My Big 3++ story...Month 11 update! Coming close to one year

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My story...Month 4 update.

Got it. Here are pics of my hairline. Not great ones but you can see the recession. Nothing dramatic yet for 34. The reason I didn't really post any is because I was more worried about my crown loss. Does this help my Norwood-estimation?

As for the other question. Yes, I feel like pretty much before the drug. No problems in the get-it-up department. The ball ache was really nothing to worry about. It was maybe a few days and not bad at all. Ride it out, don't freak out.

Again I encourage people to increase the dose if you are scared or experience sides. Do .25mg or .5 to start with. Then after 1-2 months increase if you wish. However, these forums seem to be more about sides than about success stories or progress. Interestingly almost nobody really comments on the progress, unless it is very obvious success.

If you are very nervous or paranoid even about sides, I wouldn't recommend starting. I think a lot of people only wait for them to happen. And with sexual stuff, your head plays an important role. If you cannot get that out of your mind or be realistic about it, I wouldn't do it. Plus you can never be sure how diligent people are with their drugs or what they take (internet garbage from unreliable sites?). For example if people complain about Merck, but take generic finasteride which isn't produced by that firm. Or if people get on and off the drug all the time. I think consistency seems to be very important. I'm not trying to lecture anybody, just my opinion about sides. Good luck with your decision whichever way you decide...

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My story...Month 4 update.

Soon to be 5 months. Shedding seems to be much less now, probably half of what I used to shed. I'm guessing it is normal what I lose now. Also hair seems to get better and look better. It is easy to cover that I'm losing it in the back even under harsh lighting. I don't lose much hair if any when I run my fingers through my hair or when I style it.

Nice. Life is good. Pics to follow in two weeks. :hump:

 

[rogik22]

Re: My story...Month 4 update.

your hairline seems to be fine, I mean.. I have something similar, I have Dicaprio's current hairline/ maybe Depp's ? maybe not as drastic as Depp's, but I wear my hair like he does so it doesn't matter too much.

you've been using Rogaine foam? correct?

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My story...Month 4 update.

you've been using Rogaine foam? correct?

Well yes, together with the liquid at night. Don't like the foam too much, I find it hard to apply to the front. But it leaves the hair less disgusting than the liquid, so I can use it in the morning.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3 story...Month 5 update.

Month 5 completed! Was another good month I think.

[*] I'm still very strict with my regime. No dose is missed. I noticed that being around people and having to apply minoxidil is a bit of a pain. Also I now take longer to do my hair than some girls. :whistle:
[*] I have added a shampoo containing Piroctone Olamine to the regimen. Thinking of trying Tea Tree Oil Shampoo.
[*] I have upped my dose by a quarter of a pill to 0.75mg this month. Why? Because at the beginning of the month I still saw over a hundred hairs when shampooing and I was starting to think that the 0.5mg I was using up to that point was not enough. I felt some slight sides at the beginning of the month but they are completely gone now. I feel very good. Maybe I will work my way up to the normal dose of 1mg. I recommend people to try the slow approach if they have sides.
[*] Good news regarding the shedding or losing hair. I hope it stays that way but during shampooing I now use significantly less hair it seems in the last two weeks. I'm thinking about 60 (half of what it was the last months) and sometimes even much less. Let's see where this stabilizes. If nothing else my loss has been definitely reduced a lot.
[*] Irritation comes and goes. Sometimes the scalp is still itchy. Usually shampooing relieves the itch. But nothing unbearable. Still wondering if it is male pattern baldness itch or just irritation from minoxidil. Who knows. I try not to overanalyze.
[*] In terms of looks I think my hair in the front has thickened up and my whirl is not as pronounced in the back. I must have thickened up on the vertex somewhat although when looking at the pictures it is hard to tell a difference. Still seeing a lot of small dark hairs on my temples that are very slowly turning terminal. They are coming in along a very nice NW1 line although I doubt that all will become terminal. My vertex is more of a problem for me. I definitely have to comb my hair forward (it grows like that naturally) to conceal the balding on the vertex. I'm also surprised how far to the middle of my head the affected area goes. Scary to think that this much of my head could be bald one day.

