Dear Forum members,
I am new to this Forum but I have already been lurking around on the German Forum "alopezie.de" for the last Year ... My user name there is "Remolan"
I got some Feedback *(also critical concerning my hair-obsession) to my personal story, became very educated about Hair, hormones, etc...
But there is still so much insecurity, so I'd like to tell my story once again- from a more educated point of view- hoping to get an even better understanding and maybe some of you find some things interesting.
First of all i have to explain my background (sorry it is gonna be a real long post):
My paternal grandfather had Perfect hair: very dense and low hairline and a full Head of hair until his death at 85 (he had some Temple recession about Norwood 2 but that didnt harm anything, his middle hairline was still completely full.**His father and Mother had no "real" male pattern baldness Symptoms either.
My father also had a very nice hairline, but got some male pattern baldness from His maternal grandfather who was halfway bald in his early 30ies. So my father has some "mixture" of both sides. He got small Temple recession by 24 (Norwood 1,5) at 30 He was Norwood 2-2,5 and Lost about 1/2 inch of his mid hairline but still with a full head of hair. The thinning started slowly at 33, so his male pattern baldness was far from aggressive.
At 50 He was a diffuse Norwood3 with a balding crown which became really obbious at about 55. Now at 78 He is a diffuse Norwood 5 (very thin Upper scalp) with good sides but a Big bald Spot in the crown.. Could be worse and his hair-story isnt too bad.
But unfortunately i have rather gotten my mothers hair-genes.
She had always got a nice head of hair- not "great" but very ok.
Her mother had the thickest hairline+structure i have ever seen (She came from a big French family where everyone had those incredible hair genes...there is a photo of a Family meeting- about 30 people and only two old men with thinned hair)
Unfortunately my mothers father (X-Chromosome..) had some ****-hair genes. He started off with a diffuse hairline and a very broad forehead. So he *never had this Side- Hair close to the eyebrows in the temporal area. I hope you know what i mean. He started receding early, unfortunately my grandfathers both never lived to know me, so i can just tell by looking at photographs.
At 25 He was definitely a Norwood 2-2,5 and at 30 a Norwood 3 with weak hair structure and thinning. Turned out to be a weak Norwood 4 at 40 and Norwood 6 at 60.
Besides my mother there were 2 sons. The younger one looked very similiar to the father and had got the same broad forehead (no Temple hair close to the eyebrows).
Turned out he got the exact same progression of male pattern baldness as the father.
The other son was born with nice blonde straight hair (which his father and male pattern baldness brother never had).
His hairline at the sides was nice too, quite close to the eyebrows.
He has some recession now at 65 but only Norwood2-2,5 still good hair density up there.
Unfortunately i have no idea what his mid front hairline looked like, because he always had His hair falling over it, now at 65 i noticed his recession /hairline thinning is similiar to my "weak area"...but his hair structure is stronger.
My brother was born with this Harry Potter-hair.. He got the great structure from the french maternal grandmother.
But he always had some temple recession (the side temple area, not frontal) -Norwood 1 but a broader upper forehead.
He got minimal recession starting at *18, nothing obbious until 23. Between 22 and 23 he got from Norwood 1,5 to a Norwood 2 (but a very good NW2) but starting slowly at 23,5 he started losing his great density in the Mid-frontal area. It wasnt noticeable until 25 where the general thinning of Mid-Front got obvious. Its mostly thinned out, hair structure is still quite strong.
He used to have dandruff and inflammation where he is thinning the most now..
(btw he looks very similiar to the younger maternal uncle with male pattern baldness.. The pattern of thinning and the mid frontal Hairline are very similiar. Also my brother had always got a similiar broad forehead, but better side Hair closer to the eyebrows).
*
So here's my "Story":
I just turned 21. I still have almost the same hair line as in my childhood/teens.
I was blonde as a child (like my uncle with the good hair) and turned dirty blonde- light brown in my teens (also similiar)
But: I always had 100% straight hair, fine structure and a rather weak density at the hairline (1/2 inch) from child on.
And what will be unusual to most of you: i have the opposite of a widows peak. Temple area is slightly lower than the middle of the hairline, the middle is very diffuse from child on (about 1,5 inches broad and 1 inch into the hairline)
The problem is: my maternal Grandfather had exactly the same appearance in the mid hairline... And He had Androgenetic Alopecia. So at the Age of 19 i freaked out i would have the same hair loss because of the phenotype i had in common with him...
Only my sides are very different: they are pretty close to my eyebrows- similiar to my mother and her brother who has the good hair.
