Blessed99
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Hello All,
First off I would like to introduce myself. I am new to the forum, however, I've been a visitor here for years as for the past few years I've been experiencing horrible hair loss. I am a 25 year old black male living in New York City. I would say that I started noticing my hair loss around the age of 21 but when I look at older pictures I can see that I began thinning around 20 and my hairline had even started to slightly recede at about 18/19. I never paid attention to my hair when my hair first began receding because I was young and never imagined that I would've started experiencing male pattern baldness at such an early age. However, I do remember family and friends would tell me that I was going bald when I was about 20/21 but I thought they we're joking since I was a very good looking guy and everyone knew I took pride in my appearance.
In 2011 I was 21 and had slight thinning in the top middle of my head and slight recession of the temples so I decided to consult with a hair restoration surgeon. The surgeon said I was way too young for a hair transplant, that I had a mature hairline, and was very handsome and did not need a hair transplant. She told me to wait a year and see what happened.
A year went by and it was now 2012, my hairline receded more and the hair on top became thinner and I was desperately looking into having a hair transplant. I decided to consult with Dr. Robert Bernstein (who is a great doctor FYI) and he also said I was way too young for a transplant. He prescribed me generic Finasteride 5 mg (which would be split into 4ths) and recommended that I use foam minoxidil in the morning and liquid minoxidil at night.
I filled my generic Finasteride and began taking the minoxidil immediately, also using Nizoral to shampoo my hair. Within about two months I had little hairs popping up all over my head and even on my hairline. After a few more weeks my hair grew in really even and even my hairline came back. At the age of 22 I had a better hairline than I did at 19. The hair regrowth was amazing, I had regained all of my confidence and was extremely satisfied. I had great compliments on my hair and got a lot of attention from females again. I did not experience ANY negative sides from using generic Finasteride or Minoxidil. The only side I did notice was that at times it would take me a little longer to ejaculate during sex (once it took me 3 hours to finish) but other than that, sexual life was normal and active.
About a year after my amazing regrowth, I moved and decided to refill my generic Finasteride at another pharmacy (BIG MISTAKE). Immediately I noticed the pill was different because of the size and the shape but I didn't think it mattered since it was the same active ingredient. Within days of taking the new Finasteride, I began having testicular pain, little to no sex drive, and extremely weak erections. I figured this was all in my head and things would get better. Within weeks the hair that I had regrew started to shed drastically and I was going back to base one but I continued with the same regimen. The sexual sides became bad to the point where I could not ejaculate anymore and when I'd orgasm, nothing at all would come out. I got scared and decided to visit Dr. Bernstein and he told me to stop taking the Finasteride and I quit immediately.
After quitting, my sexual sides remained. For about two months I could not ejaculate during an orgasm, it was pretty freaky, so I visited my physician. I explained everything to him and he said he would give me testosterone therapy but first he checked out my levels and they were average. He did not give me testosterone therapy and told me to wait another month and see if things got better, which it did. My sex drive came back 100%.
For the next year I was using Kirkland Minoxidil, rotating between the liquid and foam which I bought on eBay, and Nizoral. I developed a horrible rash (probably scalp psoriasis) on the top of my scalp where I applied the Minoxidil. I also noticed after using Nizoral my hair would look EXTREMELY thin to the point where you can see my scalp. I quit Nizoral and switched to Rogaine's liquid Minoxidil. The scalp psoriasis went away but I do not have the growth that I did with Kirkland's liquid Minoxidil.
January 2015 I decided to give Finasteride a shot since I had such amazing results from 2012-2013 before I switched pharmacies. The pill looked exactly the same as the suspicious one I took in 2013 that ruined my results but since it was from my original pharmacy I gave it a shot. Once again, I lost all regrowth I had with Minoxidil, the bad sexual sides returned and my hair looks HORRIBLE. Last month I went to my physician and he prescribed me the brand name Propecia and I've been taking that ever since, just Monday - Friday but not on weekends.
I'm not sure if it's been the liquid Rogaine or the Finasteride/Propecia but my hair is just even more thin than before and my scalp is showing and it looks pretty terrible. It's so bad I do not even have a social life anymore because I try to avoid my friend's as much as possible so they don't see what happened to me. I do not go outside without a hat and I'm sinking into a depressive state.
The good news is that since switching from generic Finasteride to Propecia, the bad sexual sides have subsided and I don't have brain fog now like I did when I took generic Finasteride. I decided to dump the liquid Minoxidil overall and just use the foam from now on. My question is, being that I was such a great responder in 2012-2013 before switching to that bad batch of generic Finasteride, and now I am on brand name Propecia, is there any shot for having great results again? Please let me know guys, thanks.
Sorry for such the long post, this is something that's been on my chest for years and I needed to get it off. Thanks again!
