hhj1247
Established Member
- Reaction score
- 2
Hey guys, I've been a member since probably in September or August sometime. It took me a while to get a grip and start treating my hair. I'm now 21 and have had slow hairloss since probably 17. I had two unsuccessful runs with Rogaine before, 2 years ago and 3 years ago. Both times I quit because shedding freaked me out. I didn't even learn about finasteride until I read this board last summer :shock: . After the rogaine attempts, I waddled around waiting for god knows what, denying the hairloss and dodging comments made about my hair from other people as long as I could. But, I finally talked to my doctor and asked about Propecia in October.
Unfortunately, I experienced a handful of what I thought were sides with Propecia and got off of it after a week of taking it. I had testicular ache and I thought I experienced ED (looking back on it, that might have been in my head). A month later I talked to another doctor about my hairloss and my experience with Propecia and he told me that I would have to really choose soon if I wanted to try to fight my hairloss or just let myself go bald because my hairloss was considerably "advanced." After researching some of the posts here I decided to give finasteride another shot with the 23 pills I had left. I decided to start again on Thanksgiving- 11/20/08. This time I started off on a very low dose- .25 mg (cutting the finasteride with a razor into quarters and putting them into a pill case). To my surprise I did not notice many side effects! I increase my dosage again to .5 mg on 12/20/09. Again, minor sides but no ED or ball ache. I increased to .75 on 01/20/09 and added Nizoral (twice a week) and Rogaine foam (to my crown and temples only). Then I went to the full 1 mg on 02/20/09 and also started applying rogaine foam across my scalp and taking Nizoral three times a week.
I took tons of pictures, but these are the most revealing. My crown is the most stubborn part, but it looks like it might be filling in, and looking back at SE Freak's success thread, his crown took a while to catch up, and I do have follicles there so I'm hopeful. My temples actually have come in a little bit! In the pictures thats probably not so clear, and I did not take any up close pics of my temples unfortunately like some guys here do. Overall, I think I've made great strides and I'm so glad I started. I do want to switch to Proscar (in fifths) eventually, but I have to find a doctor willing to reason with me. All of the pics are taken with flash since the ones with no flash look like s. Anyway, here are my results:
Baseline: Thanksgiving Day (11/20/08)
-Granted, my hair here is very greasy, but this is probably the worst I have ever had it. Honestly, I didn't wash my hair as often, probably because I did not want to touch my head! I usually would sport a slight comb over, but that was getting harder and harder to pull off. I know my hair looks gross and some would have advised me to just shave it or shoot myself, but I usually wore a hat these days.
Front
Overhead
Crown
Month 1: (12/20/08), Propecia .25 mg
-These pics might be more fair to compare with the others. This is just after a shower and washing my hair.
Front
Overhead
Crown
Month 2: (01/20/09), Propecia .5 mg
Front
Overhead
Crown
Month 2: Haircut (01/27/09), Propecia .75 mg, Rogaine foam (to crown and temples),
-I got a haircut and decided to take pics to better compare with the months afterwards.
Front
Overhead
Crown
Month 3: (03/04/09)
-ARGH! I lost my camera charger, so I had to buy one off of ebay. That's my excuse for these pics not being on Feb 20th. But this is definitely the best I've seen my hair in a while.
Front
Overhead
Crown
*UPDATE*-04/28/09
Month 4: (03/24/09)
Propecia 1 mg then back to .75 mg in March, Rogain foam (across scalp), Nizoral 3X/week (starting 02/20/09).
-I went to 1 mg, then I experience constipation sides. I couldn't poop!! I went to the doctor and they noted I might have overdone it with the laxatives which might have actually clogged me up even more, but propecia definitely makes me constipated whenever I increase the dose, except this time it didn't go away. Still hoping I can make it up to 1 mg so I can one day switch to Proscar. I experienced a little bit of a shed (I guess), and these pics aren't much better then the month b4 this.
Front
Overhead
Crown
Month 5: (04/21/09)
Propecia .75 mg, Rogain foam (across scalp), Nizoral 3X/week.
-Looking like an improvement!! Still haven't tried to switch onto Proscar. Propecia cost me $82 at Walgreens this month (WTF!!). I'm going through Rogaine like crazy trying to cover my head. I need a haircut, it will save me big time on Rogaine.
Front
Overhead
Crown
-And, since people asked, here a pic of my temples. I think I've seen my hairline and temples improve. I'm never expected them to look like Andrew Napolitano's temples, but I think they've improved.
