3 Years, 3 Months on Propecia [EDIT: pics]

[youngguy_uk]

Hi! Well it certainly has been a long time since I posted on here! I recognise some names: Cassin, Gardener, etc. I thought I'd post in this forum because I would like as many people to read this post as possible. I think I owe it to the people on this forum to post an update of my progress after so long.

I started losing my hair when I was around 16/17. :freaked: As you can imagine, starting to lose at that age was unbelievably scary. I thought I'd be clean bald before 20, and it's something I thought about every day. Sometimes I'd look at my hair in the mirror under a strong light and feel like crying. You guys know what I mean...

My hair aggressively thinned out all over in the space of about 6 months, and it receded at the temples a bit, say 1.5cm at each side. My recession pattern was like little square chunks out of the corners I registered with this forum and I started taking Propecia just before my 18th birthday My plan was to start on finasteride, and maybe add Min only when it was required -- I didn't want a huge regimen to worry about aged 17 :cry: I just wanted to keep my hair until I finished university.

I kept taking finasteride all throughout university, and I posted on this forum for quite some time. I'd often worry about whether I was shedding, losing more at the temples, crown etc. especially in the first year. But I could never really tell, even though I often thought I could. One thing I realise -- only in hindsight -- is that the whole process had slowed riiight down. If it had continued at the rate it was at before I started taking Propecia, I would've lost everything in 2 years, max.

Well here I am now at the age of 21. And I feel unbelievable to say that I can actually give off the impression of having a totally full head of hair!!! I can even get away with the messy look. Granted, I have to style my hair a certain way to cover some thinning. But you know what? NOONE can tell I have hairloss issues.

I've seen people who started off with full heads of hair or marginal loss go right past me in the balding scale over the last few years. I feel bad for them, but I know that finasteride is working for me.

I have taken Finasteride for 3 years and 3 months -- Propecia for the first year or 2, and Proscar (cut in half, i.e. 2.5mg) for the remainder. I've used Nizoral when I can, but not too much really. I had one spell where I stopped taking Propecia for about a month (an order went wrong :hairy: ) but use has generally been constant apart from that.

This post is just to say there must be hope out there for all of you. You don't believe it until you see success, but people who truly get over their hairloss issues really do stop posting on the forum so much because it doesn't consume their lives anymore. When my hairloss started, I had the worst hairloss out of anyone I knew my age. Seriously, it was EXTREMELY AGGRESSIVE. I was thinning like there was no tomorrow. Now, my hairline has barely receded since I started taking finasteride (maybe a mm or 2? Maybe not even at all!). My hairline may have gotten a teeny bit thinner in the middle, and my crown may have thinned a teeny bit -- but it's really not noticeable, and hardly anything for over 3 years' worth. I think my hair may have thickened a little (or at least, seen no loss) in the middle section of my head.

So chins up guys. I never thought I'd have so much hair so long later. And I haven't even started Minoxidil yet. I was losing so, so quickly -- there's hope for everyone.

 

[Johnny24601]

re:

have you been taking 2.5 mg finasteride everyday for the last year?

 

[Stu85]

Wow, thanks for coming back and giving us your experiences on finasteride youngguy! Especially as it's been so positive! It's great to hear stories like these.

 

[youngguy_uk]

Re: re:

have you been taking 2.5 mg finasteride everyday for the last year?

I didn't record exactly when I made the switch, but I've probably been taking 2.5mg Proscar for about the last year or year and a half. Before that I was on 1mg Propecia. I made the switch because it works out much cheaper. I half the Proscar tablets as opposed to quartering them because it's too damn fiddly! It still works out a lot cheaper.

 

[youngguy_uk]

Wow, thanks for coming back and giving us your experiences on finasteride youngguy! Especially as it's been so positive! It's great to hear stories like these.

No worries. The users have changed, but the posts are similar -- people still have the same concerns. A lot of people who've had good results will have dropped off the forum, no doubt. I never, ever thought I'd be posting here with a happy story, my male pattern baldness was just so darn aggressive! :roll:

 

[dresden]

what about other males in your family, how bad are they balding?

by the way, thanks for coming back.. im 20 and in about the same situation you were..

 

[youngguy_uk]

what about other males in your family, how bad are they balding?

by the way, thanks for coming back.. im 20 and in about the same situation you were..

Father is totally bald, pretty much. Started losing it I think in late 20s. Elder brother is losing too -- had a V shaped recession and now some thinning too in his mid 20s. I had it the worst though I think!

 

[Johnny24601]

re:

I congrat you on your success but 2.5 mg a day is way too much for me. Did you find that you had any higher incidence of sides when you upped the dosage?

 

[pologuy514]

youngguy_uk,
Could you post some pictures of where you were at when you were younger to where you are now with your hair loss. I'd be curious to check out the differences. I've been on Propecia since last August along with taking nizoral and msm. I'm hoping I can have success like yourself one of these days. Congrats on your success by the way!

