Hello I'm 23 and currently a Norwood 2.5 (although it's probably closer to a 3 than to a 2).I've been experiening slow ( as in sloth-like speed) hair loss since my late teens, although it stabilized around a Norwood 1.5 to a 2 for most of my life since then. Due to this i was never bothered by the slight loss, and just styled my hair to compensate for this (with great results). But in the last year things have definetly sped up to where i'm currently at. I now have bad receding in my hairline, really bad in my temples (some of my lower right temple is gone), and some diffuce all over the top. I've never had an apocalyptic type shed (I don't think i've ever had more than 100 hairs fall out in a day, at least since i started noticing the male pattern baldness)
My family history with hairloss is awful. My father is a Norwood 5, his brothers are a 3 and a 4. My grandfather was a Norwood 4. On my mother's side it's not as bad. My uncle is a Norwood 3.5, and my grandfather had a full head of hair well into old age. My mother has signs of FPB, although that is magnified due to chronic thyroid problems.
I'm currently using nizoral 2% for 2.5 months every other day (although i switched to everyday this week), and i've been on propecia for a month. Haven't seen any results (not that i expected them) but I remember the nizoral slowing down the rate of shedding to about 10 hairs a day.(that considering my sheds weren't masive anyway). The propecia hasn't given me any side effects, although i've noticed slightly larger shedding the past week (nothing apocalyptic though about 50-70 hairs). Also that "shed" can be atribute to my horrible sebum problem, which i have taken the habit of just manually removing it (to the point thta i've discovered that some hairs are just managing to hang on to the scalp because of the sebum is holding them in place). due to that i've decided to use the nizoral everyday. I also stopped lifting heavy weights (i noticed the worst loss the months i was going to the gym) and reduced self gratification to only a few times a week (even if i doesn't help my hair more than a few times a week is unhealthy).
My goal is to possibly get back to a Norwood 2 or at least hold the loss at a Norwood 3 so i can get a decent transplant.
Even though i've done a lo of reading in these forums the past few weeks, i have a few questions:
Does shaving your head reapeatedly hurt the follicles? Right now it isn't imperative, but i might shave my head in a few weeks once the right temple or the front goes to hell, and i might continue until the hair gets better or i get a transplant.
Does the fact that i have no loss of libido indicate that the finasteride is not going to work?
Will minoxidil hurt the hair that hasn't thinned? Will it stop working after a while? I bought 5% minoxidil, but haven't tried it yet because of those fears.
Thanx for the replies in advance, i'll probably post some pics in the coming days
My family history with hairloss is awful. My father is a Norwood 5, his brothers are a 3 and a 4. My grandfather was a Norwood 4. On my mother's side it's not as bad. My uncle is a Norwood 3.5, and my grandfather had a full head of hair well into old age. My mother has signs of FPB, although that is magnified due to chronic thyroid problems.
I'm currently using nizoral 2% for 2.5 months every other day (although i switched to everyday this week), and i've been on propecia for a month. Haven't seen any results (not that i expected them) but I remember the nizoral slowing down the rate of shedding to about 10 hairs a day.(that considering my sheds weren't masive anyway). The propecia hasn't given me any side effects, although i've noticed slightly larger shedding the past week (nothing apocalyptic though about 50-70 hairs). Also that "shed" can be atribute to my horrible sebum problem, which i have taken the habit of just manually removing it (to the point thta i've discovered that some hairs are just managing to hang on to the scalp because of the sebum is holding them in place). due to that i've decided to use the nizoral everyday. I also stopped lifting heavy weights (i noticed the worst loss the months i was going to the gym) and reduced self gratification to only a few times a week (even if i doesn't help my hair more than a few times a week is unhealthy).
My goal is to possibly get back to a Norwood 2 or at least hold the loss at a Norwood 3 so i can get a decent transplant.
Even though i've done a lo of reading in these forums the past few weeks, i have a few questions:
Does shaving your head reapeatedly hurt the follicles? Right now it isn't imperative, but i might shave my head in a few weeks once the right temple or the front goes to hell, and i might continue until the hair gets better or i get a transplant.
Does the fact that i have no loss of libido indicate that the finasteride is not going to work?
Will minoxidil hurt the hair that hasn't thinned? Will it stop working after a while? I bought 5% minoxidil, but haven't tried it yet because of those fears.
Thanx for the replies in advance, i'll probably post some pics in the coming days