TheLastHairbender's story

[yassin]

thank you thelasthairbender,
I like the way you plan for management , you're also very helpful thank you , that's why I keep up with your story :salut:
thanks for your reply
about the flakes.I had the same experience ,I think you had dry dandruff which is accumulation of dead skin cells which is pulled pulp at the end of shed hair
I don't know if spironolactone cream can cause flakes like that . but all forms of minoxidil I used can't make a large flake enough to be attached to the hair end

IMO, minoxidil only speeds up the effect of finasteride, that's why when you stopped minoxidil , you came back to the normal speed of finasteride and you had a shedding

yes, last year I was shedding like crazy ,after my success story. I've changed my regimen alot. and that maybe the reason
I don't believe in shedding of growth. I only believe in shedding of loss at least in my case
I'm on my fourth month on avodart first month again on generic finasteride, stopped minoxidil and will never come back to it. it's a hell
,
now my shedding rate is within the normal range. but I'm curious about regrowth
stopping shedding is a very good sign for me because last year when I stopped shedding I had a great amount of regrowth
I'll k

 

[TheLastHairbender]

Yassin - are you saying you're taking Avodart and finasteride? I don't think I've ever heard of anyone combining both finasteride and dutasteride at the same time. Your prostate is going to be microscopic! If this is not under a doctor's supervision I would be a bit concerned about that combination. Does your healthcare provider know you're taking both? What quantities of each are you taking, and the Avodart is only once or twice a week I would hope...?


Captain! Thanks again my man. I have the same feelings regarding liquid vs foam minoxidil. I like the liquid so much better, and do agree I get better application to the scalp. Plus the foam is just impossible to measure out precisely. I'm glad you're responding well to your regimen too, try to keep the greediness in check though, a FUE is a big deal, and I think I will personally try to resist that temptation. Make sure you think long and hard about it...there seem to be big benefits to putting them off as long as possible, as technology improves and skills become more refined...just think about the guys who did strip harvesting in the year before the FUE was perfected. Stick with the regimen and hopefully the stubborn hairs come in before you need to take the medical route. Keep us posted!

 

[yassin]

yes, now I'm on both generic finasteride 1mg capsule (1st month) and brand avodart 0.5 mg capsule (4th month) both daily

yes, you may not have never ever heard about any body combining both finastride + dutasteride, but you may see some people in this forum using more than the recommended dosages of finasteride or dutasteride (I mean greater than 1 mg for finasteride or greater than 0.5 mg of dutasteride , even up to 2.5 mg )
this is due to the fact that the more you block DHT, the better or faster the results you get (see phase II clinical study of dutasteride)

why do I combine both of them ?
1. generic finasteride is cheap in my country (3$ / month)
2. finasteride is specific type II 5 alpha reductase inhibitor which is assumed to be the target enzyme in the periphery especially in the scalp
3. the difference in half life . so my standard blood DHT level would be that of Avodart and the subressed blood DHT level would be of finasteride
4.I have decided that generic finasteride would be the next step in my plan if Avodart failed after 12 months, , so I decided not to waste another year trying to figure out if this generic finasteride legit or not ? does it work or not!!!
so if I failed at least to maintain , I will go to the next step directly after generic finasteride, which maybe transplantation or acceptance
5. don't know why dutasteride is not FDA approved
6. I try to compensate the lack of minoxidil
7. psychologically:in the future, I don't want to regret trying every possible weapon

yes,sure , it's not under a doctor's supervision,
but I 'm a doctor, I know that andrologists or dermatologists will not do any thing as supervisors except for measuring hormone levels which I intend to reduce (DHT)
I know this maybe harmful for my prostate but theoretically once I stop this every thing will go back to normal,
about the size of prostate , DHT depression works on the size of only DHT sensitive prostate (correct me if I'm wrong)

I don't have any side effects until now except for some slight testcular pain in the first month of avodart

my plan if I see positive results is to decrease the dosage of avodart gradually , to be 1 or two / week

 

[TheLastHairbender]

Well you sound like you know what you're getting into so that's totally up to you. It seems a little strong on the anti-androgens to me but everyone has different goals. Your point about doing everything you can immediately to improve your likelihood of success is well taken. But I still think your hair looks great Yassin, you have total coverage! I would be out enjoying that without taking the extra risk - but do keep us informed, your experience on this strong AA regimen can benefit the collective knowledge. Good luck and be careful!

 

[kadir657]

@ thelasthairbender : do you know if this site is legit because i order my finpecia from it www.bestgenericdrugs.net please let me know thank you ...

