panic, panic.. Is this male pattern baldness or temporary hair loss? Advice please!

[Brand_X]

Sorry, I've got about a hundred questions; I'll try to keep it brief-ish.
I'm now over 40 so a receding hairline is to be expected, but I'm now starting to notice thinning on top near the front which has got me worried.

Flashback: Five years ago I experienced thinning at the top-front and top-sides near the back which totally freaked me out, but then it kind of mostly filled back in again. I had been using Regaine about once every two days for a year and a half and it seemed to be working. Minoxidil makes my scalp itch (it feels like it's breaking out in spots when I use it) but I could live with that. However, it also seems to give me blood pressure/cardiovascular problems, which is a no-no since I'm on beta-blockers.

I stopped using the Regaine and curiously, nothing changed. So, I didn't worry about it again until recently.
Now I'm looking in the mirror and fretting about losing hair at the front. Damn. I just can't remember when it started. Was it just a couple of weeks ago or was I pretending not to notice for months? I was hit by a fairly impressive bout of throwing-up a couple of weeks ago and it took me a couple of days to recover. It's possible that the stress caused hair loss. I'm on the internet right now trying to find out more about how long it takes the hair to grow back. One site says it takes 3 months, but I don't want to sit around waiting that long and not doing anything!

Treatments I probably cannot use:

> Propecia or Finasteride. I tried these briefly. No chance, they screw with my body in a bad way.

> Minoxidil (Regaine). I haven't tried other brands but Regaine seems to affect my blood pressure. I might try again next week when my body is back to normal and I have a "base-line" I can test from.

> Anything else that affects blood pressure.


I would seriously consider hair transplanting but I'm not quite sure how good it is. As someone else said, if it worked so great, Nicholas Cage wouldn't need to wear a wig.
I'll read through the messageboard of course, but could anyone give me a quick list of best options? Is there really a cure for baldness on the way (as claimed in 2012 that it would happen as early as 2014..)? Does a hair transplant mean having a bald patch for ages? What's the word on getting it done in India - cheap and dangerous or cheap and safe? Is Nizoral shampoo any good? Is Caffeine shampoo useful? Is L'Oreal's "Kérastase Densifique" just another scam as I suspect?

At the moment I'm nervous to even take a shower.

 

[CarlJohanson]

It might be worth trying propecia again. I've read of guys getting on, getting sides, getting off then a few months/years later getting back on and being totally fine the second time round.

 

[Vlatch]

Nowadays, transplants can be really well done, a FUE transplant will leave no nasty scar and can look very natural if performed by a skilled surgeon. I don't know about indian doctors, it depends more on a specific surgeon than a country, look for testimonies of former patients, don't trust pictures you see on hair transplant clinic sites.

But there's always the risk of losing your hair behind the grafts in the future if you're not taking finasteride.

I guess Nicolas Cage ran out of available grafts years ago, hence the wigs !

About treatments, Nizoral has several studies proving it works against hair loss (to some extent), caffeine shampoo usually contains too little caffeine to be of any use and the Loreal thing is probably too expensive for the results it'll give you, but it's better than nothing.

A powerful anti-androgen with supposedly no side effect : RU58841, it was never approved neither for efficiency nor safety, yet it showed really positive results in animal studies and on random forum users (yay !).

You can also look into spironolactone cream and low level laser therapy, which both have a debatable impact on hair loss.

CB-03-01 should be available on the market in a few years, it's a topical anti-androgen that showed great results in clinical trials.

 

[EvilLocks]

First of all, consider yourself lucky to have kept a decent head of hair until past 40. There are guys here, and even girls like me, who doesn't even make it 'till their mid 20's with a decent head of hair. That said, losing hair is not a pleasant experience at any age, and I understand your concern. You say you can't (or won't) use Minoxidil or Finasteride, but if you have male pattern baldness your hair won't stand a fighting chance without these proven treatments. You can choose to accept your hair loss and move on, or you can get on The big 3. It sounds to me like you experienced some side effects using these treatments in the past, so I understand why you are hesitant to go on them again. You could look into transplants but since you don't wanna go on Finasteride there's always a chance you might end up looking like Wayne Rooney (his hair behind the transplant kept on thinning).

Lastly, no there is no cure for baldness on the way. There are some approaches to a cure that is currently being worked on, but they are not near the goal and if they succeed it will probably be years from now.

 

[Brand_X]

Thankyou Evillocks, Vlatch, and Carl.

I'd be willing to try finasteride again but the side effects for me were debilitating, and unless I can persuade a doctor to prescribe it (I'm in the UK btw) I'd have to pay full price and buy it through one of those phoney online clinics. I am hoping that I am just experiencing temporary hair loss; I looked up Telogen Effluvium and in the description it mentions that crash dieting can cause hair loss 2-3 months after the fact. Well, I haven't crash-dieted but 3 and a half months ago I quit sugar, which was a big change of diet for me. My calorie intake went down quite a lot - probably a drop of over 1000 calories per day. I'd say my total calorie intake remained at around 1800 - 2200 calories per day, but it was a significant change and maybe, just maybe it was a shock to my body.

Fingers crossed.

 

[CarlJohanson]

2200 to 1800 cal per day isnt really a big drop. Crash dieting can be a cause but dropping 400 cal isn't a crash diet. There are a few guys, myself included, who have reported first signs of male pattern baldness after losing a lot of weight. Im not sure if there is a connection though... However I'm pretty sure that hair loss after weight loss wont show up in the male pattern baldness pattern. It'll probably be all over your head. But I haven't done a huge amount of research into it.

 

[Brand_X]

No I didn't drop 400 cals a day, I dropped about 1000 cals a day - at a rough guess I'd say between 1000 - 1300. I don't know what my calorie intake was, but x2 chocolate bars a day plus cookies added up to around 1000 calories on their own, and on top of that the sugar made me feel hungry so I'd be snacking on savories too. On weekends I'd be eating donuts and danish's. I didn't keep track, but I may have cut down by as much as 10,000 calories per week.

My doctor is seldom much help but I think I'll make an appointment, maybe he can tell me something.

 

[CarlJohanson]

Ok that is a pretty big drop. But well done! Have you lost a lot of weight?
Also if you put up some pictures of you hair it will be a lot easier to tell whats going on.

 

[Brand_X]

Ok that is a pretty big drop. But well done! Have you lost a lot of weight?
Also if you put up some pictures of you hair it will be a lot easier to tell whats going on.

I would say not, but if I were to hazard a guess I'd say I've lost visceral fat (internal fat) which doesn't really show on the outside, so it could several more months before I get cosmetic benefits. I've gone down a belt size from 38" to 37" which is a start, but I won't be happy until I'm down to a 34". I might post pic of my hair later if I'm feeling brave; it's a lot easier to not look too closely.. just in case I see something.