Hello, everyone. I was going to say I was new to the forum but apparently I've had an account for years, haha.
Last message was on 2014.
Let me tell you a little bit about myself and what I want to do here.
First of all, my story with hairloss began when I was around 17 years old, by accident. I randomly stumbled on a hairloss forum and started reading. Back then I had an awesome head of hair,very thick NW1. After reading I went to see myself in the mirror just to gloat about my perfect hairline. I was horrified to see a slight (I cant stress this enough, nobody could see it but me.) recession on my right temple. I also had the male pattern baldness itch everyone was talking about. After that I was obsessed.
I went to a dermatologist that almost kicked me out of her office, since I was desperate and she couldnt see anything, hahah.
So after that I went to another. Under no circumstances she would give me any treatment, except for some zinc pills so I would stop bothering her.
So I took those pills and the years passed. My right temple recession got worse, but Im very lucky to have a very very VERY slow kind of male pattern baldness. For years the only problem was the right temple.
Around 24 years old I went to another dermatologist. This time she confirmed a diffuse male pattern baldness and told me to get some propecia.
Funny enough, this only got me in denial about it. I wasnt balding no matter what she said. Apparently I liked going to dermatologists for them to confirm I wasnt balding until one of them told me I was.
All those years I got through the same thing everyone has, I guess. I became obsessed with my hair, how it fell (some times I would run my hand through my hair compulsively, pulling hair out of my temples, until hair stopped falling and I could stop running my had through my hair, if that makes any sense.), I looked my self in every window, mirror, reflective surface I was near. I had trouble going out on the street, I was somewhat depressed, and all that.
How I felt the condition of my hair was, coincided with other circumstances in my life. When life was good, my hair was good, when it wasnt, my hair was terrible.
Anyway, It came to a point when I was 26/27 years old, that I got into the first real treatment, minoxidil twice a day.
I refused to get propecia for fear of the side effects. If I have to be honest I dont know what minoxidil did or didnt do. I didnt document it with pictures or anything. Dont remember shedding, or anything weird. In any case, I've had sheddings all my life, in and out of treatment, so I didnt pay attention. I always clog the shower and leave hairs on my pillow anyway.
I've been completly constant with minoxidil until today. In years I've never missed a dose. Maybe I got sloppy with the hour, but every day I've had put it on my temples twice a day.
At around 30 I started noticing the quality of my hair declining. Now my left temple (the one that always saved me to go outside) started to go. Also, to my horror, the middle part of the front of my hair started to be thinner and see through under the right lights. If I grab a bunch of hair, I can feel a lot less hair on the front of my hair than my back.
Adding to that, the hair in the front grows slower and weirder (as if it was broken) than my back, making it impossible to comb. I normally have longish hair parted down the middle. Now I cant do that anymore because the hair in the front doesnt "fall" anymore, if that makes sense. Its as if it lacks weight. So, more and more I've started to cut it shorter because its easier to style. I now normally go for a combed back hair with gel, which I think looks okay.
Lucky for me I have no problems on the crown so far. But I've been in denial for too long. So 3 days ago I've added Propecia for the first time to my regime and Keto shampoo. I've used Keto shampoo before but I wasnt constant with it. I does get rid of the male pattern baldness itch every time I use it, and my scalp feels awesome, so what the hell, right?
Right now Im 31. I still have a decent enough head of hair, except maybe for my temples. I think Im a NW2 or 3 right now, not sure. I dont mind too much because Im not in my 20s anymore and I dont think a NW2 guy in his 30s looks that bad.
I've started this thread to document my treatment so everyone can have a detailed account for reference. Im going to take pics every week, and tell you If I regrow, if I maintain, If I get worse or get side effects and what not. My success or my failure. I want to be constant doing this, as if it was part of my treatment. I think its going to be helpful for people who are not sure about hopping on a treatment as I was.
Okay, on with the pictures.
First pic: My hair at 17 years old (for reference).
Second pic: My hair today (31 years old). As you see I went from a NW1 to a NW2 (or 3? idk) in around 14 years.