At this time i had still got the same hairline as in childhood. Same height, same shape, same weak density. Only the bit of peach fuzz at the sides I had until 18 disappeared (2 milimeters)
But i did find some miniaturization at the Hairline and felt like losing more hair from the upper scalp than from the donor area.
I started taking fenugreek Powder and some Spirulina and started using natural shampoos and hoped...
Nothing changed until my 20ieth bithday. Still all in its place. I must say that I used the Oil called "remolan" for about 3 months almost every day and took Biotin and saw palmetto for 2 months.. But i doubt that this kind of "treatment" and especially the time were enough to avoid any thinning i might would have gotten before my 20ieth birthday.
I stressed myself so hard for almost one year.. Always taking Zoom-photographs etc...
Then i noticed weak shorter hairs all over my scalp (also the Donor area) which could be pulled out without effort.
Immediately i thought of Diffuse unpatterned alopecia.. Most of those weaker in-between-lengths were in the frontal area.
So, turned 20 I started with: MSM, Ginkgo Biloba, Base Powder (Dr Jacobs), wheatgrass, Iron 18mg and started making "Special Shampoos" with saw palmetto etc...
How ridiculous...even for a natural regimen rather ineffective i guess...
I *started with Spectral DNC for the hairline (only first 3/4 inch)
which has only caused increased Shedding till now ^^ (Start June 2012)
I spent hours, days, weeks googling for information about hair...
Middle of June 2012 I decided to try Finasteride 0,5-0,75mg 3 weeks on/1 week off.
No changes for 3 months, no thinning, no change in Shedding (between 60 and 85 hairs a day with exact washing combing etc)*
But starting with Finasteride caused me trichodynia and itching/inflammation which was never a problem before... I was worried and added Vitamin E 400i.e every other day in August 2012.
To improve my Regimen i decided to build myself a LLLT-device to treat my scalp 3 times a week. I started with 50 diodes on a handheld device in September 2012 (treated every Part of my scalp, that made 3 days a week, 8 zones, 15-20 minutes- took too much time and energy).
But in October the horror began: massive Shedding for 3 weeks with 150-220 hairs *a day... Very much (>30) only from the frontal area.
Then in November it calmed down to 60 and then even 30-40 hairs shed a day. There was no thinning still lol... I really made myself mad because of the excessive Shedding...thought it would all be over...
But no visible change of hairline or density (decrease in density only minimal and only detectable for myself in Zoom)
Then I added Flutamide by ******* to support only my hairline where i had been using Spectral DNC without Shedding stabilization.. The Shedding got normal. Mid November until New Years Eve were my greatest hair-weeks ever, i liked styling my hair like never *before, because the hair fall was very low and it looked nice for my Genetic standard... Never better.
But in February Shedding became worse again and starting in March I got that heavy Shedding again (110-170 hairs a day, more from top than from sides and Donor)
So i decided to buzz my hair and improve my regimen even more and try to destress...
Because my fear of hairloss has really made me Life-less, bored, inactive (When i had shedding Times or bad hair days i spent days-weeks at home doing research or whatever)
I even quit studying at university in 2012 because of my personal Obsession...
My "Plan" is to keep my hair but also to keep its priority lower... Because Life is out there and Life in fear or obsession is pure pain...
One more thing: i Even did a hair transplant for my mid hairline When i was 19 ( After my mother had died of colon cancer and f****Ing chemo therapy).. I was so naive... I wanted to overcome the relation to my maternal grandfathers hairline back then.
So i had my hairline lowered and density increased in Ankara (Istanbul).. It was a total desaster... The hairline was too low, grafts were wasted... In the end i didnt even get the dense middle hairline i always wanted.. Instead i got fibrosis and transplants looking like pubic hair. One year later i had a correction done by a German specialist. He took the Multigrafts (also wrong growth angle) and put most of them back or away... Then concentrated on the middle hairline- He put 250 grafts in 2x0,75 inches in the centre of the hairline, he said if the growth rate is high, the hairline should get really really dense..*
Problem was... The fibrosis (As the Doctor worried, too) prevented regrowth...
Since i'm using LLLT, the fibrosis is getting better and better... Hopefully Density still gets better now that the skin is healed... It basically robbed me 2 good hair years... Lets hope the hair behind stays dense for the dense hairline as i will dare to grow it out over Summer!!
So if you have made the effort to read all of this, please comment something if you feel like it
BTW. I will attach some photographs this Weekend, so you can get a picture... Or i can post the links from my photos at "alopezie.de".
Kind regards and keep fighting- for hair and anything else that feels important to you!
