Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 7 month update PICS!)

[Tyler_Durden]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

you know for the most part most people on this fourm don't know what there talking about.. i'll point two peope out who do this..


IWANTPERFECTION..... told me to get on rogaine.... said I NEEDED IT...then states that infact all i need is propecia and keep my hair long...

OBSIDEAN( spelt that wrong) ...told me to keep going with the meds and don't stop and also told me that i don't need rogain... THEN this fool quits his propecia and has been ignoring me because i was wondering why he quit...


So it's like either way im f***ed..... some say propecia made my hair worse..others say stay on... i don't know what to do becasue its been 2 months now since i quit and im shedding like mad still...


I can either do nothing and let it shed away or take the meds and let it shed away.... what a great way to go about treatment right?

f***ed up really..

so I have made the conclusion that since i was thinning before the meds i should stay on propecia... ive been off it for 2 months and the shedding is still bad... so what do I HAVE TO LOSE...right?

and with rogaine.... I want to try to hold that off till its a must ( which is close)


prolly what will happen is I will continue with the propecia..my hair will get worse while on it.... and then i'll jump on rogaine... that will make it better... my hair will be ok for 6 months then shed away like many others after success..


so the question is either way im f***ed... so what do I do...

Man I understand how you feel, there are a lot of others going through the same thought process as you.

Don't forget though that 99.9% of people on here aren't doctors and the information they give you is simply their opinion, it is up to you to decide what you do with that information... So you can't really blame them for offering their opinion, most are generally just trying to help you the best they can. Unfortunately no-one on here has the answers to all the questions especially when the circumstances are pretty difficult like we are seeing in this thread.
In the end though it all falls on your own shoulders, you are the person who ultimately makes the decision of what to do, so while it is good to get opinions from people on the net you are still the one who lives with decision.

 

[JDW]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

Hi mate, readding through this topic I can empathise and feel your pain to an extent. If you can dig out my old topic from the shedding forum or my topic on this forum you'll see that I too was asking these sort of questions and to be honest I still am some 3 years down the line!!!
lol listen as tyler durden says none of us know the answers to these questions, ultimately you have to make decisions based on what you know and what you think you know but that's life, better to make one bold decision and stick by it, at least then you'll have the courage of your convictions. Take some time to read up as much of the forum/other sites as you can, look at the data, try and look at someone's topic with a similar sort of loss to your own and then make your own mind up in a calm fashion because at the moment you're panicking and that's not helping the situation.
Be sure of what your justification is for choosing your method of fighting this and then stick by it, at least then you have a clear rationale of your actions.

what I have found from my own experience and experience of these forums is that often the mind can play tricks on you, I know now for a fact that I never counted hairs before starting any of the drugs and therefore when I began doing so after a few months of finasteride I had nothing to compare it to but subconciously adamantly convinced myself that it was the finasteride making it go downhill when in reality things had probably not changed!

hope this makes sense mate.

cheers

 

[BDSander]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

Not sure if this will help your decision, but there is a thread on another site that discusses a guy who had success after quitting propecia.

http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/mess ... TMP=Linear

 

[Curious108]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

I've just read over some of this thread and noticed something on page 16.

I see people talking about getting on minoxidil without using finasteride, as finasteride made things worse.

In honesty this has been a concern of mine also, I've been afraid finasteride might cause sides or cause me to shed to a point which actually makes me look bald (I dont right now).

Is there any reason why I shouldn't get on minoxidil alone? Has it been known to cause shedding during it's usage?

I mean, why don't more people try minoxidil before finasteride, it always seems to be something that they add AFTER they've already started finasteride, but it seems much safer?

 

[Tyler_Durden]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

I've just read over some of this thread and noticed something on page 16.

I see people talking about getting on minoxidil without using finasteride, as finasteride made things worse.

In honesty this has been a concern of mine also, I've been afraid finasteride might cause sides or cause me to shed to a point which actually makes me look bald (I dont right now).

Is there any reason why I shouldn't get on minoxidil alone? Has it been known to cause shedding during it's usage?

I mean, why don't more people try minoxidil before finasteride, it always seems to be something that they add AFTER they've already started finasteride, but it seems much safer?

Nah it is more of a convenience thing I think, coupled with the fact Propecia is meant to maintain. In my case, and IrishP's as well evidently, I virtually had a full head of hair but I could see the minor signs of thinning plus I have male pattern baldness in my family so I got on propecia is maintain what I had and slow down the process. Using minoxidil first would have been useless really, I didn't really have anything to regrow and even if I did applying it x2 a day with medium length hair would have been really inconvenient.

finasteride is aimed at the source of baldness and meant to stop/slow this process, some people then get regrowth down the track, so it should be your first place of call, if after that you are still hoping for better results, then you throw in minoxidil (which is solely aimed to regrow not actually stop the balding process).

