ALL THESE SHEDDING STORIES ARE SO DISCOURAGING

[FTWP]

I'm new to these forums and trying to figure out what to do w/ my male pattern baldness. I've been lsing my hair since i was 17, now im 25. And now its becoming noticable. i have diffuse thinning, not a receding hair line(would MUCH rather have receding hair line!) The whole year has been horrible for me. All i think about is my hair. i cannot focus on ANYTHING else. The only thing i look forward to anymore is sleeping. Im on the computer everyday for hours looking for the right solution but just dont know what to do. I have no life anymore, im afraid to go out, i hate looking at myself in the mirror. Balding has ruined my life. What makes it even worse is that nobody else in my family is bald - or not completely bald. And at my pace, i'll be completly bald by the time im 30. If my 2 brothers were balding w/ me, it would be easier for me to deal w/ but they are not AT ALL, so i cannot even talk to them about it. This has taken over my life and i used to be a happy person.
There are so many different personal stories on here regarding how the medication they are taking is going, some good some bad. some miraculous, some devestating. WHAT SHOULD I DO!!! this is so hard.....Shedding.. ofcourse you have to deal w/ shedding when you go on rogaine or propecia. I cannot afford to lose anymore hair! i think its so ridiculous that for people who are losing their hair, the only way for them to maintain or regrow more hair is to lose even more hair!! A LOT more hair!! What kind of sh*t is that! How long will you be losing massive amounts of hair on top of what your already losing everyday? thats anyones guess! wait it out and see... Will it grow back? who the hell knows.
I cry like a baby about this. people who have hair do not know how lucky they are. I think that the effect balding can have on some people (like me ) is highly traumatic and isnt taken seriously enough. I dont know how people who are bald can live a happy life? If anyone can help me in anyway I'd appreciate it. thanks for reading my long post.

 

[sadscalp]

Look man, everybody's different. I started minoxidil and nizoral 6 months ago, and finasteride a month ago. It's been a rollercoaster, but I've never been as bad as I was at baseline (though I'm not too far off now to be fair, but I started treatment pretty late into my male pattern baldness. And with finasteride hopefully kicking in I expect to see improvements over the next couple of months).

Some people shed, others don't. If you are a diffuse thinner finasteride can hopefully work great for you, and if you don't start it things will only get worse.

No finasteride, no hair. Your choice.

Oh, and I can totally relate to you. I'm an advanced NW3 with severe diffuse thinning, and my looks have taken a blow from my hair loss. I started buzzing it down about a year ago and hated it, and did the usual stuff (cried, hated myself etc.). But now I'm thinking that it doesn't look too bad. Of course I would've looked better with a NW1 hairline, but we can't have everything we want now can we. And you know, I've had a lot of people tell me over the years that I look like Edward Norton (first time when I was 17 or something like that (I'm 23 now)), and just a couple of weeks ago some guy said I looked like Luke Wilson. Some other guy disagreed and said I looked like Edward Norton. These were people I didn't even know. Now I don't see any resemblance at all to either of those two (and certainly not Luke Wilson), and I don't really think I'm very attractive at all, but if people I don't know think I look like those guys then it really can't be that bad. We are our own worst critics.

My advice to you is this: buzz it down (preferably shorter on the sides than on top, to disguise the diffuse thinning a bit), get on finasteride and work with yourself. Diffuse thinners often respond well to treatments, and the earlier you start, the better odds you have.

 

[FTWP]

yeah we are our own worst critics, your right. we all want perfection and its pathetic. but can you blame me? im 25. im still young. at 40 years old i wouldnt even care so much that i was balding....anyway, hows the finasteride going w/ you? Ive heard that the drug, side effects aside, can make your hair get thin and fall out all over. that happen to you? any other side effects on finasteride or minoxidil?

 

[done]

:whistle:

I hate discouraging people...... one advice I have for you is to take extreme caution when taking propecia/finasteride. If you're going in, you don't want to make any wrong moves lol. Go to a very good doctor, there are tests they can do to see if you can benefit from taking finasteride(at least that's what I heard).

I had a horrible experience with Finasteride, and I stopped taking it a few weeks ago.. I shed A LOT.A LOT, and I will never ever ever touch that drug again. other people have had successes, so don't think it's all bad. Not me. And all the while my doctor was telling me that the shed is "normal". by the end of it he said that the shed is probably not related to the finasteride, and that it was probably just the natural process of losing hair, and that it happen to coincide with me taking the finasteride :jackit:

So I went to another doctor, a very good doctor, and he said that my shed is excessive, and that I should stop immediately. I did, and two weeks later the shedding stopped completely. What a relieve..

One thing I can tell you is that taking Finasteride was one of the worst decisions I have ever made, and one which I didn't think through enough. but I don't want to discourage you :laugh: seriously, I just want to make sure you take things seriously if you ever decide to go ahead with it. Go to a really good doctor and make sure you talk to them about any concerns that you may have. I hope that you have a better luck than I did.