Stu85's story - (updated - page 3 - 06/07)

[Stu85]

Howdy folks, been on here for a while but never got round to posting 'my story'.

Anyway, up until last spring I used to have quite short hair and this must have masked my hair loss. It wasn't until i started to grow it longer that I noticed the foul, depraved, pitiless evil that is male pattern baldness. :-x I'm 21 and after looking back at pictures from the last few years, I'd guess the hair loss probably started at around 18/19 - but it's hard to tell - I'm pretty camera shy at the best of times, so there ain't too many close ups to analyse for thinning.

I was also lulled into a false sense of "it'll never happen to me" because my father who is 64 has a perfect hairline! Though he has considerable thinning and a rapidly growing bald spot that only started once he reached about 50, his hairline is quite possibly better than mine! But it seems he's lucky, his brother has very little hair left. And on my mum's side, my uncle who is about 45 is rapidly losing hair, but i don't know when he started losing it.

So, in November - after having read up about male pattern baldness and the possible treatments - I went to see my utterly useless doctor who, despite being bald, was totally unsympathetic. And clueless about male pattern baldness. Anyway I got him to prescribe me Propecia after having to pretty much tell him about how the damn drug worked! Sheesh.

I've now been on it for just over 3 months and haven't really noticed much difference, but I'm prepared to give it at least another 3 or 4 before adding anything to my regimen. I'm also prepared to try dutasteride, as I'm not very confident about my looks and I really don't want to lose my hair. Man, I'll do pretty much f*****g anything (that is known to work of course). I'm a real skinny guy and never suited short hair, god knows why i had it so short for so long, my skull shape ain't pretty.

All these pics are from November when I first start finasteride, except the last two. I realised I never took pics of the hairline from the front, so I added these I took a few weeks ago. I dread to think what Norwood I am, I'm guessing it's probably approaching a 3, if it isn't already.

A part of me dies everytime I see this... :cry:

Doesn't look too bad from the front, but I don't have enough for a fringe...

Notice the difference the lighting makes... it looks worse in the artificial light....but looks deceptively thick in the daylight

 

[dietcola]

you're right it does look quite thick in some lighting conditions. i would say you are luck that your hairstyle hides alof of the thinning, but you won't be able to keep that hairstyle up for long if your hair doesn't respond to treatment.

keep up with the finasteride, i would add minoxidil if i were you as well.

 

[Stu85]

Thanks for the reply dietcola. Yep, you're right, if I want to keep my hair long I cannot afford to lose any more!

I want to be careful about starting minoxidil because I know once I'm on it I'm stuck on it until, a, I choose to go bald, b, something more permanant comes along, or c, it fails to work. Plus I've had enough shedding problems with the finasteride as it is! I know you could say I'm stuck on finasteride as it is, but popping pills every day isn't too difficult compared to how I fear applying minoxidil could be.

Anyway, I'd like to see how I respond to the finasteride. I was very tempted to buy some Rogain foam the other day, but if I do that I'm not going to know how I respond to the finasteride. But god, it is tempting. And I may yet get too impatient for results and add minoxidil.

This is sort of how my plan is looking:

1. Take finasteride + Nizoral. If it works, stay on it until i lose ground, and then move to 2.
2. If finasteride doesn't work from the beginning or stops working at some point in the future, start Dutasteride.
3. If dutasteride doesn't work, or loses its efficacy at some point in the future, add minoxidil.
4. If that doesn't work, commit suicide. I'm kidding.

I guess some might say I should swap 2 and 3 around and add the minoxidil before the dutasteride?

 

[Guest]

Stu,

you are doing the right thing. My plans on treatment are the same as yours, only difference is that I am also thinking about a low dosage of Oral spironolactone.

I think you hair style still looks pretty good. Imo long hair is better in the early stages of hairloss. I wouldn´t say that you are already a Norwood 3. A Norwood 2, maybe a Norwood 2.25.

Be patient and stick with your regimen!

Good Luck!

 

[WorldofWarcraft]

Stu85, go to inhousepharmacy.com and order some dutastride. It is much cheaper than propecia and is more powerful for blocking DHT.

No sense in paying a ton of money for something when there is a cheaper alternative that works better.

 

[Lorenzo_91]

Stu85 we have the exact same type of hairline. Propecia will work. It might get a bit thin for a few moths as it sheds a little bit up front but then your hairline will solidify but probably in the same pattern it's at right now.
One thing is don't even worry about the back that will come back solid. You can look at my pics story in success Lorenzo.

