Maximus Hair!
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Hello everyone, here's my story thus far. I have some questions that some of you might be able to answer.
So growing up I always had thick and curly/wavy dark brown hair. People would say I would never lose my hair. My family history with hair loss is quite mixed. On my dads side there's Norwood 5s and 6s and some 4s. My dad lost his hair relatively quick in his late 20s to early 30s. On my moms side there's a lot of Norwood 1s and 2s. And some people who lost most of there over like 30+ years. My hair texture and color mostly resembles my moms father who died with a Norwood 2 at most, prob a 1.5.
So in October 2015 I started noticing some thinning in one of my temples, over the next few months it spread to the rest of my hairline. It still to this day is very minor, it's only about 1/4 of an inch and it's not visible to anyone except myself. I'm 24 btw. I got really depressed and was freaking out, which definitely didn't help. To backtrack a little the last few months before my loss started to a month after from July to November 2015 I was experimenting with the NoPoo method of only washing your hair with water, as my hair has always been hard to manage and I was trying to make it easier. Long story short my hair never adjusted to it like some other people do and it was a disgusting greasy mess the whole time. Also during this time I used a ton of hair waxes and other products and would only wash my hair like once a week. I'd scratch my head and have a ton of sebum under my nails because I wasn't washing my hair enough. My hair follicles were being literally suffocated, but I'm not sure.
During the first few months of my hair loss I sometimes had a tugging sensation, like the feeling you get when you wear a hat all day and then move your hair and it hurts. Then this progressed into the infamous DHT burn/itch/inflammation everyone always talks about. It really hurt at times but was still manageable. Because of this I quit NoPoo and stopped all hair waxes / other products. I also started washing my hair every 3-4 days. The burning never went away and I would lose more hair then I was used to in the shower, my hand would be covered in hair. I was losing about 100 hairs per wash every 3-4 days and I wouldn't lose hair at any other time of day. That actually doesn't sound like a lot because 100 hairs every 3-4 days is only 25-33 a day. But before this I would shed very very little. Plus I could also tell the difference, my hair felt more brittle and it would just come out with a little tug at times. My hair felt like it was attached loosely to my head. Other times I'd grab a section of hair and pull out 6-7 hairs at once. Also at this time my nape hair was also shedding. I could pull on my nape hair and pull out like 20 hairs. That was very alarming. There was never a cosmetic change to my nape hair however. I then started to notice my vertex looking thinner and thinner spots on my crown. However I eventually realized by looking at older pictures there actually wasn't a difference and my hair everywhere except my hairline was the same thickness. Curly hair sometimes has a tendency to move in weird directions and make certain spots look thinner but when I felt them or brushed the in another direction it was the same thickness and it never changed.
So then 8 months later in June 2016 I got a prescription for Propecia from my doctor to stop my hair loss when it was still really early. I decided to take a low dose at first and scale upwards to a full dose over a period of a few months. I started at .25 mg and eventually progressed to .5 .75 and then finally 1 mg. I had very minor side effects. I had watery semen within the first 2 weeks which never went away. But I was fine with it because on the plus side it shot way farther which I thought was pretty cool . When I progressed to .5 mg I had some chest burning and tightness for a few days. I dropped back down to .25 mg. I eventually scaled up to 1 mg with no more side effects. Also by the time October 2016 rolled around I no longer had any DHT itch/burning/inflammation and I was no longer losing a lot of hair when I washed my hair. I also was taking way better care of my hair. I would wash it with shampoo every 3 days and wash it every other day with just conditioner. I would also use a leave in conditioner. My hair looked and felt the best it ever looked in my whole life and I was thrilled.
However by January 2017 I got another side effect. I had only been using the full does of 1 mg a day for only 2-3 months. The side effect I had was "Hard Flaccid" a condition I heard talked about on this forum a few times. My dick was hard in the flaccid state. It was like my dick was in shock and couldn't relax. It felt really weird. At this point i no longer thought it was worth it to continue propecia. I took my last dose on January 1 2017. A week after I felt an intense DHT burning for the first time in months. Probably DHT rushing back into my body. The morning after this my hard flaccid was 80-90% better. So I think the hard flaccid was definitely connected to prooecia. Since I still wanted to keep my hair I ordered some Lipogaine and Regenpure Dr shampoo. I started Lipogaine once a day and Regenepure Dr twice a week on January 14 2017. My hair loss in the shower got even lower then on Propecia, I'd lose only 5-10 hairs in the shower and it felt thick and strong. It is now April and everything is still good.
