Hi guys!
First let me start off with an apology. I attained a lot of my knowledge from these forums and pledged to report back every few months or so with updates on my treatment. Fortunately the treatment (so far) has been a success, although the superstitious side of me cringes at posting in the "success stories" forum. Here's an attempt to do my part in furthering knowledge of hair treatments and whatnot (although I'm sure most of what I will say here has been said on this site a million times, I feel like I still owe it to you guys)
Well here's a little backstory since I can't find my original thread: Started balding (I assume) around 18-20 years old. I didn't notice the thinning/recession until a few months prior to my 21st birthday. I say I assume it began a couple years before I noticed because I have always had fairly thin hair and a high forehead, hair and I have never gotten along (didn't even begin to come in til I was almost 2), but I remember being 18-20 and noticing a little bit of extra hair coming out in the shower, while brushing, etc. I never gave it much thought because, honestly, what 18 year old would even think that they are suffering from male pattern baldness at that age! Well, fast-forward to 21 and I noticed recession at the temples and went to the derm to see what I could do about it. He prescribed me finasteride and told me to combine it with minoxidil. I was horribly undisciplined in my "regimen", only applying the minoxidil when I felt like it, but taking the finasteride everyday. After a couple of months, I noticed something "different" about my erections/sexual desire/ability to achieve orgasm. I looked online and found these are possible side effects of finasteride and got FREAKED out and stopped taking everything. Please note that during this time I was also experiencing a stressful rough patch in life and was taking lexapro and not exercising much at all. In hindsight I firmly believe that those factors contributed to the sexual side effects much more than the finasteride could have. The sides actually continued to persist until I stopped the lexapro and regained my old, happy personality. Had I been smarter I would have given the finasteride another shot, but I was just glad to be meds free and the hair loss hadn't gotten bad enough to the point that I felt I needed to take action (Norwood 2).
I remained in a state of apathy regarding my hair loss for the next 2.5 years. It was obvious, especially toward the end of that time, that I was losing ground but I still didn't do anything about it (stupid). In January 2014 I went on a vacation to Costa Rica and noticed in some of the photos my friends had taken of me from behind that I was now starting to bald on the crown, this was even evident from far away. After returning from the trip I got busy with a new semester of school, and, once again, pushed hair loss to the back of my mind. Then, come the end of the semester in May, I got a hair cut...the same kind of hair cut I always get. The results were horrifying. Somehow I had lost far more hair than when my hair was last cut short (the Costa Rica pictures). I no longer needed to look at a picture of the back of my head to know I was going extremely bald, very fast. My crown was more exposed than ever, my temples retreating, and the forward third of my head thinned like never before. I immediately got back on a regimen.
Starting in May I began taking 1mg finasteride/day, putting 2-3ml of 5% minoxidil on morning and night and doing nizoral (which if found out about courtesy of this site) monday wednesday and friday. I took my before pictures a month later (I was in crisis mode and didn't think to take them until my hair had already grown in a bit from the recent cut so I waited until I got it cut again as baseline). I will post the "Before" pix taken June 1st 2014. I followed this regimen religiously for the next several months. To my surprise, my hair began to really thicken beginning in months 2-3 and by November was almost to where it was now. For some reason I did not experience the dreaded shed many have wrote about on here. In the interest of time, I have reduced application of minoxidil to once a day in the mornings, still ~3ml except on the days when I take two showers (to apply nizoral, which I do at night because that is when I'm told DHT buildup is at its worst). For the last week I have switched to cutting proscar into 4ths due to changing health insurers and my propecia prescription skyrocketing. I have used both 1% (over-the-counter) and 2% nizoral but I prefer the 1%, its what I started with and had early success with, doesn't require a prescription, and when I switched to 2%(January 2015 to March 2015) I noticed I began to lose a good amount of hair, although my barber claims it's normal for hair to thin in winter. I also use the generic liquid minoxidil from walmart. It's cheap and I haven't experienced any itching and the oiliness isn't as bad as other brand IMO. All in all I have also been sides free from the finasteride in the long term. I did experience a bit of testicle pain for ~3 days when I first began but it subsided.
I apologize in advance for any spelling errors, it's late and I don't feel like giving this a once-over.
If anyone has any questions I'd be more than happy to help.
