My story - oldmpber (47)

[oldmpber]

I am 47 and noticed the first signs up male pattern baldness when I was 17. It was VERY slow and took about 10 years for me to become a NW2 and then it just stopped at age 26.

I thought I was done with male pattern baldness then at 36 I found my crown was starting to thin. minoxidil alone was not enough so I added finasteride. finasteride worked better than I expected but after a few years I got some serious sides and had to stop. By that time my loss had come to a crawl and minoxidil alone was enough to control it.

Now fast forward to late last year when it looks like I may be seeing gradual loss again. I think it's at my hairline and upper left corner of my crown-Weird I know- anyone ever heard of male pattern baldness spreading like that? You can see what I am talking about in the photo.


And for unrelated health reasons I temporarily stopped minoxidil for about 3 months and lost gobs of hair.It was shocking how much I lost. I was also put on a medication that can accelerate hair loss, so between these 3 events I have lost a lot of hair since the fall. So I am trying to recover it the best I can with just minoxidil. It appears that my loss has stabilized but I can tell I have lost density in the crown and my hairline has receded more for sure. I am tempted to see if I can get away with using finasteride once a week, but I wanted to put up some baseline photos so I can see how I do on just minoxidil for awhile and then decide later. Thanks for looking...

 

[oldmpber]

Updated pics some regrowth but miniaturized

A few new photos that I believe show some regrowth. All from last day or so and all are air dried hair. Not sure why but if I let my hair air dry , it shows my loss areas better. In 1 or 2 I pulled the hair away from vertex to show area better. I always try to show max loss for pics.

My problem is while I can see some regrowth from the huge fall out I had a few months ago, the hair appears to coming back as thin miniaturized hair. So I don't know yet if it's coming back to normal hair or on the way out to baldness.

On the fence on finasteride. I had big sides and feel the best in years right now. But if I keep getting more miniaturization , I may try it at like 2x a week at a lower dose (thanks to you guys that recommended that and how to do it.)

 

[oldmpber]

More &^^%$ signs so finasteride begin 5-20-12

Area around crown shows a lot of miniaturization. Already knew that but today new pic shows that it appears to be starting to spread down the right side of my head like a higher Norwood. It's not much yet but you can see the dip starting. I could already see where it was spreading up to my hairline and now this. Whats up with it being only the right side ? Anyway it appears to be getting worse not better so started on low dose of finasteride.

Will ramp up to avoid sides- 2x a week max for now.

Found it very hard to make .5 dose so will have to figure out a better system.

Will be perfectly happy with halt of progression-if I get that without sides will be thrilled.

Will give it a fair chance, but oh do I hope I am not making a big mistake!

finasteride begin on 5-20-12

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

I wish you luck in getting that hair back. I think stopping products too sudden is always a no-go. It is scary.

Have you ever considered dutasteride instead of finasteride? Some people report less sides than on finasteride. I know it is scary, but if nothing halts my hairloss I might even try dutasteride.

Also, I would think you are a great candidate for Dermatch or Toppick.

Good luck!

 

[oldmpber]

Now starting second week of finasteride.
2 things of note for the first week:

I did start feeling tired towards the end of the week and it has persisted to even now. This could be due to medications as this has happened before I was on finasteride, though it "seems" to be worse than before.

Slightly dull in the feelings dept. I have heard this is normal and will go away.


So continuing treatment and have a fresh batch of 1mg on the way. Just too hard to cut down the 5mg pills consistently. Plus I can go to a even lower dose if needed.

 

[oldmpber]

I wish you luck in getting that hair back. I think stopping products too sudden is always a no-go. It is scary.

Have you ever considered dutasteride instead of finasteride? Some people report less sides than on finasteride. I know it is scary, but if nothing halts my hairloss I might even try dutasteride.

Also, I would think you are a great candidate for Dermatch or Toppick.

Good luck!

No- I have never heard that about dutasteride..will keep that in mind if I can't tolerate finasteride. Thanks for letting me know . Hopefully the lower dose will not give me sides this time, but at least I have a backup now.

Believe it or not I still have enough hair to get by without the sprays. Like you mentioned on your blog, I try to spread it away from my crown for the pics so to show max loss . Since a few months ago when I lost a lot of hair, it has become much harder to do and I won't be able to do it much longer -thats why I am taking last shot at finasteride..and now maybe dutasteride if finasteride is problematic.
Crossing fingers...

Thanks for the comments and hope you things keep going great for you!!!

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Yes, it is Dutasteride. You can read on this forum about it. It is stronger, blocks more DHT, and inhibits both type 1 and type 2 5-alpha reductase (the enzyme) that converts testosterone into DHT. That's as far as I know

It is stronger and people are more afraid of it. It is sort of a last weapon if all else fails for some. Others would never touch it, but it is good to keep it in mind. I would try it, if finasteride stops working for me.

I think that you will do fine on finasteride. You can always start at a very low dose and work your way up. Try not to think about it too much, I think the most common side of finasteride is fear. It is still a powerful drug.

Good luck and keep posting.

Check out Bernstein medical center's before and after pics for some motivation! unk:

 

[oldmpber]

Yes, it is Dutasteride. You can read on this forum about it. It is stronger, blocks more DHT, and inhibits both type 1 and type 2 5-alpha reductase (the enzyme) that converts testosterone into DHT. That's as far as I know

It is stronger and people are more afraid of it. It is sort of a last weapon if all else fails for some. Others would never touch it, but it is good to keep it in mind. I would try it, if finasteride stops working for me.

I think that you will do fine on finasteride. You can always start at a very low dose and work your way up. Try not to think about it too much, I think the most common side of finasteride is fear. It is still a powerful drug.

Good luck and keep posting.

Check out Bernstein medical center's before and after pics for some motivation! unk:

Oh I am sorry I think I misunderstood you. I though you meant use dutasteride if I get sides from finasteride. I have seen dutasteride in action on another family member that was using it for BPH. He crown spot reversed very quickly so yea the stuff works really well at least for some people.

I am just hoping my tiredness that has persisted almost a week now is not due to finasteride. There are 2 other possible medical reasons for this and I am trying to narrow it down now. I am NOT giving up yet, if anything I will reduce my dose... Thanks. and continued good luck to you...