Anyway all is not lost. I think I'm seeing improvement also in terms of regrowth. I truly hope a lot more will come back though but keeping what I have now would be a great. To the normal eye I'm not balding, I can still style my hair with gel and look like I'm not really losing it.

Still read a lot on the forum, which has helped me a lot. I try to stay focused and I can live with the hairloss a lot better than a few months ago when I found out.
Thanks guys, stay positive. Pics to follow.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3 story...Month 5 update.

Pics, month 5.

 

[TheGrayMan2001]

Re: My Big 3 story...Month 5 update.

Whatever you do don't stop. You'll start to shed and regret it.

good luck man. at least you seem to be maintaining

 

[abovedagame]

Re: My Big 3 story...Month 5 update.

do you find the minoxidil liquid irritates your scalp?

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3 story...Month 5 update.

Whatever you do don't stop. You'll start to shed and regret it.

good luck man. at least you seem to be maintaining

Yes will do! No intention to stop it. I think being strict with your regime is the most important thing. One thing I have found in the success stories was, the people that had success most of the time were on proven treatments and sticked to what they did - consistently. Unfortunately my hair is very important to me and the thought of losing it is strong enough for me to stay focused...

I think that the treatment is working too. At the very least I'm losing less and the quality of the hair on the vertex got better. Whether that is due to regrowth I cannot tell for sure yet.

This is a pic of my hair styled. I'm fine with it at the moment. Not too bad for mid 30s.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3 story...Month 5 update.

do you find the minoxidil liquid irritates your scalp?

No, not really. I'm very happy with my treatment right now, considering how difficult a start I had.

Tried Rogaine and Kirkland. Both work fine for me. There may be a slight itch from them occasionally but my scalp is good...
Why is it not working for you?

:innocent:

 

[dinosaur_sr]

Re: My Big 3 story...Month 5 update.

Nice, your hair looks really thick. Temple loss is minimal imo, based on all your pictures from the front I'd never think you were losing. As for the crown area, as long as you don't spike it up it's very hard to see. :bravo:

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3 story...Month 5 update.

Thank you, that's so kind.

That's the reason why I didn't get it for so long I guess. When I look in the mirror I'm still seeing pretty much what I saw when I was 20. And who looks at the back of his head? Definitely wasn't expecting male pattern baldness to sneak up on me from behind :shock:

Still I hope to see more improvement...

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3 story...Month 5 update.

Really exciting, this sh*t does work, I've been using so little hair lately it is exciting. unk:
I know I shouldn't count, but I couldn't help noticing...

One thing though: my regime leaves the scalp very dry. I've been washing my hair almost daily now, as the minoxidil leaves my hair greasy and irritation is also minimal like that. I alternate between nizoral, a shampoo containing Piroctone Olamine and sometimes use a mild one.

I've now noticed that my scalp looks very dry, it looks like residue from minoxidil but it isn't. It looks like dandruff and the skin peels if you try to remove it. I'm guessing all these anti dandruff shampoos are quite harsh to the skin.

Any suggestions on what to do? Should I use a shampoo like Tea Tree Oil or should I oil my hair with Emu oil or something that I read people are using?

 

[abovedagame]

Re: My Big 3 story...Month 5 update.

what is your source for your piroctone olamine shampoo?

that flaking MAY be residue from the liquid minoxidil. have you tried using a salicylic acid shampoo such as t/sal to try and rid the scale?

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3 story...Month 5 update.

what is your source for your piroctone olamine shampoo?

that flaking MAY be residue from the liquid minoxidil. have you tried using a salicylic acid shampoo such as t/sal to try and rid the scale?

The Piroctone Olamine shampoo is an ordinary Nivea anti-dandruff shampoo. It's quite nice. Don't know if the dose of the substance is enough to do anything but it probably does not hurt.

The flaking really seems to be from the minoxidil. My scalp health is quite ok I think, also no itching lately...thanks for the hints.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3 story...Month 5 update.

One thing I'm confused about in hairloss

What is the definition of regrowth?