First let me start off with an apology. I attained a lot of my knowledge from these forums and pledged to report back every few months or so with updates on my treatment. Fortunately the treatment (so far) has been a success, although the superstitious side of me cringes at posting in the "success stories" forum. Here's an attempt to do my part in furthering knowledge of hair treatments and whatnot (although I'm sure most of what I will say here has been said on this site a million times, I feel like I still owe it to you guys)
Well here's a little backstory since I can't find my original thread: Started balding (I assume) around 18-20 years old. I didn't notice the thinning/recession until a few months prior to my 21st birthday. I say I assume it began a couple years before I noticed because I have always had fairly thin hair and a high forehead, hair and I have never gotten along (didn't even begin to come in til I was almost 2), but I remember being 18-20 and noticing a little bit of extra hair coming out in the shower, while brushing, etc. I never gave it much thought because, honestly, what 18 year old would even think that they are suffering from male pattern baldness at that age! Well, fast-forward to 21 and I noticed recession at the temples and went to the derm to see what I could do about it. He prescribed me finasteride and told me to combine it with minoxidil. I was horribly undisciplined in my "regimen", only applying the minoxidil when I felt like it, but taking the finasteride everyday. After a couple of months, I noticed something "different" about my erections/sexual desire/ability to achieve orgasm. I looked online and found these are possible side effects of finasteride and got FREAKED out and stopped taking everything. Please note that during this time I was also experiencing a stressful rough patch in life and was taking lexapro and not exercising much at all. In hindsight I firmly believe that those factors contributed to the sexual side effects much more than the finasteride could have. The sides actually continued to persist until I stopped the lexapro and regained my old, happy personality. Had I been smarter I would have given the finasteride another shot, but I was just glad to be meds free and the hair loss hadn't gotten bad enough to the point that I felt I needed to take action (Norwood 2).
I remained in a state of apathy regarding my hair loss for the next 2.5 years. It was obvious, especially toward the end of that time, that I was losing ground but I still didn't do anything about it (stupid). In January 2014 I went on a vacation to Costa Rica and noticed in some of the photos my friends had taken of me from behind that I was now starting to bald on the crown, this was even evident from far away. After returning from the trip I got busy with a new semester of school, and, once again, pushed hair loss to the back of my mind. Then, come the end of the semester in May, I got a hair cut...the same kind of hair cut I always get. The results were horrifying. Somehow I had lost far more hair than when my hair was last cut short (the Costa Rica pictures). I no longer needed to look at a picture of the back of my head to know I was going extremely bald, very fast. My crown was more exposed than ever, my temples retreating, and the forward third of my head thinned like never before. I immediately got back on a regimen.
Starting in May I began taking 1mg finasteride/day, putting 2-3ml of 5% minoxidil on morning and night and doing nizoral (which if found out about courtesy of this site) monday wednesday and friday. I took my before pictures a month later (I was in crisis mode and didn't think to take them until my hair had already grown in a bit from the recent cut so I waited until I got it cut again as baseline). I will post the "Before" pix taken June 1st 2014. I followed this regimen religiously for the next several months. To my surprise, my hair began to really thicken beginning in months 2-3 and by November was almost to where it was now. For some reason I did not experience the dreaded shed many have wrote about on here. In the interest of time, I have reduced application of minoxidil to once a day in the mornings, still ~3ml except on the days when I take two showers (to apply nizoral, which I do at night because that is when I'm told DHT buildup is at its worst). For the last week I have switched to cutting proscar into 4ths due to changing health insurers and my propecia prescription skyrocketing. I have used both 1% (over-the-counter) and 2% nizoral but I prefer the 1%, its what I started with and had early success with, doesn't require a prescription, and when I switched to 2%(January 2015 to March 2015) I noticed I began to lose a good amount of hair, although my barber claims it's normal for hair to thin in winter. I also use the generic liquid minoxidil from walmart. It's cheap and I haven't experienced any itching and the oiliness isn't as bad as other brand IMO. All in all I have also been sides free from the finasteride in the long term. I did experience a bit of testicle pain for ~3 days when I first began but it subsided.
I apologize in advance for any spelling errors, it's late and I don't feel like giving this a once-over.
If anyone has any questions I'd be more than happy to help.
