A Few Newbie Questions for the Experienced Here.

[Where Did It Go?]

Hi All.

My male pattern baldness started I think when I was in my 20's after taking Accutane. From that point onward, I was losing a ton of hair in the shower every day but since there was so much I thought it was normal and I never noticed any difference. When I was 28 I finally noticed the thinning in the mirror and went to the derm who gave me Proscar. I took it for a few weeks, got sexual sides so I quit. The hair loss slowly progressed and now looks really bad.

I am living overseas now and went to see the derm/hair loss clinic here. He gave me Proscar and I started on Minoxidil 5% shipped from ebay. I also use Nizoral 2% every 3 days. For the first few months I was not getting a shed and the hair appeared to be thicker, but then for the last two weeks it is all shedding. I am freaking out because I expected it at the beginning, not so far along into taking the meds.

I saw the derm today to get a price on a transplant, he was pushing FUT and said that if I want FUE it would be 2.5 times more expensive. But he said my donor hair at the back is only 100cm2 and the average Caucasian is 80cm2 so he can only transplant about 5000 hairs. The price for FUT would be about $10,000 Canadian if I do the conversion. I am thinking of just forgetting about it and wait on the meds. He told me to wait about 6 months for finasteride results but I guess I am a little impatient.

I have 2 main questions

1. I see a lot of people are posting different things in their regimen, is there something other than the big 3 that you think makes a marked difference in your treatment. What is it and why?

2. I bought Tretinoin cream and mixed it in with the minoxidil and shook it together, it appears to have mixed. When I saw my scalp on the follicular camera, it appears to be caked with dead skin and doesn't look very healthy. I figure the Tretinoin cream would remove the dead layer of skin and perhaps allow the hair to breathe. I have heard of people mixing Tretinoin but does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks..

 

[zzzzz]

1. Dutasteride is more potent than finasteride which is why I am taking it. RU works in a different manner to prevent androgens from getting to the hair and is likely to be effective although I am considering dropping it because the dutasteride itself alone is likely enough

2. Hair does not breath it gets all its oxygen from the blood just like every cell/organ/organelle of your body

 

[braptist]

I was on accutane for two 6 month stints, and my hairline rapidly receding from a NW0.5 (which I think I was naturally) to NW2.5! I've wasted a lot of money on snake oils and gimmicks, and I wouldn't pretend to know what the exact science is behind some treatments, but the main thing I took away is that hairloss from accutane isn't quite the same as regular male pattern baldness, hence why a lot of conventional treatments aren't as effective. I have however managed to maintain my hair at this level for over 2 years now, through something in my routine.
-Take care of your hair. I know it sounds lame and obvious, but I did used to used a really fine comb which pulled on my hair; and overwashed my hair and never used conditioner. I always used to yank back my hair everyday with a strong wax (beckham-esque). As soon as I stopped all these i.e. got a wide tooth comb, shampooed twice a week, conditioned 5 times a week and changed my hair style to something less stressful; I immediately lost a lot less hair.
-Don't overuse nizoral; and combine with a good conditioner. I noticed immediate results from 1-2 uses of nizoral (possible placebo effect), but I was literally trying to PULL my hair out and it wouldn't! Hence I used it everyday...big mistake. Lost a lot of hair, and hair quality decreased dramatically. I toned it down to 1-2 times per week.
-Supplements! After the sides of accutane, I wasn't keen on counteracting those sides with other strong chemicals (propecia, minoxidil), so I went for saw palmetto, biotin and Hair-Vit. I initially used saw palmetto, saw a decrease in hair loss. Then went to hair-vit, which gave me stronger hair (less likely to fall out). After these results, did research into this and found biotin was most potent ingredient, so ordered concentrate. Biotin made a big difference, hair would grow so much faster, thicker; and I eventually reverted back to the beckham hair style despite a slightly receded look, just because of the confidence gained from results!
-Avoid foods with vitamin A as much as possible. Especially multivitamins. This is essentially the difference for people with accutane-induced hair loss. There's some very nice science behind it if you're into that, but I just used it as a rule of thumb. Obviously cold turkey is impossible with this, but research the foods high in vit A and just don't go crazy on them. I was so skeptical of this, and in my first year of university, I didn't really control my diet and lived off a lot of frozen mixed veg as my main source of vitamins. However, culprits such as peas and carrots are extremely high in vit A, and my hairloss did dramatically shed for a while! I do believe this is such a key aspect of accutane-induced hair loss, and it is so unknown.
-Exercise! Sounded like such cr*p when I first read this, but my hairloss was initially so bad I was changing everything in my life. It did help I think, I can't prove it obviously. But it made me feel better about myself, lowered my stress levels etc etc. The main benefit I guess was that at least I had a reasonably healthy, fit body even if I did go bald!

I have no idea how bad your hair loss is, and you could regard this as crap since you're obviously considering hair transplant. I just wanted to share my experience with accutane induced hair loss, and how I did manage it, and to understand that it isn't the same as regular male pattern baldness.