Hello all,
I first discovered this board ten years ago ; I was then 22 years old, and freaking out because what I had thought to be my "mature hairline" had begun creeping a little too far up over the temples.
I went on Finasteride for a while, but quit after a few months because of bad side effects (gynecomastia and testicular pain). Tried a bunch of things, minoxidil, kitchen-sink Zix, topical Spironolactone cream... You name it.
After about two years of a desperate fight which yielded poor results, I buzzed my hair down, and decided to go on with my life.
By habit, I kept on a regimen of Beta-sitosterol and Saw Palmetto for some time, until the idea of having children arose between my wife and me.
At that point, I decided to drop everything off : even though neither Saw Palmetto nor Beta-sitosterol seemed to have any sort of proven negative effects on spermatogenesis, the idea to keep voluntarily ingesting substances that may even remotely have an effect on androgens seemed irresponsible.
Fast forward a few years : I am now 32, and a solid 5 on the Norwood scale.
I believe my hairloss is fairly aggressive : I went from Norwood 2 to Norwood 5 in ten years, so it seems reasonable to conjecture I'll be a 6 when I hit 35~, and a slick 7 at 40~45.
While it wouldn't ruin my life - I am, technically, already bald to the eyes of everyone - I decided a few weeks ago it was time to give treatments another chance.
What triggered the idea is the fact one of my children is a boy - and thinking about it, he has a very bad pool of genes hair-wise : every single male person I can think of in my family is or was bald(ing) ; same goes in my wife's family (except for one grandfather who met an untimely death due to an early cancer).
I know how depressing it can be to start balding at a young age - so basically, my idea is to see how treatments go for me, and keep myself informed in order to be as well prepared as possible if or when Androgenetic Alopecia hits my son.
The only thing I'm afraid of is gynecomastia. I did develop lumps the first time around (which took a long time to resorb after I went off the drug), so chances are it'll be the same this time again. If it is the case, my only choice will probably be to drop everything off for good - but at least, I won't have regrets.
This time, I'm going to try and be a little more consistent in my approach. No kitchen sinking chemicals because of some random piece of anecdotal evidence found on the internet. No shady supplements. No waving around dead chicken.
Big three, and patience. That'll be all.
I popped my first Finasteride pill two days ago, and started applying Minoxidil yesterday.
I'll try to keep you posted on my progress (or lack thereof), and will upload baseline pictures as soon as possible.
Thank you for reading !
Edit : here's my baseline pic. Hair is a bit wet as the picture was taken a few minutes after applying minoxidil.
I first discovered this board ten years ago ; I was then 22 years old, and freaking out because what I had thought to be my "mature hairline" had begun creeping a little too far up over the temples.
I went on Finasteride for a while, but quit after a few months because of bad side effects (gynecomastia and testicular pain). Tried a bunch of things, minoxidil, kitchen-sink Zix, topical Spironolactone cream... You name it.
After about two years of a desperate fight which yielded poor results, I buzzed my hair down, and decided to go on with my life.
By habit, I kept on a regimen of Beta-sitosterol and Saw Palmetto for some time, until the idea of having children arose between my wife and me.
At that point, I decided to drop everything off : even though neither Saw Palmetto nor Beta-sitosterol seemed to have any sort of proven negative effects on spermatogenesis, the idea to keep voluntarily ingesting substances that may even remotely have an effect on androgens seemed irresponsible.
Fast forward a few years : I am now 32, and a solid 5 on the Norwood scale.
I believe my hairloss is fairly aggressive : I went from Norwood 2 to Norwood 5 in ten years, so it seems reasonable to conjecture I'll be a 6 when I hit 35~, and a slick 7 at 40~45.
While it wouldn't ruin my life - I am, technically, already bald to the eyes of everyone - I decided a few weeks ago it was time to give treatments another chance.
What triggered the idea is the fact one of my children is a boy - and thinking about it, he has a very bad pool of genes hair-wise : every single male person I can think of in my family is or was bald(ing) ; same goes in my wife's family (except for one grandfather who met an untimely death due to an early cancer).
I know how depressing it can be to start balding at a young age - so basically, my idea is to see how treatments go for me, and keep myself informed in order to be as well prepared as possible if or when Androgenetic Alopecia hits my son.
The only thing I'm afraid of is gynecomastia. I did develop lumps the first time around (which took a long time to resorb after I went off the drug), so chances are it'll be the same this time again. If it is the case, my only choice will probably be to drop everything off for good - but at least, I won't have regrets.
This time, I'm going to try and be a little more consistent in my approach. No kitchen sinking chemicals because of some random piece of anecdotal evidence found on the internet. No shady supplements. No waving around dead chicken.
Big three, and patience. That'll be all.
I popped my first Finasteride pill two days ago, and started applying Minoxidil yesterday.
I'll try to keep you posted on my progress (or lack thereof), and will upload baseline pictures as soon as possible.
Thank you for reading !
Edit : here's my baseline pic. Hair is a bit wet as the picture was taken a few minutes after applying minoxidil.
