Dutasteride is something that you could perhaps consider, in my honest opinion. You are balding at a young age, and you most likely have very DHT-sensitive follicles. It is therefore worth considering the most potent weapon against DHT that we have available. In the past I have spoken negatively of Dutasteride, but I've since been researching its safety and in my opinion, the risks associated with dutasteride, if taken at the standard dose of 0.5mg daily or lower, are relatively small. I myself have just switched from finasteride and started on dutasteride (Dr. Reddy's Dutas, bought from Alldaychemist), and I anticipate that I will get good results. Your chances of regaining hair in the receded areas will definitely be significantly better with dutasteride than finasteride, as well as your chances of maintaining your hair into the long-term future.
is my hairline receding/going bald? 21 years old, kinda freaking out
- Thread starter ssjpotato
- Start date
Update: It's been 18 days and I just got my prescription for finasteride and taken my first dose! Propecia 1mg. Blood tests were a waste of time. Nothing wrong there. He referred me to a dermatologist and told me to get an opinion from them before starting finasteride. However, when i called to make an appointment they said they wouldn't be available til October. So, I'm taking the risk despite possible side effects now because I'm not willing to wait two more months for a dermatologist to tell me what the gp said. Which is basically stuff I already knew from scouring the internet. Thanks for your help guys. I'll report back in 3-6 months with comparison photos.
21hairloss
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I have pretty much the same hair as you do, and im 21 too.
How many doses can start to cause side effects? i've taken 3, one daily, i don't wake up with morning wood and i feel like my libido has taken a drop i don't think I've been horny at all the last three days, erections seem to be fine i think maybe a little harder to get up and keep up, jizz seems a little weird and quality of orgasm isn't the same as before. Kind of want to stop taking it.
fitnessisgood4u
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All the hair loss medication i have tried has impacted on my libido too....kinda rubbish but one day it might be worth it to have a full head of hair.
fitnessisgood4u
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You going to try something else?
I might try minoxidil. I'm still going to see the dermatologist on the 2nd of october, i just started taking finasteride now because i didn't want to go through a month of hairloss before i could see him. So i guess i'm going to see what he says. I've heard people say that if you continue using finasteride that after a few weeks the sides go away but I'm too scared to continue lol.
Cincinnati Kid
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I had initial sides in my early weeks/months on finasteride. It was pretty intermittent, but could get downright bad at times. I stayed the course on the meds rather than stopping out of fear. I am now about 5 months in, and I honestly can't even tell the difference anymore of my life before and after finasteride. It doesn't affect me at all anymore. My sex drive is back to normal, and man did I miss it there for a while lol. Everything in my downstairs area is in tip-top shape. Initially, the meds sapped my energy and I stopped going to the gym for a good 2 months. Now, I'm finally back to work throwing the iron around. I can honestly say, no BS, the drug's side effects go away after a while, and it'll be the best decision you ever made to stay on them.
I tend to only respond to things I feel particularly passionate about on here and after seeing your pictures I'd like to offer you advice/my personal opinion.
Stay on finasteride man. I had a remarkably similar hairline to the ones in your photo when I was 21. That was also the age someone (a coworker) first mentioned I was thinning. I wrote it off, claimed I just had a mature hairline. I did nothing about it until seeing my sister in vacation two years later, when I was 23. I hadn't seen her for six or so months and she asked "are you losing your hair". I was mortified/devastated because I knew that slowly but surely my widows peak was deteriorating. Around October I tried minoxidil but i found it messy and used it sparingly before finally dropping it after a month. Did nothing for another year and a half until this past winter when I suddenly started losing hair left and right. It got so scary bad I was afraid to even touch my hair for fear of how many hairs I might find. So I thought hey I'll just give up and shave it all off, bad idea. I absolutely abhorred the way I looked with a #1 shave. But it was this act that made me ultimately decide to jump on minoxidil again (in May) and then a month later finasteride.
My hair is slowly improving, but if you'd ask me or 80% of the other blokes on here, I gaurentee they'd all tell you that they wish they had started attacking the problem sooner. If I had started finasteride two years ago at age 23 for that month I tried minoxidil, I'd probably still have a full head of hair. Sides don't last long. Or at least they didn't for me, try to ride it out.
