I'm Sure This Thread Has Been Done Before, But...

[davesmith420]

....How the hell do people let their hair loss go for a while before they actually start to do something (like a diffusing Norwood 3+)? The second I noticed an excessive amount of hair fall and some recession at my temples I Google'd "Hair loss treatments" and found out about Finasteride right away. About 2 weeks later I was on the drug and have been pretty successful. Sure my BDD gets the best of me and I think my hair is getting "worse" but realistically it looks better than baseline.

I've been finding myself rarely lurking these kinds of forums, but I'm always amused when I see people with diffusing Norwood 3s make posts like "Am I balding bruh?" I'm guessing it's probably a combination of denial and being afraid of the BIG BAD FINASTERIDE SIDES (e.g., I looked at a Propecia bottle now my balls hurt)?

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

I was f*****g busy when hair loss first hit me so I focused on other things for years.

 

[Exodus2011]

well you have BDD and don't even have hair loss juding from the pics you posted . . . but usually people don't get on finasteride cuz of the possible sides. i was scared off from it for like a year before i got on. the possibility of losing ability to masturbate would suck f*****g ***. masturbation is one of the highlights of my life tbh.

 

[Guzam]

....How the hell do people let their hair loss go for a while before they actually start to do something (like a diffusing Norwood 3+)? The second I noticed an excessive amount of hair fall and some recession at my temples I Google'd "Hair loss treatments" and found out about Finasteride right away. About 2 weeks later I was on the drug and have been pretty successful. Sure my BDD gets the best of me and I think my hair is getting "worse" but realistically it looks better than baseline.

I've been finding myself rarely lurking these kinds of forums, but I'm always amused when I see people with diffusing Norwood 3s make posts like "Am I balding bruh?" I'm guessing it's probably a combination of denial and being afraid of the BIG BAD FINASTERIDE SIDES (e.g., I looked at a Propecia bottle now my balls hurt)?

Some people become Norwood spotters only when the thinning kicks in and the temples have already receded, like I did.
Others become Norwood spotters while fullhead, like you, so they act immediately.
The fact that I was born NW1 didn't help.

Before noticing I never thought about hair loss, because I was simply too young and practically no one is a Norwood spotter at late teenage.
To me, 'bald' was NW6.
I am still baffled at how oblivious I was.
Now I know that 'bald' is already an NW2 with a bit of thinning.

Also, I was ignorant. I didn't know anything about the process of hair loss: the pattern balding.
This sh*t should be taught at high school during biology class when talking about genetics and genetic diseases.
If I knew, I would have acted earlier.

I blame my own ignorance and lack of awareness, but I also blame society that mocks hair loss behind our back and then cries out that hair loss is 'normal' and 'Statham' memes.
So no one ever taught me about hair loss.

 

[Dealing With It]

I don't know about others but I always had a fringe so I never really looked under the hood to see if I had a receding hairline. My sister actually pointed it out when I was 16. Didn't really care about my hair till till then.

 

[karankaran]

Yeah, 7 years ago, my crown started balding. I went to a dermatologist - she asked me to get soy milk - yup you heard it right - freaking soy milk!

I was not concerned at the age of 23. I always had thick hair before that. Like a naive fool who thought that he was invincible, I let my crown rot. My hair loss was slow - so it did not affect me much. But it was not until I was 26 did it hit me that I have lost a lot of ground on the crown. I came to America for college. I became a member on hair loss talk. That was 4 years back. One may think that it is the time I got on finasteride. Nope! Like a buffoon, I created an elaborate 'natural' regimen consisting of everything from black tea extract to pumpkin seed oil. My crown could still have been saved. After a year and no results, I went to a physician to get a referral for a dermatologist. She wrote me extremely expensive lab tests because she believed it was thyroid - yes, freaking thyroid! All I wanted was a prescription for finasteride. and the fact that I had to jump through hoops to get one pissed me off and I gave up.

Finally, when I got a job in April 2016, I started finasteride. But judging by the condition of my bald crown, it was 6 years too late. From being lured by the false hope of alternative medicine to being served by incompetent doctors, I paid the ultimate price.

At the end of the day, only I am to be blamed for my condition. For what it is worth now, I am on finasteride and minoxidil and I am hoping for a miracle. But there are no miracles. There is only reality.

 

[Dench57]

I have no f*****g idea why people start treatment so late. As soon as I realised I was receding (was probably NW1.5-2) I googled "treating hairloss" and was awared on androgenetic alopecia, DHT, finasteride and minoxidil within 15 minutes.

 

[JeanLucBB]

Some people become Norwood spotters only when the thinning kicks in and the temples have already receded, like I did.
Others become Norwood spotters while fullhead, like you, so they act immediately.
The fact that I was born NW1 didn't help.

Before noticing I never thought about hair loss, because I was simply too young and practically no one is a Norwood spotter at late teenage.
To me, 'bald' was NW6.
I am still baffled at how oblivious I was.
Now I know that 'bald' is already an NW2 with a bit of thinning.

Also, I was ignorant. I didn't know anything about the process of hair loss: the pattern balding.
This sh*t should be taught at high school during biology class when talking about genetics and genetic diseases.
If I knew, I would have acted earlier.

