patchyrodent
New Member
- Reaction score
- 3
It's been like this, getting progressively worse for about 2 years. I kept waiting for it to grow out and it never did. It got shorter without me trimming or cutting it and it looks like crap. I'm not shaving my head, I don't like how shaved heads look. Having short hair already bothers me enough because I hate how it looks, and bald would be worse.
Minoxidil and finasteride aren't doing much for the hair yet. It's only been two months. I'll be under a doctor's supervision, I've got an appointment with a dermatologist in two weeks so this problem will be examined, diagnosed and monitored.
Stopping the loss is not enough. I have to get it to grow back to shoulder length AT MINIMUM.
I'm in an unusual situation medically, because my body does not produce its own sex hormones anymore. I'm seven years post orchiectomy (it's a long story.) I overdid testosterone replacement a few years back because I was an insecure moron and I'd become agoraphobic about my self-perceived effeminacy--and now look what happened.
At this point I'm completely willing to take estrogen if that's what will work, my overblown fears of feminization aside. I can fix my own psychological hangups, but I can't mindfulness-meditate myself out of going bald.
UPDATE 3/5/16: Saw dermatologist, no conclusive advice other than "keep doing min/finasteride and see me in 3 months." And I'm not even on the Norwood scale according to him, but the Ludwig. Which is patently ridiculous because I've got a frontal receding hairline in addition to diffuse thinning. But I am a Ludwig 2 according to him.
I swear finasteride is making my diffuse thinning worse. I've stopped taking it. The **** is it blocking anyway, I've stopped taking trt for 2 months now! It's useless. The dr is an idiot too.
I've decided to start taking estradiol because 1) All evidence I've found points to it being the most effective remedy for balding, 2) finasteride is killing my libido and estradiol can also be a libido enhancer, 3) I'm physiologically immune to gynecomastia and erectile dysfunction--it's not the same as low libido, I can get hard and stay hard whenever I want but low libido decreases sensitivity and energy to stay awake. In the meanwhile I'm drinking tons of alcohol again as an estradiol booster until my perscription gets filled. Today I skipped the finasteride and hit the bottle and I haven't seen any hairfall--or nowhere near as much as I did when on trt OR finasteride.
My hypothesis is that high estradiol immunizes the follicles from the effects of high DHT regardless of how much you've got. Which is why I didn't see hairfall during the hormoneless alcoholic years, and saw no hairloss on trt OR dht either until I ran out of booze & couldn't get any more. Then I took supraphysiological doses of T which made my E level high and my hair got longer again...until I reduced my dosage and had another huge shed. (I had a ponytail by then. It shedded out.)
So in my case I think it is lack of estradiol that is making me bald. IDGAF about stereotypes, it's just a chemical and has no worth or meaning beyond its external/physical effects. All psychological effects are either placebo effect or reactions to anatomical changes--anatomical changes that I won't have.
The only thing I'm concerned about is fat redistribution, which I do not want and would bother me, but this can be mitigated by eating less + exercising more to keep a low bfp. Which anyone who cares about looking good should be doing anyway. Time to buy calipers and do more sit ups. My gut is a problem area.
The only problem is that if you raise your E level you'd have to keep it constant or you'll get telogen effluvium, just like if you stop minoxidil.
I'll see whether it works or not in a few months.
UPDATE 3/16/16: I'm vitamin d deficient and taking supplements. Still no hair improvement. Slight fuzz on the hairline, cannot tell if regrowth or loss.
Minoxidil and finasteride aren't doing much for the hair yet. It's only been two months. I'll be under a doctor's supervision, I've got an appointment with a dermatologist in two weeks so this problem will be examined, diagnosed and monitored.
Stopping the loss is not enough. I have to get it to grow back to shoulder length AT MINIMUM.
I'm in an unusual situation medically, because my body does not produce its own sex hormones anymore. I'm seven years post orchiectomy (it's a long story.) I overdid testosterone replacement a few years back because I was an insecure moron and I'd become agoraphobic about my self-perceived effeminacy--and now look what happened.
At this point I'm completely willing to take estrogen if that's what will work, my overblown fears of feminization aside. I can fix my own psychological hangups, but I can't mindfulness-meditate myself out of going bald.
UPDATE 3/5/16: Saw dermatologist, no conclusive advice other than "keep doing min/finasteride and see me in 3 months." And I'm not even on the Norwood scale according to him, but the Ludwig. Which is patently ridiculous because I've got a frontal receding hairline in addition to diffuse thinning. But I am a Ludwig 2 according to him.
I swear finasteride is making my diffuse thinning worse. I've stopped taking it. The **** is it blocking anyway, I've stopped taking trt for 2 months now! It's useless. The dr is an idiot too.
I've decided to start taking estradiol because 1) All evidence I've found points to it being the most effective remedy for balding, 2) finasteride is killing my libido and estradiol can also be a libido enhancer, 3) I'm physiologically immune to gynecomastia and erectile dysfunction--it's not the same as low libido, I can get hard and stay hard whenever I want but low libido decreases sensitivity and energy to stay awake. In the meanwhile I'm drinking tons of alcohol again as an estradiol booster until my perscription gets filled. Today I skipped the finasteride and hit the bottle and I haven't seen any hairfall--or nowhere near as much as I did when on trt OR finasteride.
My hypothesis is that high estradiol immunizes the follicles from the effects of high DHT regardless of how much you've got. Which is why I didn't see hairfall during the hormoneless alcoholic years, and saw no hairloss on trt OR dht either until I ran out of booze & couldn't get any more. Then I took supraphysiological doses of T which made my E level high and my hair got longer again...until I reduced my dosage and had another huge shed. (I had a ponytail by then. It shedded out.)
So in my case I think it is lack of estradiol that is making me bald. IDGAF about stereotypes, it's just a chemical and has no worth or meaning beyond its external/physical effects. All psychological effects are either placebo effect or reactions to anatomical changes--anatomical changes that I won't have.
The only thing I'm concerned about is fat redistribution, which I do not want and would bother me, but this can be mitigated by eating less + exercising more to keep a low bfp. Which anyone who cares about looking good should be doing anyway. Time to buy calipers and do more sit ups. My gut is a problem area.
The only problem is that if you raise your E level you'd have to keep it constant or you'll get telogen effluvium, just like if you stop minoxidil.
I'll see whether it works or not in a few months.
UPDATE 3/16/16: I'm vitamin d deficient and taking supplements. Still no hair improvement. Slight fuzz on the hairline, cannot tell if regrowth or loss.
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