I get highs n lows ._.

[Hoppi]

I don't know why really, one minute I feel totally cool about it and I'm like "yeah I'll just apply all this stuff and work out this HUGE fantastic regimen and fix everything!" and the next I just... I feel bummed that it's even happening. I worry in case I did it to myself with stress or whatever, I mean I know that's hard to prove and everything... who knows eh?

And I didn't know, I mean I had no idea why guys lost their hair, that me having thick hair was no defense against it, hell I didn't even fully acknowledge the extent to which it happens so much more to guys than gals! All I thought was "meh, whatever, I'll have thick, strong, italian hair FOREVER"...

Ugh how can I have been so dumb and naive and stupid?

Thing is with me, I feel so young in my head often, and so I guess I just feel like I'm immune to all the problems of the adult world sometimes! It's like I hit... I dunno... 17 or something, and then a certain part of my brain just STOPPED maturing! lol

Not in a bad way, I like it, and I mature in many other ways, it's just I always have this weird, bouncy youth about me! lol

Oh well! I hope it never goes ^_^

But anyway... yeah, so hair loss sucks ***. I hope it's just stress and it will come back by itself like the hair clinic and therapist guy said (I bumped into him on a chat room, he deals with people with stress and similar issues), I mean that's BOTH professionals I spoke to both said if it's stress (and even possibly if it's diet) it will probably come back by itself.

God knows, but I'm going on finasteride and all that anyway, mild doses, just in case! I hate the receding hairline corners and thinning hair, it sucks!

But, I know I couldn't have hoped to be immune to things like this forever. I'm a guy, and this was ALWAYS on the cards as a possibility.

My hair is so important to me, and I was in a mess of tears twice about all this a couple of weeks ago. I know that for a lot of guys it's not as much of a biggie (many guys I meet don't seem to care they're losing hair) but for me, it's a part of ME! It's part of my identity, it's like a limb!! hehe

And I will fight tooth and nail to keep it!!

Hoppi

 

[Nene]

Hey Hoppi, its tough man, but you seem like a cheerful person. Just try and keep that positive attitude. Now I don't know what your hair loss looks like, but if it is thinning on the top of your head and the corners of your hairline, then it is almost certainly male pattern baldness. You didn't do it to yourself with stress or a bad diet, although that might slightly have exacerbated the problem. If you were losing it due to some other reason, it would likely be patchy and all over your head, not just the top and hairline. I know some people who are stressed as hell and don't have hair loss, if it's not in your genes then it just isn't going to happen. It sounds to me like you're going through a little bit of denial. You're looking for reasons your losing your hair other than male pattern baldness. There is no other reason. It's ok, we all went through it. I had REALLY thick dark hair when I was young and my father still has thick, dark hair, so I also thought I was immune. I thought medication or stress was the cause also...Nope you're going bald and you have to face it. Also, you talk about fighting it, well thats fine, but just realize that it is a losing battle. You can never win this fight, but simply prolong it. I know it's sad, but it's reality and we have to face it. I've cried about hair loss before too, I also felt like I lost a limb. Don't fool yourself, 99% of men are devastated when they start losing their hair. If they say they don't care, they are lying!!! Anyway, just because you can't win doesn't mean you shouldn't try to treat it and at least keep some hair while you're still young. Most importantly just try your best not to let it get you down, at the end of the day it's only as big of a deal as you make it out to be. And like I said, you seem to have a good attitude so I'm confident you can overcome this. Good luck.

 

[Hoppi]

I know you were trying to help but to be honest that made me feel a fair bit worse I've been really down today

I just see things in a totally, totally different way If I saw things in that way I would just... it makes me want to lose the will to live!! lol

I see it like...

a) If I come up with a successful regimen then I'm "winning".

b) It's not proven that this is a permanent change particularly when induced by stress or diet, in fact sources very comfortably contradict themselves. It could correct itself once the hormonal imbalance has corrected itself, and if not I've got great treatments like finasteride and stuff anyway

c) That better cures are coming out all the time, and I just need to hold on now with what is available and keep my eyes on treatments in the future to boost my hair's health and staying power!

d) That there probably will be a cure in 10 years. We understand it really well now and it's just a matter of totally stopping the hair follicles picking up DHT permanently. Within 10 years, I would imagine someone would have come up with something! (Hell I could even fund research, or help with research if I really wanted!)

e) That this is often just part of "being a guy", and if I do manage to combat and beat it... that's pretty good going!

f) That worst comes to the worst there are treatments out there like Virtual Reality and all that which will replace your hair


But yeah, all that stuff! Quite often I think people don't need "tough love" or to "face facts", you just need support and advice and room to tackle your own problems. Hell I mean I could believe anything - I could believe it's down to pixies or bad karma or something, and I think it's down to one person's freedom of speech and thought how they choose to interpret, diagnose and deal with their own problems

Sorry, I'm not trying to be confrontational here I'm just saying I have a different approach to things! I know it's different to most people's but it's reasons like this which is why I'm considering finding a job in helping people somehow!

