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

[WillNotLetItHappen]

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.

Well thank you very much! I don't know about teenager's hair but relatively speaking I'm doing ok. The affected area is quite large so I'd be going bald in an ugly way I think. I'm glad I could somewhat postpone that. Let's see what the future holds...

Good luck to you.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

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!

Do you now? Then you stand good chances! I wish you luck with that!

Thank you for the kind comment.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

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

Well I don't think I will have to. I don't think there will be a perfect solution but there will be things to postpone the evil for some more time. I'm afraid I will have to wait for another 10-15 yrs. But by then I'm 50 yrs old. Who knows what's out there by then?

Libido is not where I was 5 yrs ago. But it wasn't a year before finasteride either. Hard to say. L-Arginin definitely does something for me in terms of keeping things working normal and improving things! It has always worked even without L-Arginin. I just notice a big difference in terms of (lots of) alcohol and sex. This used to be the recipe for most of my adventures. Nowadays I'm completely out of the game if I drink. Takes for ever and I feel nothing. But that is after years of lots of alcohol. So I doubt it is finasteride alone!

Other than that no problem. Nothing I would stop finasteride over and know if it has to do with finasteride necessarily. I'm almost 35 and haven't necessarily been living a very healthy lifestyle for the past 15 yrs...

Thanks for the comment! Good luck to you!

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

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

Ok....MONTH 11 update.

Almost a complete year is over. It is interesting for me to read what I wrote over the months.

What can I say? It's been a long and hard journey so far. I realize that I'm better off than a lot of people hairwise for my age. And it looks like it will stay that way for some time more.

Is it a success? I think it is too early to tell. I have been on 0.5mg of finasteride for 9mths. Only in the last two months I went up to 1mg for good. Been constantly on finasteride for 11 months now though. Foam AM and liquid PM too.

What has changed? The hair quality has changed for sure. It seems a little thicker in the back and much thicker in the front. The front is very thick and it doesn't look like I'm losing on the hairline. In fact I have some hairs growing where there was no hair before. So actual regrowth and thickening.

The hair in the back is worrying me more. I have thickened I guess. It is easy to conceal my balding spot and it almost looks like normal when I style it with wax. When I look at my hair under harsh light, you can easily see how it is not as evenly spaced and further apart than at the sides. I believe there is still some thickening on the way but it is close to a year now that I take meds. I seriously think and hope that the full effects of finasteride in my case (and in most) take longer to work. I am not sure if I'm losing ground though.

Shedding: I still regularly and consistently lose 80 to 120 hairs just when I wash my hair. Can this be normal? I don't get it. I know I shouldn't count and have gotten better at not doing it. But still. It is worrying me. While the number of hairs lost has gotten much smaller than at the beginning it is still so much hair. I never come down to like 40 or something. Never. Still I don't really see that I'm losing ground. Shedding has always been my problem and it continues to be. Has my hairloss just slowed or has it stopped? Sometimes I also seem to lose more easily in the back versus no hair in the front. There is much less miniturized hair I lose than at the beginning. I know that what counts is what stays on my head not what I lose. But...you know how it is.

I truly think that finasteride is working, I just don't know if it is strong enough. I added a multivitamin and Biotin recently. We'll see maybe it helps too. I wish I could bring down the shedding to something "normal". Now I'm just not sure if it is working well enough. I will continue because I don't think results have peaked. The hair on the hairline is also only very very very slowly turning terminal. Also when I comb my hair back wet it looks a bit thicker I think.

I will try to not be hair-greedy as I expect something like full recovery. If I get to keep what I got, I should be more than happy. The 10 year finasteride study and some anecdotes give me hope. I stay with my regimen. Damn, I wish I could be sure. I will be back at my derm soon, maybe he can have a look...

Hang in guys...

 

[irishpride86]

Pics???

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Pics coming soon...I don't think there is much new to see.

I must be in a shed at the moment, damn I'm losing so much hair and it feels like the back is lighter. I don't know, maybe I'm just freaking out but I'm definitely losing too much hair now. Maybe it is because I go out too much :whistle:

11 month-shed?

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Ok friends, here come the Month 11 pics. I try to take the pics under the worst possible conditions - the brightest light I can find in my bathroom plus flash. Also I style the hair to make the balding spot the most revealing and apparent possible.

It has been so easy to deny hairloss and fool myself for far too long before taking action. I will not make that mistake again.

As mentioned I'm in a shed phase right now. I'm losing 150 or something during washing alone. It is pretty much all thick and non-miniturized hair. I don't know what to make of it but for some reason I'm not panicking. It is scary but I just hope finasteride is doing its work. The next 6 months will be very interesting. I haven't seen the compelling results some people have on finasteride and minoxidil, but I'm fairly confident that I have maintained and thickened in some places. Maybe my hair cycles slower. The change in hair quality of the hair lost is interesting. I think this has a meaning.

