Been maintaining for 3.5 years

[Naltima]

Sorry I don't have my baseline pics but I thought i'd share my current picture and story.

I started out with the big 3 when I was 22, but dropped minoxidil after about 6 months. I was seeing some small hairs on the hairline, but didn't think it was worth the effort and short term gains to keep going with it. My hairline first started receding probably when I was 15, I still have a passport picture taken at the time I was 16 where you can clearly see that my hairline is receded.

I've been taking finasteride pretty much every single day for the past 3.5 years and my hair has pretty much remained the same. My hairline has receded a little bit since then but it's really a negligible amount and really I was expecting it with finasteride since it doesn't work that well on the hairline. Overall the rest of the hair is really thick and thank God there are no problems in the crown area yet. I did have a few minor sheds, but nothing that got me really worried.

Again, sorry for the lack of the baseline pics and sorry for poor quality pictures, but I just wanted to post this thread as encouragement to keep on going with the treatments even though sometimes it seems like they're not working.

I'm about to turn 26, and if I maintain into my early 30's I plan on having an hair transplant to fill in the hairline, although I would still want to retain the V shape since I like it a lot more than straight hairlines.

 

[KnowHair]

Naltima, what's going on with baldness in your family? Are there any family members balding, on mother's or father's side, grandparents, your siblings, etc? How about your father - how is his hair doing today?

 

[Naltima]

Naltima, what's going on with baldness in your family? Are there any family members balding, on mother's or father's side, grandparents, your siblings, etc? How about your father - how is his hair doing today?

Maternal Grandfather has a full head of hair at age 83, barely any recession and no balding anywhere else, same with great grandfather but he died around 60 years old. Uncle on mothers side has some hairloss in crown and temple recession at age 60, but it's not too bad.

I think my hairloss is similar to my uncle, at least based on the pictures I've seen of him when he as around my age.

Grandfather on dad's side had a full head of hair at time of death. My dad on the other hand is a NW6.

 

[KnowHair]

Your future hairloss pattern could be a mix between your relatives, but it doesn't appear to be too aggressive at this time. Mine was worse when I started at 22, especially the crown area. If I were you, I would just stick to Finasteride, take it consistently, avoid applying anything else like minoxidil. Finasteride kept my temples as is or better for more than a decade now.

I didn't think that I would have to be taking Finasteride for the next 13 years when I got started on it. I thought that for sure "they" would come up with something like Hair Multiplication in a decade. Who knows how long it will be until something like HM actually becomes commercially viable, if at all. Propecia was so new and almost miraculous when I started treating my hairloss, but am glad that Finasteride has worked for me beyond what any scientific study we have shows.

 

[Naltima]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I'm thankful that something like finasteride is on the market, obviously it kind of sucks taking it every day, especially since we don't know the long term effects of it, but I guess that's one of the sacrifices we have to make.

I know that there have been promises of bald cures for the past few decades, but I really feel that we're at a point where we'll see something significant within the next few years or so. Maybe not something that will bring an NW7 to NW1 right away but some serious advancements nonetheless.

Reading about medical research is sort of a hobby of mine, and it's amazing what kind of things have been discovered within the past 10 years alone.

For instance, I posted a thread about the skin gun a few weeks ago. It's essentially a gun that literally sprays on cells onto a burn victim or accident victim to regenerate lost skin literally within days. It's quite amazing on it's own. Bu researchers are currently working to regenerate organs, tissue and even hair using the same method. So I definitely think we're headed in the right direction.

Here is the video of that if you're interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXO_ApjKPaI