bombscience's Story

[bombscience]

Me: 25 (Birthday July 22) - Diffuse Thinner - Norwood 0.5 (almost perfect hairline) - thinning all across the top of my head but particularly bad right behind my hairline for 2-3 inches.

Goal: Dramatically slowing or stopping my hairloss with a stretch goal of slight regrowth.

Pre-Hairloss: The best way to describe my former hair was afro. Yes afro. I've had thick curly/wavy hair my entire life that all my mothers’ friends wished they had. If you look at my high school photo it's a flat out afro. I started dying my hair when I was about 20. I tried all different colors and bleaches. I had pretty wild and stylish haircuts, there was even a mohawk in there one time. Here's a picture of me in college after shaving my head while I was drunk. Ironically I labeled it nohair.jpg. If only I knew.

http://www.bombscience.com/HairLossTalk.com/nohair.jpg

Here's one after a fresh dye job. That's red dye, not scalp. This picture is from 12/01

http://www.bombscience.com/HairLossTalk.com/dye.jpg

Thinking back, I guess I started balding right around when I turned 24 years old but I didn't notice it until about 24 and 1/2. Here's me right before I noticed I was thinning 08/02. Looking back now I can tell that it was already starting to go.

http://www.bombscience.com/HairLossTalk.com/loss-1.jpg

The Story: I noticed my hair thinning about 1 year ago after coming back from a trip back east for the Christmas holiday. I went to get my hair cut with a new hairdresser and he gelled my hair up. When he was done and he said, "that doesn't look good, let me dry your hair more." I was immediately suspicious. I thought it was a bad haircut. For the next week or so I was upset that I had this bad haircut, so I dyed my hair black and it looked a little better. Still it was hard to style my hair the way I used to.

http://www.bombscience.com/HairLossTalk.com/loss-2.jpg

For the next 4 months Jan - April of 03 I was in denial that I was balding. I thought It may grow back. I bought Nioxin on a reccomendation from a friend girl. It got to the point where it became noticeable when I gelled my hair. So I made an appointment with a derm. Here's the first picture I noticed my thinning in:

http://www.bombscience.com/HairLossTalk.com/loss-3.jpg

May 03: The derm walked in the office. I was hoping he would tell me it wasn't male pattern baldness or if it was I wanted to get a prescription for propecia. He parted my hair and said... "YOU HAVE male pattern baldness". He gave me a 1 month sample of Rogaine and sent me on my way. I applied it as soon as I got home. About a week later I joined HairLossTalk.com. The first 1.5 months were hell. Flaking itching redness sore sore sore. I added nizoral based on reading here. Nizoral made my head itch more. I shed massively. I remember sleeping in a girl’s bed on a trip home for a wedding and seeing 50 hairs on one of her pillows when I woke. Embarrassing. People on the message boards here said it was a phase and it would pass. One day after work I started combing my hair and my scalp started bleeding. This is where I learned lesson 1: Listen to your body I read up more on the boards and after an email exchange with Dr. Lee it was pretty obvious I was having a reaction to PPG. I stopped using minoxidil for 2 weeks and ordered PG-Free minoxidil & Xandrox. I started back up with 1 application a day

June 03: I began Propecia after visiting another derm who wrote me a prescription. He was a really nice guy who was using it himself which reassured me.

July 03: After starting the PG-Free minoxidil my hair loss & Irritation continued! I added herbals such as Saw Palmetto and Green Tea. I also added Biotin and MSM. After many recommendations I ordered folligen to help with irritation. After a bumpy start with it (it really hurt) it nearly solved my irritation problem. My first victory!!! This is when I learned lesson 2: Maintaining a healthy scalp condition by eliminating irritation is ESSENTIAL to slowing hairloss Here is a picture of how my hair looked when parted in July:

http://www.bombscience.com/HairLossTalk.com/loss-4.jpg

July 03 - Oct 03: Stuck with Big 3 plus Folligen. Kept taking Saw P, Green Tea and Vitamins. Hairloss may have slowed down in Sept-October.

Oct 03 - Nov 03: Thinning picked up again so I dropped saw palmetto and added spironolactone topically at night.

Dec 03: Massive shedding; more than I have before. Irritation is back a little more than it was before especially in the balder areas. Here are some pictures I took today. I know it's not the same lighting as July but it's a lot thinner than back then. Trust me on that, it's not in my head:

http://www.bombscience.com/HairLossTalk.com/loss-5.jpg
http://www.bombscience.com/HairLossTalk.com/loss-6.jpg

Hairloss 2004: I'm sticking with the Big 3 + Folligen + spironolactone. Dropping Saw P for good.

If I don’t see results in June of 04... I'm getting experimental.

Happy New Year! Time to drink.

 

[Healthy Nick]

You've been losing it for a few years now. Atleast you better hope so.

Did you ever get blood work done?

 

[crayola]

I'm kinda shazed, I just got back from a new years party. But did you notice an abrupt change? It kinda sounds like it. I was thinking hair loss stuck me kinda suddon, but thought that the process took a few growth cycels. Then I found this study which supports a suddon loss theory, but alos hope:
-------------------------------
Possible mechanisms of miniaturization during androgenetic alopecia or pattern hair loss.