You are right about the minoxidil. The only thing you should even consider is applying it to the temples and even that needs to be considered. I have the foam at my house applied it once but got a bad feeling and washed it out.

Do not worry your hair will come back just on Propecia now it's a decision of growing your hairline or not. Because Propecia will probably solidify it right where it's at.

I would say just take it on an empty stomach, it will probably give a slightly bigger shed if you even get one but I just made the switch to taking it in the morning and I like it more. Going through a small shed because of the switch I believe.

Looking good, please post if you decide to add minoxidil to any area. I am very interested in seeing the progress there and if you decide to do your temples I might even take the plunge.

 

[Stu85]

Thanks for all the feedback guys!

WoW, I've seriously considered dutasteride but I have about 1 1/2 months of Propecia left. I really would like to see how the Propecia fairs - but trust me, the first sign I see that I'm losing any ground with the finasteride, I'll be straight onto the Dutasteride!

Taugenichts, I don't know too much about spironolactone, i had a look around the forum but didn't find much information on it. Best of luck to you too!

Lorenzo_91, i had a look at your story and I think you probably had more hair than me when you started! You seem to be very confident about Propecia, I guess it's because it has worked for you. Man, I hope it works for me too!

And yes, I'll post if I add minoxidil. Some days when I get really depressed i seriously consider just adding minoxidil but I'm trying to hold out for as long as I can!

 

[dietcola]

check my thread if you get a second, i just updated it will my 2 month pictures. finasteride + rogaine foam is already starting to work really well for me, my hairline hasn't looked this good and healthy in a long long time.

i attribute the regrowth i am seeing mostly to rogaine for now since it's so early in treatment. i understand why one would not want to start using minoxidil because of the commitment you have to make. use it every day, until you stop liking hair. (haha) but it might be worth it for you if you keep losing ground.

 

[flimflam]

gah, well the good news is that a) it's only your hairline receeding and only slightly (nw2 at worst?) and b) youre actually a pretty good looking bloke, girls love that skinny/messy look - bastard, i hate you .

i say; relax and stay on propecia. take regular photos of your hairline and if it gets worse, look into something else like dutasteride. are you using nizoral?

 

[Stu85]

gah, well the good news is that a) it's only your hairline receeding and only slightly (nw2 at worst?) and b) youre actually a pretty good looking bloke, girls love that skinny/messy look - bastard, i hate you .

i say; relax and stay on propecia. take regular photos of your hairline and if it gets worse, look into something else like dutasteride. are you using nizoral?

Thanks for the compliment, but only my hairline? Maybe that picture I took of the top of my head wan't very good.

I've taken some recently and its really depressing, the top of my head possibly looks even worse. I don't know if it's because of the shedding on finasteride, but I'm seriously considering going on minoxidil.... I'll post the photos soon.

 

[bababa]

Stu brother hold off on the minoxidil please.... Save yourself the hastle for a while.

Look, you've only really started the finasteride, it needs over 8 or 9 months to even start to see noticable results. You got in nice an early which is a bonus, but hold out on adding anything to the finasteride/nizoral treatment your doing for at least a year, give em time to work. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will your hair. Think of your male pattern baldness like pistons, gathering speed. The finasteride first has to slow them down which can take months, then once its stopped it, it will slowly go back in reverse for around 5 years or so... then a very slow swing around the other direction.

I've been on finasteride for 7 months and had several big sheds, and believe me, I have felt many times like not turning up to work or meeting friends cause my hair was looking shabby (mostly its all in your head). your gonna hav eyour good days and your bad, especially in your first year of treatment. Just keep telling yourself that your doing something, and at the end of the day you can still add stuff to improve your situation.

Check out my story, we have fairly similar situations going on. But please, hold of on the minoxidil, no point starting it just yet. Once the finasteride kicks in you just don't know how well its gonna work.

Peace

 

[Stu85]

bababa, I know what you're saying man, but I just can't stand my hair looking like this:

(this, by the way, was taken about an hour ago)

Another thing that doesn't help my confidence is that I quit my old university course and started a new one - now I'm surrounded by 17/18 year olds fresh out of high school! They all have perfect hair!