 

[TheLastHairbender]

Kadir, I don't know personally, those places are always hit-or-miss. I took a look and, yeah, it seems a little sketchy but then again all online pharmacies seem that way. And unfortunately without any way to test the quality of finasteride you wouldn't know you bought placebo until you - didn't - grow hair, which you might not realize for months or years. I think people have had the most support for inhousepharmacy.biz / inhousepharmacy.co.uk. I have ordered Retin-A from them. The most I can say is that I did receive it and wasn't overcharged, and it was sealed and looked legit, but same thing - no way to confirm it was the real stuff. My advice would be to use a regular, vetted, bricks-and-mortar pharmacy for your finasteride if at all possible, it is probably worth any extra expense. But I also understand desperation and impatience, so no criticism if you find you need to roll-the-dice with the online route. Let us know what you determine. Good luck!


Hey I just want to amend this advice after a discussion I had with Lucas92. If you're buying finasteride from an online pharmacy that you're not 100% sure about, it might actually be smarter to go for the generic rather than brand name Propecia or Proscar. The reason is that generic finasteride is one of the cheapest medications around, and far less profitable to counterfeit than the high-markup Merck stuff. At $3-4/month for generic finasteride, it's less likely that counterfeiters would take aim at the product and even if so, less likely that they'd make the investment in making it perfectly indistinguishable. That said, I actually haven't heard of counterfeiting being a big problem in the world of finasteride. Generic finpecia and fincar seem to be very reliable.

 

[TheLastHairbender]

Hey Captain,

I respect your decision about the FUE, it seems to fit your goals and as long as you do your homework about the best surgeon I think it would work out well in tandem with continuation of the medical aspect of your regimen. I'm not personally considering a transplant. My progress to date has surpassed all of my hopes and expectations and I'd be completely happy to remain at the level I've achieved so far. I'm starting to focus more on longevity than on additional growth, although my current experiment with the AHK is one of several final attempts I'll make to stimulate the growth of the most treatment-resistant region on the vertex. Hopefully that will prove informative and fruitful but is in no way necessary for me to be happy with my current state. Let us know how the research goes for your hair transplant, and I'll be sure to post updates about the AHK - maybe we'll come across an alternative method to wake-up those stubborn barren areas before you have to take the surgical route. Good luck!

 

[kadir657]

time for an update ?????

 

[TheLastHairbender]

It's coming, it's coming! Really busy with work at the moment, going to snap some pics and write up my thoughts after the first month of twice daily 2.5% AHK-Cu, and trying to work a haircut in there too. Thanks for keeping me honest though! How are things going for you kadir?

 

[JohnnyBBald]

You're taking 50 mg of zinc? What's the purpose of that? Isn't too much zinc dangerous, as it can cause a copper deficiency? Also why do you cut your multi-vitamin in half? Thanks for the updates! I wish my doctor would prescribe me proscar!

 

[losemyhead]

Man you are such insparation!

You didn't suffer from any sides from using the finasteride?
You take a pill every day?

 

[kadir657]

c'mon men upload them pics.. i am at 4 months now going the right way hairloss stopped now gonna see at a few more months for new hairgrow.

 

[TheLastHairbender]

You're taking 50 mg of zinc? What's the purpose of that? Isn't too much zinc dangerous, as it can cause a copper deficiency? Also why do you cut your multi-vitamin in half? Thanks for the updates! I wish my doctor would prescribe me proscar!

Johnny - I was taking zinc with exactly that zinc:copper ratio in mind. I started using AHK-Cu copper peptides topically in August, and one of the concerns was that it would lead to excess free copper, as a few AHK users had complained of aggravation of pre-existing tinnitus, a known symptom of excess copper. So I was taking a reasonable dose of extra zinc to attenuate any of those effects. I hadn't noticed anything in either direction: copper toxicity or zinc toxicity, but only ended up using AHK for a few weeks, and irregularly at that, and correspondingly cut the zinc out too.

I cut the multivitamin (and biotin) in half and take half in the morning and half at night in the belief that total absorption is a concave function of intake at any one time, for example the first mg becomes totally bioavailable, then of the second mg 90% becomes bioavailable, then less and less as you process each additional unit less efficiently at any one time. So my thought was that half a pill at one time plus half a pill at a separate time will yield greater total absorption over the course of a day than one pill taken at once, much of which would merely be excreted.

Re: Proscar, talk to your doctor! It's not a drug of abuse so prescribing the 5mg dose with instructions to cut the pill into fractions is not out of the questions. If you've been seeing him or her a while and come across as a sensible patient he or she may be willing to write the prescription that way to save you some money. You'll never know if you don't ask and worst case is they just say no, it's not like you're going to look like a druggie for asking to quarter a 5mg finasteride vs buying four or five 1mg. You can also offer to take every fifth day off so your average intake over a five day period is 1mg/day, which is how my doctor recommended it. That way you won't be exceeding the widely recommended dosage for otherwise mechanical reasons. Hope that helps, let us know how you make out!

