first
Established Member
- Reaction score
- 1
I first started to lose hair around 16 or 17 but as my hair so thick to begin with when I was 18 my hair still looked great. This is the only picture I have from that time that actually showcases a larger part of the head.
Two years later (as I turn 20), even though I try to cover it the hair loss is becoming apparent and I am starting to get some comments regarding it:
I've known for quite some time I will be completely bald unless a miracle happens. My father is a NW7 and he lost hair in the same fashion as me when he was younger. My mother also has exceptionally thin hair for being female, so if anything my hair genes are likely even worse than my fathers, who lost pretty much all his top hair by the time he was 30.
Come 2008 and me being 25, I'm closing up on becoming a NW5, with extremely large temples:
As I keep my hair long, it is covering some of the thinning areas in the picture, so it may look better than it actually is, if I had it buzzed down you'd see next to no hair on top.
I did do a huge comb over (or comb forward rather) to make it less apparent but even the slighest breeze would completely blow my cower, leaving me exposed and sending a cold chill down my spine, even if no one was watching. I realized I couldn't live like this, so I decided upon either shaving it all off or trying to fix it the best I could with the current progress in medications.
As my head is very large, I like to say my brain is large but that is more likely wishful thinking, regardless, I would look extremely poor with a shaved head. So, I decided to at least give the medicine route half a year and then evaluate. I read up on all studies I could, trying to figure out what makes me bald and how to best counter it. There are quite a lot of stuff that has proven to have a good effect on hair or have a counter effect on the things that causes you to lose hair, so if I thought it would help my situation and it was cheap without too harsh side effects, I added it.
Fortunately, I did take pictures, unfortunately, I just have a webcam. They are all taken at the same time of the day and with the same lightning, yet as the computer is fairly close to a window the weather has quite a profound effect on the amount of light. Looking at the comparison pictures now, I realize the lightning is actually quite off due to the weather changes, which is unfortunate but at least the day 30 and day 59 pictures seems to have had the same weather. Also, I forgot to put on timestamps on the day 1 pictures, in case anyone is wondering.
The hair should be almost the exact same length at day 1 compared to day 59, yet it is shorter on day 30. If my hair looks darker, it definitely is, my hair has turned quite a bit darker with a more distinct color, the individual hairs also look much thicker.
I should note that the temple areas had absolutely no hair when I started the treatment, I didn't even have the tiniest vellus or even languo hair. The temples were completely devoid of all human life. Watching other people who had success with hair regrowth, they all seemed to at least have some hair left in the areas with regrowth. So I had very little hope of my temples filling up but they do seem to be progressing. Unfortunately I have no day 1 picture as I didn't expect much in the temple department but as I saw regrowth around day 15 I took a picture then which you can compare with.
All in all, I am very happy with the progress. I am actually able to style my hair a bit now and can have haircuts which exposes my temples to a fairly large extent. Before, I never let anyone touch my hair but now I'm fine with my girlfriend rubbing my hair however she pleases, it feels like a burden has been removed from my life. I didn't think this kind of progress would even be possible in such a short timeframe, especially on completely dead temple areas. I've even gotten some positive comments in regards to my hair now from my friends so they seem to notice something has happened as well.
Regimen
When ever I start something, I always do as much research as possible beforehand, as I always want to be the best, the same thing goes with the hair loss, I did research and read as many reports as possible in regards to hair and what causes it and what works in terms of regrowing or keeping it. As I used these forums to a large extent in my research, I'll give back what I can in terms of sharing my progress and regimen.
I had four criterias when I chose my regimen.
-Beneficial
-Very cheap (as I am a student)
-Not have too harsh side effects, those I knew I wouldn't except were gyno, brain fog (have to stay sharp in school), ED, losing too much muscle mass.
-Not counter each other or have the same effect (unless the problem should be handled from more angles).
As long as research or strong indicators showed that something would fit in the above criterias, I tested it and added it if I did indeed fit after testing. Also, there are indicators that one of the main reasons for my hair loss is due to a lack of oxygen/NO on the scalp, hence I focused a bit on that. So, here is what I take:
Internally
Finasteride, 0.15mg per day - I believe everyone knows what this does so no need to comment on it. The low dosage is due to researching showing that an increased dose will not yield any beneficial results on scalp DHT, a high dose will also give me massive side effects. Hence a low dose is definitely the way to go for me, I do not understand why anyone utilize a higher dose unless they tested it consistently and know they are somehow different in composition compared to most.
