I've been reading this forum religiously for about three months. Up until now I've been able to basically pick and choose my women, I don't say this in a cocky or condescending way, it's just the truth. I've had no insecurities, no regrets, I've basically had the perfect life. My hair was identical to the lead character in "That 70's show". The skinny kid who lives with his parents and has the big mop top. I actually sometimes hated my hair because I had so much that I'd have to get it cut every other week or it'd turn into a giant poof of hair. Anyway, I'm 21 and for the past 6 months my hair's been getting thinner, my crown has gotten worse, and my hair line has receded. Luckily I've been growing my hair our for the past 7 months (I should have realized something was up because if I wasn't being affected by DHT my hair would be about 5 times longer and thicker then it is now) Luckily since I've been growing it for so long it's very hard to tell much has happened to my hair or my crown because my shaggy hair covers it all up. Unfortunately seeing my hair wet and judging by the rate of hair loss I know that'll I'll be in pretty poor shape by the time I'm 23. Plus, my hair is MUCH more flat that it what even last year, it's taken me by surprise how quickly hair loss progresses once it starts.
Now, this isn't a sob story, but more or so a short letter to say my piece. I've recently started to take Propecia and Nizoral and that will be my only line of defense against hair loss. I'm to lazy for Rogaine and the shed's (knowing my personality) will be way to fast and devastating for my ego. I know it takes time, but honestly, I'd rather not put all my money and effort into a battle I know I can't win. Yes, I've been devastated recently. Yes, I've become very angry. Yes, I've become anti-social. Yes, I've become extremely insecure and come close to crying during those horrible days when you look down and your body has more hair on it from your head then your body.
My point is this. Will I probably be insecure, angry, depressed, and paranoid for a long time to come? Yes. It's like losing a loved one. You've had it all your life and you don't realize how much needed and wanted it until it's gone. It's a normal thing to become angry and grieve when something has been taken from you early on in life without warning. The thing is that it's important to admit and observe these emotions, but not to let them control your life. It would have been nice to have my hair until I was 30 and THEN go bald, but lets face it, even if I kept it till 30 and THEN started balding me and anyone else for that matter would STILL b**ch and complain. Is this fair? No. But common people, life's not fair. Someone loses a limb in Iraq every day and I sit home depressed about my hair. My hair is going to get worse and so are my emotions, but unlike a lot of you on this forum I believe I constantly balance out these feelings with the reality of the situation.
Women will find me less attractive, I will have less job opporunities, I will be made fun of as the hair loss worsens, and I'll most likely be less confident. That's life. I could have been born ugly, gotten cancer, received AIDS, a million diseases worse then this. The point of this letter is that yes we will most likely not be 100% happy and confident like we used to be, but we need to accept what's happening to us and worry less about what treatments to use and worry more about how we can at least achieve 90% of what we had. I'm a realist, and I know realistically my life will be changed forever in the coming years.
All in all I'm writing this because I've made a promise to myself never to return to this forum. It's achieved its function. I was able to see that thousands of men are going through the same emotional issues as me, and I was able to decide what treatment would be best for me. Now however, I find myself reading sob stories just to make myself feel better and searching for pictures of men who have it worse then me so I can just say "Oh, glad I'm not him!"
Life isn't fair and neither is hairloss. But I know in my heart of hearts that if my world was perfect as of 6 months ago, only ONE thing has changed and that's my hair. I'm still well educated, funny, witty, and well spoken. I will still have a love for traveling, I will still go to the movies on a Sunday and I will still love to gorge myself on Thanksgiving day. I'm done reading about the treatment options on this forum as if I actually have hope, because I don't. I'm never going to have the lion mane I had and anything else I do for my hair will simply be maintaining a hairline I already dislike.
I'm going to spend the next 10 years of my life doing my best to accept baldness gracefully. I have no doubt that being so goodlooking and so arrogant so long will be a huge downfall as I'll most likely wake up and go to bed thinking about my hair. But I'll be damned if my personal appearance keeps me from doing the things I love most. I know this is somewhat of an organized rant but I hope that everyone can see where I'm coming from. I've lost a loved one, I need time to grieve, but more importantly I have to realize that what's lost is never coming back and I need to move on with my life.