Man you are such insparation!

You didn't suffer from any sides from using the finasteride?
You take a pill every day?

Thanks! That really means a lot, especially right now when things don't seem to be going my way in the fight at the moment. You're correct, I didn't suffer any sides from finasteride. There was one day, a few weeks after starting it, that I had a bit of dull ball ache in one of my boys. It wasn't painful, I could just feel it was there. It resolved in a half hour or so and I never noticed anything again except for more hair on my head. To your second question: I actually take one-fourth of a 5mg pill every day. I'm prescribed 5mg (Proscar strength, although I get generics) and advised to cut it into 1/4's and take a quarter of a pill (equivalent to 1.25mg) every day for four days, and skip the fifth day, for an average of 1mg/day and at substantial cost savings, because for some reason a 5mg pill is the same price as a 1mg pill. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

c'mon men upload them pics.. i am at 4 months now going the right way hairloss stopped now gonna see at a few more months for new hairgrow.

Awesome dude! Stopping the hair loss already means winning the battle. If you're stabilized after four months things look good for further improvement since it shows you respond to the treatment. It's still best to keep your hopes in check because growing back lost hair is really for a fortunate minority, but positive thinking never hurts and that kind of outlook can help you stick to the regimen which can make it a reality. Keep us posted, we're pulling for you!

 

[TheLastHairbender]

Hey guys I just wanted to leave a note apologizing for the lack of pics. Things have been really hectic this month and I haven't found time to upload a decent set of pictures. I'm actually going to be taking Captain Combover's advice and dying my hair about the same shade it currently is in order to darken any downy vellus hairs that haven't yet gone terminal. I will definitely take and post before and after pics and upload along with some of the others I snapped this month.

I also wanted to note quickly that I really haven't been able to keep up with the application of the AHK. It's been a bad time for me to attempt this, and trying to keep the application spaced 6 hours away from minoxidil hasn’t been very practical for me. I started on August 10, gave it a shot for a few weeks but missed applications left and right, some days getting one application in, other days missing both, and I'm coming to realize that exploring this treatment isn't going to be an option for me at the present moment. So if anyone wants to snag my last 5.2ish grams of powder AHK on the cheap then let me know. It’s enough for 4 months of 2x daily 2.5% or 1x daily 5%.

Other than that you can expect a full update with hair coloring pics in the next couple days. Thanks for understanding, work sucks!

 

[kadir657]

I just went to the barber i shaved it to 8 mm, before i had 30 mm i have gone through my hairs with my hand a several times and pulled on some hairs and nothing came out of it thats a good sign, but now i shave it the hairs came out easily how is this possible? Are the hairs much stronger when they are longer or ...?? Please respond ? Im in a worry right now ..... Ps : i am using finpecia for 4 months now and rogaine liquid for 20 days.

 

[form]

I just went to the barber i shaved it to 8 mm, before i had 30 mm i have gone through my hairs with my hand a several times and pulled on some hairs and nothing came out of it thats a good sign, but now i shave it the hairs came out easily how is this possible? Are the hairs much stronger when they are longer or ...?? Please respond ? Im in a worry right now ..... Ps : i am using finpecia for 4 months now and rogaine liquid for 20 days.

You're probably going through a minoxidil shed.

 

[TheLastHairbender]

You're probably going through a minoxidil shed.

This is true that most people experience a significant shed before gains from minoxidil start to materialize. If you've been using it for about 3 weeks then this is very possible. I didn't notice a major shed when starting minoxidil, but if you see my initial pictures I had already lost almost all the hair on top and wasn't shedding anymore anyway. For me, gains started to show up after 6 weeks on minoxidil, and after 3 months you could really tell that something was happening for the better. So I would try to relax about it for now kadir and re-evaluate after a few more weeks. The shedding should slow down and new, stronger hairs should start taking their place. Shedding out the old hairs is very common when first using minoxidil. Keep us posted on how it's going.

 

[kadir657]

its the end of september and you havent upload your pics of this month...

 

[kadir657]

i have a little update about my hair: i've been using finpecia 5 months from now and my hair gives good signs that its becoming thicker and stronger when i go through my hair with my hands i feel strengthness and that makes me happy. Still using minoxidil liquid for 2 months now and little hairs coming up on the hairline. I just ordered a new package of finpecia i can't wait at progress at a full year. I want to go in to the summer with a full head of hair and no more shame at all....!!!!

 

[Silverfox1]

Just read every page and wow, probably the best results ive seen. I have a similiar pattern of baldness with perhaps more hair up front (than your baseline). Would be very interested to see your crown with dyed hair as its something ive been contemplating.