Conflicting Information EVERYWHERE! (HELP! I'm goin insane!)

[Paramount-Ireland]

I edited a forum for a while and hated people putting things in the wrong place so sorry if thats what I'm doing, or if you've heard what I'm gonna say 1000 times....and sorry about the long post

My Situation
I'm sure all of you know that due to laX regulations and clever marketing, trying to find anything that "works" in this area is navigating a minefield of snakeoils and conflicting claims.
I think I've got past most of the snake oils (tho im undecided on this lazer comb thing)
but I am having a huge problem with all the totally contradictory information out there.
Example, claims tha Rogaine works in 82% of people, 48%, and 30%...those are pretty wildly fluctuating figures!

I'm 22, I started noticing thinning in november, but thought it was more due to the BDD I suffer from (ie just being obesessive and seeing stuff that wasn't there), untill someone said it to me that the frindge, which I stuck up with gel, was lookin a bit thin.

I went into a massive panic (as everyone probably does...I don't beleive the people who say they don't care), and started looking for what can be done.
I heard about a Hair and Scalp Clinic in the city centre for more than 40 years and went there, they did these weekly treatments using what seems to be combinations of various topical treatments like minoxodil....this is where the contradictions started.....

Firstly, A course of 5 of these costs 250euro (335 US dollars), and as the first 5 were going on I started to read up more on hair loss.
The people there were critical of Rogaine and Propecia as they need to be taken for life..saying that many paitents hair loss in their place stabalise after 5-10 treatments and after that it's not nessicary.

I found it difficult to understand how a once a week treatment that ends after a while can be more effective than something used twice daily (Rogaine) and from the inside (Propecia), I mean, surely during the one week gap between treatments the DHT would continue to build up?

Secondly, Transplants, I'm too young and the hair hasn't gone enough for it yet, but reading up on them, your moving around EXISTING hair, which sugests that you can improve appearance not restore a full head of hair...yet the photos make it appear as tho it's restored.....

Thirdly, I was, today, going to abandon the idea of that hair clinic and treat myself with Rogaine and Finisaride, but was doing my homework before buyign them and have notice this contradiction in Rogaine...

On a site that sells Rogain in the UK it says :

Do not use if your amount of hair loss is different than that shown on the inside of this label or your hair loss is on the front of the scalp. 5% minoxidil topical foam is not intended for frontal baldness or receding hairline.

then I read this...

http://www.dermatologytimes.com/dermato ... p?id=51115

I mean what the hell! How are you supposed to make a decision in such a confusing marketplace!

My thinning is at the very front, and temples to a very limited extent (seem to have gotten a little worse since this clinic treatment), so the front is the exact area I'm concerned with...am I wasting my money with Rogaine or Propecia then?

Fourth, the head of this clinic personally described the lazers as "nonsense" to me, then I see them sold on her personal website!!

http://www.anngoldsmith.com/store/index ... 3aef8b36c4

There is so much contradicting information (and some very maniuplative marketing techniques...blond woman next to the actor demonstrating product...how dim do you think I am)that I'm seriosly considering just not bothering, I'm totally lost and don't know what to do.

 

[Pondle]

There is no 'cure' for male pattern baldness so all treatments have to be used continuously or hair loss will start again. Anyone who tells you otherwise is blatantly lying.

Secondly, the only clinically-proven treatments are finasteride (Proscar / Propecia), minoxidil and - although it hasn't been officially marketed for hair loss - dutasteride (Avodart). Nizoral shampoo, Tricomin, Folligen, Revivogen and Prox-N are all kosher treatments with some evidence of efficacy, but they are secondary adjuncts to finasteride, dutasteride and minoxidil.

minoxidil works wherever it is applied but was only officially tested at the vertex. Hence the product insert guidance advising, erroneously, of its limited utility at the front.

 

[Paramount-Ireland]

I suppose the question with Rogaine would be, it could hardly HARM the frontal area could it? ie worth a try.

 

[Apoc]

You want an answer that nobody can give and be 100% sure about it. This is not math science where 2=1+1. Get on Propecia, Nizoral and minoxidil if you want to do something about your hairloss. If you do this you have about 80% chance that it will slow it down and about 30-40% that you will get some regrowth as well in my oppinion. But in the longterm with current drugs you will go bald sooner or later. There's just no way stopping it. So get on these 3 and then start thinking about science. The more hair you have when you start the better the results will be.

 

[Guest]

Apoc,

Don't confuse the guy by adding more percentages into the mix!

Minoxidil certainly will work on frontal hair. Like it was mentioned in here already, it was simply never tested to regrow hair on the hairline/temples so I guess they have to state this. Though Spectral DNC has not been tested and the will outright CLAIM regrowth in the front. I have experienced it but I always had follicles there albeit extremely miniaturized ones.

I think you pretty much had the right idea and shouldn't second guess yourself. Get on the Big 3, the foam, the finasteride, and the Revita or Nizoral.

 

[Paramount-Ireland]

Very helpful responces thanks.

On the point about the long term, has there been much study done on this?

I read that Rogaine looses effectivness after a few years and stops working, is it the same with Propecia?
Also read that Propecia seems to slow down more than stop.

My major issue would be it all going while I'm still at college (got 2 years left so ullikley given its slow rate but would rater keep it as unnoticable as possable)

Assuming they all loose effectivness eventually then surely there are only three long term options.