Right temple
Left temple
---
Again, thanks to those veterans and users who responded to me and gave advice. Maybe it hasn't been the biggest turnaround, but I think I've had good results thus far. I'll try to keep you guys updated!
Unfortunately, I experienced a handful of what I thought were sides with Propecia and got off of it after a week of taking it. I had testicular ache and I thought I experienced ED (looking back on it, that might have been in my head). A month later I talked to another doctor about my hairloss and my experience with Propecia and he told me that I would have to really choose soon if I wanted to try to fight my hairloss or just let myself go bald because my hairloss was considerably "advanced." After researching some of the posts here I decided to give finasteride another shot with the 23 pills I had left. I decided to start again on Thanksgiving- 11/20/08. This time I started off on a very low dose- .25 mg (cutting the finasteride with a razor into quarters and putting them into a pill case). To my surprise I did not notice many side effects! I increase my dosage again to .5 mg on 12/20/09. Again, minor sides but no ED or ball ache. I increased to .75 on 01/20/09 and added Nizoral (twice a week) and Rogaine foam (to my crown and temples only). Then I went to the full 1 mg on 02/20/09 and also started applying rogaine foam across my scalp and taking Nizoral three times a week.
I took tons of pictures, but these are the most revealing. My crown is the most stubborn part, but it looks like it might be filling in, and looking back at SE Freak's success thread, his crown took a while to catch up, and I do have follicles there so I'm hopeful. My temples actually have come in a little bit! In the pictures thats probably not so clear, and I did not take any up close pics of my temples unfortunately like some guys here do. Overall, I think I've made great strides and I'm so glad I started. I do want to switch to Proscar (in fifths) eventually, but I have to find a doctor willing to reason with me. All of the pics are taken with flash since the ones with no flash look like s. Anyway, here are my results:
Baseline: Thanksgiving Day (11/20/08)
-Granted, my hair here is very greasy, but this is probably the worst I have ever had it. Honestly, I didn't wash my hair as often, probably because I did not want to touch my head! I usually would sport a slight comb over, but that was getting harder and harder to pull off. I know my hair looks gross and some would have advised me to just shave it or shoot myself, but I usually wore a hat these days.
Front
Overhead
Crown
Month 1: (12/20/08), Propecia .25 mg
-These pics might be more fair to compare with the others. This is just after a shower and washing my hair.
Front
Overhead
Crown
Month 2: (01/20/09), Propecia .5 mg
Front
Overhead
Crown
Month 2: Haircut (01/27/09), Propecia .75 mg, Rogaine foam (to crown and temples),
-I got a haircut and decided to take pics to better compare with the months afterwards.
Front
Overhead
Crown
Month 3: (03/04/09)
-ARGH! I lost my camera charger, so I had to buy one off of ebay. That's my excuse for these pics not being on Feb 20th. But this is definitely the best I've seen my hair in a while.
Front
Overhead
Crown
*UPDATE*-04/28/09
Month 4: (03/24/09)
Propecia 1 mg then back to .75 mg in March, Rogain foam (across scalp), Nizoral 3X/week (starting 02/20/09).
-I went to 1 mg, then I experience constipation sides. I couldn't poop!! I went to the doctor and they noted I might have overdone it with the laxatives which might have actually clogged me up even more, but propecia definitely makes me constipated whenever I increase the dose, except this time it didn't go away. Still hoping I can make it up to 1 mg so I can one day switch to Proscar. I experienced a little bit of a shed (I guess), and these pics aren't much better then the month b4 this.
Front
Overhead
Crown
Month 5: (04/21/09)
Propecia .75 mg, Rogain foam (across scalp), Nizoral 3X/week.
-Looking like an improvement!! Still haven't tried to switch onto Proscar. Propecia cost me $82 at Walgreens this month (WTF!!). I'm going through Rogaine like crazy trying to cover my head. I need a haircut, it will save me big time on Rogaine.
Front
Overhead
Crown
-And, since people asked, here a pic of my temples. I think I've seen my hairline and temples improve. I'm never expected them to look like Andrew Napolitano's temples, but I think they've improved.
Right temple
Left temple
---
Again, thanks to those veterans and users who responded to me and gave advice. Maybe it hasn't been the biggest turnaround, but I think I've had good results thus far. I'll try to keep you guys updated!