I am a diffuse thinner. If I understand hairloss correctly my follicles still work but produce hair that miniturizes over time until the hair finally falls out. In my case things aren't so bad yet, I still have good coverage. Is it then that I "just" have to reverse this process of miniturization to produce normal sized hair in diameter to not look balding (is this the thickening up that people refer to)? This is something that finasteride should be able to do in theory.

Or is regrowth to revive Follicles that haven't produced hairs anymore? Something that minoxidil seems to be able to do. Or is it a combination?

I've been getting lots of hair along my (juvenile) hairline, that very slowly turn into terminal hair. If all of that eventually fills in I will get back almost everything which would be amazing.

Just wondering, maybe someone can shed some light on that.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3 story...Month 5 update.

Hello, Close to month 6 now.
Hard to tell a difference from pics. I think my hair looks thicker and better but from pics I'm still unsure if it's gotten better at all.

Maybe too early. At least I seem to be maintaining.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3 story...Month 5 update.

My temples seem to fill in. The changes are very subtle and take a looonnng time. If I continue with my treatment I hope they will eventually be filled with more hair even though I don't even really look like I'm receding...

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3 story...Month 6 update!

OK here's the report even though it is slightly less than 6 monhts. I'm keeping this to remind myself of how things were at a particular point. From looking at pictures it is worthwhile because otherwise you don't notice subtle changes. I've come to realize that 1 month intervals in my case aren't enough, it is probably better to look at pics in 3month intervals or so.

* Regime: I've upped the dose of finasteride to 1mg last month. I can handle it much better than at the beginning but still not perfectly.
minoxidil works fine when I use birch tonic/birch tree water after washing. I then put minoxidil on the still wet hair. The minoxidil dries much faster (even Kirkland dries after about 1hr) and hair and irritation are good! I like that...
Shampoos: I rotate nizoral with Nivea (Piroctone Olamine) and some normal shampoos. Works well. I wash more often, almost each day now.

* Shedding has dropped to about 40-60 and occasionally 80 or so hairs while shampooing. I consider this a success as I was shedding about 130+ hairs before I guess. Ok I counted, I know I shouldn't do that. I was impatient, that's also why I upped the dose. I don't know how some people complain about losing 20-30 hairs. I lose way more but it doesn't seem to get thinner on top.

*Sides: Stomach is upset often but I have days where things are ok. Definitely a change from previous months. Unfortunately I've come to realize that my libido is very low. Everything still works but I'm planning on doing something. Was low before finasteride but not that much. I will do blood tests. I stay positive and don't want to drop finasteride. I'm thinking of lowering down to .75mg however and see how that goes. Just don't want to change anything around fast.

*Overall: Hair looks good and feels good. I think I'm seeing improvement. It seems to fill in and from looking at the pics I think I'm seeing slight progress. I've been kind of obsessed with my hair and really developped an eye for male pattern baldness. Wish I didn't have to but I hate the thought of losing it. The front is still thick as sh*t but in the back a large area is affected. Wonder how that will look years from today...

Anyway I'll keep fighting. Thank you forum, I'm glad there is something one can do! Keep it up unk:

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3 story...Month 6 update!

Godd*mn it.

This is just to state my frustration and remind me of what I went through while on treatment. Ups and downs, ups and downs.

I think my hair loss is very apparent in the back. I am definitely seeing results in that what I'm losing is about a third currently of what I've lost before. That is good, in fact it is amazing. But I'm unsure if I have lost density in the back. to me it is so obvious now and it must be to other people. It is past month 6 now and my hairline is filling in along my juvenile hairline! Amazing.

But my vertex sucks. Looks so thin. I know I have to give it more time but still, I would imagine there to be some regrowth in the back by now and I'm just not sure. I seem to thin in the Ted Danson way. My front is really thick, very little temple loss but my back is thinning out. Maybe I will need to wear a piece in the future too. I hate that thought...

I've gone back to 0.5mg due to sides and added a cheap derma roller to work in the minoxidil. Let's wait and see. Shedding is down in any case. Guess that's good.