Anyway, laterz!

Hoppi

 

[Draco88]

I can sense a lot of heart wrenching pain in your post Hoppi, similar to many other users who have posted here. I can't exactly identify with the way you're feeling, since for myself, yes i do get upset sometimes about the reality of losing all my hair, yes i wish i didn't have to go through with this, but i usually find that i over come these thoughts rather quickly and just move on with life. But that doesn't meaning my hair loss doesn't affect me anymore..there'll be moments where i just feel down right miserable, but they're rare for me thankfully.

Thing is with me, I feel so young in my head often, and so I guess I just feel like I'm immune to all the problems of the adult world sometimes! It's like I hit... I dunno... 17 or something, and then a certain part of my brain just STOPPED maturing! lol

I know exactly what you mean. I use to feel like this until i was 20 or 21 (i'm 22 now) but quickly realised that i'm growing up in this world and i need to find my own place in it.

You seem like a good spirited type of guy, and it sucks that any one of us has to experience hair loss, especially when you have your types out there who have no hair loss yet are complete idiots. I also wish so badly that some sort of new medicine/treatment will be developed in the very near future where we won't have to worry about losing our hair anymore. I've still got an ok head of hair (i'm a NW2), yet i hope i won't have to wait til i'm completely bald until something comes out. It just plane sucks, and the only advice i can give you is just try not to think or worry about it as much.

 

[cuebald]

yo Hoppi
what Norwood are you?

I also have good days and bad days.
Days where I will look at myself and feel relatively handsome; and other days where I think I am in the bottom 10% of the looks hierarchy. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

It's hard not to feel down about it, and it's not just the loss of attractiveness - losing a "unique" part of yourself and becoming just another generic bald man is probably even worse for me. Like I could don a suit and be just another businessdrone.
Mind you, some days I feel like "well, I'll just rock the bald look like a lot of people do".

I haven't been a fan of most hair transplant's I've seen - the hairs seem to grow back "kinky" - like they look like they've been burnt. Almost a "pubic" look (or like chest hairs growing on a head). HM will be just more of this.

I think what we need is to find out exactly why DHT kills hairs - what it actually does to the hair follicle / hair papillae to inhibit growth so much. All that happens inside a follicle shaft is that layers of keratin get packed onto eachother to produce a hair. (Does anyone know WHY DHT inhibits this?)
Maybe then we can have a more precise treatment that doesn't involve inhibiting DHT to the whole body. Hopefully even a one-shot treatment that changes the hairs to be like the ones in the donor zone. I can hope...

 

[Nene]

Hoppi, I apologize if I made you feel worse, but I wouldn't be doing you any favors if I told you this was reversible or agreed that a cure is coming out in 10 years. Is it possible that a cure is coming out soon? Of course! Is it likely? Probably not. The guys on this forum have been hearing about cures for hair loss for the past 20 years and it still hasn't come to fruition. In fact, some people on this forum closely follow the companies working on hair loss treatments and sadly, it doesn't seem like any of them are close to a cure. Now, that being said, I do think it is possible. I saw on 20/20 a few weeks ago scientists growing parts of a human heart from cells. If this is possible, surely hair can be grown! Also, with finasteride and minoxidil, you may be able to keep a good amount of hair for many years to come. I don't know your family history of hair loss and I don't know your age and the extent of your hair loss, but it is possible that you can just stop at norwood 3 or 2, in which case a hair transplant can make you a norwood 0 for good. However these cases are rare. But there is always hope. However, the vast majority of us will end up Norwood 6 because finasteride and minoxidil can only work for so long. Right now you're in the denial phase. We all thought, "I can't really be going bald, I'm just thinning a little." Or, "I'm a special case, my hair will grow back, I'll find a cure." Etc. You'll come around to the acceptance stage eventually.

