4 Months on the Big three, big improvement!

[I.D WALKER]

There is no question I waste some of the minoxidil. while using my fingers to apply it. I add a bit extra for compensation. I keep what existing hair I have very short so I'm confident I'm getting sufficient coverage. Thanx for your input all the same. Your point of view certainly is sound and appreciated.

Well minoxidil hairs don't immediately become terminal hairs, and in the case of hairs that have been restored from almost nothing, they may never become terminal. I think these intermediate vellus hairs are more prone to being pulled out or broken. But the main point of not rubbing is just sou don't get it in your fingers. The more you get on your fingers, the less remains on your head to actually do it's thing.

 

[BigTexasSexy]

Hey GM, I'm trying out a liquid form of minoxidil and I have a few questions about some things I've been running into recently
-Does your liquid take forever to dry? Even after an hour of application my scalp is still wet!
-Did yo encounter any sides? Itchiness, flaking, irritation?
-Did you go through any shed period?

Thanks mane

 

[GoldenMane]

Hey BTS

Depends on what liquid you get. The Kirkland stuff can take a long time to dry, yeah. Spectral UHP dries much faster, but it's way more expensive!
Hmm no itchiness or irritation. I do get some large flakes, but they're different to the dandruff I had before. I think finasteride may have fixed the cause of my dandruff, my scalp is much better. The big flakes have holes in them for the hair, but there's no itchiness or snowstorm, my scalp feels much better. It took a month or two (maybe 3) for my scalp to get better though, it was in bad shape to start with and for the first couple of months on minoxidil.

I think I did have a shed yeah, from about the second or third week. I'd say it lasted a few weeks, maybe a month.

It's early days, I'd stick with it for a while before giving up on the liquid.

 

[I.D WALKER]

I know what you're talking about when you mentioned the big flakes with the holes in them. I surmise the hole is where the hair(s) protruded from. I have endured seb. dermatitis most of my early to present adulthood. This probably belongs in a thread of it's own; Maybe it's unlikely SB causes or is a symptom of male pattern baldness but for many years I have strongly suspected seb. derm. has compounded and or accelerated my Androgenetic Alopecia. Inflammation can lead to tissue atrophy. I have asked dermatologist and GP's if there is a correlation between seb. and Androgenetic Alopecia and no Doctor agreed that "my hunch" had any scientific merit. Inarguably it is not at all uncommon to be afflicted with 2 or more different disorders at the same time and so until new evidence dispels the medical opinion my theory will remain merely that.

 

[GoldenMane]

Isn't sebum production increased by DHT? I'd say there is a definite correlation between DHT and seb derm. It's not what causes hairloss, but yeah, in some of us, it accompanies it, and it yeah, it probably does accelerate hairloss due to inflammation. A healthy scalp is important.

 

[I.D WALKER]

Well said.

 

[Armando Jose]

Did the experts provided some reason to say that the seborrheic derm has nothing to do with common baldness? I Bet you did not.

 

[GoldenMane]

Hey Scalp Hell! I started to see an increase in hair density after about 2 and a half months, maybe 3 months. It's been almost 6 months now and I think my hair has fully recovered to it's previous density. Finasteride and minoxidil works very well on us diffuse thinners, we still have hair, but it has become thin vellus hair. It is reasonable to expect this vellus hair to regain thickness and become a terminal hair again. Best of luck, I hope you experience good results like I have!

I didn't have a big shed at the start of treatment, but I did have some shedding, maybe a bit more shedding than before. But now I am not shedding at all. I lose maybe 3-4 hairs a day, nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[CliffLee]

GoldenMane, are you still using minoxidil only once a day?

 

[GoldenMane]

Yeah Cliff, once daily, how are you getting on with your regime? I've heard that twice daily may result in faster gains, but once daily has been fine for me, I'm not going to increase my dose any time soon. On Kirkland minoxidil at the moment, my hair is actually starting to get thick enough that applying minoxidil is becoming a little bit more difficult, but that's a wonderful problem to have!

 

[CliffLee]

It's going fine thanks, although no noticeable improvement and no sides either. Currently on finasteride 1.25mg per day and minoxidil twice a day (lipogaine at night, kirkland foam in the morning). I do think I experienced a mild shed, of all similar length hairs (approx one inch long), over a period of a few weeks but that has stopped - been on the routine about 3 months.