The road to confidence and self awareness will be hard, but I know I can overcome this and I refuse to continue to search for snake oils and peoples approval to make myself feel better. I'm extremely lucky, and if hairloss is the only thing that has brought me down then I consider myself lucky.
I wish you all luck on this forum and I thank you because without reading everyones story's I would have never come to this conclusion.
Now, this isn't a sob story, but more or so a short letter to say my piece. I've recently started to take Propecia and Nizoral and that will be my only line of defense against hair loss. I'm to lazy for Rogaine and the shed's (knowing my personality) will be way to fast and devastating for my ego. I know it takes time, but honestly, I'd rather not put all my money and effort into a battle I know I can't win. Yes, I've been devastated recently. Yes, I've become very angry. Yes, I've become anti-social. Yes, I've become extremely insecure and come close to crying during those horrible days when you look down and your body has more hair on it from your head then your body.
My point is this. Will I probably be insecure, angry, depressed, and paranoid for a long time to come? Yes. It's like losing a loved one. You've had it all your life and you don't realize how much needed and wanted it until it's gone. It's a normal thing to become angry and grieve when something has been taken from you early on in life without warning. The thing is that it's important to admit and observe these emotions, but not to let them control your life. It would have been nice to have my hair until I was 30 and THEN go bald, but lets face it, even if I kept it till 30 and THEN started balding me and anyone else for that matter would STILL b**ch and complain. Is this fair? No. But common people, life's not fair. Someone loses a limb in Iraq every day and I sit home depressed about my hair. My hair is going to get worse and so are my emotions, but unlike a lot of you on this forum I believe I constantly balance out these feelings with the reality of the situation.
Women will find me less attractive, I will have less job opporunities, I will be made fun of as the hair loss worsens, and I'll most likely be less confident. That's life. I could have been born ugly, gotten cancer, received AIDS, a million diseases worse then this. The point of this letter is that yes we will most likely not be 100% happy and confident like we used to be, but we need to accept what's happening to us and worry less about what treatments to use and worry more about how we can at least achieve 90% of what we had. I'm a realist, and I know realistically my life will be changed forever in the coming years.
All in all I'm writing this because I've made a promise to myself never to return to this forum. It's achieved its function. I was able to see that thousands of men are going through the same emotional issues as me, and I was able to decide what treatment would be best for me. Now however, I find myself reading sob stories just to make myself feel better and searching for pictures of men who have it worse then me so I can just say "Oh, glad I'm not him!"
Life isn't fair and neither is hairloss. But I know in my heart of hearts that if my world was perfect as of 6 months ago, only ONE thing has changed and that's my hair. I'm still well educated, funny, witty, and well spoken. I will still have a love for traveling, I will still go to the movies on a Sunday and I will still love to gorge myself on Thanksgiving day. I'm done reading about the treatment options on this forum as if I actually have hope, because I don't. I'm never going to have the lion mane I had and anything else I do for my hair will simply be maintaining a hairline I already dislike.
I'm going to spend the next 10 years of my life doing my best to accept baldness gracefully. I have no doubt that being so goodlooking and so arrogant so long will be a huge downfall as I'll most likely wake up and go to bed thinking about my hair. But I'll be damned if my personal appearance keeps me from doing the things I love most. I know this is somewhat of an organized rant but I hope that everyone can see where I'm coming from. I've lost a loved one, I need time to grieve, but more importantly I have to realize that what's lost is never coming back and I need to move on with my life.
The road to confidence and self awareness will be hard, but I know I can overcome this and I refuse to continue to search for snake oils and peoples approval to make myself feel better. I'm extremely lucky, and if hairloss is the only thing that has brought me down then I consider myself lucky.
I wish you all luck on this forum and I thank you because without reading everyones story's I would have never come to this conclusion.
