Nighthawk's story - (38 and I'm finally losing)

[Nighthawk]

I'll post my pictures over 20 years if anyone is interested..
But here's my story

Even as a child I was "hair aware" starting off with the rock and Roll Brycreem hairstyles with the gang after Elvis died in "77" at the age of 9.

At 17 I went to the hair dresser and was told I was thinning in the front.."panic" mirror fixation, ordering books on hair loss, spending hours in the bathroom trying the Helsinki Formula-which I can still smell, rosemary rinse for dandruff and discovering Polytar Shampoo.

Polytar is an evil smelling coal tar based acidic shampoo, which I have been using for over 20 years..perhaps it reduced my hair loss, I think so but it certainly removed dandruff and seborrhoea and left the hair thick and clean.

At 18 I realised that that my hair loss was insignificant, a natural "slight seemed.. massive at the time "raising of the hairline that many experience at the end of puberty and with good hair care and the things I was trying at the time..the issue faded into insignificance I was actually complimeted on my hair...women no problem..
But only one hairstyle worked, which was ok

At 27 I stood in front of the mirror, after the shower, and suddenly the hairstyle from yesterday simply didn't work anymore..it's as fast as that. Then the mirror fixation began again, funny how you never look at your face, only your hairline...You're trying to relax and watch a video but find yourself getting up and going to the bathroom to check on your hair all the time.

So then Nioxin, Scalp Therapy, Conditioner. this sticky menthol burning substance, taking 20 minutes to wash out..and causing sebum to explode onto my head..

Ordering proscar from a greek pharmacy and cutting up the tablets..
Rogaine(Regaine) making the hair so greasy and impossible to style and no cure offering more than extreme shedding and no willingness to try what amounts to dangerous solutions for more than a couple of months.

So back to Polytar and no hair cosmetics..

Slow frontal recession until 35, nothing dramatic, but never happy with the hair but never desperately unhappy either..you adjust to your look ..women no real problem with respect to hair and confidence (Big problems for other reasons, but that's another story :lol: )

Then suddenly the hair style you've got used to, again overnight suddenly no longer works. Hair dressers, despite what you tell them, cut the areas
you want long and, leave the areas you want short..The look you want they can't give you so you're into cutting your own hair with your own equipment to reach the balence you want..with predictable results..

Hair gell, hair spray all together to "put it all into the position you can't find anymore" Nothing works...

So to cut my ramblings short, if anyone has got this far... I decided to order a four month supply of minoxidil in April and to use it religiously.

I've been rewarded with a truly amazing increase in hair loss during this time, but will carry in the asumption that what I'm losing, I would have lost anyway and maybe something will happen..

I've been better off than most..20 years after first noticing hair loss it's only now that I really have a problem. It's a mistake to panic too early and the young guys who are filling themselves up with Propecia and "God knows what" in the first realisation that something has changed..may not
have the problem they believe they have...

If I've learned anything it's that Hair loss is as unpredictable as everything else...and one does adjust to it to degrees...but never accepts it

Hawk

 

[Aplunk1]

This post really struck a chord with me.

I, too, have suffered the same reactions to my hairloss... I cannot enjoy day-to-day activities without first looking at my recession.

The days seem to melt together into a great misery.

I was afflicted with hairloss at 19, which was completely shocking. I thought I'd be losing hair well into my forties, just like my father and everyone else in the family.

I guess I was wrong.

As far as Rogaine goes, it definitely DOES cause shedding. But it's well worth it... Several months down the road you'll be glad you started using it, like I am.

My top and crown has thickened up substantially, but my hairline and temples are going into a shedding phase. I'm a bit worried because I see my future outline present.

My advice is to get back onto Proscar to prevent future loss.

As for me, if things don't work out on the hairline and temple front,

Ring... Ring... Doctor Armani?

 

[Nighthawk]

I was in a lot of Hair loss forums in 1997 and read up on a lot of experiences of guys who had tried everything around..

Apart from Dutasteride the names of the products are all the same in 2006 and the experiences as well..

It's a lottery some people will be lucky with what they try others won't

I don't fancy the idea of what propecia might do to me after 20 years of taking it..and no-one really knows.

If I can't accept my hair loss I'll get a transplant and forget the issue