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

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 7 update!

What's crazy (and I'm sure this has been covered before) is that when your hair's dry I don't notice any male pattern baldness. I thought you switched heads there for a second haha. Anyways man gl.

edit: I should also add that I think you're making progress, no reason to give up right?

:woot: Thanks! I wish I could. If I just posted the dry hair pics people would probably think I'm not balding. That is also the reason why it took me so long to discover it I guess. The affected area is actually quite large but it is relatively early on in the game. I think I'm an Alvi Armani Pattern 3 Class 2 (weird pattern). Also my hair (the normal hair) is really thick and voluminous so I can cover it up pretty well. Spiking it up in the back is my enemy...

Thanks also for the comment, it is really motivating to get feedback. I wouldn't give up the fight, I promise! I also think that there are more results to come...

Good luck to you too!

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 7 update!

Looking at your pics, your hair is currently similar to mine except my fronts thinning and my backs fairly ok. The hairline is about roughly the same as yours though so I hope I can just restore that and hold on to it.

Im going to be on the same routine as you soon so I can compare my thread with yours to see how we're both doing. Age is 24 so i shouldv started a couple years ago but didn't have the balls to until seeing where my hair was going to end up in afew years.

As a diffuser I think you stand a good chance to maintain and even improve things. Just stick to the regimen is the most important advice. It is not easy I can tell you, but it will be worth it. Do not let people scare you. Just find out what's right for you and give it enough time!

At age 24 I believe you have very good chances to turn things in your favor. Good luck and keep us posted...

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 7 update!

Just curious how has your libido been? I'm 25 and i tried going on finasteride (.5mg) for a month over a year ago but quit due to sexual sides. I've been thinking about trying to go back on it again (generic version this time from inhouse) and riding out the sides if I get any like you did.

Well I'll be honest on this one: I didn't write a lot about sides but I had them and have them every once in a while. I didn't want people to write horror stories in this thread because I've read them elsewhere and I know it can seriously get into your head.

.5mg works very well now but I still plan to give more finasteride a try soon. I did have some numbness, ball ache and reduced libido. However I did not stop the drug and things got better again. My libido has gone done in the last few years before taking finasteride too, but I believe I'm at about the same level as before the drug in any case. And things have ALWAYS worked. Even when I may not have felt like it, I got it to work.

Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, I'm just another victim like you. I have read a whole lot about hairloss and learned a lot about it in the last half year. Just take this with a grain of salt and make your own educated decision:

What I would advise is to either give it a go or not. Work your way up and see how much you can handle. If you get sides on 1mg, reduce to .5mg and work up again over a couple of months. Do not start and stop every few days, it is your hormones you are playing with. Chances are you may get some sides like last time. They are very likely going to go away if you don't panick and stay on course. It may also be the case that you will feel different than before taking the drug. Just watch how you feel and give it some time. If you decide you can't handle it, I would look for an alternative.

Just be prepared and don't overanalyze it. I have found almost every week to be different regarding sides. I try to exercise regularly and take 100mg Ginseng. It is safe, cheap and has worked amazingly well for my overall energy level. Most of the time I feel perfectly normal, but I did have a few side effects and I decided to fight.
Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 7 update!

To keep this updated: Shedding stopped. Wow. Today I counted 10 hairs after shampooing. I don't remember when I ever lost that little hair. Probably when I was a kid. unk:

Don't want to get overexcited and I hope it stays like that for some time but in the last days I have shed longer hairs that must come from the front and the number went down. Today was the absolute best in terms of number of hairs. Hopefully this is a harbinger of good things to come. In any case it seems to be working in some way.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 7 update!

Ok, Monday marks the 8th month I'm on Propecia - time for a summary.

* Results: I think I am seeing results. Like I often mentioned my front has thickened up, I have regrown hair in the front and that process continues. The tiny light hairs in the front do get darker, but extremely slowly. My vertex has definitely changed in terms of texture and quality of the hair. My whirl got smaller. I think it has also thickened up but I'm not fully sure on how much because I can't see it that well.
I am very happy with my hair lately. I style it with wax and it looks very thick and full. Nobody really sees I'm balding, not even from close. If I get to keep what I have, I would be stoked. Very good hair for 35 I believe. Propecia has helped me hold on to it I believe. When my hair is wet, the balding is very obvious and I need some strategic styling to not unveal my balding spot.The area affected of miniturization is quite large. I have no skin showing yet.