Stay on finasteride man. I had a remarkably similar hairline to the ones in your photo when I was 21. That was also the age someone (a coworker) first mentioned I was thinning. I wrote it off, claimed I just had a mature hairline. I did nothing about it until seeing my sister in vacation two years later, when I was 23. I hadn't seen her for six or so months and she asked "are you losing your hair". I was mortified/devastated because I knew that slowly but surely my widows peak was deteriorating. Around October I tried minoxidil but i found it messy and used it sparingly before finally dropping it after a month. Did nothing for another year and a half until this past winter when I suddenly started losing hair left and right. It got so scary bad I was afraid to even touch my hair for fear of how many hairs I might find. So I thought hey I'll just give up and shave it all off, bad idea. I absolutely abhorred the way I looked with a #1 shave. But it was this act that made me ultimately decide to jump on minoxidil again (in May) and then a month later finasteride.
My hair is slowly improving, but if you'd ask me or 80% of the other blokes on here, I gaurentee they'd all tell you that they wish they had started attacking the problem sooner. If I had started finasteride two years ago at age 23 for that month I tried minoxidil, I'd probably still have a full head of hair. Sides don't last long. Or at least they didn't for me, try to ride it out.
Thank you for the reply. Do you think half or quarter of the 1mg propecia pill will be just as effective? I'm really scared of the side effects lol
I've been taking .5 for the past (almost) 5 months and applying min for 6. I'm planning on continuing with .5 a day for the first 9-12 months and gauge how to continue from there. There's been quite a bit if information on here about the effectiveness of .5 vs 1 mg, a user named Redstar seems pretty informed on the matter. Take my advice man, Applying minoxidil sucks. It's much easier to just take a pill or half a pill a day. Your hairloss isn't currently advanced enough to really need minoxidil. Plus, finasteride is pretty cheap. I received 200 pills for like $15 (plus $25 for shipping) from alldaychemist. If I keep up at .5 a day it should last me over a year. And $40 a year is well worth the possibility of regrowth in my opinion.
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yea it will but the sides will hardly be different, there is probably no difference in sides between the doses
Well, I saw the dermatologist. He said that it's unlikely i got sides and i'm probably just over thinking it... maybe he's right i don't know. He also gave me a prescription for proscar so i can save money. I'll keep taking finasteride and decide if these sides are just anxiety/stress/overthinking. I'll report back in three months. I really appreciate all the advice and help and the time you've all taken to reply to me. Thank you.
Take the pill once a day and don't over think it. I honestly believe half of the reported sides on here are psychosomatic. And another piece of advice: try to stay away from these forums. For real. When I first started the big three I'd spend hours here. It was obsessive. But there is so much negativity, hostility and trolling, that when I do visit the forums here I tend to spend my time in the success stories or in the general area where things seem to be more optimistic/less argumentative. Good luck man.
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Take the pill once a day and don't over think it. I honestly believe half of the reported sides on here are psychosomatic. And another piece of advice: try to stay away from these forums. For real. When I first started the big three I'd spend hours here. It was obsessive. But there is so much negativity, hostility and trolling, that when I do visit the forums here I tend to spend my time in the success stories or in the general area where things seem to be more optimistic/less argumentative. Good luck man.
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Take the pill once a day and don't over think it. I honestly believe half of the reported sides on here are psychosomatic. And another piece of advice: try to stay away from these forums. For real. When I first started the big three I'd spend hours here. It was obsessive. But there is so much negativity, hostility and trolling, that when I do visit the forums here I tend to spend my time in the success stories or in the general area where things seem to be more optimistic/less argumentative. Good luck man.
Sides are going away... if i had them at all but it feels like my libido is still a lil weird but everything else is back to normal. Hoping they don't come back. losing quite a bit of hair in the shower, not sure if this is the beginning of a shed or not. hairline looks like it's receded a bit more. Maybe It's just all in my head as well. can't tell but it looks like it's gone a little further back since the last time i photo'd it which was for the forum post. still has a fair bit of density though as far as i can tell.
https://33.media.tumblr.com/118eca3507e65cac1bab0d530b7b2ced/tumblr_nc9dvrol8P1sbrpuuo1_500.jpg
https://33.media.tumblr.com/bfa2f687772dfcebd8dafa4b45cddfb5/tumblr_nc9dvrol8P1sbrpuuo2_500.jpg
I think that fluctuations in finasteride and non finasteride users libidos are pretty common. The first week or two on finasteride I was crazy horny. Some days I don't think about it at all. All in all I try not to think too much about it or read to much into it. Some of the **** that gets blamed on finasteride/minoxidil is absolutely absurd. Like "I've been on finasteride for three days and now I have the flu naturally it must be the finasteride"
Two month update
Hair continues to lose density. Hairline appears to be getting worse. Hoping it's just shedding, not sure when to expect shedding to stop if it is.
