JDW's Story - (with pics)

[JDW]

apologies for the large pics. The thing is that my hair has deteriorated so rapidly since I've been on finasteride and my 3 months of minoxidil has done nothing for me. I can't believe my hair looking at the original photo on this thread compared to what it is like now. Surely someone shouldn't lose hair so aggressively on finasteride, it should at least slow loss whereas mine is going at afaster rate than before I started the f*****g 'medication'
Is there any point in continuing after 10 months of finasteride and 8 months of ultra aggressive loss?

 

[haunted-ballroom]

Now im not saying you should do this...., its completely your choice, but, if I was in your positon I would probably drop the finasteride and would try dutasteride. I would also add rogaine foam too. You seem to have shed far too much for it to be a typical response to finasteride and you are 10 months into treatment.

Edit, Oh, I see you are on the foam.

 

[JDW]

Appreciate the feedback. Thing is, if it's Testosterone that is screwing up my hair then switching to dutasteride is going to absolutely hammer it isn't it?!

 

[haunted-ballroom]

Appreciate the feedback. Thing is, if it's Testosterone that is screwing up my hair then switching to dutasteride is going to absolutely hammer it isn't it?!

I really dont know to be honest, but I would probably take the risk. I dont know a huge amount about dutasteride, but it might be worth thinking about at least, as ive read that it works differently to finasteride.

 

[JDW]

Ok I'm going to seriously look into taking dutasteride instead of finasteride... my hair is looking worse and worse and at 10 + months I should be at least seeing a decrease in loss. I can pull 5 hairs out of my head at any given place all over my scalp just by running my hands through my hair...surely this aint right!

 

[Beethoven]

If you don't want to take the spironolactone internally, you can make a topical from it. Many people say it helped them, and since your male pattern baldness is aggressive you should at least try it.

 

[IBM]

Ok I'm going to seriously look into taking dutasteride instead of finasteride... my hair is looking worse and worse and at 10 + months I should be at least seeing a decrease in loss. I can pull 5 hairs out of my head at any given place all over my scalp just by running my hands through my hair...surely this aint right!

what about spironolactone?

 

[JDW]

I get sexual sides on finasteride so I've ruled it out. It's impossible to stay on it long term as well so I'd rather concentrate on other options. Possibly make it into atopical as Beethoven suggested. Will have to do some reseasrch. Have you started your spironolactone IBM?

 

[IBM]

I get sexual sides on finasteride so I've ruled it out. It's impossible to stay on it long term as well so I'd rather concentrate on other options. Possibly make it into atopical as Beethoven suggested. Will have to do some reseasrch. Have you started your spironolactone IBM?

yes.

 

[JDW]

How's it going?

 

[JDW]

okay I've grown my hair out a bit which has made it look thicker. It is a lot thinner than the picture suggests but overall I have to say that it feels in a better condition recently. This is good news and maybe I'm having some regrowth from the shed? difficult to tell but it certainly looks thicker than the last few photos

However I have lost and continue to lose a lot at the front and the amount of recession and frontal thinning in such a short space of time is crazy. Am now on 0.5mg finasteride which has reduced the side effects somewhat. I'm also applying rogaine foam to the temples but have only seen things deteriorate during the last four months. It's getting hard to style my hair now due to sparseness at the front and the recession which is now moving towards the centre of my frontal area.
What I do know is that the hairline when I started treatment was straight across the middle (take the furthest 'southern' point on the right side of my hairline in the photo, this was a straight line across to the left side of the 'frontal tuft' if you follow what I'm saying)

Cosmetically, and this is jsut my personal viewpoint, I think receeding hair at the front (especially if the centre of the hair has receeded, not jsut hte temples) has the biggest impact on someones appearance becausee it results in a larger forehead and therefore a disproportionate facial symmetry.

I will take a photo at the end of every month from now on to monitor progress and will style the hair like this to show the level of recession or improvement. (I wish I'd taken a photo liike this at the start of the treatment)


end of april

treatment update:
I have now startd applying the rogaine foam to the hairline in an attempt to even it up and the temples. Has anyone got any suggestions?

thanks in advance.

 

[Guest]

Well I had the same situation as you, I thought that the finasteride was making my hair worse at an alarming speed. Luckily I have someone as a "measure stick" for my hairloss, which is my twin brother, and he has thinned out exactly the same speed as I, and he doesn't use finasteride. So you can't be sure if it's finasteride that caused your increased thinning, balding is a weird process...

 

[ilussion82]

hi jdw !!! ive been keeping track of your story.
firstly i wan to tell u.. u have definately improved in your hair condition and im sure it will carry on ! are you still on proscar ? what did your gp said ?

Im currently on finasteride for near 3 months. been shedding heavily this 2 weeks.
hopefully the shed stops soon and regrowth kick in.
keep it up. !

 

[JDW]

thanks for the kind comments. Unoftunately my front at least is way down on baseline and getting worse. Lots of thinning going on and receeding still. hmmm...considering using the foam across the whole frontal tuft now to see what that does.

cheers!

p.s yes still on proscar but now cut into 1/10ths so that's 0.5mg. Not sure if it's doing anything at that amount but it's nice to have some kind of libido back again!
:evil:

 

[TA45]

JDW

Whats up JDW? Personnally, I think your hair now looks healthier than before treatment. Yes, you lost ground at the temple areas however, wouldn't you agree that the front middle and rest of hair (besides temples) looks thicker and healthier? I saw in one of your earlier photos that you were thinning at the middle-center of your head, not just the temple area. This area appears thick now. Just giving my 2 cents if that helps at all? How long have you been on the foam now and do you rub it through your scalp or just the temples? Hope to hear from you! Keep up the good work!-Tim

 

[JDW]

hey man, thanks for the input.
this is my hair 3 months into treatment and you'll have to believe me when I say my hair is much thinner now, especially at the front. Perhaps I have stabilised after my shed however but I continue to lose ground and i know this because there's not the thickness now to style my hair like the photo below anymore.

the annoying thing is that I wish I'd taken decent pre treatment pictures from the same angle so I could compare them now. :? I'm gonna stick to it from now on though.


That'd be my advice to all newbies, take as many photos as you can at the start of treatment so you can make a proper judgement.

As for rogaine foam, I just apply it to the temples and am hopefully seeing the first signs of a fightback in that department. Fingers crossed!

good luck people and keep the faith! :hairy:

 

[JDW]

Will take some more photos at the weekend to measure against last month.
Update is that my hair (especially the frontal area has thinned a lot in the last month.) maybe this is due to placing the foam closer to the hairline. Anyway I've upped my dosage to 1mg to try and kick start some response to the finasteride. Fingers crossed sides don't return!

 

[RaginDemon]

looking foward to see your update.

 

[Beethoven]

Hey JDW! I keep bugging you from time to time about adding a topical receptor blocker like topical spironolactone or fluridil. You seem to completely neglect this angle. Look, I agree that internal finasteride/dutasteride/spironolactone is the most strong weapon but it's not everything and it's not always useful for everyone. I really think you should consider adding this.
Good luck!!!

 

[JDW]

I will look into fluridil right now...hope it's not expensive.
The front has really miniaturized so fast, all these small weak hairs suddenly, there really is no hairline now. Whilst I've had recession for a while the hairs at the front were thick and strong meaning that I could hide it easily...now it's pathetic, in such as hsort space of time.

mid-October

end of april

end of May

look at the minituarized hairs at the front that have appeared this month