* Shedding: This thread shows the ups and downs I'm going thru. I continue to shed. I still lose a lot of hair but my hair doesn't noticably get worse so far. I think shedding is better than before Propecia but definitely not down to a low number, still about 80 to 100+ a day I believe. I am less stressed about it. I just stick to my regime and hope for the best. I don't know if shedding will ever really stop but it doesn't seem to be the enemy.

* Sides: I got all sides under control at 0.5mg except for the low libido. It is a bit annoying, but I'm not panicking. I will try L-Arginin next. I hope to resolve that issue.
Maybe I'll also try traditional Chinese medicine.

* Regimen: I constanly use Propecia, minoxidil liquid+foam and a dermaroller. I still experiment with various nutritional supplements because I believe they can make a difference. I'm very interested in the inflammation theory of hairloss and try to integrate Curcumin and Grape Seed extract. So far it only upsets my stomach though. It's always my weak point.

*Overall: I think this is a small success so far. I'm a lot less worried about hairloss and I think I gained some time with hair. I know I'm facing a long-term battle but for a balding person, I'm sort of blessed to have good hair in my mid thirties. I hope some day there'll be new treatments out, but until then, this forum has helped me a lot. I will post pics, but it is very different to capture progress for me in pics. Maybe things will become better, it is "only" month 8. Let's hope for the best. I wish you luck and hope this story motivates some to continue their journey with meds. :whistle:

 

[Chris87]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 8 update!

Thanks for the update. Keep us posted. I'm interested in your progress especially as far as your sides (I've been thinking about getting back on finasteride again)

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 8 update!

Small update. Month 9 almost complete. This is less about hair than about cost.

The past 9 months I used 0.5mg Propecia for most of the time because I could tolerate it better than 1mg. Now I'm about to make the switch to Proscar.

I knew Proscar was cheap but this is the calculation:

98 tabs of Propecia 193.60 EUR
56 tabs (2 packs) of Proscar 23 EUR

Therefore: Propecia per mg: 1,98 EUR
Proscar per mg: 0,08 EUR.

If I were to still take 0.5mg I would pay 4 cents per day instead of 1 EUR! That is a ratio of 24:1! Are you f*cking kidding me?

I ordered my foam and Kirkland liquid recently and paid a relatively small amount too.

In any case...lowering my DHT will cost me 2,50 EUR/month in the future! Nice.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 8 update!

This next update I wanted to post separately from the above.

I have started to use L-Arginin about 3-5g/day. I have to say it is f*cking awesome. I'm doing better than ever. 3 days after starting...everything getting better. I can recommend this so far as a very useful addition to the regimen if you are experiencing mild sexual sides. I'm also very awake and fit currently.

As far as I read this is a very safe addition to the regimen. I don't know about long-term usage but I've read very good reviews only.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 8 update!

Oh and finally - hair. Well nothing dramatic, but doing good. I believe it is constantly getting a bit thicker especially the front (where I don't need it). Only very slowly and consistently.

The front is actually ridiculously thick, I don't remember my hair being like that in a long time. This must be the finasteride. I barely have temple recession anymore. Hairline has maybe moved 1/5 of an inch back throughout my life. The back is still shining through in harsh light (my benchmark) but I have a good routine of hiding it and it is not observable for pretty much anyone when I comb forward. This is the way my hair grows naturally, so it is technically not a comb-over :whistle: . I'm very very happy with that. If I can keep what I have it would be perfect.

Shedding seems to be down to below 100 constantly. Sometimes significantly less. I wash my hair daily. It works well, I tolerate all meds well now. Life is good, hair is good. I hope for more hair in the back though.

Last comment: I have come across this longest finasteride study (10 years). It is very motivating to read in full text. Basically you stand a very significant chance of keeping what you got if not getting more hair, even after 10 yrs. The process seems to also take longer than the 1yr often mentioned. Very motivating, very recommendable for newbies to read. Do the research, it is worth it!

