big 2 blog starts now!!!new july 2011 pics on page 4!!!

[pawelg]

hi everyone, you might know me from my rant in the concealers section.
here is my story:

i am 27 years old, from germany. i started thinning and losing my hairline around the age of 20. since my dad is pretty bald i was expecting it some time.
after a year of thinning some more receding of the hairline i started using rogaine. it seemed as though it had an immediate thickening effect on my hair. it was awesome. the receding hairline stayed where it was, and it didnt bother me. as you probably know a slightly receded hairline with a full thick head of hair looks actually quite good and classy (johnny depp, jude law after the transplant, robert de niro, jim carrey). after a few months my hair started to thin like crazy. me being the impatient moron that i am, i immediately ditched minoxidil because i thought its worthless, when it might have been just a simple shed. my hair went untreated for around 2 years, i just gave it a buzz cut. i finally warmed up to propecia which i didnt want to use before because of the possible sides. so around 2007 or 2008 i went on my propecia diet, which seems to have stopped or extremely slowed down my hair loss. the problem is, that until then my hair went to a mcconaughey-mugshot-stage, since it hadnt been treated. did i mention i was a moron?
so now im trying to get by using concealers, which can look good, but take up alot of time, cost alot of money and arent flexible, spontaneous and have me looking into the mirror at every opportunity i get.
since ive gone through almost every concealer on the market i will now start a new journey: i will go back on minoxidil 5% and keep the finasteride regimen.
my ultimate goal is to get a transplant and maintain my hair, but it would of course be nicer to have success with the big 2. i have read some inspirational threads in the success stories section (thanks HairLossTalk.com), and seen some wonderful pictures.

my deal is this: i just ordered the minoxidil 3 month supply. tonight i will post 3 pics, front, left and right side. in a few days i will get my package and i will start posting pics every few weeks taken in the same room, no concealers, same haircut, and if possible same lighting. if you people out there have any questions, you can contact me. just reply and i will be notified via email. i hope i can compete with those wonderful success stories, and if so, inspire other young people suffering from hairloss!!

i hope you join me on my journey!

 

[pawelg]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

ok everyone. these are the first pics. remember, i am already using finpecia and maintaining my hair. to get by i wear a baseball hat or concealers if i go out somewhere. however in these pictures you see the naked truth. i brushed my hair back which i normally dont do, but that way you get a full view of it. the hair is fresh out of the shower and blowdryed. it doesnt get fuller than that without concealers. contrary to my first post, i put up 4 pics. i didnt bother taking the back of my head, since thats fine, no problems there. the next pics will be in a few weeks, although they wont contain alot of changes, probably.
if you have any questions, let me know.

 

[pawelg]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

hi everyone,

just a quick update. i have recieved my minoxidil 5%. i will start my first application tonight. i hope i will be able to report back after a while with some interesting results.

so long,

pawel

 

[pawelg]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

just for the record, as i see alot of hits, i started the treatment a few days ago. i am not shedding, except for the normal amount. should i notice any changes, positive or negative, i will report. by the way, im using the spray applicator the min came with,not the dropper.

 

[pawelg]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

Just keep the treatments up, and be patient!

i certainly will. i am curious as to whether i can compete with those awesome success stories. i want my hair back, period! int:

 

[pawelg]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

just a quick update: i have been taking minoxidil now for a 2 weeks or so.
i use the original brand, with a pump spray applicator. the long tip gets through the hair right onto the scalp. it does run down my forehead sometimes, because i probably apply too much, but i just wipe that off. so far i havent noticed anything. my scalp is slightly chalky, so i have to wash my hair every other day instead of once every 3 days, so thats ok. i know its way too early to see any big differences, however i read that some people notice shedding quite immediately. i wasnt going through any significant sheds before i started (my hair wasnt falling out literally, just getting thinner over the years and disappearing), and now i might me shedding even less, or the same, but definitely not more. ill get back here in the next couple of week.

so long!

 

[pawelg]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

a quick note: more than 3 weeks, the firstbottle is almost empty, so my doses are pretty accurate. im almost not losing any hairs at all. whether during combing or showering. now, some regrowth would be nice, but IF that happens, it will take a few more weeks.

so long.