First off I would like to introduce myself. I am new to the forum, however, I've been a visitor here for years as for the past few years I've been experiencing horrible hair loss. I am a 25 year old black male living in New York City. I would say that I started noticing my hair loss around the age of 21 but when I look at older pictures I can see that I began thinning around 20 and my hairline had even started to slightly recede at about 18/19. I never paid attention to my hair when my hair first began receding because I was young and never imagined that I would've started experiencing male pattern baldness at such an early age. However, I do remember family and friends would tell me that I was going bald when I was about 20/21 but I thought they we're joking since I was a very good looking guy and everyone knew I took pride in my appearance.
In 2011 I was 21 and had slight thinning in the top middle of my head and slight recession of the temples so I decided to consult with a hair restoration surgeon. The surgeon said I was way too young for a hair transplant, that I had a mature hairline, and was very handsome and did not need a hair transplant. She told me to wait a year and see what happened.
A year went by and it was now 2012, my hairline receded more and the hair on top became thinner and I was desperately looking into having a hair transplant. I decided to consult with Dr. Robert Bernstein (who is a great doctor FYI) and he also said I was way too young for a transplant. He prescribed me generic Finasteride 5 mg (which would be split into 4ths) and recommended that I use foam minoxidil in the morning and liquid minoxidil at night.
I filled my generic Finasteride and began taking the minoxidil immediately, also using Nizoral to shampoo my hair. Within about two months I had little hairs popping up all over my head and even on my hairline. After a few more weeks my hair grew in really even and even my hairline came back. At the age of 22 I had a better hairline than I did at 19. The hair regrowth was amazing, I had regained all of my confidence and was extremely satisfied. I had great compliments on my hair and got a lot of attention from females again. I did not experience ANY negative sides from using generic Finasteride or Minoxidil. The only side I did notice was that at times it would take me a little longer to ejaculate during sex (once it took me 3 hours to finish) but other than that, sexual life was normal and active.
About a year after my amazing regrowth, I moved and decided to refill my generic Finasteride at another pharmacy (BIG MISTAKE). Immediately I noticed the pill was different because of the size and the shape but I didn't think it mattered since it was the same active ingredient. Within days of taking the new Finasteride, I began having testicular pain, little to no sex drive, and extremely weak erections. I figured this was all in my head and things would get better. Within weeks the hair that I had regrew started to shed drastically and I was going back to base one but I continued with the same regimen. The sexual sides became bad to the point where I could not ejaculate anymore and when I'd orgasm, nothing at all would come out. I got scared and decided to visit Dr. Bernstein and he told me to stop taking the Finasteride and I quit immediately.
After quitting, my sexual sides remained. For about two months I could not ejaculate during an orgasm, it was pretty freaky, so I visited my physician. I explained everything to him and he said he would give me testosterone therapy but first he checked out my levels and they were average. He did not give me testosterone therapy and told me to wait another month and see if things got better, which it did. My sex drive came back 100%.
For the next year I was using Kirkland Minoxidil, rotating between the liquid and foam which I bought on eBay, and Nizoral. I developed a horrible rash (probably scalp psoriasis) on the top of my scalp where I applied the Minoxidil. I also noticed after using Nizoral my hair would look EXTREMELY thin to the point where you can see my scalp. I quit Nizoral and switched to Rogaine's liquid Minoxidil. The scalp psoriasis went away but I do not have the growth that I did with Kirkland's liquid Minoxidil.
January 2015 I decided to give Finasteride a shot since I had such amazing results from 2012-2013 before I switched pharmacies. The pill looked exactly the same as the suspicious one I took in 2013 that ruined my results but since it was from my original pharmacy I gave it a shot. Once again, I lost all regrowth I had with Minoxidil, the bad sexual sides returned and my hair looks HORRIBLE. Last month I went to my physician and he prescribed me the brand name Propecia and I've been taking that ever since, just Monday - Friday but not on weekends.
I'm not sure if it's been the liquid Rogaine or the Finasteride/Propecia but my hair is just even more thin than before and my scalp is showing and it looks pretty terrible. It's so bad I do not even have a social life anymore because I try to avoid my friend's as much as possible so they don't see what happened to me. I do not go outside without a hat and I'm sinking into a depressive state.
The good news is that since switching from generic Finasteride to Propecia, the bad sexual sides have subsided and I don't have brain fog now like I did when I took generic Finasteride. I decided to dump the liquid Minoxidil overall and just use the foam from now on. My question is, being that I was such a great responder in 2012-2013 before switching to that bad batch of generic Finasteride, and now I am on brand name Propecia, is there any shot for having great results again? Please let me know guys, thanks.
Sorry for such the long post, this is something that's been on my chest for years and I needed to get it off. Thanks again!