As I promised to myself I would do I am posting my 12 month update on finasteride - but my story stretches quite a bit further back - so here is my journey
Intro
This is a story of two brothers, for years we both enjoyed the luxury of not worrying about our hair (my dad and uncles save one all had Norwood 0s way into their 50s), hairlines were straight and no matter how hard the sun shone our scalps were nowhere to be seen. Little did we know that the dark cloud of male pattern baldness was on the horizon.....
The attack
Whilst there had been a silent battle going on it was only until age 26 that the true evil of male pattern baldness showed its hand- follicles were raped, crops of healthy hair were ruined - my brother and I only a year apart both exprienced the same loss, except for him it was all happening 1 year earlier then me so I got to see what life would be like if things carried on. And I didnt like it one bit.
The early days
With no skills to tackle male pattern baldness I tried to debilitate it to no avail - I threw Nioxin at it. Nothing. I then tried Saw Palmetto - again male pattern baldness forged on regardless. I was at a loss, my bro had already given up the fight and was allowing male pattern baldness to run rife over his head but I refused to give in
The Search for truth
With my trusty laptop I started on a google search to find out if I could really defeat this foe - I stumbled across numerous websites but one stood out to me - a beacon of truth amongst all the snake oil companies and badly designed websites - I had found HairLossTalk.com.
It is here were I truly learnt "The way of the norwood" I trained hard and read alot, suddenly my head was filled with so much so quickly - minoxidil, Nizoral, Propecia, Revivogen, Copper Peptides, spironolactone - all these names - I heard about ancient Norwood legends like Dr Lee and Proctor - I was excited - it seems I finally had some weapons in my armoury to fight this evil menace.
The initial fight back
With all my new found knowledge and like a plucky young warrior my battle with male pattern baldness commenced in late 2004, I was 27 at the time. My weapons of choice were Revivogen and AM crew Copper Peptides and nizoral 2% to being with. After 6 months of fighting I felt I needed to bolster this so I added spironolactone and even used Procters Prox-N and Nano.
I threw all this at male pattern baldness and whilst it felt like I had it pinned down for a while my hair told a different story - it was still being destroyed. Something had to be done.
The come back
In utter dispair for my rapidly thinning crown I decided enough was enough - it was time to bring out the big guns - yep thats right I got myself some Propecia 1mg. I had heard stories about this - about what it could do to me and how people had suffered at the hands of it. But I wanted to stop MPBs evil reign so I persevered. I kept up with my spironolactone and Copper Peptides too and revivogen was history.
6 months into finasteride and I could tell something was happening, nothing dramatic but I had a comment about hair looking better, and something felt right about it. Yes I shed, not the 200 hairs a day but there was definetly a period when I felt male pattern baldness had the upper hand - but again I persisted.
The conclusion
So here I am 12 months down the line - and I can genuinely say I think finasteride has done what I wanted it to SO FAR - male pattern baldness is not dead -the enemy is always there but at least Ive stopped it in its tracks for now - My hair looks slightly thicker but the main thing is that it hasnt got any worse. Im optimistic for the next 12 months - from what I have read people tend to improve even more after 12 months so I await those results eagerly. I also recently introduced some minoxidil foam on the temples and have recently shed from that but from what I see the shedding has made no visible difference.
So that is my story of success - its not an end point but a consistent battle so for you new guys to finasteride perhaps looking for a little inspiration - I hope my story is of some comfort. Maybe in another 12 months I will write the next edition - perhaps I will call it "Enter the Norwood"
Intro
This is a story of two brothers, for years we both enjoyed the luxury of not worrying about our hair (my dad and uncles save one all had Norwood 0s way into their 50s), hairlines were straight and no matter how hard the sun shone our scalps were nowhere to be seen. Little did we know that the dark cloud of male pattern baldness was on the horizon.....
The attack
Whilst there had been a silent battle going on it was only until age 26 that the true evil of male pattern baldness showed its hand- follicles were raped, crops of healthy hair were ruined - my brother and I only a year apart both exprienced the same loss, except for him it was all happening 1 year earlier then me so I got to see what life would be like if things carried on. And I didnt like it one bit.
The early days
With no skills to tackle male pattern baldness I tried to debilitate it to no avail - I threw Nioxin at it. Nothing. I then tried Saw Palmetto - again male pattern baldness forged on regardless. I was at a loss, my bro had already given up the fight and was allowing male pattern baldness to run rife over his head but I refused to give in
The Search for truth
With my trusty laptop I started on a google search to find out if I could really defeat this foe - I stumbled across numerous websites but one stood out to me - a beacon of truth amongst all the snake oil companies and badly designed websites - I had found HairLossTalk.com.
It is here were I truly learnt "The way of the norwood" I trained hard and read alot, suddenly my head was filled with so much so quickly - minoxidil, Nizoral, Propecia, Revivogen, Copper Peptides, spironolactone - all these names - I heard about ancient Norwood legends like Dr Lee and Proctor - I was excited - it seems I finally had some weapons in my armoury to fight this evil menace.
The initial fight back
With all my new found knowledge and like a plucky young warrior my battle with male pattern baldness commenced in late 2004, I was 27 at the time. My weapons of choice were Revivogen and AM crew Copper Peptides and nizoral 2% to being with. After 6 months of fighting I felt I needed to bolster this so I added spironolactone and even used Procters Prox-N and Nano.
I threw all this at male pattern baldness and whilst it felt like I had it pinned down for a while my hair told a different story - it was still being destroyed. Something had to be done.
The come back
In utter dispair for my rapidly thinning crown I decided enough was enough - it was time to bring out the big guns - yep thats right I got myself some Propecia 1mg. I had heard stories about this - about what it could do to me and how people had suffered at the hands of it. But I wanted to stop MPBs evil reign so I persevered. I kept up with my spironolactone and Copper Peptides too and revivogen was history.
6 months into finasteride and I could tell something was happening, nothing dramatic but I had a comment about hair looking better, and something felt right about it. Yes I shed, not the 200 hairs a day but there was definetly a period when I felt male pattern baldness had the upper hand - but again I persisted.
The conclusion
So here I am 12 months down the line - and I can genuinely say I think finasteride has done what I wanted it to SO FAR - male pattern baldness is not dead -the enemy is always there but at least Ive stopped it in its tracks for now - My hair looks slightly thicker but the main thing is that it hasnt got any worse. Im optimistic for the next 12 months - from what I have read people tend to improve even more after 12 months so I await those results eagerly. I also recently introduced some minoxidil foam on the temples and have recently shed from that but from what I see the shedding has made no visible difference.
So that is my story of success - its not an end point but a consistent battle so for you new guys to finasteride perhaps looking for a little inspiration - I hope my story is of some comfort. Maybe in another 12 months I will write the next edition - perhaps I will call it "Enter the Norwood"