 

[pawelg]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

ok everyone, judging by the large number of clicks (more than 20 per day on average) i assume that alot of fellow sufferers are following this.
today i would like to write about how i decided to incorporate minoxidil into my daily routine.
previously i would just put on a hat, and use concealers only on special occasions, because it was too much of a hassle to get it to look right.

however, i am sick of always having to wear a hat, and fearing that someone of my retarded jokester friends might take it off to get a rise out of me. :thumbdown2:

i will start with my day ending. i wash my hair, comb it to a cesar and then blowdry it. it doesnt have to be bone dry, but it gives the hair more volume and it keeps it in the cesar shape that i need. i now get my hair cut the following way: the sides really short, maybe 0,5 cm, and the top alot longer, maybe like 10 cm. thats a big contrast but with the right styling it looks really good. so before i go to bed i apply minoxidil.

in the morning the first thing i do is apply minoxidil. i let it dry for about 20 mins while doing the rest of my routine (i sound like patrick bateman). i live in the american gardens building, on the eleventh floor...nah...
after 20 mins the minoxidil is dry enough for dermmatch. first i make sure, that the styling is pretty much the way i want it to be. then i apply dermmatch, dry. once everything is in order, i hairspray it and then blowdry for just 30 seconds. voila. i have a mature hairline, but as long as the hair doesnt look thin, and it doesnt, im fine. i dont care about a mature hairline a la johnny depp, robert de niro etc.

i still do wear a hat outdoors, because of the wind, but the size of the hat is such, that it doesnt ruin the hairstyle.

so, thats how i do it, and since my hair is difficult to manage, i assume that someone with straighter hair would do it even quicker and easier.

so long, folks.

 

[pawelg]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

hi everybody,

ok, yesterdays post was slightly off topic. but i have to post again today, because today marks exactly 4 weeks since i started my minoxidil diet.
here are the few things that i noticed:

just like a few years back, my hair puffs up, when i use minoxidil. im not saying its thicker, that just could not be realistically true. but it does puff up, so it LOOKS a little thicker. that however is nothing to be excited about, because thats not why we are using minoxidil, right?
the other thing that i noticed: i am barely losing any hairs at all. you are supposed to lose up to 100 hairs per day. i would be surprised if i even got to half of it. i dont know if that has anything to do with minoxidil, because before i started using it, i wasnt exactly counting the hairs that fell out, but i will keep an eye on it. so in other words, no shed what so ever. on the contrary.

one more thing, i have a very light beard. its still very light, howver i used to have almost colorless hair under my lower lip, now i have like 5 or 6 hairs that obviously are a little thicker and have color, like the rest of my beard. again, maybe that has been the case before i started using minoxidil, so i cant guarantee that its the result of min. but thats also something i will keep an eye on.

i have no sides at all, no puffy face, no black eyes. i dont really believe in sides. the sides of finasteride and min as far as i know are in the single digit percentage area or even less, so yes, some very few unlucky people are experiencing them, and they complain, so naturally the impression is that those products are full of sides. people like me, who are not experiencing are usually not nearly as vocal as the ones who do.

ill keep you posted every once in a while or as soon as i see some changes.

so long!


Edit: i will order a bottle of nanomix -fms, since it supposedly dries really fast. my plan is to use regular rogaine in the evenings, because it doesnt matter to me then if it dries fast or not, and the nanomix in the mornings, since its easier to style (i use dermmatch).

Another edit: i washed my hair yesterday and paid close attention to the drain filter. NO HAIRS at all. not even one. in case i do start shedding it will be very easy to notice lol then i hope it will be one of the "good sheds".

 

[Rawtashk]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

I've trolled around these forums for a while, but just now decided to make an account.

I would suggest that you buy something a bit more "strainer-like" than a traditional drain filter. I got something like this http://bit.ly/e14e0B . I used to get a decent amount of hair caught in a normal filter before I started my hair loss prevention, and it gradually slowed down to none. I got one of these things and found out that there was actually a bit of hair being lost, but it's probably closer to the normal range.

