KeepinIt's story

[KeepinIt]

Hi, everyone. I'm a 24 year old guy who's probably been balding for a couple of years, but it took me until a few months ago to really notice. I had a "mature" hairline pretty early- probably around 15/16. It didn't get any worse for years, so I wrote it off as just how I got made, so to speak. But, I started looking at pictures of myself recently and saw how much my forehead had expanded, and decided to do something about it before it got too bad.

I'm on Finasteride 1.25mg once a day, Rogaine 5% twice a day (although I may cut back... I'll explain) and Nizoral 1% once every three days. I've been on this regimen for a little over a month, and already seeing results- hundreds of little fine hairs where none were before. Which is great, right? Well...

I've been feeling... strange for a couple of weeks now. I've had physical symptoms (throat tightness/lump, aches/pains in the chest, arms, and head, occasional shortness of breath, mild palpitations, some lightheadedness) that are pretty consistent with two things:

- Severe Anxiety/Stress
- Severe Minoxidil Side Effects

Now, the thing is, I KNOW I have anxiety and stress. I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder years ago, and I have, emotionally, felt like hell since I realized I was losing my hair. I was lethargic, couldn't get myself to enjoy things or go anywhere, and haven't eaten to such a degree that I've lost 15 pounds (Thankfully, I need to lose weight anyway, so that, at least, wasn't bad). Total emotional wreck. So, it's entirely within the realm of possibility that it's the anxiety causing these things. But, again, I have no way of knowing. I'm taking anxiety meds and perparing to go to a therapist now,and also cutting back a little on the rogaine- .75 mL once every 16 hours or so.

Hopefully, I can get through this and fight the bald menace!

PICS- October 8, 2011- just after starting
[attachment=2:2lckyddq]hairline3.jpg[/attachment:2lckyddq]
[attachment=1:2lckyddq]hairline1.jpg[/attachment:2lckyddq]
[attachment=0:2lckyddq]hairline2.jpg[/attachment:2lckyddq]

 

[ohmanohno]

Your hair is a lot like mine. I'm also on finasteride and Rogaine. How bad is your shed right now?

 

[KeepinIt]

Your hair is a lot like mine. I'm also on finasteride and Rogaine. How bad is your shed right now?

I went from about 30-40 hairs shed in the shower to closer to 100.

 

[KeepinIt]

Hi, all. Slight update:

My paranoia and the incredible, almost excessively effective effect that the Rogaine has had on my hair has caused me to back down to once a day for the time being. BUT, I *think* that the "side effects" I'm feeling are most likely not from it.

I've checked my blood pressure and pulse rate DOZENS of times, and they are both totally normal- 120/75 and 70bpm- and completely unchanged from before I started the regimen. Since the root cause of severe Minoxidil side effects is lowered blood pressure and its effects on the heart, it doesn't seem to make logical sense for it to be doing anything negative to my body. Also, I've recently deduced that I've been having acid reflux problems, which can explain the shortness of breath and chest pain (I can't believe I didn't think of this before- I've had a history of burping up undigested acidy food), most likely exacerbated by the anxiety. I'm taking omeprazole and continuing to manage the anxiety as best I can. I REALLY hope addressing these issues clears things up, my hair is doing great!

I also think I've stopped or slowed in my shed. For the past couple of days, I've gone back down to losing 40ish hairs in the shower, closer to what was falling before treatment. I don't know if it's going to slow even more, or stay at that level when/if the propecia kicks in.

 

[KeepinIt]

Hello again! I have good news and bad news.

The good news is, I have regrowth!

http://i.imgur.com/D1CKJ.jpg

The bad news is... uh... finasteride might be giving me manboobs. Or... one manboob. I went to a specialist recently after having noticed a lump under my right nipple, and ding ding ding it's gynecomastia. Now, I don't know if it started before finasteride or after, since this isn't the kind of thing I would check for before. BUT, to be on the safe side I'm considering stopping finasteride.