P.S.:
Sorry if my English is not clear enough, i hope everything makes sense ;-)
(i am from the same Country as Arnold Schwarzenegger)
I am new to this Forum but I have already been lurking around on the German Forum "alopezie.de" for the last Year ... My user name there is "Remolan"
I got some Feedback *(also critical concerning my hair-obsession) to my personal story, became very educated about Hair, hormones, etc...
But there is still so much insecurity, so I'd like to tell my story once again- from a more educated point of view- hoping to get an even better understanding and maybe some of you find some things interesting.
First of all i have to explain my background (sorry it is gonna be a real long post):
My paternal grandfather had Perfect hair: very dense and low hairline and a full Head of hair until his death at 85 (he had some Temple recession about Norwood 2 but that didnt harm anything, his middle hairline was still completely full.**His father and Mother had no "real" male pattern baldness Symptoms either.
My father also had a very nice hairline, but got some male pattern baldness from His maternal grandfather who was halfway bald in his early 30ies. So my father has some "mixture" of both sides. He got small Temple recession by 24 (Norwood 1,5) at 30 He was Norwood 2-2,5 and Lost about 1/2 inch of his mid hairline but still with a full head of hair. The thinning started slowly at 33, so his male pattern baldness was far from aggressive.
At 50 He was a diffuse Norwood3 with a balding crown which became really obbious at about 55. Now at 78 He is a diffuse Norwood 5 (very thin Upper scalp) with good sides but a Big bald Spot in the crown.. Could be worse and his hair-story isnt too bad.
But unfortunately i have rather gotten my mothers hair-genes.
She had always got a nice head of hair- not "great" but very ok.
Her mother had the thickest hairline+structure i have ever seen (She came from a big French family where everyone had those incredible hair genes...there is a photo of a Family meeting- about 30 people and only two old men with thinned hair)
Unfortunately my mothers father (X-Chromosome..) had some ****-hair genes. He started off with a diffuse hairline and a very broad forehead. So he *never had this Side- Hair close to the eyebrows in the temporal area. I hope you know what i mean. He started receding early, unfortunately my grandfathers both never lived to know me, so i can just tell by looking at photographs.
At 25 He was definitely a Norwood 2-2,5 and at 30 a Norwood 3 with weak hair structure and thinning. Turned out to be a weak Norwood 4 at 40 and Norwood 6 at 60.
Besides my mother there were 2 sons. The younger one looked very similiar to the father and had got the same broad forehead (no Temple hair close to the eyebrows).
Turned out he got the exact same progression of male pattern baldness as the father.
The other son was born with nice blonde straight hair (which his father and male pattern baldness brother never had).
His hairline at the sides was nice too, quite close to the eyebrows.
He has some recession now at 65 but only Norwood2-2,5 still good hair density up there.
Unfortunately i have no idea what his mid front hairline looked like, because he always had His hair falling over it, now at 65 i noticed his recession /hairline thinning is similiar to my "weak area"...but his hair structure is stronger.
My brother was born with this Harry Potter-hair.. He got the great structure from the french maternal grandmother.
But he always had some temple recession (the side temple area, not frontal) -Norwood 1 but a broader upper forehead.
He got minimal recession starting at *18, nothing obbious until 23. Between 22 and 23 he got from Norwood 1,5 to a Norwood 2 (but a very good NW2) but starting slowly at 23,5 he started losing his great density in the Mid-frontal area. It wasnt noticeable until 25 where the general thinning of Mid-Front got obvious. Its mostly thinned out, hair structure is still quite strong.
He used to have dandruff and inflammation where he is thinning the most now..
(btw he looks very similiar to the younger maternal uncle with male pattern baldness.. The pattern of thinning and the mid frontal Hairline are very similiar. Also my brother had always got a similiar broad forehead, but better side Hair closer to the eyebrows).
*
So here's my "Story":
I just turned 21. I still have almost the same hair line as in my childhood/teens.
I was blonde as a child (like my uncle with the good hair) and turned dirty blonde- light brown in my teens (also similiar)
But: I always had 100% straight hair, fine structure and a rather weak density at the hairline (1/2 inch) from child on.
And what will be unusual to most of you: i have the opposite of a widows peak. Temple area is slightly lower than the middle of the hairline, the middle is very diffuse from child on (about 1,5 inches broad and 1 inch into the hairline)
The problem is: my maternal Grandfather had exactly the same appearance in the mid hairline... And He had Androgenetic Alopecia. So at the Age of 19 i freaked out i would have the same hair loss because of the phenotype i had in common with him...
Only my sides are very different: they are pretty close to my eyebrows- similiar to my mother and her brother who has the good hair.
