Six months ago, if someone told me I'd be here today writing this, I wouldn't believe them...
I'm 24, never had to worry about my hair until about 4/5 months ago. My hair was never very thick, but I had lots of it. Although I must say hairloss was always on the back of my mind, seeing as most people on my mother's side have hair problems. My grandfather is a NW7 and has been since I can remember... And my 4 uncles, well:
- the oldest was a NW6 by 30/35;
- another started to bald at 40 or so, is heading towards NW6 as well;
- other is a NW6 at 35;
- and the youngest has been slowly balding since his teenage years.
Despite this, I thought I was gonna be ok, for a while at least. This is because my dad still has a decent head of hair at 50 and my uncles started to bald in their late teens. Plus the ones that started to bald early are all blonde and my hair is brown (mom is blonde, dad has black hair).
But then it began, and ridiculously fast too:
My hair was always thinner around the temples, but I guess I was a NW1. Like I said, never worried about hair. Everything was fine, it was thick enough, dense and it grew really fast.
Then in October something happened - in a matter of weeks (yes, weeks), my hair changed. Suddently it was really oily, thinner and I noticed some minor recession around the temples. I also noticed increased body hair (I have very little of it so it's easy to tell), especially on my forearms and hands. Now have more of a beard, too. I completely freaked out, but then things seemed to stabilize: didn't really notice it getting worse during the following months (November and December). I thought it was just a phase (lol) and didn't really worry too much. Then I got a haircut 5 weeks ago, and although my hair was definitely different (thinner, some blonde hair near the temples) I was actually happy, because it looked ok.
However, things have gone downhill really fast, it's scary and I'm having a real hard time coping with this... Over the last 3 weeks, it has thinned even more, it's even oilier and the temples are receding again... I also notice more hairs falling out, especially lighter ones with the white bulb at the end. Hair has thinned EVERYWHERE, even on the sides and back, if I run my hands through it I can barely feel any hair.
So now, only 4 months after this started, my hair is thining everywhere, I notice more blonde/non pigmented hairs, miniaturization and a receding hairline. Four ****ing months, it's unbelievable. Guess I'm still a NW2, but I don't know for how long.
Had a first appointment with a derm 2 weeks ago. He seemed clueless about hair loss, just told to use some Minoxidil 2% twice a day after having a quick look at my hair. When I asked about Minoxidil 5%, he said that was only for women. :freak: I just took a deep breath, thanked him and left. He was also bald, btw.
Had another appointment this morning with a female derm. She requested some blood tests (thyroid, B12, iron) and prescribed me 5% Minoxidil, which I'll start on Saturday. I spent the last month researching hair loss, so I asked about Propecia and she said she doesn't prescribe it. When I asked what the next step would be, in case the Minoxidil didn't work, she said "then we could consider Propecia".
Frankly, neither doctor seemed that knowledgeable about hair loss: first of all, both insisted I wasn't gonna get any shed on Minoxidil and the way they talked about it, you'd think I'd grow an afro after 2 months on the stuff... The female doctor even said "Minoxidil is the only thing that stops the cause of hair loss". I didn't even bother to argue. So now I don't know what to do. Pretty sure the blood work is gonna come back normal and I simply have a very agressive case of male pattern baldness, with diffuse thining to boot.
Although I don't wanna take it (who does?), I'm pretty sure Propecia is absolutely necessary in my case. And I'd much rather start now, together with the Minoxidil and Nizoral, than add it in a few months when bald spots start to appear. I mean, the whole point of Propecia is to use it as a preventive treatment, by the time I reach NW6 it'll be pretty pointless... I wish I could just buzz cut my hair and not care about it, but I can't... This comes at a very delicate time in my life (just got a girlfriend, but it's long distance and haven't even told her yet) and I've been struggling to accept this, can't focus on anything at all and have been depressed for the last 2 weeks, struggling to do anything other than obsess about this, can't even sleep or eat properly.
For now I'll ease into the Minoxidil and wait for the bloodwork. If that comes back normal, I'll try to get a Propecia prescription and hope for the best, 'cause I can't just sit back and watch my hair die in the space of a few months. If I can't get the stupid prescription, I'll probably just buy it online and ease into it, up to a dose of say 0.5 mg ED or EOD. Don't wanna do that, but I'm desperate and I highly doubt the Minoxild alone will be enough.