Whiting DA.

Baylor Hair Research and Treatment Center, Dallas, TX 75246, USA. daddoc@dallasassocderm.com

In androgenetic alopecia, or pattern hair loss, follicles undergo miniaturization, shrinking from terminal to vellus-like hairs. Traditionally, this process is thought to progress gradually over a number of follicular cycles. However, it is unlikely that miniaturization can be explained only by a series of progressively shorter anagen cycles. Simple calculations show that this process would take too long for significant miniaturization to occur secondary to shorter anagen cycles alone, especially in view of the latent lag period seen in pattern hair loss that occurs between the loss of a telogen hair and the appearance of an anagen hair. Evidence is presented to support a new concept that miniaturization is an abrupt, large-step process that also can be reversed in 1 hair cycle, as has been shown clinically, with confirmatory histologic evidence, in patients with pattern hair loss responding to finasteride treatment. It is hypothesized that the miniaturization seen with pattern hair loss may be the direct result of reduction in the cell number and, hence, size of the dermal papilla.

Publication Types:

* Review
* Review, Tutorial


PMID: 11511857 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
-----------------------------------------
so according to this study the miniturization may occur over a short peroid of time, but may be reversed within one cycle while on finasteride. Study found at pubmed. (pasting the url is screwing up the post but I searched "finasteride hair loss" on the pubmed site and found the study. Searching finasteride studies on pub med always reinforces my confidence on my battle. I wish you the best.

 

[bombscience]

You've been losing it for a few years now. Atleast you better hope so.

Did you ever get blood work done?

I did a light blood work. Everything was normal. Why should I hope that I've been losing it for years now? Honestly, I've probably been losing it for 1.5 min, 2 years max.

I'm kinda shazed, I just got back from a new years party. But did you notice an abrupt change? It kinda sounds like it. I was thinking hair loss stuck me kinda suddon, but thought that the process took a few growth cycels. Then I found this study which supports a suddon loss theory, but alos hope:

Interesting study. I think I definetly fall into this category of hair loss. Notice this picture of my unhealthy hairs:

http://www.bombscience.com/HairLossTalk.com/root-tip.jpg

Clearly it seems as if the follicles are shutting down in 1 hair cycle. Hopefully I'll see finasteride kick in as the study shows, improving the hairs in 1 cycle as well. Thanks for shedding a last outlet for hope. Not finding many at this point.

 

[Healthy Nick]

You've been losing it for a few years now. Atleast you better hope so.

Did you ever get blood work done?

I did a light blood work. Everything was normal. Why should I hope that I've been losing it for years now? Honestly, I've probably been losing it for 1.5 min, 2 years max.
.

Maybe you should get a more extensive blood work done.

But, I was saying that because it seems to have hit you aggressively. You went from afro thickness to thinning on a relatively short amount of time. Fortunately, because of your hair type, you might respond really well to minoxidil, and you'll be able to have enough hair to cover it up for years.

 

[beast]

your hair looks good dyed black, from the front it looks great.

 

[fred]

You seem to have exactly the same type of hairloss than me.

I have the same hair color, and hair lenght than you.

I am 23 years old and my hair look today exactly like your last photo, curlier and thinner on the top than it was 6 month ago. 6 month ago I had thick full head of hair, and it fastened dramatically since, and now it is impossible to style (I style it only in the non thinning area, back and side). I don't even know what it will look like in 1 month, at this rate.
You can read my situation in "Fred's story" thread if you recognize yourself.

I lowered my standard dramatically. 6 month ago, I would have not go out if I hadn't the "perfect hairstyle", I was like a maniac! Now, if it look remotely normal I am happy.

 

[elguapo]

bomb, do you think your hair loss was caused by the treatments you've been using- the dyes and funky chemicals you used in the past? Do any other family members have agressive male pattern baldness? And my apologies for the implication, but I know other djs that do drugs, like a LOT of them. Have you experimented with that at all, and if so, could that have triggered your situation?

Hope the propecia kicks in for you.

 

[Kramer3]

Bomb: Have you seen any progress yet? I haven't seen updates from you in a while and when people don't post in a while it usually means that things are starting to go good for their hair.
I've always been interested in your hair's recovery in particular because it seems like your pattern is similar to mine.
Your pictures don't seem to work on my computer though.

Best of Luck, keep us updated.

Kramer.

 

[bombscience]

Bomb: Have you seen any progress yet? I haven't seen updates from you in a while and when people don't post in a while it usually means that things are starting to go good for their hair.
I've always been interested in your hair's recovery in particular because it seems like your pattern is similar to mine.
Your pictures don't seem to work on my computer though.

Best of Luck, keep us updated.

Kramer.

For an update to my story, please take a look here:

http://www.hairlosstalk.com/discussions ... php?t=7770

Here's my current regimen:

Topical:
PPG Free Xandrox 5% AM/PM - 6/03
Nizoral 1% - 3-4x Week - 6/03

Internal:
Finasteride 1mg/day - 6/03 months
Green Tea - 300mg/day - 7/03
Biotin - 2.5mg/day - 9/03 months
Centrum Multivitamin - 1/day


Thanks,
-bs