Good luck people.

 

[Chris87]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 8 update!

Thats awesome. thanks for the update. how are your sides? anything at all?

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 8 update!

Thats awesome. thanks for the update. how are your sides? anything at all?

Nope. I feel very good. You seem to be very concerned. Are you having problems with finasteride?

 

[Chris87]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 8 update!

Thats awesome. thanks for the update. how are your sides? anything at all?

Nope. I feel very good. You seem to be very concerned. Are you having problems with finasteride?

Well I took finasteride for a little over a month over a year ago and had sexual sides so I had to stop. Lately I've been thinking about giving it another try and trying to ride out the sides, so I'm always interested to hear from people who had sides, continued taking it, and saw them disappear. This sseems to be your case so thats why I'm interested to see if the sides come back.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 8 update!

Well I took finasteride for a little over a month over a year ago and had sexual sides so I had to stop. Lately I've been thinking about giving it another try and trying to ride out the sides, so I'm always interested to hear from people who had sides, continued taking it, and saw them disappear. This sseems to be your case so thats why I'm interested to see if the sides come back.

I see. Well, I'm by no means an expert, and no doctor. I think everyone should make their own (educated) decision on the use of finasteride.

However I truly think, that finasteride has great potential. And I also think that a lot of people do not get to see the full positive effect on their hair because they quit early. My journey so far was by no means easy. At first you are scared because you lose your hair. Then you are scared because you read up on Propecia. It does take nerves to commit to finasteride in my opinion.

Altering your hormones is serious and everyone has to be aware of that. I was determined to not let my hairloss go any further and take risks. I still may have some problems later on in life with it, who knows.

I did have a couple of side effects but they always got better and now have disappeared altogether. I was devastated at first when I found out that my stomach was too upset to handle finasteride. And that wasn't even a side effect ANYONE was reporting. Later on I had mild sexual ones as well as some ball ache occasionally. But I decided that it wouldn't kill me. And it hasn't. It went away.

But you have to give it time. My advise is this (and you can take it or leave it): start it slowly e.g. .25mg for a month. See how it goes. Increase the dose slowly. Over a prolonged time let your body adjust to lowering your DHT. I would recommend to not change around constantly. Do not start and stop and start again. This has had negative effects for some people. Allow your hormones to adjust slowly. Don't freak out and overthink it. There may be times when you have sides. don't panic. They will go away. I'm not saying continue no matter what. Be reasonable.

L-Arginin has helped me nicely. Use it if you need to (slowly again). Also Ginseng worked for me. I've been experimenting with some supplements but currently I don't need any really.

Good luck!

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 9 update!

I forgot to mention: today marks the 9th month of me using Finasteride. I didn't even talk about my hair. Why? because I'm not thinking about it 24/7. It keeps getting better. My bald spot is barely visible when the hair is not wet. Thank god for Finasteride. Or Merck. This is no salespitch, they (unfortunately) don't pay me anything. My best month so far. Good luck to y'all
Pics? soon, it's hard to really capture what's going on but I inspect it under harsh light often enough...

unk:

 

[Man in Space]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 9 update!

Great news keep it up dude

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 9 update!

Month 10, Photo update.
I switched to 1mg Proscar a day last month. I'm doing very good. Working out a lot at the moment. Still shedding over 100 hairs a day often. It doesn't seem to matter. I will continue treatment and hope for more thickening! Looks like it is doing something.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 9 update!

Some more as of today...I'll be turning 35 in June. If I get to keep what I have I'm more than happy!

 

[TravisB]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 10 update!

Man, you ar 35 and you have teenager's hair. You are one lucky bloke. Besides your bald spot (which you have restored with meds), your hair is perfect.

 

[Kirby]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 10 update!

Man, you ar 35 and you have teenager's hair. You are one lucky bloke. Besides your bald spot (which you have restored with meds), your hair is perfect.

^ Agree. I hope I'll have hair vaguely that good in five years time!

 

[gh05]

Re: My Big 3++ story...Month 10 update!

OP do you ever worry about having to take this stuff for the rest of your life?

catch up hair loss and all that...

you said you had low libido before - that still the case?

Hair looks great btw