 

[Tyler_Durden]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

Not sure if this will help your decision, but there is a thread on another site that discusses a guy who had success after quitting propecia.

http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/mess ... TMP=Linear

This is just some perspective on the other side of this discussion, and surprisingly I just posted a updated story from the guy in that thread.
Williamnewyork is in that thread and seemed to think propecia was causing his hair to worsen and he posted this:

Well after about a month off, my hair went downhill really fast. I jumped back on the finasteride after seeing where I was headed. (no pun intended)

Ive been back on it since sept, and in the past month have seen it finally turn around. While off it, my scalp was really really sore, I could literally feel the hair being attacked. was awful. I am sure I lost alot of ground, but at this point its not that cosmetically noticable, only to myself when its wet or I mess with it.

So, I have a new feeling about finasteride, all my ideas of it making it worse, were I believe - in my case, my own denial of what was happening to me.

Looking at photos from years ago, I can see the start of it, before I ever knew what propecia was. So, such are our genes.

I am sticking with the finasteride, and have added t/gel extra strength - this shampoo has worked WONDERS for me, scalp pain totally gone and shedding is wayy down to almost not even at all. I had also been using nizoral before it, but find I like how the t/gel leaves my hair, without any product in it or anything.

I have zero sides, i work out quite a bit and eat a macrobiotic / vegan diet also, but no sexual sides, or anything else like that. I wake up, pop my pill, and thats it. easy, and I can honestly say, its a relief to see it actually helping.

Hopefully in my case it will slow down the loss enough for a few years, then if there is nothing on the market, i'll take my 40k to armani and have a party.

happy new years guys

-william

Then just today I posted his updated outlook on it, here it is:

Hey Guys,

Have been coming here for a few years now - I am 27 and first started thinning at around 24 - 25, it was a rough few years getting my head around the idea of going bald - took up so much time and obviously we all know about that too well.

I have been on propecia for almost 2 1/2 years now, only took a short break in the middle, but have really stuck with it. In almost all that time, I can honestly say all I saw was increased shedding, and things seemed to only be getting darker and darker.

Around 4 months ago I shaved my head, just a quick rash move to just stop thinking about it. Put it as short as I could with a clipper. My loss wasn't aggressive to the point that people could really tell, but as we also know, we know our heads better than anyone. The shaved head made me feel better straight away, and I pretty much just put it out of my mind.

Well, I feel like I never read enough good stories or any sort of success on here (some sometimes, but overall, you know..) so I felt compelled to share something with you guys.

I don't know if either my hairloss has leveled out, or its the propecia, or the fact that I have been on a pretty strict macro diet and also getting a ton more exercise - but suddenly as my hair is growing back in, things are very very different.

1. my scalp no longer hurts. (that pain in the hairline and crown, burning sensation)

2. I run my hands through my hair and not a single hair comes out. I even give it a good pull and nothing! - even in the shower - my hands used to be covered in hair, 10-20 at a time. and now, i run my hands through wet hair and cant get a single strand.

3. the quality is back to what it was a few years back before this sh*t started. Its getting thicker faster the longer it gets. Its also not as frizzy as it was.

4. no miniaturized hairs everywhere - I used to see kinked, bent, shrunk, distorted hair everywhere. was awful, now not a single one out of place or kinked?

Overall, I am kind of stunned and didnt expect this to happen - my best guess is the propecia is working suddenly? could it really have taken over two years to really see it shine?

my hair is so much thicker than before I shaved it - and I shaved it around the same length it is now. And its just thicker, and not shedding a bit at all. I almost was afraid to write this because maybe its too good to be true.

I am sure you guys will ask for photos, but I really don't have many, as it grows I will try to find some shots with longer hair to compare to now. But the feeling of not caring about this anymore is worth everything to me.

And to top it off, have a new girl in my life - who keeps commenting on how thick my hair is. which is nuts to me. so cheers to good luck, or propecia, or both.