1. Leave it alone (tho I've had a shaved head before and didn't like it so not a great option for me)

2. Get an artifical peice evntually (costs alot to get decent one/two_

3. Transplants.

On option 3 I saw that many docs transplant to frontal areas and try to maintain the back with Propecia and Rogaine.

This is having a MASSIVE psycological impact on me for reasons I won't go into on this post, so I'd like to do whatever I can, but at the same time, don't want to be setting myself up for future dissapointment.

I'd also ask people who've tried them, if they loose effectivness eventually then is it worth the cost to go on the "big 3" for the time it works?

 

[Pondle]

You can go on the Big 3 very cheaply. CCS' describes a cheap yet very powerful regimen on his myspace site (http://www.myspace.com/hair_loss_info)

Studies have been done out to five years on Propecia. It keeps working but average hair counts do decline after year 2. But this could just be because the average is being dragged down by the 10-17% who are non-responders. When you realise that finasteride isn't cutting it anymore, you can switch to dutasteride.

 

[Paramount-Ireland]

In my brainstorming I've been consider an odd idea you may have come across before, a kinda preemtive strike.

Get the artifical peice before the top dissaperas in a few years, ie get it now so it's not noticable.
Tho that would mean shavin off the top to have it fitted which is a big (and rather ironic) step.
Of a smooth bald head, and a full head of hair..it's the in between I think looks worst, the dirty, scraggly thinning look (I made the mistake of growing longer when I noticed thinning, just made it look messy)

Other thing I was wondering is since the noticable aspect is the fringe is there no sorta..natural lookin thing similar to womens hair extensions that can be used on it?

Main thininng is in very front of fringe...but it's in an odd way...in the cenre of the frindge there like a short rectangular shaped...dent...where most of the loss is occuring...like a kinda corridor!

Been using this stuff

http://www.anngoldsmith.com/store/index ... ucts_id=31

To darken the area so it's not noticable but the stuff sticks not to the hairs but the scalp and can see sorta...clumps of it attached to the base of the hairs I think it's smothering my scalp so orderd Toppik which looks alot better as it bonds directly to the hairs.

 

[WorldofWarcraft]

Don't get a hairpeice unless you want to walk around looking like a dusche.

 

[Knendell]

Don't get a hairpeice unless you want to walk around looking like a dusche.

Nice....


No hairpiece. In time you will learn to accept it a bit better but that can be hell in between. Been there and doing that...

 

[Guest]

Just go with the Big 3 for now. In a few years there's going to be bigger and better hair loss products out there anyways. The delivery technology of minoxidil has even gotten better with the foam or the Spectral DNC (w/nanosomes) and the specialization of a ketoconazole based shampoo specifically FOR hairloss rather than dandruff. You're going to be much better off just getting on the Big 3 sooner rather than later.

Like someone here mentioned too, if you're on the Big 3 and you see yourself losing ground than you can make the jump over to dutasteride. I've seen numerous posts here of people who said they've kept steady for 6-7 years on finasteride and minoxidil. The bulk of those years was using the old crappy greasy liquid form of minoxidil too!

I'm sure the hairpiece thing is just something that came across your mind and you were thinking "out loud". You will not want to go this route. It's amazing how effective the Big 3 is but so many balding men out there don't do some internet research to find it. THEN how many people here who know about it but still won't use it. I was one of them but I had to convince myself to get on these things.

 

[Paramount-Ireland]

The big three are....Minoxidi...Propecia and..what?

 

[Barry_Blue]

Nizoral.

Good luck mate and BE PATIENT!

 

[Johnny24601]

re:

IMO, its not so much about the finasteride or minoxidil loses "effectiveness" after a number of years, it is just the fact that your genetic condition has begun to catch up to the medications. finasteride and minoxidil cannot totally reverse the metabolic actions related to male pattern baldness (in fact minoxidil really doesn't even attack the metabolic process but that is not important for this discussion), they simply reduce the effect. In fact we can see that a dosage of 1 mg/day of finasteride does not block all of the androgens that are associated with male pattern baldness so your hairloss really continues to progress, just at a greatly reduced rate. For some people that reduction is so significant that it may take years and years before they notice any progression in their hairloss. Others (for unknown reasons) may have follicles that are just extremely sensitive and no matter what they do, they quickly lose their hair.
Certainly all this mystery sucks, but you have to just accept it and at least appreciate that balding men finally have some sort of proven remedies to at least slow down their hairloss.

 

[Jojje]

well minoxidil % are difrent because we have difrent kinds of minoxidil,
minoxidil Foam 5% strength has a 85% hitrate.
minoxidil rogain forte 5% has a bit lower think it was about a 65%
And Rogain 2% i dont remember but thats alot lower again.
This is wy minoxidil has difrent raite.

And the reason Rogain foam cant write that its effective in frontal baldnes is because they only did the trial on the crown.. but yes as the derms say it does alsow work in frontal.. But because the FDA trials where only in the back, the company is not allowed to say that it works for frontal as well.

GL

 

[Apoc]

That's because frontal thining becomes obvious so quickly. Crown can take a much bigger hit than your hairline where practicaly every hair counts. If you loose like a pinch of hair from your hairline it's visibly receeding. Crown you can loose a fist over the whole top and it still looks ok. Of course they tested it in the hairline in my oppinion but success is so much more evident in the crown so they can put bigger % of regrowth on the box.