He is about a Norwood 1.5 with the total diffuse pattern in the Norwood 6-7 area. It has taken quite a few years and the diffusing still isn't that bad, only under some lights and it is almost perfectly distributed throughout that area, without any one spot being thinner than others.
Myself:
I was pretty much a NW0 right up until about age 26.5. At age 24 I developed a rather extremely prominent temporal artery visible on the left side of my head. I was not at all a fan of the look of it and decided I was going to wear a baseball cap for pretty much all my waking hours. I wore the same damn hat day in day out for about 2.5 years. I'll admit my hair hygiene was terrible at best during this time and I rarely ever washed that hat. I went through a very stressful period around when I turned 26 and let myself get super run down. I was drinking huge amounts of coffee to stay awake, was not sleeping much and was eating terribly. Next thing I know my male pattern baldness seemed to turn on like someone flipped a switch. I developed crazy inflammation all over the top of my head, some spots being so bad that raised bumps actually formed. My head got extremely greasy yet very very flaky. I started losing an absolute ton of hair in the shower. I'd shampoo and see like 20+ hairs in my hand every time I'd run my hands through my hair.
I tried Nizoral as I though I may have given myself some sort of infection or overgrowth from constantly wearing an unwashed hat. All this did was literally make my head feel like it was on fire about half an hour after shampooing. I switched to an organic shampoo since and have improved my diet a lot and this has helped somewhat, but my head is still super flaky and dry yet greasy at the same time, along with an almost ever present itching/burning sensation. My temples over this time have pulled back to about a Norwood 1.5 pattern with diffuse thinning throughout the top of my head probably losing 50% density in the last 2 years, less so at the back of the crown. My sideburn area has also gotten a lot thinner and grainy during this time as well. My younger brother has this same problem with thinning at the sides too.
So it looks to me that I was probably destined for male pattern baldness, and then set this off in spectacular fashion by running myself into the ground healthwise.
My question is can someone with inflammation as bad as I have hope to have finasteride work for them? I can't use Nizoral unless I want it to feel like there is a forest fire on top of my head. I'm guessing rogaine may have the same effect. Has anyone with bad inflammation ever had good success with finasteride? Thanks guys.
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Oh and my ancestry is Irish/Scottish/English, I'm not african american like my username seems to suggest.
I figured I'd tell everyone my story and see what they recommend as far as trying treatments or if they would even be worthwhile for me.
Family History:
On the maternal side of my family, my grandfather still has pretty much a full head of hair at age 75. He has very recently developed a thin patch only at the crown of his head, but this was after radiation treatments. I have one uncle on that side of the family and he is a Norwood 0 at age 43.
On the Paternal side my grandfather was around a Norwood 5 by around age 30 I would estimate. My father kept all his hair until about age 40 or so when he slowly receded to a Norwood 2 pattern over the next 10 years or so with no noticeable diffuse thinning, just temporal recession. He is now 53 years old and is about a Norwood 2.5-3 with the rest of the hair on top finally starting to diffuse thing out, but still has good coverage at the back overall. My Dad has no brothers so I have no uncles on that side of the family.
My younger brother has been slowly losing his hair since his early twenties it would seem. He is about a Norwood 1.5 with the total diffuse pattern in the Norwood 6-7 area. It has taken quite a few years and the diffusing still isn't that bad, only under some lights and it is almost perfectly distributed throughout that area, without any one spot being thinner than others.
Myself:
I was pretty much a NW0 right up until about age 26.5. At age 24 I developed a rather extremely prominent temporal artery visible on the left side of my head. I was not at all a fan of the look of it and decided I was going to wear a baseball cap for pretty much all my waking hours. I wore the same damn hat day in day out for about 2.5 years. I'll admit my hair hygiene was terrible at best during this time and I rarely ever washed that hat. I went through a very stressful period around when I turned 26 and let myself get super run down. I was drinking huge amounts of coffee to stay awake, was not sleeping much and was eating terribly. Next thing I know my male pattern baldness seemed to turn on like someone flipped a switch. I developed crazy inflammation all over the top of my head, some spots being so bad that raised bumps actually formed. My head got extremely greasy yet very very flaky. I started losing an absolute ton of hair in the shower. I'd shampoo and see like 20+ hairs in my hand every time I'd run my hands through my hair.
I tried Nizoral as I though I may have given myself some sort of infection or overgrowth from constantly wearing an unwashed hat. All this did was literally make my head feel like it was on fire about half an hour after shampooing. I switched to an organic shampoo since and have improved my diet a lot and this has helped somewhat, but my head is still super flaky and dry yet greasy at the same time, along with an almost ever present itching/burning sensation. My temples over this time have pulled back to about a Norwood 1.5 pattern with diffuse thinning throughout the top of my head probably losing 50% density in the last 2 years, less so at the back of the crown. My sideburn area has also gotten a lot thinner and grainy during this time as well. My younger brother has this same problem with thinning at the sides too.
So it looks to me that I was probably destined for male pattern baldness, and then set this off in spectacular fashion by running myself into the ground healthwise.
My question is can someone with inflammation as bad as I have hope to have finasteride work for them? I can't use Nizoral unless I want it to feel like there is a forest fire on top of my head. I'm guessing rogaine may have the same effect. Has anyone with bad inflammation ever had good success with finasteride? Thanks guys.
- - - Updated - - -
Oh and my ancestry is Irish/Scottish/English, I'm not african american like my username seems to suggest.