 

[DoctorHouse]

Hoppi, I get highs and lows depending on how good my hair looks. My low days are bad hair days and my high days are good hair days. And I get low when I think about how my days are based on how my hair looks. Just like you thought you were going to keep you hair forever, I thought if I was able to keep my hair past 35 years old, I would keep it forever. I thought 35 was the "magic" cutoff date for being safe from losing hair. However, I was WRONG. And then I thought, if you start to use the big 3 with minor hair loss, you still get to keep what you have. DEAD WRONG again. And then to top that off, I find that I don't have MALE pattern balding but FEMALE pattern balding. I call that a real LOW. I still ponder if I did something to my hormones to trigger such an unusual pattern for a male. And as far as coming up with various treatment plans, I have tried almost every product out there except advodart with no success of keeping ALL of my hair. Another big LOW for me. So the only possible HIGH I see in the future is a FUE hair transplant for my hairline or less likely, a new treatment that actually works at the hairline.

 

[Draco88]

Well if anyone cares..i'm having a somewhat low day today..i had a hair cut from hell last week (the girl literally took 3minutes to cut my bloody hair!!) and it's taking a while to grow it out, to 'repair' and since i'm over a NW2, it's rather hard to hide the temples, and seeing the back part of my head rather thin.. :thumbdown2:

 

[Hoppi]

Hoppi, I get highs and lows depending on how good my hair looks. My low days are bad hair days and my high days are good hair days. And I get low when I think about how my days are based on how my hair looks. Just like you thought you were going to keep you hair forever, I thought if I was able to keep my hair past 35 years old, I would keep it forever. I thought 35 was the "magic" cutoff date for being safe from losing hair. However, I was WRONG. And then I thought, if you start to use the big 3 with minor hair loss, you still get to keep what you have. DEAD WRONG again. And then to top that off, I find that I don't have MALE pattern balding but FEMALE pattern balding. I call that a real LOW. I still ponder if I did something to my hormones to trigger such an unusual pattern for a male. And as far as coming up with various treatment plans, I have tried almost every product out there except advodart with no success of keeping ALL of my hair. Another big LOW for me. So the only possible HIGH I see in the future is a FUE hair transplant for my hairline or less likely, a new treatment that actually works at the hairline.

aw dude I'm sorry to hear about that. So is it harder to stop balding that is female pattern?

What if you got your hormones totally in check, and then applied more specific treatments...... would that stand chance of working do you think? I am sorry to hear it man and I believe you if you say you've tried pretty much every product... there may be other things though, I mean not every potential solution is a "product" right? Good luck though dude and feel free to post about it here, it's cool, I mean I am mostly alright like I say I only have lil low patches sometimes but it's fairly rare

Well if anyone cares..i'm having a somewhat low day today..i had a hair cut from hell last week (the girl literally took 3minutes to cut my bloody hair!!) and it's taking a while to grow it out, to 'repair' and since i'm over a NW2, it's rather hard to hide the temples, and seeing the back part of my head rather thin.. :thumbdown2:

Your regimen is quite small though man, are you sure that a few other things thrown in wouldn't help? It's like a bloody artform sometimes isn't it? lol

 

[Draco88]

^^Well i've considered starting MSM and Vitamin C..just that i haven't really gotten around to buying those products. But you're right, it is like an art form :\
Anyway i'm in my second week of this treatment, so it's very early anyway.

 

[dark&bald]

the best thing you can do is ACCEPT it. Think of baldness as you instead of you "going bald". What it comes down to is this is YOU and you can't change it.

I'm not puttling the guys down with a regimen to stop or reverse hairloss because if you get a few more years of looking the way you wish to look, all the better. Utlimately, what's gonna happen is gonna happen no matter how many pills you pop or chemicals you rub on your head.

Those who are balding and fear doing so should shave their head. I bet you'll notice life doesn't change so much once you are around people who don't know you. Sure you may not turn as many heads with the ladies saying, "he's cute" but isn't that a part of life as you age? And besides, if you're living your life based on your outward appearance, you for sure are in for a loss full head of hair of not.

I cried too when I relized I was losing my hair and denied it to myself the best I could. To be honest, I still have a bit of denial in me because it's easy to do and it's comforting. Denial lead me to a gradual let down instead of someone pulling out the floor from under me. Although perhaps that would have been better because I would have eventually got over it and moved on with my life.

THe best advice I can give and I know it's easier said than done is "don't let it get you down". You WILL get over eventually and laugh about the hard time you gave yourself. Put your energy into something constructive istead of bring you down. Exercise, advance your career, succeed in what ever you interest may be. Next time you start thinking of your hair, devote you attention to what you decided to improve.

 

[Hoppi]

Man, I'm cool with you being happy with being bald.

Please be cool with me NOT being happy about going bald.