Hello, my fellow balding/bald dudes! Just wanted to be more involved in this community so I'm going to share my story, and a bit about myself. I'm 22(turning 23 in July), I just finished university here in Canada where I live(close to toronto to be exact), and I've been struggling with hair loss since I was about 18. My moms brothers all have different hair, some bald some aren't. Her dad, my grandfather I think is pretty bald(he lives over seas so I haven't seen him in years, definitely wasn't looking at his hair at that point). My dads one of 6 boys all with amazing hair, except him who isn't slick bald per se, but definitley bald enough to say he's bald, and his dad still has some hair at 80. I'm of Arab and Turkish descent although I have light brown hair. I've always had thick hair in my teenage years, I used to have a haircut every two weeks because it was so thick and nice! Anyways, my first year of university I kept my hair really short, never had a complaint that whole year. That summer I was working downtown Toronto, and I was "discovered" by a modelling recruiter for a big time modelling agency, Ford. I went in to see the agent, and the first thing he says is "hey, we like you're look but we're a bit concerned about your hairline...", this was the first I've ever heard someone point out my developing male pattern baldness, I went to my car and held back tears. If it wasn't for my stupid male pattern baldness who knows what I would be doing right now. Anyways I tried growing my hair out to go to another agency and it grew so unevenly, my hairline hairs grew to about an inch then stopped. My whole second year of uni I opted for natural solutions such as biotin and saw palmetto, now that I think of it, they actually kinda worked but not enough so I stopped. Fast forward another year to my third my hair loss became so bad that I couldn't grow the top at all as it was all miniaturizing, so I kept it short. It looked so stupid long as the hairline was one length and the rest was a bit longer and thicker. So I tried propecia for two weeks, and started getting sides. Looking back I know they were in my head, but after I opted for minoxidil. So I was patient with minoxidil, that summer my hair was "acceptable", but I still had to keep it short. So I switched to LipoGaine at the end of that summer. Right when I started I biced my hair out of depression, but continued to use LipoGaine. In jan(in my fourth year at this point) it grew back in way thicker than with minoxidil! But eventually I was convinced that it was just the minoxidil and not the azaelic acid doing that so I switched back to the cheaper rogaine foam. That summer I was looking into more high tech solutions, so I did 3 PLatelet rich plasma sessions(PRP), and a bit of laser. This turned out to be a huge mistake and waste of money(almost $2000), fast forward to jan of this year I was running out of rogaine so I began to take it once a day. In feb i completely ran out, and my uncle who gets it from the states was in Japan for a month for work so I had no Way of getting it, and I wasn't able to afford it here because it's 120 for 3 months(should have just paid it). Rogaine is a pain in the *** to get in Canada. So I took a break until late April. This was the stupidest thing I've done for my hair, because it got so hideously thin, I used toppik to help conceal it. Around the time I stopped rogain, I began to take 0.5 mg of Finasteride EOD(mid feb) took a two week break cuz I needed to refill my script at the end of April. But May 5th I started taking 1.25mg, and rogaine twice a day, as well as revita 5 times a week. So here we are now almost 6 weeks in and these past 6 weeks I've shed almost 300 hairs a day! That's right 300! Mostly miniaturized, but it was almost gross to see it all over paper and keyboards. Funny it almost only sheds when I apply minoxi. Anyways here we are mid June and my hair is so thin that i almost never look down around people because you can see a lot of my scalp. Actually, when I go down on my girl I almost put my hands on her boobs so she can't look down at my scalp lol. It sucks the most because I like to consider myself a good looking guy, with the exception of my hideously thin pattern baldness, takes the confidence right out but I don't have any trouble getting girls, although I can only dream of how much easier it would be if I had sweet hair. My uni roommates were all hockey players with amazing hair and I felt literally sick to my stomach standing beside them when we went out because my hair was so ugly, and theirs just thick and lustrous. It's not f***ing fair for people my age, or any age to go bald. It's affected my life so negatively no matter how hard I try not to think about it. So right now my current regiment is as follows.-1.25mg of Finasteride ED
-minoxidil foam twice daily
-emu oil at some point ED
-15% Azelaic acid cream (it's made by Megan's marvelous something, made with argan oil and coconut oil, don't really care about that stuff just the AA. Waiting to get it in the mail) id apply it at night)
-S5 cream (5% spironolactone cream that I'd apply in the morning around the time of my minoxidil, also waiting to get in the mail)
-right before I go to the gym, I put jojoba oil on my scalp and rub it in, then put Rosemary oil in
-amla oil twice a week(Indian hair oil, great for hair)
-revita shampoo currently, although regenpure is way better, waiting to
come in the mail also lol I got both DR which I'll use in the morning, and NT which I'll use after the gym, maybe alternate(1% keto)
-nizoral 2-3 times a week(2% keto)
-apple cider vinegar topically, vigorously rubbing it into scalp to remove buildup(I also take it orally but just for general health, doubt it does **** all for hair orally)
-workout pretty often, do cardio and yoga, but I do smoke(like5-8 a day)
i know, a lot of oils right. But they all do something differently and I do take breaks from them. I'm only using this many now because since I'm at the early stages of my treatment, I want to kick the follicles into over drive and wake them the f*** up, now that they have less DHT attacking them. I feel like the PRP would have been more effective if DHT wasn't present, so maaayyybe ill do one session to enhance.
So, what do you guys think? Good regimen? Am I too late into my hair loss to see any regrowth? I'm shedding a lot so I thought that'd be good, and I got age on my side, I had hair 4 years ago. Thoughts? Thanks guys!
