Tadpole311
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Hey HairLossTalk.com forum members,
A little about me. Hair loss was nothing more than an afterthought for me until summer of 2014. Hair was strong all through high school and into the first two years of college, when I made the foolish mistake of being more abusive to my hair than I should have been. Wore it long and used to have it straightened, dyed, all while not washing it properly. When the extensive chemical use inevitably dried it out, I combatted it by overdosing on oil applications which probably did not provide an ideal environment for my scalp or sebum production. Not that that is necessarily responsible for my current condition but I wanted to provide all possibly relevant background details. Finally cut the long hair sophomore year, got a nice Ivy league cut and hair line still looked good. It wasn’t until near the end of senior year of college that I began to be a little self-conscious. Felt like my hair line was receding somewhat, albeit slightly. No one really seemed to notice though, except a buddy who would joke that steroid use was affecting my hair (which though I’ve never done illegal steroids, I am a lifelong athlete and physique competitor so I do train hard and use basic supplementation). In 2013, I graduated college and went through perhaps the most stressful year and a half of my life to date. A lot of different issues hit at once and I remember feeling stressed to the point of wrestling with some anxiety and breathing issues. Trained hard for my billet in the military and got married in 2014, and that’s when I first noticed something amiss (literally, as it were). I first saw it on overhead camera view of my head in a store, it seemed I had a thin spot around my crown. Had my wife check it out, she didn’t seem to notice anything up close but from a distance it was fairly obvious. Going through pictures, the spot isn’t visible from January through May of 2014 and then suddenly becomes glaringly obvious in July. Not sure if this is a case of telogen effluvium due to all the stressful preceding events or just your basic male pattern baldness.
It’s pretty ridiculous how much of a psychological toll it takes on you. With that revelation, I went to boot camp, follow up training and A school with one thought dominating my head more than anything else: I could potentially be losing my hair. I hate it, wasting so much time obsessed with researching the causes and, more importantly, ways to reverse it, time that could be spent so much better doing things that actually matter in this world. The irony is that my vanity was lower when I had perfectly good head of hair; now thought of strands of dead skin cells on my skull consumes my energy. I’ve always been a proactive person and that’s how I stumbled across this site, which, to me, seems one of the most science-backed resources on the web for this issue.
My current condition consists of a very thin patch at my crown and recession at my temples. I wasn’t sure for awhile if it was recession or just my matured hairline but I’m operating on the assumption that it’s recession in order to be safe. I feel it is in the early enough stages that I can maintain and possibly reverse most of it with the right attack. Initially I was opting to go straight for a minor hair transplant but after reading your guide, decided to try two years of medication first and then go from there. I would just rather act early than put off action any longer.
I want to avoid propecia and minoxidil for now but am open to suggestions from other more experienced users if they think otherwise. Right now I’m leaning towards nizoral shampoo, revivogen, spironolactone and tricomin for a more natural alternative to the finasteride/min mix. Could always add those later if absolutely need be. Thoughts are welcome. Below are some pics where you can see current status.
A little about me. Hair loss was nothing more than an afterthought for me until summer of 2014. Hair was strong all through high school and into the first two years of college, when I made the foolish mistake of being more abusive to my hair than I should have been. Wore it long and used to have it straightened, dyed, all while not washing it properly. When the extensive chemical use inevitably dried it out, I combatted it by overdosing on oil applications which probably did not provide an ideal environment for my scalp or sebum production. Not that that is necessarily responsible for my current condition but I wanted to provide all possibly relevant background details. Finally cut the long hair sophomore year, got a nice Ivy league cut and hair line still looked good. It wasn’t until near the end of senior year of college that I began to be a little self-conscious. Felt like my hair line was receding somewhat, albeit slightly. No one really seemed to notice though, except a buddy who would joke that steroid use was affecting my hair (which though I’ve never done illegal steroids, I am a lifelong athlete and physique competitor so I do train hard and use basic supplementation). In 2013, I graduated college and went through perhaps the most stressful year and a half of my life to date. A lot of different issues hit at once and I remember feeling stressed to the point of wrestling with some anxiety and breathing issues. Trained hard for my billet in the military and got married in 2014, and that’s when I first noticed something amiss (literally, as it were). I first saw it on overhead camera view of my head in a store, it seemed I had a thin spot around my crown. Had my wife check it out, she didn’t seem to notice anything up close but from a distance it was fairly obvious. Going through pictures, the spot isn’t visible from January through May of 2014 and then suddenly becomes glaringly obvious in July. Not sure if this is a case of telogen effluvium due to all the stressful preceding events or just your basic male pattern baldness.
It’s pretty ridiculous how much of a psychological toll it takes on you. With that revelation, I went to boot camp, follow up training and A school with one thought dominating my head more than anything else: I could potentially be losing my hair. I hate it, wasting so much time obsessed with researching the causes and, more importantly, ways to reverse it, time that could be spent so much better doing things that actually matter in this world. The irony is that my vanity was lower when I had perfectly good head of hair; now thought of strands of dead skin cells on my skull consumes my energy. I’ve always been a proactive person and that’s how I stumbled across this site, which, to me, seems one of the most science-backed resources on the web for this issue.
My current condition consists of a very thin patch at my crown and recession at my temples. I wasn’t sure for awhile if it was recession or just my matured hairline but I’m operating on the assumption that it’s recession in order to be safe. I feel it is in the early enough stages that I can maintain and possibly reverse most of it with the right attack. Initially I was opting to go straight for a minor hair transplant but after reading your guide, decided to try two years of medication first and then go from there. I would just rather act early than put off action any longer.
I want to avoid propecia and minoxidil for now but am open to suggestions from other more experienced users if they think otherwise. Right now I’m leaning towards nizoral shampoo, revivogen, spironolactone and tricomin for a more natural alternative to the finasteride/min mix. Could always add those later if absolutely need be. Thoughts are welcome. Below are some pics where you can see current status.