Omega 3, every day - Not directly related to hair but does give overall health benefits. Indirectly related to hair by helping with the nitric oxide synthesis and TNF-a down regulation.
L-Arginine, every day - Helps blood flow and triggers the release of NO, a lack of NO is one of the culpits behind hairloss.
L-Lysine, every day - Basically same as above
Niacin, every day - Same as above
MSM, every day - One of the main components of hair and the third most common component in the human body. Studies has shown that MSM increases hair thickness and color. It also has numerous health benefits. It definitely seems to have had an effect on my hair as well as speeding up the results.
Tadalafil, every third day - Perhaps controversal but a very potent drug, commonly taken for something else yet it will increase the vascular size and hence help blood flow, oxygen, NO as well as removing harmful substances and old cells.
R-ALA (alpha-lipoic acid), every day - One of the strongest antioxidant, numerous overall health benefits and helps protect the liver (which is very much wanted, as it takes a hit from some of these drugs).
Tamoxifen, every day - Wish I didn't have to take it but I must in order to counter some of the side effects from the treatment. It has the added benefit of inhibiting super oxidation (to some degree).
Multi vitamin, every day - Taking one which is more complete than most. Overall health benefits.
Vitamin C, every day - I take a fairly large dose of extra vitamin c every day as well, in order to make MSM function properly.
Topical
minoxidil, twice per day - Everyone knows what this does.
Nizoral, every third day - See above.
Finasteride, twice daily - See finasteride. Topical finasteride has proven to be very efficient.
MSM, twice per day - See MSM
L-arginine, once per day - See L-arginine (I will likely stop using this as a topical, the absorbation seems to be too poor).
Green tea extract, once per day - TGF-B inhibitor and an anti-apoptotic, also TNF-a down regulation.
Caffeine, every day - Potent DHT inhibitor, prevents UVB skin tumors, inhibits EGF. May stimulate Caspase 3 however but the overall results should still be positive. Don't use this on areas where you use minoxidil.
I've not written out the dose for most of these as it will take a while to calculate it but if anyone is interested about any of them just ask. In terms of price and quality, everything that can be generic is generic. In the end, the minoxidil (kirkland) costs almost as much as everything else combined, so the overall cost is fairly low. If you order from various online sites, you can get away with a very low price. For example my finasteride cost is $0.39 per month.
While my treatment is quite heavy, it has also given good results. I am quite sure that anyone who did the exact same thing as me would see positive results as well, as it is very potent.
Two years later (as I turn 20), even though I try to cover it the hair loss is becoming apparent and I am starting to get some comments regarding it:
I've known for quite some time I will be completely bald unless a miracle happens. My father is a NW7 and he lost hair in the same fashion as me when he was younger. My mother also has exceptionally thin hair for being female, so if anything my hair genes are likely even worse than my fathers, who lost pretty much all his top hair by the time he was 30.
Come 2008 and me being 25, I'm closing up on becoming a NW5, with extremely large temples:
As I keep my hair long, it is covering some of the thinning areas in the picture, so it may look better than it actually is, if I had it buzzed down you'd see next to no hair on top.
I did do a huge comb over (or comb forward rather) to make it less apparent but even the slighest breeze would completely blow my cower, leaving me exposed and sending a cold chill down my spine, even if no one was watching. I realized I couldn't live like this, so I decided upon either shaving it all off or trying to fix it the best I could with the current progress in medications.
As my head is very large, I like to say my brain is large but that is more likely wishful thinking, regardless, I would look extremely poor with a shaved head. So, I decided to at least give the medicine route half a year and then evaluate. I read up on all studies I could, trying to figure out what makes me bald and how to best counter it. There are quite a lot of stuff that has proven to have a good effect on hair or have a counter effect on the things that causes you to lose hair, so if I thought it would help my situation and it was cheap without too harsh side effects, I added it.
Fortunately, I did take pictures, unfortunately, I just have a webcam. They are all taken at the same time of the day and with the same lightning, yet as the computer is fairly close to a window the weather has quite a profound effect on the amount of light. Looking at the comparison pictures now, I realize the lightning is actually quite off due to the weather changes, which is unfortunate but at least the day 30 and day 59 pictures seems to have had the same weather. Also, I forgot to put on timestamps on the day 1 pictures, in case anyone is wondering.
The hair should be almost the exact same length at day 1 compared to day 59, yet it is shorter on day 30. If my hair looks darker, it definitely is, my hair has turned quite a bit darker with a more distinct color, the individual hairs also look much thicker.
