Going bald! Time to fight back.

[rkl]

I've been crawling threads here for few weeks, about the possible propecia side effects and success stories with 'Big3' .. I'm 37 years old, so i'm not expecting any miracles to happen, most of the success stories were written by much younger people than me .. :$

Anyway, decided to fight back even if it's a loosing battle. Went to see a doctor last week, told him about my hair loss and finasteride. He knew the drug and asked when did I notice the balding process (last summer) and said propecia is usually pretty good for most people to stop the MBP process and i should expect to get zero side effects from it. I had chance to choose between original 1mg propecia or 5mg gefina, gefina is cheap, i think it was around 30eurs for 100 pills (400days) so i took that one. He said i could just bite 1/4 of the pill everyday, or get a pill cutter, which i did.

Asked him about minoxidil and he said that's OK too, but his opinion was that finasteride is more effective. How ever i'm loosing hair very quickly and can see difference almost every week, so i want to do the Big3 immediately for best possible results. Ordered few bottles of rogaine foam and took the ketonazal shampoo while getting the 5mg gefina pills from the pharmacy.

Still waiting to get rogaine foam delivered, probably next week or later this week, but started the treatment with finasteride+ketonazol 7 days ago. No sides so far.

I've basically had good hair until around a year ago, after i had been on heavy painkiller/opiates for 1 year due accident. I guess that didn't help and things went FAST to the point how my hair looks at the moment - very thin and shedding all over the top. Now i've been free from those drugs for 3 weeks.

Here is the baseline, dunno what Norwood i'm at (?) but i guess it's pretty bad by now.. First pic under the fluorescent lamp and other one a meter away from it.

(EDIT: 1day difference between photos, first photo was super blurred so took new one)

 

[rkl]

Just a small update.. i've been taking 1.25mg finasteride for 13days now, small shedding what i had before slowed down by end of the first week, dunno if because of the finasteride/ketonazol combo or not, shedding now is below 'normal avarage'. No sides what so ever. Got rogaine 5% foam delivered and applied it for the first time today, it was super-easy.

So, my regimen so far:

1.25mg finasteride + ketonazol 2% twice a week (13 days)
rogaine foam 5% (1 day)
revita growth stimulating shampoo/conditioner 5x week (1 day)

Bit scared of the initial shed .. hopefully everything goes nice without massive shedding..

 

[KeeperOtf]

Hi it's been 3 week since I have been on Propecia, had 100% more sex drive for the first 2 week and then BOOM libido went down.
For me it wasnt a bad thing because during these weeks I would do it 4-7 times in less then 24 hours.
Just saying don't be suprise once it strike, hopefully you'll deal with it.
best wishes

 

[JonnyKid]

If I were you I would stay away from Propecia....

 

[der29]

If I were you I would stay away from Propecia....

yeah and he'll turn into a full blown Norwood 7 patient.

 

[rkl]

If I were you I would stay away from Propecia....

Hi it's been 3 week since I have been on Propecia, had 100% more sex drive for the first 2 week and then BOOM libido went down.
For me it wasnt a bad thing because during these weeks I would do it 4-7 times in less then 24 hours.
Just saying don't be suprise once it strike, hopefully you'll deal with it.
best wishes

Thanks for kind warnings about finasteride, I have read most of the horror stories about it. So far I have been i'm pretty tolerant when it comes to sides of basically any drugs. That said, no sides YET, not even watery semen which seems to be most common side for lots of people. Anyway, I will keep everyone posted if i notice something.

Only thing that bugs me now is rogaine, foam is making my hair super STICKY.. might change to another brand after using my 3month supply. Lots of people here seems to be using kirkland brand, does it give same the feeling or is it less.. sticky? I like the foam because I believe it's faster than liquid and pretty sure liquid would make hair oily and i would hate that even more. I'm not used to apply any styling products or even own a comb, i've always had my hair short because i have been too lazy to give much effort for it. After shower i'm just used to towel it, use my hands to 'style' it and consider it done. Well, might get used to this feeling.. maybe it's same with normal styling mousse, idk. New to me and i don't like it.

yeah and he'll turn into a full blown Norwood 7 patient.

Thats the reason i want to try. This is my story, i'm writing it and i'm the one experiencing it, not anyone else. We will see the results, good or bad or something between.

 

[headless]

If I were you I would stay away from Propecia....

Well thank you for your unhelpfull opinion.
RKL: Good luck my man. I've been on the big 3 for about 6 months now, no sides, just great maintenance and some regrowth (yeah).
Now everytime I style my hair I find one or two hairs instead of 10/20... and get great compliments from friends and family (most of them do not know about my treatment).
All the luck! May the hair be with you!

 

[Raz]

Best of luck with your regime, profiled for future updates. I have the same type of generic finasteride (Gefina), was indeed very cheap - 100 pills (400 days' dosage) was something like 30€ for me too. Been on it for 5 months right now, exactly (might update my thread here). Hope you see some results soon!

 

[rkl]

So, it's been now 23days with finasteride/ketonazol and 11days with rogaine foam. Hair seems to grow faster, dunno if any difference on the balding/thinning area but overall, growth is faster than usual. Easy to notice because I have haircut every 3 weeks and I had to scissor some frontal hair myself last week. Beard growth seems to be slowed, also easy to notice because I have to shave every morning, this is only 'side effect' I have noticed with finasteride so far. Still no shedding, it pretty much stopped after the first week.

