These photos are from three years ago. Everyone, including myself, thought that it was over, well, until I tried Minoxidil and Finasteride, which have resurrected me from the dead! A miracle! I was feeling happy, like a whole different person, like I was reborn with a new life. It's crazy how much impact hair can have on someone's life. I even mentioned in the first post that:
WITHOUT the treatments, I would be destroyed once for all. Without the treatments, everything ends for me. And that's the truth. The treatments keep my sanity and hope. The thing is that I am losing ground again. I lost the volume and thickening that I gained from Finasteride. Temples are receding again. It all makes sense with such aggressive Androgenetic Alopecia. Imagine how hard finasteride is battling to keep my gains. My mental health got deteriorated, though. I can't look back at these photos. I simply can't! I can't look back now, after all this sucess and fight. And for how I am feeling more thorough, I made a post here:
Thanks for responding
@Renovation ,
@Here For the Lulz
I can see how much hairloss has affected you. I can also see similarity in the way you talk with how I felt when my hair was at it's worst although I'm not on that extreme depressive cycle, it can be mentally draining.
I won't bash the big 3. Treatments have worked for you to help keep what you have. They didn't for me. They work for some to help regrow, others continue to lose hair and sometimes they make it worse. Not much point debating DHT lowering meds, minoxidil and nirzoral here as most of us know they work for some and don't for others. Personally I have found a regime that works for me which doesn't include any of them, so far anyway).
Take it with a pinch of salt, like all advice on here. But imo even if you are using the big 3 there is no harm adding some of what I'm currently doing. Its dirt cheap and it's natural. Here's what I do.
-- Reduce inflammation (large dose MSM and reasonably healthy diet)
-- Control (not eliminate) DHT. (Small dose saw palmetto, red ginseng daily) (AVOID gym steroids, protein powders creatine etc like the plague!)
-- Take iron daily (I use a liquid iron to get rda. I might be getting slightly to much but I've not got around to having iron levels checked, already spend to much time up until this point finding what works for me)
-- I also supplement with magnesium, biotin, copper, L tyrosine and L aginine, although I'm not convinced they help a great deal they all help with training, energy levels, feel good factor etc.
----- Most importantly of all IMO - reduce sebum and build up of anything oil based on my scalp. This means using magnesium sulphate or chloride AND dead sea salt in every bath or if I'm showing I dilute in a Jug. Gives good texture and adds volume as added bonus. This method should also help decalcify, although I'm not 100 percent sold on calcification theory. I wash my hair with mild SLS free shampoo once per week in this mixture and rinse my hair with just the mixture alone every other day (magnesium/epsom salt/dead sea salt mixed with partly cooled boiled water). I scalp massage the mixture in when washing and rinsing. I also have a spray bottle with same mixture for styling! If the mixture gets to heavy on my hair after washing I dilute further and rinse again.
Again nothing oil based, no conditioner, no olive oil castor oil etc. (Although I do believe essential oils can maybe help in some cases, the trade off for leaving my scalp oily again when its the main thing I'm trying to avoid, isn't worth it for my situation).
I promise you these things have helped me so far, my hair is in the best condition its been for 15 years, but like the big 3, I can't gaurantee they will work for anyone else.