I should note that the temple areas had absolutely no hair when I started the treatment, I didn't even have the tiniest vellus or even languo hair. The temples were completely devoid of all human life. Watching other people who had success with hair regrowth, they all seemed to at least have some hair left in the areas with regrowth. So I had very little hope of my temples filling up but they do seem to be progressing. Unfortunately I have no day 1 picture as I didn't expect much in the temple department but as I saw regrowth around day 15 I took a picture then which you can compare with.
All in all, I am very happy with the progress. I am actually able to style my hair a bit now and can have haircuts which exposes my temples to a fairly large extent. Before, I never let anyone touch my hair but now I'm fine with my girlfriend rubbing my hair however she pleases, it feels like a burden has been removed from my life. I didn't think this kind of progress would even be possible in such a short timeframe, especially on completely dead temple areas. I've even gotten some positive comments in regards to my hair now from my friends so they seem to notice something has happened as well.
Regimen
When ever I start something, I always do as much research as possible beforehand, as I always want to be the best, the same thing goes with the hair loss, I did research and read as many reports as possible in regards to hair and what causes it and what works in terms of regrowing or keeping it. As I used these forums to a large extent in my research, I'll give back what I can in terms of sharing my progress and regimen.
I had four criterias when I chose my regimen.
-Beneficial
-Very cheap (as I am a student)
-Not have too harsh side effects, those I knew I wouldn't except were gyno, brain fog (have to stay sharp in school), ED, losing too much muscle mass.
-Not counter each other or have the same effect (unless the problem should be handled from more angles).
As long as research or strong indicators showed that something would fit in the above criterias, I tested it and added it if I did indeed fit after testing. Also, there are indicators that one of the main reasons for my hair loss is due to a lack of oxygen/NO on the scalp, hence I focused a bit on that. So, here is what I take:
Internally
Finasteride, 0.15mg per day - I believe everyone knows what this does so no need to comment on it. The low dosage is due to researching showing that an increased dose will not yield any beneficial results on scalp DHT, a high dose will also give me massive side effects. Hence a low dose is definitely the way to go for me, I do not understand why anyone utilize a higher dose unless they tested it consistently and know they are somehow different in composition compared to most.
Omega 3, every day - Not directly related to hair but does give overall health benefits. Indirectly related to hair by helping with the nitric oxide synthesis and TNF-a down regulation.
L-Arginine, every day - Helps blood flow and triggers the release of NO, a lack of NO is one of the culpits behind hairloss.
L-Lysine, every day - Basically same as above
Niacin, every day - Same as above
MSM, every day - One of the main components of hair and the third most common component in the human body. Studies has shown that MSM increases hair thickness and color. It also has numerous health benefits. It definitely seems to have had an effect on my hair as well as speeding up the results.
Tadalafil, every third day - Perhaps controversal but a very potent drug, commonly taken for something else yet it will increase the vascular size and hence help blood flow, oxygen, NO as well as removing harmful substances and old cells.
R-ALA (alpha-lipoic acid), every day - One of the strongest antioxidant, numerous overall health benefits and helps protect the liver (which is very much wanted, as it takes a hit from some of these drugs).
Tamoxifen, every day - Wish I didn't have to take it but I must in order to counter some of the side effects from the treatment. It has the added benefit of inhibiting super oxidation (to some degree).
Multi vitamin, every day - Taking one which is more complete than most. Overall health benefits.
Vitamin C, every day - I take a fairly large dose of extra vitamin c every day as well, in order to make MSM function properly.
Topical
minoxidil, twice per day - Everyone knows what this does.
Nizoral, every third day - See above.
Finasteride, twice daily - See finasteride. Topical finasteride has proven to be very efficient.
MSM, twice per day - See MSM
L-arginine, once per day - See L-arginine (I will likely stop using this as a topical, the absorbation seems to be too poor).
Green tea extract, once per day - TGF-B inhibitor and an anti-apoptotic, also TNF-a down regulation.
Caffeine, every day - Potent DHT inhibitor, prevents UVB skin tumors, inhibits EGF. May stimulate Caspase 3 however but the overall results should still be positive. Don't use this on areas where you use minoxidil.
I've not written out the dose for most of these as it will take a while to calculate it but if anyone is interested about any of them just ask. In terms of price and quality, everything that can be generic is generic. In the end, the minoxidil (kirkland) costs almost as much as everything else combined, so the overall cost is fairly low. If you order from various online sites, you can get away with a very low price. For example my finasteride cost is $0.39 per month.
While my treatment is quite heavy, it has also given good results. I am quite sure that anyone who did the exact same thing as me would see positive results as well, as it is very potent.
