Hair loss took away my ability to express myself

[PappinAce]

In my mid-late 20s I began to call bull**** on social / gender norms. I realized that I'm not a "competitive ambitious macho man" but rather harmonious and empathetic. I realized that long hair = girls and short hair = guys is also bull****, and I went through my life always cutting my hair after it got to a certain point without ever questioning why. What destroys me is that I actually would have looked better with long hair, like past my shoulders because I have the face for it. Like some cruel joke, the INSTANT I decided to grow my hair to that length to express myself and my identity, guess what? male pattern baldness! In my mid-20s obviously. And nobody else in my family has it, including my 60 year old father, which is really fun.

Now I have to cut my hair short because of thinning all over, especially crown. What pisses me off is that it looks like I'm cutting it short because "that's what guys do", but actually I'm cornered into it. Every time I hear "nice haircut! looks good shorter" I just want to be like shut the **** up and get out of my face!

Damn I really want some density back! 8 months on finasteride hasn't provided adequate results.

 

[Rudiger]

Why do so many people seem to just be on finasteride? I don't get it. Use minoxidil and nizoral as well, if you're a bit apprehensive then at least start with minoxidil, try nizoral once or twice a week after being on minoxidil for a few months.

But really I can even more understand being on just minoxidil than being on just finasteride, if you want to regrow hair and density (which I believe everyone does). But nizoral for me was the final touch that really started regrowing hairline and fringe, density however is still an issue.

 

[Hairloss23]

Why do so many people seem to just be on finasteride? I don't get it. Use minoxidil and nizoral as well, if you're a bit apprehensive then at least start with minoxidil, try nizoral once or twice a week after being on minoxidil for a few months.

But really I can even more understand being on just minoxidil than being on just finasteride, if you want to regrow hair and density (which I believe everyone does). But nizoral for me was the final touch that really started regrowing hairline and fringe, density however is still an issue.

minoxidil has a pathetic response rate, especially at the hairline. In some people it can actually make them recede faster.

 

[PappinAce]

Why do so many people seem to just be on finasteride? I don't get it. Use minoxidil and nizoral as well, if you're a bit apprehensive then at least start with minoxidil, try nizoral once or twice a week after being on minoxidil for a few months.

But really I can even more understand being on just minoxidil than being on just finasteride, if you want to regrow hair and density (which I believe everyone does). But nizoral for me was the final touch that really started regrowing hairline and fringe, density however is still an issue.

I do use nizoral twice a week. Tried minoxidil but it did literally nothing, and I was disciplined about using it twice a day for about six months.

Transplants are always there I guess, but I have 100K in student loans <_<

I see long hair as a way to distinguish myself from the typical "short haired douchebag dudes" but I don't even get to do that. In my ****ing 20s. Really upset about it

 

[jd_uk]

minoxidil has a pathetic response rate, especially at the hairline. In some people it can actually make them recede faster.

Yep.

 

[Rudiger]

minoxidil has a pathetic response rate, especially at the hairline. In some people it can actually make them recede faster.

Source(s) please?

I do use nizoral twice a week. Tried minoxidil but it did literally nothing, and I was disciplined about using it twice a day for about six months.

Transplants are always there I guess, but I have 100K in student loans <_<

I see long hair as a way to distinguish myself from the typical "short haired douchebag dudes" but I don't even get to do that. In my ****ing 20s. Really upset about it

Eesh, 6 months? I mean for a start it's hard to even know if it was doing nothing, it could have at least been maintaining. For me personally I was on minoxidil alone and it started growing hair after about a year, I was stupid enough to stop for a short amount of time and that ruined everything when I went back on, but still on minoxidil alone it maintained hair for another 2-3 years, then propecia for the last several months has been growing hair faster. Of course I'm sticking with minoxidil as well but obviously I have no idea what it's doing as a treatment, if anything at all.

You quit too early, it's impossible to know if to quit at all, it's difficult to know what treatments are doing if you're on more than 1. It's up to you, but personally I'd rather take no chances, minoxidil could be doing nothing at all right now but at least I know I'm doing what I can within reason, and a few mins of minoxidil application twice a day is not a big deal at all.

 

[Wolf Pack]

Why do so many people seem to just be on finasteride? I don't get it. Use minoxidil and nizoral as well, if you're a bit apprehensive then at least start with minoxidil, try nizoral once or twice a week after being on minoxidil for a few months.