I don't think I quite got it as early as I could have... there was quite a long period of denial before I did anything about it. Thing is, the top of your head isn't exactly something which you notice unless you're trying to see it using two mirrors or by taking photos.

flimflam: Yeah, I am using Nizoral, but after videoing the top of my head (yeah I'm obsessed) I'm thinking I'm gonna need to bring out the big guns...

 

[BALD IS BEAUTIFUL]

Yours vertex is in bad shape mate.Give big p one year run,before coming to any conclusion.Yours hair are long so applying minoxidil may be a hectic job for you.

 

[Stu85]

Yours vertex is in bad shape mate.Give big p one year run,before coming to any conclusion.Yours hair are long so applying minoxidil may be a hectic job for you.

Don't know if I can put up with it looking like this for another 8 months. :/

It almosts looks like it has got worse. That recent photo I picked is the worst photo i took - in some it didn't look quite as bad. I'm not sure if the first photos I took when I started (in my original post) properly conveyed the extent of my vertex thinning. But then it might have actually got worse... I can't tell.

And I thought minoxidil could sort of penetrate the hair and get down onto the scalp below? Isn't the foam better for that?

 

[BALD IS BEAUTIFUL]

I have not used foam yet but guess that the foam will be messy with long hair compare to liquid.Ask some foam user around here for tips.

 

[bababa]

Look... if your shedding, thats a good thing. That means the finasteride is working at least, getting rid of the old miniturised hairs before more healthy ones can come through. You have to go through sh*t before you see any benefit. minoxidil will make it look worse for if you start.

Just hang in there bro, try to take your mind of it with a hobby or exercise or something. I know what you mean by being obsessive about always checking your hair, I still do on ocassions, but this stuff needs time to work. You got to just hang in there. lol, start wearing beanies or hats for a while to take your mind of it if that helps.

 

[Stu85]

Yeah I guess you're right bababa. I was reading about shedding on dutasteride.com (I know I'm not on dutasteride, but it's similar enough to finasteride) and they say it's a positive sign.

I think my hair does probably look worse than when it started, but hopefully it's all going to grow back - and grow back stronger and in greater voulme.

Another thing that's worth mentioning is I've had a bit testicular ache for the last couple of weeks, but it seems to be subsiding. Perhaps I should go to the doctor just in case it isn't the finasteride, but I'm scared he'll take me off it!

 

[dietcola]

i never got nut ache, but alot of people report experiencing it. is seems to almost always subside, i've only read one story here where someone discontinued finasteride because of it.

i started finasteride, then a month later rogaine. when i started rogaine finasteride had already thinned my hair a ton from the initial shed. rogaine the decided to do the same thing. so two months into treatment my hair is scary thin, but on the plus side i have new hairs growing so that must mean it's starting to fill in.

scary place to be, imagine if working out made you fatter for 3 months before you started to see results.

 

[bababa]

good to hear your doing research Stu, just hang in there. I had mega sheds at 3, 5 and 7 (just finished shed last week) month mark. It's a sign that the drug is working to expell alot of those nasty little weak miniturised hairs.

Hang in there buddy and know that all of us on this forum are here for support and advice.

Peace

 

[Stu85]

Okay, I'm really shitting myself. Not only am I still snowing hair 4 and a bit months after starting finasteride, but I could swear my temples are looking worse than they ever have before. I don't know what the hell is happening, and more to the point why it's happening to me. Nobody in my familly has gone through this so young. Even if it is just miniturised hair being shed, there's so much of it that I'm thinking I must be progressing down the male pattern baldness route at break-neck speed.

I'm terrified that for whatever reason I have aggressive hairloss, and I just cannot let this get any worse. I've bought a four month supply of Rogaine foam five days ago, and it's taking what seems like an eternity to get here. More seriously though, I'm genuinely considering switching to dutasteride, my doctor isn't going to like it but to hell with him. It will probably have to be Dutas (the generic) because I so damn poor.

I never thought it would have to come to this - certainly not so soon. To hell with the possible side effects too, I couldn't care less if I lose my libido because the way I'm going right now, there's no f*****g chance I'm going to have any need for a libido anyway.

PS As for the groin/testicle ache, I had a full examination with my GP and he found nothing. The pain/discomfort lasted for almost a month but it has since gone away. No idea if it was finasteride or not, I even asked Dr Rassman about it a few weeks ago, right before visiting my GP, but he didn't think it Propecia either....

http://www.baldingblog.com/2007/02/16/g ... -propecia/