That's it, sorry for the rant.
I'm 24, never had to worry about my hair until about 4/5 months ago. My hair was never very thick, but I had lots of it. Although I must say hairloss was always on the back of my mind, seeing as most people on my mother's side have hair problems. My grandfather is a NW7 and has been since I can remember... And my 4 uncles, well:
- the oldest was a NW6 by 30/35;
- another started to bald at 40 or so, is heading towards NW6 as well;
- other is a NW6 at 35;
- and the youngest has been slowly balding since his teenage years.
Despite this, I thought I was gonna be ok, for a while at least. This is because my dad still has a decent head of hair at 50 and my uncles started to bald in their late teens. Plus the ones that started to bald early are all blonde and my hair is brown (mom is blonde, dad has black hair).
But then it began, and ridiculously fast too:
My hair was always thinner around the temples, but I guess I was a NW1. Like I said, never worried about hair. Everything was fine, it was thick enough, dense and it grew really fast.
Then in October something happened - in a matter of weeks (yes, weeks), my hair changed. Suddently it was really oily, thinner and I noticed some minor recession around the temples. I also noticed increased body hair (I have very little of it so it's easy to tell), especially on my forearms and hands. Now have more of a beard, too. I completely freaked out, but then things seemed to stabilize: didn't really notice it getting worse during the following months (November and December). I thought it was just a phase (lol) and didn't really worry too much. Then I got a haircut 5 weeks ago, and although my hair was definitely different (thinner, some blonde hair near the temples) I was actually happy, because it looked ok.
However, things have gone downhill really fast, it's scary and I'm having a real hard time coping with this... Over the last 3 weeks, it has thinned even more, it's even oilier and the temples are receding again... I also notice more hairs falling out, especially lighter ones with the white bulb at the end. Hair has thinned EVERYWHERE, even on the sides and back, if I run my hands through it I can barely feel any hair.
So now, only 4 months after this started, my hair is thining everywhere, I notice more blonde/non pigmented hairs, miniaturization and a receding hairline. Four ****ing months, it's unbelievable. Guess I'm still a NW2, but I don't know for how long.
Had a first appointment with a derm 2 weeks ago. He seemed clueless about hair loss, just told to use some Minoxidil 2% twice a day after having a quick look at my hair. When I asked about Minoxidil 5%, he said that was only for women. :freak: I just took a deep breath, thanked him and left. He was also bald, btw.
Had another appointment this morning with a female derm. She requested some blood tests (thyroid, B12, iron) and prescribed me 5% Minoxidil, which I'll start on Saturday. I spent the last month researching hair loss, so I asked about Propecia and she said she doesn't prescribe it. When I asked what the next step would be, in case the Minoxidil didn't work, she said "then we could consider Propecia".
Frankly, neither doctor seemed that knowledgeable about hair loss: first of all, both insisted I wasn't gonna get any shed on Minoxidil and the way they talked about it, you'd think I'd grow an afro after 2 months on the stuff... The female doctor even said "Minoxidil is the only thing that stops the cause of hair loss". I didn't even bother to argue. So now I don't know what to do. Pretty sure the blood work is gonna come back normal and I simply have a very agressive case of male pattern baldness, with diffuse thining to boot.
Although I don't wanna take it (who does?), I'm pretty sure Propecia is absolutely necessary in my case. And I'd much rather start now, together with the Minoxidil and Nizoral, than add it in a few months when bald spots start to appear. I mean, the whole point of Propecia is to use it as a preventive treatment, by the time I reach NW6 it'll be pretty pointless... I wish I could just buzz cut my hair and not care about it, but I can't... This comes at a very delicate time in my life (just got a girlfriend, but it's long distance and haven't even told her yet) and I've been struggling to accept this, can't focus on anything at all and have been depressed for the last 2 weeks, struggling to do anything other than obsess about this, can't even sleep or eat properly.
For now I'll ease into the Minoxidil and wait for the bloodwork. If that comes back normal, I'll try to get a Propecia prescription and hope for the best, 'cause I can't just sit back and watch my hair die in the space of a few months. If I can't get the stupid prescription, I'll probably just buy it online and ease into it, up to a dose of say 0.5 mg ED or EOD. Don't wanna do that, but I'm desperate and I highly doubt the Minoxild alone will be enough.
That's it, sorry for the rant.