Glad to hear your issue with thicker hair!

 

[GoldenMane]

It's still early days Cliff, my consultant told me that it really takes 6 months. Clearly this is not always the case, many do experience cosmetic improvement in 3 months, looking forward to seeing the results.

Scalp, you don't need to wet your hair. In fact, I would only apply minoxidil to a dry scalp, and moisture on your scalp may prevent minoxidil from being absorbed by your skin, the minoxidil carrier is an organic solvent I think, they don't mix with water.

 

[GoldenMane]

Yeah, it's a good sign, DHT miniaturises hair and strips them of their pigment, so hair getting darker is a very good sign.

 

[CliffLee]

Thanks Mane. I have my fingers crossed! It's only some thinning at the frontal region I'm concerned about. I have some recession but that occurred years ago and I'm fine with that at 31 - just want thick hair though.

I'm thinking of adding dutasteride topical over the next couple of months. I heard that some of the users in the German forums have had decent success and the topical application greatly decreases the potential for dutasteride sides. Essentially, you crush dutasteride tabs and mix them with minoxidil.

 

[damien_p_watermelon]

It's posts like these that gets a man over-excited.

I remember having long, stand-up-on-it's-own, raggy, rough, thick blond hair. Now my hair is like a feathery down.

4 days on finasteride and no sides. Fingers crossed.

 

[GoldenMane]

Good luck damien, my hair was quite downy too, and you can see in my second post by transitioning between the two pictures how my hair became thicker and started to stand up again. No reason why it shouldn't do the same for you. Maybe try minoxidil in addition to finasteride.

Cliff, give it six months before adding anything uncessary to your regime, you may not even need to add crushed dutasteride.

ScalpHell, i'll look into it, but I want to keep my regime as simple as possible, if I start to lose my hair again I'll definitely give it a go, but right now I'm very happy with my regime, it's working wonders.

I'm now at six months, and my hair is even better than the 4 months pictures, the little bald spot (hair whorl?) at my crown is totally gone. I have some temporal recession, that isn't changing, i'm probably never going to recover those temporal indentations, but I don't mind, the way I wear my hair you can't see them. There is no thinness anywhere now, just thick full hair all over, it stands up, gets knotted and tangled, is a pain in the *** to brush and I love it! I hope I can keep it for the rest of my life, not just 10 years, but 10 years is enough, I feel so lucky and grateful that I have these treatment options and that they're so affordable. Modern medicine is wonderful!

And it looks like we're nearing a surgical cure too from what I've seen here: http://www.hairlosstalk.com/interac...they-figured-it-out-all?p=1164939#post1164939

Exciting times! At the risk of sounding like a smug git, I hope you all get your hair back, and if/when you do, you'll appreciate it way more than our luckier non balding brothers, and make the most of it!

I'm not seeing my consultant again until March 2015 so any pictures I upload in the meantime won't be as good, but I'll try to upload some every now and again. It's crazy now looking at the first pictures where you can see my scalp through my hair at the front, looks like a comb over... scary stuff... I still remember how horrible it felt when I first saw that...

 

[mosd]

Golden mane I can recommend the tangle teazer it's an amazing brush check it out on google! Girls love it

 

[GoldenMane]

Yeah, the area in front of my ears (sideburns area) did thin too, and also thickened up after a few months, it may even have advanced towards my face half an inch. I'll look into the whole cold water thing, but since I don't actually have a greasy scalp, much sebum or dandruff anymore, seems like finasteride also cured my dandruff. That's why I rarely use nizoral now.

Cheers mosd! I actually use an afro comb for sorting out the bigger knots and a normal brush for everything else. Blond people tend to have finer hair than dark haired people, and mine is wavy, not straight so there's a lot more hairs to get knotted.

 

[damien_p_watermelon]

Did you use minoxidil before taking it as part of the big three?

I've taken minoxidil for years bu it's never worked a miracle for me. I'm hoping that as part of the big three it might bring it's magic to life.e

 

[irishlufc]

goldenmane where you getting your finasteride from in ireland?