Anyway here it goes (will post comparison pics soon):

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Will post styled pics soon. I can still hide it to the uneducated eye, and even to most educated I guess. I don't know if there is anything new to see in comparison to the older pics but I guess that's good. Pics are also very very hard to judge unless you are really bald and see lots of progress.

I just watched the Spencer Kobren episode on PFS. Quite intersting and encouraging. Let's get hormones checked and play with the dose.

 

[oldmpber]

Hairline looks great! Crown is still better than when you started.
You may be just going through a normal shed. The first time I was on finasteride I went though sheds even long after I had good regrowth. I have a pic where my crown temporarily got bigger during this time and then it went back good again. Tug of war I guess.

Also the men in my family advance faster in the crown than up front. You may be the same way..if so just make sure to hit the back with lots of minoxidil.

 

[gh05]

Ok friends, here come the Month 11 pics. I try to take the pics under the worst possible conditions - the brightest light I can find in my bathroom plus flash. Also I style the hair to make the balding spot the most revealing and apparent possible.

It has been so easy to deny hairloss and fool myself for far too long before taking action. I will not make that mistake again.

As mentioned I'm in a shed phase right now. I'm losing 150 or something during washing alone. It is pretty much all thick and non-miniturized hair. I don't know what to make of it but for some reason I'm not panicking. It is scary but I just hope finasteride is doing its work. The next 6 months will be very interesting. I haven't seen the compelling results some people have on finasteride and minoxidil, but I'm fairly confident that I have maintained and thickened in some places. Maybe my hair cycles slower. The change in hair quality of the hair lost is interesting. I think this has a meaning.

Anyway here it goes (will post comparison pics soon):

I find it amazing the difference in the first two pics...you say theyre styled the same just different angles bit in the 1st i would just thik it was your crown and not balding...in the second i can see the balding.

dry it looks undetectable.

It's weird because mine looks less detectable and thicker wet and worse dry. wtf

 

[TanbarkBellss]

Dude your hair looks great! It even looked good before you started. I'm 24 and i wish i had your hair.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Hairline looks great! Crown is still better than when you started.
You may be just going through a normal shed. The first time I was on finasteride I went though sheds even long after I had good regrowth. I have a pic where my crown temporarily got bigger during this time and then it went back good again. Tug of war I guess.

Also the men in my family advance faster in the crown than up front. You may be the same way..if so just make sure to hit the back with lots of minoxidil.

Thank you, I hope you are right. Losing tons of non-miniaturized hair. It's interesting. I will keep fighting and not change my regimen. I want to give it at least 1.5-2 yrs to see the full effect. The hairline is developing so nicely. But that was never the problem. I seem to lose them in the back mostly. Maybe I even need to ramp up the finasteride dose...

Just looked at your story...seems like we have a similar loss...only you are 12 yrs older. Keep it up!

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

I find it amazing the difference in the first two pics...you say theyre styled the same just different angles bit in the 1st i would just thik it was your crown and not balding...in the second i can see the balding.

dry it looks undetectable.

It's weird because mine looks less detectable and thicker wet and worse dry. wtf

Yes one is just with the hair in the direction of growth, the second pic is with the hair slicked back. It is visible when it is wet, but a year ago, I didn't think that was balding. I'm more educated through this forum now...

Interesting that your hair can look worse dry. I think styling also matters a lot. I now wash my hair daily and use wax since gel makes it look to thin now :-(

Good luck!

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Dude your hair looks great! It even looked good before you started. I'm 24 and i wish i had your hair.

Thank you, it's all relative I know. But even if my front is thick now it will not matter if I have a big hole in the back, it would still look bad. I'm fairly certain that I will not go for the horseshoe even if I stopped treatments, but it would still look weird...

I'm glad I found this site and an experienced dermatologist. I'm glad there is finasteride even though my libido sucks.. :whistle:

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Comparison pics, as good as I can get them...Crown

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Comparison pics...Hairline.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Your hair does look good, alot of people would love to have hair like you.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Going through increased shedding at the moment. We'll see how much longer I can hold on to that hair in the back. I never seem to lose less than 80-100 hairs. Now it's surely 100-120 hairs or more the occasional day. How can you seemingly get better while losing that much hair? I wonder if finasteride is enough to halt the hairloss or if it just slows it down. Maybe I need to ramp up my regimen in a few months?! Scared...

 

[MGZ]

Why hasn't this been moved?

 

[MadMartigan]

WIllnotletithappen:

Thank's for your support. I haw now answered - almost a year later. Shame on me!

Your hair has improved!

Best Regards,

Madmartigan

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Why hasn't this been moved?

Thanks, I agree. To the "Shedding Forum". :dunno:

Shedding still contines, 150 hairs today during shampooing alone.Damn. WTF?