Third pic: Left temple.
Fourth pic: Right temple.
Last two pictures are with my hair combed back so you can't tell how bad it actually is. Now Ill post some unflattering ones.
Fifth pic: Right temple.
Sixth pic: Left temple.
As you see its very see through. Its not that I dont have hairs there, I do. But they grow badly, and short, and theres less of it. To show my actual hairline I combed it backwards as you can see on the next pics.
Seveth, Eighth and Ninth pic: hairline with my hair pulled back.
Nothing too terrible, just not what it was before.
Tenth, Eleventh pic: Same as before but I added more lights.
So I'd say this is my baseline. Today is my third day with the big 3. I've been using minoxidil for 4/5 years though.
Regime:
Propecia: 1mg a day.
minoxidil: twice a day, on my hairline.
Keto shampoo: Everyother day. I shampoo with normal shampoo first, then massage keto shampoo on my scalp, and leave it for 10 mins.
So far, obviously, no sides. I dont think I have minoxidil shedding just for adding propecia, but who knows. Only thing I can say is today I didnt have morning wood like I normally do, but I think thats just a coincidence.
A positive side to this is that now that Im actually doing something, I feel good about it and today I thought my hair looked awesome, and didnt obsess over it, hehe.
So this is it for now. In 3 mins I have to take my forth propecia pill, shower with the keto shampoo and use minoxidil for the second time today.
Next week Ill update. Maybe its worthless to update so often, but at least I can document sides if I have any. But Im staying positive and I decided I wont have any sides, haha.
Anyway, see you next week!
Mini-Edit:
I know this will be somewhat disgusting, but I've noticed everyone is concerned about the ammount of shedding during treatment. So for the sake of completeness:
I just showered, and thats what I fished from the drain plus what I lost while combing my hair. Im very used to fish my hair out of the shower after every shower because if I dont do it, it clogs the drain.
Well see next week if I shed more or less, but to be very clear that ammount is completely normal for me (or even less than normal, sometimes I shed more than that while showering). So nothing to be concerned about so far.
Bye!
Last message was on 2014.
Let me tell you a little bit about myself and what I want to do here.
First of all, my story with hairloss began when I was around 17 years old, by accident. I randomly stumbled on a hairloss forum and started reading. Back then I had an awesome head of hair,very thick NW1. After reading I went to see myself in the mirror just to gloat about my perfect hairline. I was horrified to see a slight (I cant stress this enough, nobody could see it but me.) recession on my right temple. I also had the male pattern baldness itch everyone was talking about. After that I was obsessed.
I went to a dermatologist that almost kicked me out of her office, since I was desperate and she couldnt see anything, hahah.
So after that I went to another. Under no circumstances she would give me any treatment, except for some zinc pills so I would stop bothering her.
So I took those pills and the years passed. My right temple recession got worse, but Im very lucky to have a very very VERY slow kind of male pattern baldness. For years the only problem was the right temple.
Around 24 years old I went to another dermatologist. This time she confirmed a diffuse male pattern baldness and told me to get some propecia.
Funny enough, this only got me in denial about it. I wasnt balding no matter what she said. Apparently I liked going to dermatologists for them to confirm I wasnt balding until one of them told me I was.
All those years I got through the same thing everyone has, I guess. I became obsessed with my hair, how it fell (some times I would run my hand through my hair compulsively, pulling hair out of my temples, until hair stopped falling and I could stop running my had through my hair, if that makes any sense.), I looked my self in every window, mirror, reflective surface I was near. I had trouble going out on the street, I was somewhat depressed, and all that.
How I felt the condition of my hair was, coincided with other circumstances in my life. When life was good, my hair was good, when it wasnt, my hair was terrible.
Anyway, It came to a point when I was 26/27 years old, that I got into the first real treatment, minoxidil twice a day.
I refused to get propecia for fear of the side effects. If I have to be honest I dont know what minoxidil did or didnt do. I didnt document it with pictures or anything. Dont remember shedding, or anything weird. In any case, I've had sheddings all my life, in and out of treatment, so I didnt pay attention. I always clog the shower and leave hairs on my pillow anyway.
I've been completly constant with minoxidil until today. In years I've never missed a dose. Maybe I got sloppy with the hour, but every day I've had put it on my temples twice a day.
At around 30 I started noticing the quality of my hair declining. Now my left temple (the one that always saved me to go outside) started to go. Also, to my horror, the middle part of the front of my hair started to be thinner and see through under the right lights. If I grab a bunch of hair, I can feel a lot less hair on the front of my hair than my back.
Adding to that, the hair in the front grows slower and weirder (as if it was broken) than my back, making it impossible to comb. I normally have longish hair parted down the middle. Now I cant do that anymore because the hair in the front doesnt "fall" anymore, if that makes sense. Its as if it lacks weight. So, more and more I've started to cut it shorter because its easier to style. I now normally go for a combed back hair with gel, which I think looks okay.
Lucky for me I have no problems on the crown so far. But I've been in denial for too long. So 3 days ago I've added Propecia for the first time to my regime and Keto shampoo. I've used Keto shampoo before but I wasnt constant with it. I does get rid of the male pattern baldness itch every time I use it, and my scalp feels awesome, so what the hell, right?
Right now Im 31. I still have a decent enough head of hair, except maybe for my temples. I think Im a NW2 or 3 right now, not sure. I dont mind too much because Im not in my 20s anymore and I dont think a NW2 guy in his 30s looks that bad.
I've started this thread to document my treatment so everyone can have a detailed account for reference. Im going to take pics every week, and tell you If I regrow, if I maintain, If I get worse or get side effects and what not. My success or my failure. I want to be constant doing this, as if it was part of my treatment. I think its going to be helpful for people who are not sure about hopping on a treatment as I was.
Okay, on with the pictures.
First pic: My hair at 17 years old (for reference).
Second pic: My hair today (31 years old). As you see I went from a NW1 to a NW2 (or 3? idk) in around 14 years.
Third pic: Left temple.
Fourth pic: Right temple.
Last two pictures are with my hair combed back so you can't tell how bad it actually is. Now Ill post some unflattering ones.
Fifth pic: Right temple.
Sixth pic: Left temple.
As you see its very see through. Its not that I dont have hairs there, I do. But they grow badly, and short, and theres less of it. To show my actual hairline I combed it backwards as you can see on the next pics.
Seveth, Eighth and Ninth pic: hairline with my hair pulled back.
Nothing too terrible, just not what it was before.
Tenth, Eleventh pic: Same as before but I added more lights.
So I'd say this is my baseline. Today is my third day with the big 3. I've been using minoxidil for 4/5 years though.
Regime:
Propecia: 1mg a day.
minoxidil: twice a day, on my hairline.
Keto shampoo: Everyother day. I shampoo with normal shampoo first, then massage keto shampoo on my scalp, and leave it for 10 mins.
So far, obviously, no sides. I dont think I have minoxidil shedding just for adding propecia, but who knows. Only thing I can say is today I didnt have morning wood like I normally do, but I think thats just a coincidence.
A positive side to this is that now that Im actually doing something, I feel good about it and today I thought my hair looked awesome, and didnt obsess over it, hehe.
So this is it for now. In 3 mins I have to take my forth propecia pill, shower with the keto shampoo and use minoxidil for the second time today.
Next week Ill update. Maybe its worthless to update so often, but at least I can document sides if I have any. But Im staying positive and I decided I wont have any sides, haha.
Anyway, see you next week!
Mini-Edit:
I know this will be somewhat disgusting, but I've noticed everyone is concerned about the ammount of shedding during treatment. So for the sake of completeness:
I just showered, and thats what I fished from the drain plus what I lost while combing my hair. Im very used to fish my hair out of the shower after every shower because if I dont do it, it clogs the drain.
Well see next week if I shed more or less, but to be very clear that ammount is completely normal for me (or even less than normal, sometimes I shed more than that while showering). So nothing to be concerned about so far.
Bye!
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