Estradiol will downregulate AR expression. Not sure why you still needed finasteride, but maybe it was a coincidence. It shouldn't have been necessary on bica and ev.
Exploring The Hormonal Route. Hair=life.
- Thread starter bridgeburn
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It's strange I know, that high a dosage of both should be enough. But as soon as the sides from finasteride emerge (depression brain fog etc.), the hair loss stopped and my face became a lot smoother as if the transition moved along.
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What about beard growth? I guess dutasteride has a long half-life but I haven't filled it in a while. I go back and forth between thinking that it is still worthwhile when already hitting female targets but if it has to do with repairing damage maybe that makes sense. But in general, I think that anything that raises estrogen levels and lowers T levels to adult female targets will "work" as a protocol even if some or several of the elements are superfluous. With all the stuff that @bridgeburn was taking, he had to be hitting targets pretty quickly and without missing the entire time interval that he blogged.
Other folks go three months and quit or then change AA's and they probably dip back down out of target zones and maybe that resets the process? All's I knows is that I was stalled until I started taking unlimited amounts of estrogen daily and then things really turned around. All those years I missed targets maximized my breast growth while minimizing my hair growth. That is the irony!
So I am still stuck between two things to figure out. Is it merely the increase in estrogen levels or is it also something fundamentally different that estrogel performs on a topical basis that is a catalyst for hair regrowth because we know estrogel isn't needed or fundamental to hair regrowth; all the ingestion methods work. It might very well be efficiency related in terms of dosage but I think that it is because it is achieving something from being in actual contact with the follicles that either safeguards them or catalyzes them.
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It's ineteresting what you say about lower estradiol levels and breast growth. During my T spike, when I lowered my E2 levels my hair started falling out again, but breast growth defintely increased. As for Bridgeburn, I guess everyone is different. I know for sure that I couldn't tolerate 50mg of cypro everyday.
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Well, hopefully I am putting my money where my mouth is here and my hair doesn't stall without any AA's. I thought about trying bica but I don't want to ruin the experiment. Oral minoxidil shouldn't change the results but rather speed them up, I think. Usually you would have the age factor, but my experience with estrogen is that all tissue created is essentially brand new tissue meaning I expect better results than a cis-female of my age.
Right now, I am in the transitional stage between male and female hair which gives it an unfortunate "granny-like" aspect in a female context while in a male context, it would be really good hair for someone 56 years old. I should be exiting the mullet stage and in a stage characterized by increasing hair quality and establishment of length due to increased anagen cycles with the establishment of lighter, blonder hairs and everything is on track. Derma-rolling is working like a dream. I spend a lot of time looking at other people's hair when it is imperfect, lol, since this is my obsession but my manageability and sheen and all of the rest that might not come through in a picture is so much nicer. It's thrilling and I know you guys will be too when you get to this point, knock on wood, and Goddess bless. I keep taking pictures and encourage everyone else to do so.
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Also, if there is any method that might increase breast growth but probably only temporarily, it is estrogen deprivation or possibly topical application which I think worked for me but there's no way to know. It too might be temporary as is progesterone. Thank Goddess, I am not obsessed with both hair and breasts.
As I am wont to say, I am only in this for the hair! It makes my mother feel better when I say that.
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Then you missed the part where I concluded by my own experience that it did not work, but the thing is, that's not something I could even remotely convince another doctor to use for such an issue.
I'm actually pretty sure I can convince my dr to explore usage of topical estrogen.
The OP seemed to do well enough on 0.75 mgs, I'm considering starting lower if I can even though when I see myself in pictures from the past, that it appears that I had very little problem with estrogen levels high enough to impede prolific beard growth, I don't want to overload my body.
I would like some beneficial systemic effects, but nothing excessive.
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I think if daro or enza ever become financially viable, they will be our saviour from AR upregulation and adrenal T. I think someone on this forum mentioned excessive sugar consumption and it's effect on the AR. I don't know exactly what the mechanism was, do you know anything on this subject?