Crown looks like it's losing more hair. Hard to tell though. Sometimes it looks fine, zero hair loss but then other times, especially when my hair is wet, it looks real bad.
Side effects are going away slowly i think. Erections are back to about 85% normal, had morning wood almost every day last week and then almost not all this week, libido seems to be coming back but there are good days and bad days, jizz still weird. Hopefully this is all resolved by month 3.
pic updates
Crown/dry
https://38.media.tumblr.com/4561b1e751daf7d77fafcff507376a4b/tumblr_nef72s7JWw1sbrpuuo1_500.jpg
https://38.media.tumblr.com/0e0abdaa3e35c5ee09587074e4c490b4/tumblr_nef72s7JWw1sbrpuuo2_500.jpg
Crown/wet
https://33.media.tumblr.com/7715a214795490d2d2aed0cf904fdf95/tumblr_nef72s7JWw1sbrpuuo3_500.jpg
https://31.media.tumblr.com/2abf3e0cea87cdd6bf67881328417457/tumblr_nef72s7JWw1sbrpuuo4_500.jpg
Hopefully by comparing them ya'll can let me know what you think of the crown!
Hairline
https://33.media.tumblr.com/9cf6f9a7b8c125fe59c414733ec0cc0e/tumblr_nef72s7JWw1sbrpuuo5_500.jpg
https://31.media.tumblr.com/01c9f93fbcab800699cd0daf12ef7b90/tumblr_nef72s7JWw1sbrpuuo6_500.jpg
https://38.media.tumblr.com/0a05333e848ea46187078e99a0eb7c68/tumblr_nef72s7JWw1sbrpuuo7_500.jpg
generalpic/hair not styled
https://33.media.tumblr.com/5d257fa7a4e253d7f6046a31073dbbd1/tumblr_nef72s7JWw1sbrpuuo8_500.jpg
i'll be back at month three for another update.
Hair continues to lose density. Hairline appears to be getting worse. Hoping it's just shedding, not sure when to expect shedding to stop if it is.
Crown looks like it's losing more hair. Hard to tell though. Sometimes it looks fine, zero hair loss but then other times, especially when my hair is wet, it looks real bad.
Side effects are going away slowly i think. Erections are back to about 85% normal, had morning wood almost every day last week and then almost not all this week, libido seems to be coming back but there are good days and bad days, jizz still weird. Hopefully this is all resolved by month 3.
pic updates
Crown/dry
https://38.media.tumblr.com/4561b1e751daf7d77fafcff507376a4b/tumblr_nef72s7JWw1sbrpuuo1_500.jpg
https://38.media.tumblr.com/0e0abdaa3e35c5ee09587074e4c490b4/tumblr_nef72s7JWw1sbrpuuo2_500.jpg
Crown/wet
https://33.media.tumblr.com/7715a214795490d2d2aed0cf904fdf95/tumblr_nef72s7JWw1sbrpuuo3_500.jpg
https://31.media.tumblr.com/2abf3e0cea87cdd6bf67881328417457/tumblr_nef72s7JWw1sbrpuuo4_500.jpg
Hopefully by comparing them ya'll can let me know what you think of the crown!
Hairline
https://33.media.tumblr.com/9cf6f9a7b8c125fe59c414733ec0cc0e/tumblr_nef72s7JWw1sbrpuuo5_500.jpg
https://31.media.tumblr.com/01c9f93fbcab800699cd0daf12ef7b90/tumblr_nef72s7JWw1sbrpuuo6_500.jpg
https://38.media.tumblr.com/0a05333e848ea46187078e99a0eb7c68/tumblr_nef72s7JWw1sbrpuuo7_500.jpg
generalpic/hair not styled
https://33.media.tumblr.com/5d257fa7a4e253d7f6046a31073dbbd1/tumblr_nef72s7JWw1sbrpuuo8_500.jpg
i'll be back at month three for another update.