Hang in there dudes. People have no idea how hairloss effects us until they see it themselves, I felt shattered most days. Anyway, just felt like writing something positive. Stick with the meds, I am a believer now!

best,
WNY

But one case clearly doesn't fit all here so it is very hard to tell. Anyways if nothing else at least this is stirring up some interesting discussion, even if we aren't getting any closer to an answer (all whilst sending Irish Pride insane )

 

[Tyler_Durden]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

But William the Bloody still seems to be going well without the finasteride:
http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=10&threadid=83328&highlight_key=y

Maybe if someone has an account over there they should get him to come post some insight on the discussion and see what he thinks.

 

[Curious108]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

I've just read over some of this thread and noticed something on page 16.

I see people talking about getting on minoxidil without using finasteride, as finasteride made things worse.

In honesty this has been a concern of mine also, I've been afraid finasteride might cause sides or cause me to shed to a point which actually makes me look bald (I dont right now).

Is there any reason why I shouldn't get on minoxidil alone? Has it been known to cause shedding during it's usage?

I mean, why don't more people try minoxidil before finasteride, it always seems to be something that they add AFTER they've already started finasteride, but it seems much safer?

Nah it is more of a convenience thing I think, coupled with the fact Propecia is meant to maintain. In my case, and IrishP's as well evidently, I virtually had a full head of hair but I could see the minor signs of thinning plus I have male pattern baldness in my family so I got on propecia is maintain what I had and slow down the process. Using minoxidil first would have been useless really, I didn't really have anything to regrow and even if I did applying it x2 a day with medium length hair would have been really inconvenient.

finasteride is aimed at the source of baldness and meant to stop/slow this process, some people then get regrowth down the track, so it should be your first place of call, if after that you are still hoping for better results, then you throw in minoxidil (which is solely aimed to regrow not actually stop the balding process).

Damn, I really dunno what to do then, this has left me in a real hard position.

Right now my hair has thinned, but it's not noticible to anyone. In pictures with a big flash it's plain as day, but normally the most that can be seen is an odd parting of the hair near the crown, sort of on the side of my head. But that just looks like a cow lick or something alot of the time.

I'll be seeing a dermatologist in the next few months, apparently it takes a month or two to set the appointment up, but I'm sort of afraid how much worse my hair will have become by then. I also don't want to make it worse with finasteride, if the choice is either lose my hair slowly without finasteride, opposed to lose it at a faster pace with finasteride, the choice is obvious.

 

[amsch]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

Mods... wantt o chip your thoughts in ?


I am so lost on what to do ...however on day 4 of restarting finasteride

Listen to what I'm saying, damnit.

 

[Kaze]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

Hmm...

So after reading that post about william it seems that shaving his head magically ended the Telogen Effluvium or whatever he was having. It seems you can end the Telogen Effluvium by either quiting the propecia or by sticking with the propecia for more than two years. Maybe it takes two years for the body to adapt to the new testoserone levels and have the body get used to the shock and start growing again.

The dermatologists Ive seen keep saying the hair will eventually grow back. But i donno Ive been on propecia for 8 months exactly to this date and my hair is still inflamed, itchy, and thin.

Honestly two years is long time to wait.

 

[subb]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

hi,

i am 20 years old currently i'm on finasteride for about 3 months now.
i;ve been reading this tread, because i was wondering what was going on with me.

i buzzed my hair so i cant really tell if there is shedding, but it seems i have less hair. but i don't care want to stick with it and hope for the best.
but after reading this i am going to grow it out again to compare to my baseline, cause i have a felling i'm heading in the same direction as irishpride.

now the real problem comes, while i was reading i saw somewhere something about shedding eyebrows.
in my case i'm shedding eyebrows and eyelashes (i have very long eyelashes and roughly a year ago i could grab one and put it between my fingers to play with it. back then i could feel the resistance but now the hair just bend) . and not even that also my bodyhair is less. i have a feeling there is something going wrong here.


please can somebody tell me what is going on and if i need to stop tacking propecia,

 

[BDSander]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

Its a tough decision on whether to stick with it or bail. Everyone always says to wait a year, but I have been on propecia for 2+ years and in this time my hair has gone to hell. I just recently started taking it every other day in hopes of slowly weening myself off of it. Good luck and keep us posted on the results.