Here's my question: If I stop finasteride (which I have already greatly reduced in dosage; .625 every three days) and increase my other treatments, is it reasonable to think they can pick up the slack?

Thing is, I'm 99% sure it's the minoxidil that's doing the heavy lifting for me. I think I'm abnormally responsive. I started seeing new growth two weeks into treatment, and finasteride doesn't work that fast. My beard is thicker, my eyebrows are thicker, my shoulders are hairier- all signs that point to minoxidil. If I increase to 1mg/day from .75 and maybe upgrade to the 2% nizoral I think I might be able to at least keep what I've gained already if not get any better. Or should I bite the bullet and try topical spironolactone or something?

 

[KeepinIt]

Back from the dead!

So I've been keeping up the regimen for two years now, although for a few months I fell off the finasteride wagon. Back on it now though.

The lump in my chest was diagnosed as gynecomastia, but it never got any worse. Since I never checked it before I started finasteride, the doctor agreed that it was probably a combination of always having had it there and my anxiety biting me in the ***.

As for my hair... I went onto the hairdresser this month (A couple of months after I went fully back on finasteride- from once every 2-3 days to every day) and noticed the back of my scalp was a bit pinker than I remembered. Sure enough, I've thinned out back there. Now I don't know if this is just a periodic shed, or the DHT kicking into high gear, or the higher dose of finasteride just kicking in, or WHAT, but.. I mean, I hate it.

So this is where I'm at now. Buzzed hair, #3 clippers last week.



Both in harsh white fluorescent light in the bathroom, so this is kind of a worst-case, but it's definitely there. Ironically, my hairline, which is what I was most worried about when I started, is fine now. Ugh.

So... any advice?

 

[The Far Side]

How is your hairline looking at the front? It would be nice to see some pictures similar to the original post with the hair pulled back to compare. I'm interested to know what happened to the new growth you reported very quickly from minoxidil. The crown looks decent enough to me.

 

[KeepinIt]

Well, I can't really pull my hair back because it's too short... but I tried to make it stand up the best I could to show a similar view:

Thing is, I think I'm better off in the front compared to when I started, but when I visited my dermatologist last year he said my crown was "normal", and now it looks thin.
BUT, an interesting thing happened when I took photos of my hair when wet (I wanted to see if I could detect a difference in thinness that way).

...The crown is red, way more red than the rest of my scalp. What does this mean? Could I have irritation there that's causing thinning? Could the redness be creating a color contrast that makes the hair there look thinner?

 

[KeepinIt]

Bump? Anyone? ...Bueller?

 

[CursedMen]

It could be because of the inflammation. Does it itch at all?

 

[KeepinIt]

A little. Not to an incredible degree, but I'd say it itches more then the rest of my head, especially when the rogaine goes on.

 

[CursedMen]

It's probably just because of the rogaine. I don't think it makes the thinning more noticeable.

 

[KeepinIt]

Back again. Welp, My gyno's gotten aggravated again. It may be that once a day finasteride is just too much for me. I'm decreasing the dose of finasteride (though not to quite as low as it was before) and hoping the nizoral and the extra rogaine are enough to maintain. I haven't lost any more hair in the past couple months, and may have even seen some regrowth, so we'll see how it goes.

I'm also taking some DIM and Curcumin to see if they can bring my estrogen levels down, and there's anecdotal evidence of hair benefits, which isn't likely to do much, but is a plus.

 

[KeepinIt]

Another update. Snapped some pictures of the back of my head and... ugh.

I saw this and my heart sank. I haven't gotten my hair cut since the last pictures, and now there's MORE scalp showing? it's only been a month since then! It's not quite as bad as it looks there I guess, since it's kind of parted all weird, but even when I comb it somewhat:

It's still worse than before. I'm seriously down, I feel like giving up. I won't, not yet, but it's hard to keep up hope.