Now for the most important part. Before I went on Propecia I had my hormone levels checked. My Testosterone was 688 on a scale of 250-900, my Estradiol was 16 on a scale of 15-50, and my DHT was 1150 on a scale of 150-950. So I had high DHT. I read on these forums after ceasing Propecia your Type 1 DHT levels return to normal in 14 days and Type 2 in 30 days. In late March I had my hormone levels checked again to see where they were after almost 3 months off Propecia. My Testosterone and Estradiol were almost the exact same but my DHT level was 256 on the same scale. So after 3 months my DHT levels are normal but on the low end. Before Propecia my semen was thick and white, my erections were strong, and my scalp would burn a lot. 3 months after stopping propecia everything returned to their pre-propecia state except I don't have any scalp burning and I lose very little hair in the shower. As we know Propecia lowers your serum DHT levels including your scalp DHT. Lipogaine and Regenepure Dr claims they reduce scalp DHT but not serum obviously cause there topical and don't go systemic. So I'm trying to figure out what causes my current DHT levels to be on the low end of normal 3 months after stopping Propecia. Is it possible 900 of the 1150 DHT was in my scalp and using lipogaine and regenpure reduce my total DHT to only 250? What percent of our total DHT is located in our scalps? I am quite hairy though and have had facial hair since 11 and beard hair since 14, which is associated with DHT. Is it possible after 3-4 months my DHT levels still haven't recovered from Propecia? Or were my DHT levels in the scalp artificially raised from me not washing my hair enough and all the DHT rich sebum was killing my hair follicles? Do you think my excessive hair loss while washing was telegen effluvium brought on by not washing enough and having way too much sebum on my scalp? I also haven't exercised much in the last few months and before propecia I did regularly. Could not exercising make my DHT levels low? Also is it possible I never had male pattern baldness and I just have a maturing hairline? My hairline matured a little when I was 20, is it possible to have a maturing hairline mature in stages and then never lose anything else. For example can you go from a Justin Bieber convex hairline to a straight across hairline with rounded corners at 16, then lose the rounded corners at 20, and then lose your temples at 23 and then never lose anymore hair? Or does a hairline always mature really fast for everyone? Did my hairline fully mature at 20 or am I going through a second stage of my hairline maturing at 23-24? I went to a hair transplant surgeon to ask him if he thought I was losing my hair and he said I was between a Norwood 0 and 1. What do you all think my Norwood stage is? I'll include some pictures for reference. The first 2 pictures is me at 17, the next 2 is at 19, the next 2 after that is at 20, and the last 4 is me now at 24 (the first 2 my hair is held back with hair clips, the last 2 is my hair naturally.) For anyone who read this whole thing, you're amazing! Thanks.
So growing up I always had thick and curly/wavy dark brown hair. People would say I would never lose my hair. My family history with hair loss is quite mixed. On my dads side there's Norwood 5s and 6s and some 4s. My dad lost his hair relatively quick in his late 20s to early 30s. On my moms side there's a lot of Norwood 1s and 2s. And some people who lost most of there over like 30+ years. My hair texture and color mostly resembles my moms father who died with a Norwood 2 at most, prob a 1.5.
So in October 2015 I started noticing some thinning in one of my temples, over the next few months it spread to the rest of my hairline. It still to this day is very minor, it's only about 1/4 of an inch and it's not visible to anyone except myself. I'm 24 btw. I got really depressed and was freaking out, which definitely didn't help. To backtrack a little the last few months before my loss started to a month after from July to November 2015 I was experimenting with the NoPoo method of only washing your hair with water, as my hair has always been hard to manage and I was trying to make it easier. Long story short my hair never adjusted to it like some other people do and it was a disgusting greasy mess the whole time. Also during this time I used a ton of hair waxes and other products and would only wash my hair like once a week. I'd scratch my head and have a ton of sebum under my nails because I wasn't washing my hair enough. My hair follicles were being literally suffocated, but I'm not sure.
During the first few months of my hair loss I sometimes had a tugging sensation, like the feeling you get when you wear a hat all day and then move your hair and it hurts. Then this progressed into the infamous DHT burn/itch/inflammation everyone always talks about. It really hurt at times but was still manageable. Because of this I quit NoPoo and stopped all hair waxes / other products. I also started washing my hair every 3-4 days. The burning never went away and I would lose more hair then I was used to in the shower, my hand would be covered in hair. I was losing about 100 hairs per wash every 3-4 days and I wouldn't lose hair at any other time of day. That actually doesn't sound like a lot because 100 hairs every 3-4 days is only 25-33 a day. But before this I would shed very very little. Plus I could also tell the difference, my hair felt more brittle and it would just come out with a little tug at times. My hair felt like it was attached loosely to my head. Other times I'd grab a section of hair and pull out 6-7 hairs at once. Also at this time my nape hair was also shedding. I could pull on my nape hair and pull out like 20 hairs. That was very alarming. There was never a cosmetic change to my nape hair however. I then started to notice my vertex looking thinner and thinner spots on my crown. However I eventually realized by looking at older pictures there actually wasn't a difference and my hair everywhere except my hairline was the same thickness. Curly hair sometimes has a tendency to move in weird directions and make certain spots look thinner but when I felt them or brushed the in another direction it was the same thickness and it never changed.