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Definitely worse
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It's hard to tell, but you hide it well
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I'm on 4mg currently and that's the best i can do. Sometimes it doesn't look that bad idk why
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Your results are not turning out like the OP
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guess i'm out of luck
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Your inconsistent hair development at the hair line does not seem androgenic in nature to me, that seems like something else.
Perhaps some kind of inflammation or alopecia areata, because honestly the rest of your hair density really does seem good, I'm not sure if estrogen is what is precisely called for here.
What is your vitamin D status? I recommend you get that checked, because I have been on liposomal vitamin D which is supposedly better for absorption and it just... wasn't taking if you know what I mean. My vitamin D levels were total garbage and my hair was suffering badly because of it and I did have and do contend with hairline abnormalities.
Low vitamin D can cause that kind of patchy hair weirdness but so can other things, I would definitely say that you're not out of luck, to the contrary, I think you've barely scratched the surface as to what exactly your unique circumstance is.
Don't give up and don't be discouraged.
That's really good, but even then it seems like your hairline wasn't that bad and the density of your follicles seems good too in the before pic.
That being said you definitely transformed, I hope you're pleased with the result.
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Yes thanks. I had long wanted to transition anyway prior to realizing hrt could be beneficial to hair loss, so 2 birds with one stone kinda worked for the best in my case.
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That hairline is actually amazing, i never had that even when i was 10
I do take vitamin D 200 µg a day. I did have some dandruff issues in the past in that area, but not currently.
I take all kinds of vitamin supplements.
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Dandruff is a telltale sign of some inflammatory/immune activity which is abnormal.
200 thousandths of a milligram may not be enough especially if you're not absorbing it properly which in my particular case I was not.
The thing I can recommend for you to do which I had to do because it's not always sunny where I live is that I basically got a reptile sun lamp, and I got one of those microphone stand arms that can extend and move and I attached the light to the stand and I basically would lay in bed with my shirt off facing away from the lamp at a good enough distance that I would not get burned and it definitely helped my energy levels.
Sadly getting enough vitamin D for many people can sometimes only involve naturally creating it due to sunlight exposure.
This year I felt like absolute garbage, constantly tired and dizzy until I started doing this particular therapy for 30 mins a day until I felt like my body was producing enough.
Either that or just get outside like a normal person if there's enough sun in your part of the world.
That is one thing you can try, but if you do have any sporadic red inflammation of the scalp accompanying your dandruff, you need to see a doctor. When I was 26 I lost an extremely high volume of hair in a very short period of time in a patterned way that I thought was just Androgenetic Alopecia. I went to the Doctor and got on mometasone and then betamethasone and was on that for eight months and my hair recovered.
You might not require that much to keep your hair in check, but patchy loss and then regrowth is a sign of immunological and inflammatory issues, of which they can deplete certain nutrient reserves such as vitamin d but also b12. Another thing I should offer is that after the first year of regrowth I started feeling really tired and weak with a whole host of other symptoms, and started on an aggressive treatment of injected and methylated b12 which may have also boosted my hair regeneration since my b12 levels were at the point of pernicious anemia.
If you're taking b12 make sure you're taking methylcobalamin, any other form is garbage if it's taken orally and it is not readily usable by the body.
If you're not using nizoral, you probably should be as a precaution against certain types of seborrhea causing hair issues.
I wish I had the courage to have taken a picture when my hairloss was at its worst, but it was so diffuse and my scalp so red and angry and sore that I had to basically buzz my hair down to nothing. I was very ashamed of it and quite depressed over it.
This is about how bad it was (not my photo), and I'll provide a real after pic of what I looked like after I recovered which took a total of about two years due to the fact that I did have a shedding event after tapering off the corticosteroids, but it wasn't anything even coming close to what happened initially.
But if I can go from what is depicted in the first photo to what I ended up as, other people can as well, my recovery didn't involve taking estrogen but I am going to to boost my hair recovering after a second hairloss event.
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