Haircut today and I will post 1month pics next week.

 

[TinTin]

Your hair isn't that bad so I,personally, wouldn't take finasteride. Min and the shampoo should work for you.

I would only suggest finasteride if your hair is REALLY bad(bald areas, not just really bad thinning) or if Min didn't work.

From the sound of your story, it does not seem you are naturally balding. It seem as though something has taken out your hair. If that is the case, I don't know if any of this stuff will work. If I'm not mistaken, the "Big 3" works for male pattern baldness.

 

[rkl]

Your hair isn't that bad so I,personally, wouldn't take finasteride. Min and the shampoo should work for you.

I would only suggest finasteride if your hair is REALLY bad(bald areas, not just really bad thinning) or if Min didn't work.

From the sound of your story, it does not seem you are naturally balding. It seem as though something has taken out your hair. If that is the case, I don't know if any of this stuff will work. If I'm not mistaken, the "Big 3" works for male pattern baldness.

It's male pattern baldness for sure, I just personally think that the accident, stress and long term use of opiates triggered male pattern baldness for me. My dad was around 25 when he started to loss his hair, so I think I have been lucky to keep my hair until recently. Considering my age, 37, I feel like I need to do everything now, or there will be regrets and 'what if questions' later - when everything available would be way too late to even try to get something back. It's not a big win if I decide to wait let's say 3years - there would be HUGE spot without any hair and then jump on the finasteride train to 'maintain', i dont see any point with that. If you have a cancer, would you wait until doctor says you have week left, or act when you have better chance?

Maybe it's the case now and there is no reverse-button, but atleast I will know that i've tried before i'll shave it off. hair transplant is not an option, I have had enough surgeries for a lifetime by now.

I believe that at this age, possible sides from finasteride will be way more weaker than 10-15years before. So far, everything OK.

 

[TinTin]

WOW!! I've never heard of that. I heard that stress can trigger hairloss but never knew stress can trigger male pattern baldness. Usually in that case, the stress, not male pattern baldness, would be the reason for the hairloss.

 

[rkl]

Dunno, maybe it's just coincident but timeline does match perfectly so thats what I think, yes.

- - - Updated - - -

So.. 1 month pics with finasteride, last 2 weeks with rogaine foam. Seems like first bottle of foam lasted only 2 weeks. I'm applying it on larger area than just vertex and probably too much also, but i'm thinning all over the top and temples. Hair length same as it was month ago when started.

First pic under fluoroscent lamp, same spot and light as before, I try to take all pics at the same spots with same lightning, every month.

I might be developing some sort of minoxidil shed, more hair coming off than before (week ago, pulltest was usually just 0 or 1, now 2-4 on avarage) not aggressive, but this might be the start. I have been rinsing my head under ice cold shower when done with shampooing, dunno if useful or not, refreshing atleast. Revita growth shampoo 4 times a week and ketoconazol 2% 3 days a week. Revita conditioner, few times a week.

 

[PhillyCarter]

Some people shed while using minoxidil so I wouldn't worry too much about that but the problem that I had when using Rogaine was that I felt like I was wasting it and it wasn't getting where I wanted to. Like you said the foam only lasts 2 weeks. Too me that is REALLY fast. That's why I switched to the spray. Twice a day use and its lasting me a little over a month. Revivogen is also a great conditioner to use after treatment. Good luck!

 

[Malin]

Your hair isn't that bad so I,personally, wouldn't take finasteride. Min and the shampoo should work for you.

I would only suggest finasteride if your hair is REALLY bad(bald areas, not just really bad thinning) or if Min didn't work.

From the sound of your story, it does not seem you are naturally balding. It seem as though something has taken out your hair. If that is the case, I don't know if any of this stuff will work. If I'm not mistaken, the "Big 3" works for male pattern baldness.

It is well knows that both propecia and minoxidil work best for mantaining than for regrowing hair, so what's the point if you are REALLY bald to take this meds? I would suggest to start taking propecia as soon as you find out your thinning.

 

[Mr White]

Believe me, you're doing the right thing at the right time and you should see good results pretty soon. finasteride and minoxidil are the only treatments that really work, everything else is BS.

- - - Updated - - -

'Time to fight back'

That's the spirit!

Don't get too obsessed about hair loss, though. You're doing everything you possibly can right now and you will see results soon.

Good luck!

 

[rkl]

2month update.

 

[I.D WALKER]

Thanks for the update RKL. I believe it is still a little premature for us make a judgement call. Are you noticing increased shedding or any density changes yourself yet?

 

[rkl]

Thanks for the update RKL. I believe it is still a little premature for us make a judgement call. Are you noticing increased shedding or any density changes yourself yet?

Maybe some light fuzz on the temple area, i had some shedding few weeks ago but it stopped, have had 2 short perioids of shedding during the first 2 months. I'm hoping to see some improvement before summer, but let's see. Atleast it's not worse than starting point i guess.

I had one small 100% bald spot, back of my head because of the neck support system/cage (bolted to my head 1.5years ago because of the accident i had) and there is new hair growing now and its hard to spot the area with fingers anymore, month ago it was easy to feel and apply rogaine foam there, now its a bit kinky without mirror.

 

[I.D WALKER]

Progress by a any other name.., right? Thanx and stay well.

- - - Updated - - -

Progress by any other name..,right? Thanx again for sharing and stay well.