So then 8 months later in June 2016 I got a prescription for Propecia from my doctor to stop my hair loss when it was still really early. I decided to take a low dose at first and scale upwards to a full dose over a period of a few months. I started at .25 mg and eventually progressed to .5 .75 and then finally 1 mg. I had very minor side effects. I had watery semen within the first 2 weeks which never went away. But I was fine with it because on the plus side it shot way farther which I thought was pretty cool . When I progressed to .5 mg I had some chest burning and tightness for a few days. I dropped back down to .25 mg. I eventually scaled up to 1 mg with no more side effects. Also by the time October 2016 rolled around I no longer had any DHT itch/burning/inflammation and I was no longer losing a lot of hair when I washed my hair. I also was taking way better care of my hair. I would wash it with shampoo every 3 days and wash it every other day with just conditioner. I would also use a leave in conditioner. My hair looked and felt the best it ever looked in my whole life and I was thrilled.
However by January 2017 I got another side effect. I had only been using the full does of 1 mg a day for only 2-3 months. The side effect I had was "Hard Flaccid" a condition I heard talked about on this forum a few times. My dick was hard in the flaccid state. It was like my dick was in shock and couldn't relax. It felt really weird. At this point i no longer thought it was worth it to continue propecia. I took my last dose on January 1 2017. A week after I felt an intense DHT burning for the first time in months. Probably DHT rushing back into my body. The morning after this my hard flaccid was 80-90% better. So I think the hard flaccid was definitely connected to prooecia. Since I still wanted to keep my hair I ordered some Lipogaine and Regenpure Dr shampoo. I started Lipogaine once a day and Regenepure Dr twice a week on January 14 2017. My hair loss in the shower got even lower then on Propecia, I'd lose only 5-10 hairs in the shower and it felt thick and strong. It is now April and everything is still good.
Now for the most important part. Before I went on Propecia I had my hormone levels checked. My Testosterone was 688 on a scale of 250-900, my Estradiol was 16 on a scale of 15-50, and my DHT was 1150 on a scale of 150-950. So I had high DHT. I read on these forums after ceasing Propecia your Type 1 DHT levels return to normal in 14 days and Type 2 in 30 days. In late March I had my hormone levels checked again to see where they were after almost 3 months off Propecia. My Testosterone and Estradiol were almost the exact same but my DHT level was 256 on the same scale. So after 3 months my DHT levels are normal but on the low end. Before Propecia my semen was thick and white, my erections were strong, and my scalp would burn a lot. 3 months after stopping propecia everything returned to their pre-propecia state except I don't have any scalp burning and I lose very little hair in the shower. As we know Propecia lowers your serum DHT levels including your scalp DHT. Lipogaine and Regenepure Dr claims they reduce scalp DHT but not serum obviously cause there topical and don't go systemic. So I'm trying to figure out what causes my current DHT levels to be on the low end of normal 3 months after stopping Propecia. Is it possible 900 of the 1150 DHT was in my scalp and using lipogaine and regenpure reduce my total DHT to only 250? What percent of our total DHT is located in our scalps? I am quite hairy though and have had facial hair since 11 and beard hair since 14, which is associated with DHT. Is it possible after 3-4 months my DHT levels still haven't recovered from Propecia? Or were my DHT levels in the scalp artificially raised from me not washing my hair enough and all the DHT rich sebum was killing my hair follicles? Do you think my excessive hair loss while washing was telegen effluvium brought on by not washing enough and having way too much sebum on my scalp? I also haven't exercised much in the last few months and before propecia I did regularly. Could not exercising make my DHT levels low? Also is it possible I never had male pattern baldness and I just have a maturing hairline? My hairline matured a little when I was 20, is it possible to have a maturing hairline mature in stages and then never lose anything else. For example can you go from a Justin Bieber convex hairline to a straight across hairline with rounded corners at 16, then lose the rounded corners at 20, and then lose your temples at 23 and then never lose anymore hair? Or does a hairline always mature really fast for everyone? Did my hairline fully mature at 20 or am I going through a second stage of my hairline maturing at 23-24? I went to a hair transplant surgeon to ask him if he thought I was losing my hair and he said I was between a Norwood 0 and 1. What do you all think my Norwood stage is? I'll include some pictures for reference. The first 2 pictures is me at 17, the next 2 is at 19, the next 2 after that is at 20, and the last 4 is me now at 24 (the first 2 my hair is held back with hair clips, the last 2 is my hair naturally.) For anyone who read this whole thing, you're amazing! Thanks.