But really I can even more understand being on just minoxidil than being on just finasteride, if you want to regrow hair and density (which I believe everyone does). But nizoral for me was the final touch that really started regrowing hairline and fringe, density however is still an issue.

minoxidil is a growth stimulant. finasteride is superior at maintaining hair which is the most important thing and can grow more than minoxidil too at times. minoxidil can be replaced with a transplant or even finasteride can thicken thin areas. Being just on minoxidil is actually pointless except buying little time, unless you are a super responder with really mild male pattern baldness genetics.

Nizoral does little to nothing. It's a nice touch to a regimen. I have cycled on/off this and it makes little difference.

 

[PappinAce]

Wow, it actually regrew terminal hair for you? Cosmetically significant? What made you decide to stop?

I figured it's better to stack the treatments; try one for a year, add another, and add another, that way you can identify what's working and to what extent. I suppose I could try a higher concentration minoxidil with crushed finasteride as a last resort for regrowth.

 

[Rudiger]

It didn't advance the hairline but it did make thinning hair thicker in the middle and fringe, I only stopped for a month or so, really stupid but I think I simply ran out and figured I'd hop back on soon enough, was in no rush. When I started again on just minoxidil, it maintained but didn't grow anything. Propecia grew the temples and actually advanced the hairline, the fringe is growing quite a bit now.

Wolf yeah I understand that, but I never understood why it's essentially useless for the vast majority of people on it's own, if it is a growth stimulant.

 

[Roberto_72]

In my mid-late 20s I began to call bull**** on social / gender norms. I realized that I'm not a "competitive ambitious macho man" but rather harmonious and empathetic. I realized that long hair = girls and short hair = guys is also bull****, and I went through my life always cutting my hair after it got to a certain point without ever questioning why. What destroys me is that I actually would have looked better with long hair, like past my shoulders because I have the face for it. Like some cruel joke, the INSTANT I decided to grow my hair to that length to express myself and my identity, guess what? male pattern baldness! In my mid-20s obviously. And nobody else in my family has it, including my 60 year old father, which is really fun.

Now I have to cut my hair short because of thinning all over, especially crown. What pisses me off is that it looks like I'm cutting it short because "that's what guys do", but actually I'm cornered into it. Every time I hear "nice haircut! looks good shorter" I just want to be like shut the **** up and get out of my face!

Damn I really want some density back! 8 months on finasteride hasn't provided adequate results.

my friend, hair loss has taken away EVERYONE's ability to express themselves. Maybe you think your case is different because the message you want to convey is more peculiar. However, everyone of us has been deprived of the messages you can convey via hairstyle.
as in: we get you.

oh, btw: most faces look good with longer hair. In rock music, long hair is pretty much a must.

 

[Folliman]

You're on the lucky end, a lot of people start losing hair in their mid teens. I know, still sucks. I wish I had started losing my hair 10 years later so I would have a lot more treatments than today, but we're getting there.

 

[Agustin Araujo]

PappinAce, that's one of my biggest problems with hair loss, it cripples the ability to fully express one's self physically. I myself have questioned that gender/social norm that men are supposed to have short hair and women having longer hair. When I was a small child, I'd keep my hair short most of the time. At age 16, right when I decided to start growing out my hair like a rock star was also the very same time I started balding. Ever since then I've had no option but to keep my hair on the shorter side so it won't look out of proportion.

 

[Roberto_72]

PappinAce, that's one of my biggest problems with hair loss, it cripples the ability to fully express one's self physically. I myself have questioned that gender/social norm that men are supposed to have short hair and women having longer hair. When I was a small child, I'd keep my hair short most of the time. At age 16, right when I decided to start growing out my hair like a rock star was also the very same time I started balding. Ever since then I've had no option but to keep my hair on the shorter side so it won't look out of proportion.

This reminds me of a piece of poetic justice that I enjoyed when I was at university. Back then, I played drums and my hair was already short because I was losing it. I sometimes played with a very bad guitarist who had my same name. He had long hair but was despairing because he was losing it very fast as well...

Once a girl said she knew a musician with my same name. And that he had wonderful long hair. She was referring of course to that guitarist.

She spoke about that in admiration and was being of course mean to me, who had his same name and was a musician as well but had "different" hair. But I giggled because I knew what that long hair was hiding.
A year later that guy with my same name shaved his head and now is a NW6.