Something like this would let you better measure how your loss has slowed down.

Good luck to you, I hope you get some great results!

 

[pawelg]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

hey raw, thanks for the advice. i do have a filter but this one looks to be a little more unforgiving, which is good. ill see how i can get them in germany. thanks unk:

 

[pawelg]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

hello people,

its been almost two weeks since my last real update. i have to say: nothing changed. which means im still not shedding any significant amount of hair, on the contrary, once in a while i will have some hairs in the bathtub drain, but more often than not there is nothing but the odd single hair here and there.
however my confidence is sky high since i found this great way of doing my hair to the point where my thinning is not detectable. on saturday i did a new pic, because im planning to change companies, so i had to take a pic in a suit and stuff. in case you guys dont believe that its actually me i can of course take a pic at home with something in the picture that you guys requested, to prove that im not telling stories here. anyway, here goes:

 

[terrapin12]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

Give it 4-6 months before you make up your mind on the Rogaine. Just my opinion...

 

[pawelg]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

just 10 minutes ago i checked my hairline. i held my hair back with my right hand and got up close to the mirror. i do this every couple of days since i started rogaine, just to make sure that im not imagining things.

on my left temple i noticed some hairs. they can be described as vellus hairs, however, there are one or two of them, that are no longer seethrough but darker.

i wouldnt make a big deal about velus hair because we have it all over our body, its nothing special. but those few slightly darker hairs definitely have not been there before. now im trying not to freak out about it and i tell myself that someone with no hairloss at all would probably just laugh at me. but this can be categorized as some sort of regrowth. of course its not cosmetically satisfying, but the point is, that it hasnt been there before for several years now. like i said, i will keep my cool about it and ill monitor it to you guys, maybe it will be a harbinger of things to come. who knows?

by the way, still no shedding, on the contrary, i have to kill myself to get 20 hairs a day to fall out. :hump:

so long.

 

[pawelg]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

hi readers,

i have to make another post. the vellus hairs are so visible now, that i can see them standing a foot away from the mirror. on both temples now actually. its weird and happening really fast. i wonder whats gonna come out of this. im trying not to get overexcited about it though.

another observation i made this morning:
i brushed my hair over the sink. i got 5 hairs out, regular length. before minoxidil i would lose alot more, although definitely not more than a hundred a day, so no big deal. but now its close to zilch, and thats interesting. what was weird though is that i also lost 4-5 hairs of the lenght of an eye lash. they were looking thicker than the longer hairs. i thought thats strange because they were too short to be ready to cycle. maybe minoxidil is synching the hair, i dont know.

ill post again when theres news.

so long!

 

[pawelg]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

hello fellow male pattern baldness sufferers,

just a quick update. still no shedding, im still losing even less hair than before the treatment. the vellus hairs on my temples are definitely different from the vellus hairs that we all have all over our body, because they are definitely longer. the way they align i would be a Norwood 1.5 if they should ever turn into terminal hair, which would be awesome. since have been maintaining easily on propecia alone (for around 3 years) i am hopeful that minoxidil will even improve things. i will keep at it.

so long!

 

[JMB22]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

I'm following your thread. Thanks for the regular updates. Hope you get good results from minoxidil as I'm looking to start it this coming week.

 

[pawelg]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

thanks for the kind words. hop we can see you in the success stories section some day unk:

 

[Rawtashk]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

I would suggest perhaps adding Nizoral shampoo to your "big 2" and make it the "big 3". It might not regrow hair all by itself, but it sure seems to help! A healthy scalp is pretty essential to regrowing.

 

[pawelg]

Re: big 2 blog starts now!!!first pics uploaded

thanks, i know, but i would like to go ahead and keep the regimen as simple as possible. i believe that the force of the big 3 is actually the big 2, which i am using. if i feel something is missing i might switch to the big 3.

as far as an update goes, the vellus hairs are getting longer. theyre obviously growing much slower than the terminal hairs, but the point is they havent been there before. so im curious as to what is gonna happen next.

so long.