rxdr1 said:
If you could go back when you first started balding or noticed it and finasteride was available would you have taken it? That's crazy to think balding has caused your life to change so much and you respond well to finasteride or at least without side effects so you wouldn't have had any problems. That's how I feel about some of these new treatments, they may work best for guys who haven't gone bald yet so we could theoretically be seeing the last generation that has to go bald.
By 1998, when finasteride was released into the US market, I was 29 years old and already a NW4-5. Sure, if it had been available sooner, I definately would have taken it. But it wasn't, and guys in my generation didn't have the opportunity to "save" our natural hair by using finasteride back in those days.
Rogaine was available a few years prior to that; however, it has never really done that much for me other than growing a little peach fuzz. Besides, When Rogaine came out, I think I was already visibly balding and it wouldn't have made much difference.
In my case, being bald has been devastating because I was never that good looking to begin with. Then, I made the biggest mistake of my life: having hair transplants, which has left my hair in a "see-through unnatural looking/ fake looking" state. I cannot just buzz it down because I had strip hair transplants, and I have the "ear to ear" smiley face donor scar, which looks obvious.
So the combination of being bald, having below average looks (besides my hair), and the mistake of having hair transplants have all contributed to making my life pretty miserable.
I have done a lot of things to try to help myself, such as returning to college and getting an accounting degree and graduating in the top 5 in my class at my university. But I graduated over one year ago, and because its all about "who you know," I have not had any job offers yet. I have also been working out in the gym quite a bit (been working out for 30 years, BTW), but IMO, women don't notice this at all if the rest of the "total package" looks like crap, despite the fact that I do have a "bodybuilder physique."
I have also become a mojor social recluse ever since I got my first hair transplant in 2004 because my hair transplants have made me look weird. Even before that, I had developed a real bad self image and had allowed my social contacts to dwindle to almost nothing; although a lot of this was really due to my ex wife, who forced me to choose her, and only her - literally, over everyone else for the 8 years we were married.
Thus your argument that my hairloss couldn't have caused all these things is correct; there were indeed a lot of other contributing factors in ruining my life.
But, I honestly feel that if I only had a nice looking head of hair all these years, I certainly could have accomplished a Hell of a lot more. I have no doubts that my life would be no where near as bad as it is now if I had been fortunate enough to have a nice head of hair all this time.