 

[Tyler_Durden]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

hi,

i am 20 years old currently i'm on finasteride for about 3 months now.
i;ve been reading this tread, because i was wondering what was going on with me.

i buzzed my hair so i cant really tell if there is shedding, but it seems i have less hair. but i don't care want to stick with it and hope for the best.
but after reading this i am going to grow it out again to compare to my baseline, cause i have a felling i'm heading in the same direction as irishpride.

now the real problem comes, while i was reading i saw somewhere something about shedding eyebrows.
in my case i'm shedding eyebrows and eyelashes (i have very long eyelashes and roughly a year ago i could grab one and put it between my fingers to play with it. back then i could feel the resistance but now the hair just bend) . and not even that also my bodyhair is less. i have a feeling there is something going wrong here.


please can somebody tell me what is going on and if i need to stop tacking propecia,

Why don't you post some pics of your baseline and where you are now, it is a bit hard for us to judge otherwise. It could just be in your head if you don't get an external opinion of the situation.

I dunno whether I would recommend jumping ship only 3 months in, I still believe there is an early shed in propecia that you probably have to ride out before it gets better. But I don't want to be responsible for you staying on it if it continues to go down hill, that is your decision to make because clearly (as this thread shows) there is no way of telling exactly what results you will get unfortunately.

BDSanders post makes me stress though. Do you have pics of when you started and now BD?

 

[subb]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

hi i buzzed my hair so i cant tell if there is a difference. have to wait untill it's the same lenght as before.

but my concern is;t about that but the fact that i am shedding eyebrows and eyelashes.

can somebody tell me what that means?

 

[Petchsky]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

I'm just had a flick through your thread IP and it's a tough one. Firstly you need to stick to a regimen or monitor your situation monthly without any meds, seems you have decided to take finasteride again, so stick with it.

One of your pictures clearly shows red blotches on your scalp, quite bad looking inflammation, it's this that I think is/was responsible for your hairloss, how is this situation now?

I see you take nizoral, use a conditioner afterwards to help with the drying effect. You don't need rogaine just yet imo, save it for later...if you scalp is still inflamed this could make it worse.

What's your diet like? many refined sugars, bread, pasta, rice, processed crap and junk food? etc?

And how long was you on finasteride? 3 months or 5? it's important to get it right as how can you judge correctly when you don't even know how long you've been on a drug for...

That scalp inflammation needs to be seen too, no one will grow sh*t on a inflamed scalp, your hair seems to have improved so i'm heralding a guess that the scalp is in better condition now....maybe the nizoral helped...

It's possible that finasteride was doing it's job, but coincided with bad inflammation of the scalp, very common complaint, which causes bad shedding, I know because the same thing happened to me.

 

[Kaze]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

irish,

looks like ur getting the same reaction again even at .5. hair going back into Telogen Effluvium. the nizoral doesnt seem to help it. ive tried topical steroids too. i guess the Telogen Effluvium and irritation is caused by the propecia and will eventually come back.

 

[Petchsky]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

so If what your saying is true about Inflammation then why does Nizoral say WARNING ( DO NOT USE ON INFLAMMED SCALP) ?

Don't know. an inflamed scalp is psoriasis, dandruff etc and that's what Nizoral is for. They probably say that because they are a company who don't want to get sued, so they put everything they can on the leaflet. Propecia doe the same with not having pregnant women handle propecia tablets, although there is no evidence it would do anything to pregnant women. You can study the leaflets all you like, but it's mostly companies covering their backs.

And your also saying that my scalp was inflammed and that's why propecia had shedding that would get worse ?

So what is the cause of the inflamation and why did it only start to occur after taking propecia ?

The cause of the inflammation is normally Telogen Effluvium, psoriasis, dermatitis or just part of the balding process. I've not heard of propecia making someone's scalp inflamed, but I guess in your situation it's possible, especially if you're sure the inflammation flared up after taking propecia. Did it go away when you quit propecia?

So what would you suggest I do or take from here on out ?

If it's propecia related get off it and look for an alternative regimen or other products to help with your scalp, ie emu oil.

 

[king-]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

i just counted 215 hairs that i just shedding from rubbing my hair..


wtf is going on with me ?

STRESSSSSS BUDDY


your going seriously crazy you stick to a regime then you slip , go back to that regime and mess up , get a blood test and stick to your regime for close to a year thats not tough is it

 

[JDW]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

i just counted 215 hairs that i just shedding from rubbing my hair..


wtf is going on with me ?

Mate as I said I'm still getting that after nearly 3 years on medication, I think some of us are just not helped by the meds.

to be honest it's fuckign frustrating more than anything...I see every hair that comes out in my hand accompanied with a mocking laugh as if they're pleased with themselves!

 

[amsch]

Re: Irishpride86's Story - (22 / Propecia 4 mounth update PICS!)

i just counted 215 hairs that i just shedding from rubbing my hair..


wtf is going on with me ?

Why did you get back on propecia... :whistle: