fightDHT
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Hi friends,
This is my first ever post to a hair loss forum and i would be posting a copy to as many hair loss forums i could visit. After ravaging thru many forums like this to find that miracle cure for stopping my hair fall, this is for all ppl like me around 25yrs of age having male pattern baldness who are in a similar situation, trying desperately to find out what the cause for their hairloss is and how to stop it. So Here goes my story!
As far as I remember, I started noticing this "problem" when I was about 22. The part in my hair seemed to be exposing more of scalp than it should. Probably I was shedding hair just like always but now seeing shed hair on the shower floor and in my hands when styling began to bother me. But it was really not bothering anyone else (no one pointed it out or stared at my
hair)..so I was cool. Gradually, expectedly, it started getting worse and I started with those grandmother treatments of applying coconut oil at night, washing with warm water, massaging etc etc not very religiously though. (I should add that I had severe dandruff since I was 16 and used selsun shampoo too frequently than its suggested use, for few months. Dunno if
that aggravated my hair fall). Since I had nothing else, I attributed my hairfall to the dandruff (as I seemed to have more dandruff than my mates) and used selsun/H&S etc religiously. But the dandruff as well as the hair fall seemed unperturbed by any of this and acted of its own accord, sometimes within control, some days REALLY out of control so much that I shake my
head and white flakes fall. Meanwhile hairfall getting worse, so much so that now my front scalp just above the hairline was starting to become a see-thru.
Now one of my friends suggested homeopathic treatment(I am from India and theres a reputed homeopathy clinic Dr.Batra's - supposedly "super specialising" in hair loss treatment). So I started with that and the doctor said on day one that I suffer from male pattern baldness and started the usual homeopathic white sweet pills and some propreitary topical solution and dietary advice (eggs,iron, nuts, fish.. blah-blah). First day huge improvement....few weeks...moderate
improvement and then started monthly cycles of a period of controlled acceptable hairfall followed by a period of crazy sheds. For one month or so I would have acceptable levels of hair fall and decent hair and then for next 3 months it was back to worse. At least thrice I have visited the doctor out-of the normal appointment cycle complaining that the medication is not working, only to have him give me some other medication (of course which looks just like any other homeopathic medicine). For all the questions that I asked about homeopathy/hair loss, all I got was that the disease is reflective of the human nature...and every time he asked me questions like...what kind of food i liked...what kind of climate i liked....what type of a person I am...am I shy...do I have stress in my life....etc.etc...as if I am on a date with him...
...when I pressed him for actual reasons for my hairloss...he would reluctantly mention proteins/vitamins/iron etc..The doctor seemed incompetent and just a puppet in a large organization, following someone's orders and giving standard Dr.Batra medicine and having no brain of his own. Anyways as I had nothing else to try, I continued with this agony for about 2.5 years (a waste of all my precious hair).
Then I moved to the US for a job assignment. Here I brought 5 months of the homeopathy medicine in advance from Batra (as they have you pay a year's fees in advance). I was secretly hopeful that the change of air/water would help my hair, but it didn't. So began my desperate search on the net for a ray of hope and I got trapped in the marketing net of
Provillus. Came across at least 5 sites that rank Provillus as number one hair loss solution amongst other varieties like procerin, hair genesis etc. Heard references of propecia here and there..but did not pay it much heed coz of sides and did not find strong support in the sites that I browsed at that time. So Provillus starts with their multivitamin capsules and minoxidil solution. Again the first week showed slight reduction in hair fall. The night I applied minoxidil, I would have more hair fall the next day. I assumed this to be a good thing (sign that it works), but the solution gave me a bad itch and with my history of dandruff, this was not a good thing)...minoxidil also gave a shine to my balding area and made it more obvious.....so
i only applied it at night...and turned in to sleep with the depression of seeing my balding area...(btw my dandruff reduced dramatically when I used Selsun in the US and later alternated it with Nizoral 1%...)...so now i was on homeopathy pills (without solution) + Provillus treatment (no solution here either...i stopped applying the solution after a month of inconsistent application...mainly because of the itch and more hair fell WHILE applying the
solution). Same horrible phases of sheds and acceptable hair continued for another 8 months. Meanwhile my internet mining continued and ultimately i reached the conclusion (cheifly from the advice of Dr.Panagotacos from allexperts.com) that I should try out finasteride. So I made a small plan. I shall try finasteride in really low doses and see if it helps. If not I can be fairly sure that I dont have male pattern baldness so I'll do a blood check for other factors (iron deficiency..thyroid, protein etc).
So I ordered fincar online and decided to have a 1.25mg dose every 3 or 4 days. (based on internet reports that low doses of finasteride also have some effect). You wont believe my excitement when the morning next to my first dose, I saw just 1 hair on my pillow as against 9-10 that I used to see earlier. While showering there was an obvious reduction in the number of hair
shed..but it was realy hard to tell the exact improvement. I thought this might be similar to the effect the homeopathy pills had the first week i started. But its been 3 weeks now and I am still experimenting with the dosage, currently at 1.25mg every 3 days. In the past 3 weeks I have seen hell of an improvement, such that I had never seen before and I KNOW that now I
have pointedly identified the cause for my hair loss (its definitely male pattern baldness...not Telogen Effluvium due to stress...not deficiency stuff...not thyroid)...and I believe finasteride is the only solution in market as of this day...(not small sweet pills....not oils and massages...not multivitamins/protein supplements....NOT SAW PALMETTO...i tried saw palmetto supplements also)...I am not a medical expert to rebuff all the other options downright...they may be somewhat effective for other ppl (although I am fairly certain that most of the effect will be psychological).... these options do not have immediate effects but may have long term
benefits...but i believe that it is more important to me that I save what hair I have today rather than waste my youth sulking and moping with a miserable confidence level and social shying....
Now to the dreaded finasteride sides...the net is full of negative stories about finasteride sides....but there are also hell of a lot of ppl saying they are using finasteride for years without sides/ with minimal sides which did not bother them so......From my experience, I have no doubt that finasteride plays with your hormones and should be started with care...and reconsidered with your doctor's
advice if you already have a history of sexual problems....I felt that finasteride made my genitals surprisingly softer at times and i had less frequest urge for erections.......Honestly I cant say how much of this is psychological....I am planning to be done with my dosage-experimentation phase soon and decide a the level of dosage i need for my hair...as i had no erection problems earlier, and the problems i mentioned do not kill me as much as my hair loss related stress/depression did... i am hoping my body will get used to it and i will have good erections when required...I will try keep u guys posted on my further experiences,...
So all ppl out there in a similar search for cure for hair fall....first thing make sure what your problem is....was there a trauma in your life about 6 months back that could give you Telogen Effluvium?....if u hav the money, take a blood test to rule out thyroid/vitamin/iron factors...but once you are sure that u have male pattern baldness....the only answer (from my experiences) is
FINASTERIDE for DHT blocking and preventing further hair loss. PERIOD.
I am not an advertiser for Merck or any thing. I am stressing on finasteride only because it is working for me (touchwood) and i know there are thousands of ppl out there who want to believe, like i did, that their hair loss has is not male pattern baldness but its Telogen Effluvium or something else that is temporary...and also believe that there is a better "natural" solution out there for their hair loss apart from the finasteride with its sides...just like I was hoping all these 3-4 years...
If you want to make sure u have male pattern baldness without having to take a blood....just take a pill of finasteride (propecia/finpecia/.25 proscar/fincar.. whatever)and see if it has effect...because if it is supposed to work...it will show its results within 2 days....and taking 1 pill is definitely not going to kill your c***...
Apart from finasteride, Many ppl on these forums also swear by minoxidil...just for me..i could not stand the itch...but REMEMBER minoxidil is only for HAIR GROWTH STIMULATION....this is a very common misconception in ppl....it DOES NOT block DHT and DOES NOT stop your hair from falling due to DHT.....and I think this is more important for me than just a growth stimulant which gives my scalp more hair to turn it over to DHT and shed it...
I hope science comes up soon with some other drug to prevent the DHT from killing our hair...without actually reducing the DHT levels in the body....coz i think reduced levels of DHT is the cause of sides....
PS: I have not detailed out other things that i tried ...there was a small hair loss clininc in india which provided me with saw palmetto tablets...and saw palmetto shampoos.. saw palmetto conditioners...etc etc...no use...then I started regular aerobic exercise..10 mins of treadmill everyday...only about as required for me to pant and sweat....dunno to what extent
this was useful...if at all...
I hope my rambling helps other ppl like me and they take action (whatever their decision) as soon as they can instead of wasting their hair till the point of repentance....then u always hav surgical methods....take care friends..
This is my first ever post to a hair loss forum and i would be posting a copy to as many hair loss forums i could visit. After ravaging thru many forums like this to find that miracle cure for stopping my hair fall, this is for all ppl like me around 25yrs of age having male pattern baldness who are in a similar situation, trying desperately to find out what the cause for their hairloss is and how to stop it. So Here goes my story!
As far as I remember, I started noticing this "problem" when I was about 22. The part in my hair seemed to be exposing more of scalp than it should. Probably I was shedding hair just like always but now seeing shed hair on the shower floor and in my hands when styling began to bother me. But it was really not bothering anyone else (no one pointed it out or stared at my
hair)..so I was cool. Gradually, expectedly, it started getting worse and I started with those grandmother treatments of applying coconut oil at night, washing with warm water, massaging etc etc not very religiously though. (I should add that I had severe dandruff since I was 16 and used selsun shampoo too frequently than its suggested use, for few months. Dunno if
that aggravated my hair fall). Since I had nothing else, I attributed my hairfall to the dandruff (as I seemed to have more dandruff than my mates) and used selsun/H&S etc religiously. But the dandruff as well as the hair fall seemed unperturbed by any of this and acted of its own accord, sometimes within control, some days REALLY out of control so much that I shake my
head and white flakes fall. Meanwhile hairfall getting worse, so much so that now my front scalp just above the hairline was starting to become a see-thru.
Now one of my friends suggested homeopathic treatment(I am from India and theres a reputed homeopathy clinic Dr.Batra's - supposedly "super specialising" in hair loss treatment). So I started with that and the doctor said on day one that I suffer from male pattern baldness and started the usual homeopathic white sweet pills and some propreitary topical solution and dietary advice (eggs,iron, nuts, fish.. blah-blah). First day huge improvement....few weeks...moderate
improvement and then started monthly cycles of a period of controlled acceptable hairfall followed by a period of crazy sheds. For one month or so I would have acceptable levels of hair fall and decent hair and then for next 3 months it was back to worse. At least thrice I have visited the doctor out-of the normal appointment cycle complaining that the medication is not working, only to have him give me some other medication (of course which looks just like any other homeopathic medicine). For all the questions that I asked about homeopathy/hair loss, all I got was that the disease is reflective of the human nature...and every time he asked me questions like...what kind of food i liked...what kind of climate i liked....what type of a person I am...am I shy...do I have stress in my life....etc.etc...as if I am on a date with him...
...when I pressed him for actual reasons for my hairloss...he would reluctantly mention proteins/vitamins/iron etc..The doctor seemed incompetent and just a puppet in a large organization, following someone's orders and giving standard Dr.Batra medicine and having no brain of his own. Anyways as I had nothing else to try, I continued with this agony for about 2.5 years (a waste of all my precious hair). Then I moved to the US for a job assignment. Here I brought 5 months of the homeopathy medicine in advance from Batra (as they have you pay a year's fees in advance). I was secretly hopeful that the change of air/water would help my hair, but it didn't. So began my desperate search on the net for a ray of hope and I got trapped in the marketing net of
Provillus. Came across at least 5 sites that rank Provillus as number one hair loss solution amongst other varieties like procerin, hair genesis etc. Heard references of propecia here and there..but did not pay it much heed coz of sides and did not find strong support in the sites that I browsed at that time. So Provillus starts with their multivitamin capsules and minoxidil solution. Again the first week showed slight reduction in hair fall. The night I applied minoxidil, I would have more hair fall the next day. I assumed this to be a good thing (sign that it works), but the solution gave me a bad itch and with my history of dandruff, this was not a good thing)...minoxidil also gave a shine to my balding area and made it more obvious.....so
i only applied it at night...and turned in to sleep with the depression of seeing my balding area...(btw my dandruff reduced dramatically when I used Selsun in the US and later alternated it with Nizoral 1%...)...so now i was on homeopathy pills (without solution) + Provillus treatment (no solution here either...i stopped applying the solution after a month of inconsistent application...mainly because of the itch and more hair fell WHILE applying the
solution). Same horrible phases of sheds and acceptable hair continued for another 8 months. Meanwhile my internet mining continued and ultimately i reached the conclusion (cheifly from the advice of Dr.Panagotacos from allexperts.com) that I should try out finasteride. So I made a small plan. I shall try finasteride in really low doses and see if it helps. If not I can be fairly sure that I dont have male pattern baldness so I'll do a blood check for other factors (iron deficiency..thyroid, protein etc).
So I ordered fincar online and decided to have a 1.25mg dose every 3 or 4 days. (based on internet reports that low doses of finasteride also have some effect). You wont believe my excitement when the morning next to my first dose, I saw just 1 hair on my pillow as against 9-10 that I used to see earlier. While showering there was an obvious reduction in the number of hair
shed..but it was realy hard to tell the exact improvement. I thought this might be similar to the effect the homeopathy pills had the first week i started. But its been 3 weeks now and I am still experimenting with the dosage, currently at 1.25mg every 3 days. In the past 3 weeks I have seen hell of an improvement, such that I had never seen before and I KNOW that now I
have pointedly identified the cause for my hair loss (its definitely male pattern baldness...not Telogen Effluvium due to stress...not deficiency stuff...not thyroid)...and I believe finasteride is the only solution in market as of this day...(not small sweet pills....not oils and massages...not multivitamins/protein supplements....NOT SAW PALMETTO...i tried saw palmetto supplements also)...I am not a medical expert to rebuff all the other options downright...they may be somewhat effective for other ppl (although I am fairly certain that most of the effect will be psychological).... these options do not have immediate effects but may have long term
benefits...but i believe that it is more important to me that I save what hair I have today rather than waste my youth sulking and moping with a miserable confidence level and social shying....
Now to the dreaded finasteride sides...the net is full of negative stories about finasteride sides....but there are also hell of a lot of ppl saying they are using finasteride for years without sides/ with minimal sides which did not bother them so......From my experience, I have no doubt that finasteride plays with your hormones and should be started with care...and reconsidered with your doctor's
advice if you already have a history of sexual problems....I felt that finasteride made my genitals surprisingly softer at times and i had less frequest urge for erections.......Honestly I cant say how much of this is psychological....I am planning to be done with my dosage-experimentation phase soon and decide a the level of dosage i need for my hair...as i had no erection problems earlier, and the problems i mentioned do not kill me as much as my hair loss related stress/depression did... i am hoping my body will get used to it and i will have good erections when required...I will try keep u guys posted on my further experiences,...
So all ppl out there in a similar search for cure for hair fall....first thing make sure what your problem is....was there a trauma in your life about 6 months back that could give you Telogen Effluvium?....if u hav the money, take a blood test to rule out thyroid/vitamin/iron factors...but once you are sure that u have male pattern baldness....the only answer (from my experiences) is
FINASTERIDE for DHT blocking and preventing further hair loss. PERIOD.
I am not an advertiser for Merck or any thing. I am stressing on finasteride only because it is working for me (touchwood) and i know there are thousands of ppl out there who want to believe, like i did, that their hair loss has is not male pattern baldness but its Telogen Effluvium or something else that is temporary...and also believe that there is a better "natural" solution out there for their hair loss apart from the finasteride with its sides...just like I was hoping all these 3-4 years...
If you want to make sure u have male pattern baldness without having to take a blood....just take a pill of finasteride (propecia/finpecia/.25 proscar/fincar.. whatever)and see if it has effect...because if it is supposed to work...it will show its results within 2 days....and taking 1 pill is definitely not going to kill your c***...
Apart from finasteride, Many ppl on these forums also swear by minoxidil...just for me..i could not stand the itch...but REMEMBER minoxidil is only for HAIR GROWTH STIMULATION....this is a very common misconception in ppl....it DOES NOT block DHT and DOES NOT stop your hair from falling due to DHT.....and I think this is more important for me than just a growth stimulant which gives my scalp more hair to turn it over to DHT and shed it...
I hope science comes up soon with some other drug to prevent the DHT from killing our hair...without actually reducing the DHT levels in the body....coz i think reduced levels of DHT is the cause of sides....
PS: I have not detailed out other things that i tried ...there was a small hair loss clininc in india which provided me with saw palmetto tablets...and saw palmetto shampoos.. saw palmetto conditioners...etc etc...no use...then I started regular aerobic exercise..10 mins of treadmill everyday...only about as required for me to pant and sweat....dunno to what extent
this was useful...if at all...
I hope my rambling helps other ppl like me and they take action (whatever their decision) as soon as they can instead of wasting their hair till the point of repentance....then u always hav surgical methods....take care friends..