At this time i had still got the same hairline as in childhood. Same height, same shape, same weak density. Only the bit of peach fuzz at the sides I had until 18 disappeared (2 milimeters)
But i did find some miniaturization at the Hairline and felt like losing more hair from the upper scalp than from the donor area.
I started taking fenugreek Powder and some Spirulina and started using natural shampoos and hoped...
Nothing changed until my 20ieth bithday. Still all in its place. I must say that I used the Oil called "remolan" for about 3 months almost every day and took Biotin and saw palmetto for 2 months.. But i doubt that this kind of "treatment" and especially the time were enough to avoid any thinning i might would have gotten before my 20ieth birthday.
I stressed myself so hard for almost one year.. Always taking Zoom-photographs etc...
Then i noticed weak shorter hairs all over my scalp (also the Donor area) which could be pulled out without effort.
Immediately i thought of Diffuse unpatterned alopecia.. Most of those weaker in-between-lengths were in the frontal area.
So, turned 20 I started with: MSM, Ginkgo Biloba, Base Powder (Dr Jacobs), wheatgrass, Iron 18mg and started making "Special Shampoos" with saw palmetto etc...
How ridiculous...even for a natural regimen rather ineffective i guess...
I *started with Spectral DNC for the hairline (only first 3/4 inch)
which has only caused increased Shedding till now ^^ (Start June 2012)
I spent hours, days, weeks googling for information about hair...
Middle of June 2012 I decided to try Finasteride 0,5-0,75mg 3 weeks on/1 week off.
No changes for 3 months, no thinning, no change in Shedding (between 60 and 85 hairs a day with exact washing combing etc)*
But starting with Finasteride caused me trichodynia and itching/inflammation which was never a problem before... I was worried and added Vitamin E 400i.e every other day in August 2012.
To improve my Regimen i decided to build myself a LLLT-device to treat my scalp 3 times a week. I started with 50 diodes on a handheld device in September 2012 (treated every Part of my scalp, that made 3 days a week, 8 zones, 15-20 minutes- took too much time and energy).
But in October the horror began: massive Shedding for 3 weeks with 150-220 hairs *a day... Very much (>30) only from the frontal area.
Then in November it calmed down to 60 and then even 30-40 hairs shed a day. There was no thinning still lol... I really made myself mad because of the excessive Shedding...thought it would all be over...
But no visible change of hairline or density (decrease in density only minimal and only detectable for myself in Zoom)
Then I added Flutamide by ******* to support only my hairline where i had been using Spectral DNC without Shedding stabilization.. The Shedding got normal. Mid November until New Years Eve were my greatest hair-weeks ever, i liked styling my hair like never *before, because the hair fall was very low and it looked nice for my Genetic standard... Never better.
But in February Shedding became worse again and starting in March I got that heavy Shedding again (110-170 hairs a day, more from top than from sides and Donor)
So i decided to buzz my hair and improve my regimen even more and try to destress...
Because my fear of hairloss has really made me Life-less, bored, inactive (When i had shedding Times or bad hair days i spent days-weeks at home doing research or whatever)
I even quit studying at university in 2012 because of my personal Obsession...
My "Plan" is to keep my hair but also to keep its priority lower... Because Life is out there and Life in fear or obsession is pure pain...
One more thing: i Even did a hair transplant for my mid hairline When i was 19 ( After my mother had died of colon cancer and f****Ing chemo therapy).. I was so naive... I wanted to overcome the relation to my maternal grandfathers hairline back then.
So i had my hairline lowered and density increased in Ankara (Istanbul).. It was a total desaster... The hairline was too low, grafts were wasted... In the end i didnt even get the dense middle hairline i always wanted.. Instead i got fibrosis and transplants looking like pubic hair. One year later i had a correction done by a German specialist. He took the Multigrafts (also wrong growth angle) and put most of them back or away... Then concentrated on the middle hairline- He put 250 grafts in 2x0,75 inches in the centre of the hairline, he said if the growth rate is high, the hairline should get really really dense..*
Problem was... The fibrosis (As the Doctor worried, too) prevented regrowth...
Since i'm using LLLT, the fibrosis is getting better and better... Hopefully Density still gets better now that the skin is healed... It basically robbed me 2 good hair years... Lets hope the hair behind stays dense for the dense hairline as i will dare to grow it out over Summer!!
So if you have made the effort to read all of this, please comment something if you feel like it
BTW. I will attach some photographs this Weekend, so you can get a picture... Or i can post the links from my photos at "alopezie.de".
Kind regards and keep fighting- for hair and anything else that feels important to you!
P.S.:
Sorry if my English is not clear enough, i hope everything makes sense ;-)
(i am from the same Country as Arnold Schwarzenegger)