I blame my own ignorance and lack of awareness, but I also blame society that mocks hair loss behind our back and then cries out that hair loss is 'normal' and 'Statham' memes.
So no one ever taught me about hair loss.

And yet in my country they teach grade school kids about gender fluidity

 

[swingline747]

major factor for most = $$$$$$$$$$$

It wasnt until recently even rogaine minoxidil started competing with generic versions. You can buy a generic minoxidil 6 month supply now for like 35$ US.
I use the foam. I always used the minoxidil but I was generally better faring financially than most in my age group because I was a work horse and never really "paid" for any amenities. I actually even used Propecia for a while in my late teens to early 20s (off and on) but it became a game of rent and food or Propecia since then it was over 100$ a month for it. Most people in the age range that thinning starts dont have the expendable income. Most are paying bills, or in school or both (IE me, working, living on my own and putting myself through college).

Side effects are another. I for one CAN NOT use finasteride anymore. Ive tried it and had horrendous physical sides. I have a very "determined to fight me" body. When I was younger as stated I used propecia with no real noticeable sides, yet my hormones were RAGING QUITE a bit more. I think what happened to me was mixing finasteride with another generic medication. As soon as that started my sides hit me. I dropped the other medication and still got the sides so for me, my days with finasteride were over.

To me its absurd that we can not use our insurance policies for this. We now let insurance pay for fat people, people with addictions and trans stuff such as hormones and even sex changes. I find this abysmal when a HUGE majority of men will get depression over hair loss, can not use insurance to treat the cause, yet we can get prescribed ANY anti depressants we want on a whim on insurances dime.

We REALLY need to form some kind of initiative for this in the States. I have proposed it in multiple forums yet NO ONE jumps on board. Everyone likes to sulk in private yet wont take that anger and gusto and turn it into something positive.

 

[JohnsonDDG]

I noticed my hair loss at 22 but didn't do anything because it wasn't happening quickly and I knew I couldn't afford propecia back then.

 

[Dante92]

OP is surely paranoid as f*** considering he doesn't suffer from hair loss at all.

 

[Pacey123]

This thread is so spot on, especially the answers given. If it weren't for my girlfriend to point out that "my hair was thicker a time ago" i wouldn't even have thought about it. I always bad the most dense hair, the barbers used to thin it every f*****g time i went there. Suddenly it was only the sides and the back that needed thinning and then i didn't need it at all, but I would never have expected balding to be the culprit.

If it weren't for my fullhead father and most of my relatives, I'd have been more cautious i guess. But i never ever thougt i could be losing hair. f*****g diffuse thinning with very very slow recession is a f*****g monster that creeps up on you until you lost half of your density. Not even the change in hair texture from wavy to straight made me suspect it.

At least i didn't start way too late and respond great to the treatment.

 

[kj6723]

Crazy to think that if we were born just a few generations sooner there would be no such thing as finasteride available

Literally among the first humans in history with a means to stop the balding process

 

[sunchyme1]

Literally among the first humans in history with a means to stop the balding process

and hopefully the last to do it by cutting off your dick

 

[kj6723]

and hopefully the last to do it by cutting off your dick

Here I'll blow this watery load in your face and you'll see my dick is working fine

Actually about to go masterbate in a minute here

Last week this young dude at my clinical was talking about how he wishes he had lived in the 80's. Literally my first thought was that I would absolutely not want to live anytime before 1997

 

[sunchyme1]

being afraid of the BIG BAD FINASTERIDE SIDES

didnt u get sides and stop using finasteride?

 

[davesmith420]

didnt u get sides and stop using finasteride?

I was paranoid that I was getting gyno about 4ish months in but it ended up being nothing. I've been on 1.25 mg of finasteride for a year and a half now.

 

[davesmith420]

OP is surely paranoid as f*** considering he doesn't suffer from hair loss at all.

My excessive hair fall, change in overall hair texture, and opinion from my doctor says otherwise m8.

 

[rclark]

....How the hell do people let their hair loss go for a while before they actually start to do something (like a diffusing Norwood 3+)? The second I noticed an excessive amount of hair fall and some recession at my temples I Google'd "Hair loss treatments" and found out about Finasteride right away. About 2 weeks later I was on the drug and have been pretty successful. Sure my BDD gets the best of me and I think my hair is getting "worse" but realistically it looks better than baseline.

I've been finding myself rarely lurking these kinds of forums, but I'm always amused when I see people with diffusing Norwood 3s make posts like "Am I balding bruh?" I'm guessing it's probably a combination of denial and being afraid of the BIG BAD FINASTERIDE SIDES (e.g., I looked at a Propecia bottle now my balls hurt)?

That's so f*****g true.

Norwood one people, they CAN be in denial. Understood.

Norwood two.. maybe..

Norwood three, if they're in denial.. they have TOO MANY f*****g CHROMOSONES!!

 

[Grasshüpfer]

I have diffuse thinning and only found out because of a random dressing cabin mirror with too strong light.

You don't see yourself in sunlight. So until I started to obsessively take photos of my hair outside I had no idea.

Receeding usually is so slow, that you can deny it pretty well also.