-Pologuy

 

[youngguy_uk]

Re: re:

First, thanks to everyone for the congrats! It's not congratulations I think I deserve, but I can only wish everyone else success. This is a lifelong thing to deal with sadly. But if/when my hairloss progresses further and begins seriously bothering me again, I'll add minoxidil, possibly opt for a buzz cut and see how it goes. Hell, I may have an ok head of hair when I'm 30 (touch wood)! When I was 17/18, I was convinced I'd be almost bald by 20! That's huge.

I congrat you on your success but 2.5 mg a day is way too much for me. Did you find that you had any higher incidence of sides when you upped the dosage?

I know 2.5mg sounds like a lot! When I was on 1mg, I never had any problem with sides. And when I upped to 2.5mg, I didn't experience any sides either. To be honest, whilst I'm sure some users experience sides, I think the placebo effect can also come into play. When I first started on 1mg, I almost convinced myself on occasions that I was having sides. Home truth: if you're thinking about libido problems while you're trying to get it up, it's not going to happen! At any rate, if you experience some sides at first, the human body is great at adaptation. Just my two cents.

FYI: I only upped to 2.5mg because I wanted to switch to cheaper Proscar. You could always quarter it if you can do it and take 1.25mg. Or just stick with Propecia

youngguy_uk,
Could you post some pictures of where you were at when you were younger to where you are now with your hair loss. I'd be curious to check out the differences. I've been on Propecia since last August along with taking nizoral and msm. I'm hoping I can have success like yourself one of these days. Congrats on your success by the way!

-Pologuy

OK -- I've tried my best to answer this with pics because I hope they can encourage some of you. Words mean a lot, but seeing progress can mean even more.

But read this before you look at the pics! My worst problem was diffuse thinning. These pics don't really show my thinning problem. As you can see, I always highlighted my hair and styled my hair in such a way so as to cover the thinning. I've had a dig and found these pics, but as you can imagine, pics that really showed up my thinning when I was younger, I deleted :cry:

EDIT: extra pic added.

What the pics do show well is the recession. In the first and second pictures, I had my youthful hairline. These photos was taken about 6 months before I took finasteride. The third and fourth pictures were taken just when I started taking finasteride. As you can see, these little square 'chunks' had receded at the corners of my hairline, and fast! In only 6 months! The final photo is taken 3 years after starting finasteride

Sorry I've blanked out my face in the photos -- I have some Internet ID issues! And trust me -- although not clear from the photos, the thinning was the worst of my issues, but I did everything I could to cover it up. For the large part, I've maintained on this front -- I'm satisfied. Having said that, for all you receders, finasteride stopped my recession even though it had progressed pretty rapidly in the 6 months before I started.

Before any loss

6 months later - base photos when starting finasteride

3 years after starting finasteride

These pictures don't do the progress justice at all. I never took "progress pics" as such, because I was trying to avoid male pattern baldness consuming my life. Hopefully they give some insight though. Trust me guys, the ones who see success aren't posting here anymore...Chins up.

 

[Knendell]

I think the younger you are the libido sides will be less noticeable because when I was that age I was sporting a diamond cutter all the time. The older you get the more it may become a factor.

 

[youngguy_uk]

I think the younger you are the libido sides will be less noticeable because when I was that age I was sporting a diamond cutter all the time. The older you get the more it may become a factor.

Hmm, possibly. But I still have no problems now, after over 3 years on finasteride. I'm sure after over 3 years my body is very much used to having finasteride in the system and adapts accordingly. The human body is extremely adaptable. It can take weeks or more to adapt, but it will do so.

Think of how much more women mess with their hormones and body chemistry by taking the pill. Even though it can mess up the timings of their periods initially, by and large, their bodies adapt to the pattern. Just my two cents. I've been getting more and more into the gym recently, and eating huge amounts of food per day, spacing out meals. The first few weeks, I felt so sick from eating so much! My stomach could not physically take it. Now, I'm used to it, and if I don't have that amount I feel hungry.

 

[TheOliviaTremorControl]

You aren't going bald.


Well, maybe you were, but not anymore.


I wish I could say I was having your success. After 1 year on finasteride, I've only experienced further recession, and I think the crown has started to thin (the front part? Like, the peak in my widows peak)
Oh well, as soon as I pay off my student loan I'm just going to commit suicide anyway.

My hairline never really was very low (i've always had a huge forhead), so ANY recession is only amplified.
I look like a norwood 2.5, even though when you compare it with my actual hairline (when I was a teenager) I've only receded as much as a norwoord 1-1.5

 

[dresden]

TheOliviaTremorControl,
are you in rogaine? that could boost your results..

 

[TheOliviaTremorControl]

I'm tentatitive about Rogaine.

From what I've read, its only effective for about two years, and then the rogaine-dependant hairs will stop responding to anything except a higher dosage of rogaine/minoxidil... So if a more viable treatment comes along, it will do no good for these rogaine dependant hairs.


Unless I've been completely mis-informed.

 

[dresden]

i dont think they stop responding. i think the balding process just takes progress. but im not sure what really happens after a few years on it. my derm told me to get on rogaine and i guess ill just try it.

 

[Matgallis]

glad to see an 03 member kept his hair