[Help please] How can I get back to baseline? Rapid decline. Is there any hope?

[wellheweare456]

[deleted]

 

[Frenchboy]

You're doing the maximum you can right now, you can just wait and see if there is any improvements.
However, I have almost the same hairloss as you, I can advise you to do a short frange to hide it, really efficient in my case!

 

[wellheweare456]

You're doing the maximum you can right now, you can just wait and see if there is any improvements.
However, I have almost the same hairloss as you, I can advise you to do a short frange to hide it, really efficient in my case!

I might have to do that! It's just annoying because minoxidil really destroys hair quality, it looks awful and then having long hair exposes that more.

 

[Frenchboy]

I might have to do that! It's just annoying because minoxidil really destroys hair quality, it looks awful and then having long hair exposes that more.

This is the reason I never went in minoxidil. I just tried finasteride which worked super well but too much sides, I had to stop.
Try to play with your hair that are on the upper part of your head sides, they have a better quality.

 

[wellheweare456]

This is the reason I never went in minoxidil. I just tried finasteride which worked super well but too much sides, I had to stop.
Try to play with your hair that are on the upper part of your head sides, they have a better quality.

What’s your routine now? Have you tried topical finasteride?

thank you I will do that. Debating getting it cut short but I’m just scared that will make it even worse

 

[Frenchboy]

What’s your routine now? Have you tried topical finasteride?

thank you I will do that. Debating getting it cut short but I’m just scared that will make it even worse

Just nothing !
I started losing at 16, but my male pattern baldness is sooooo slow that I can make it until now (22) and still hide it if I have the good hairstyle.

I was panicked and depressed also about that before, I noticed it when I was 20, it droves me crazy for a year.

I did finasteride and other stuff... And then I stopped because of huge sides that makes me realize that my dick is so much more important than my hair hahaha

More seriously, I just "accepted" it after a while, and now I know that i'm balding and I'm good with myself. If it continues slow like that, I will try a hair transplant and hope for future treatments (pray for the cure)

I think you're still in the process of accepting balding and you're in those phases of "depression"; you're doing the good thing to maintain it, so now what else you can do more ? You can't have regrets if you tried at least all the possible (reasonable) things to do to fight it.

 

[wellheweare456]

Just nothing !
I started losing at 16, but my male pattern baldness is sooooo slow that I can make it until now (22) and still hide it if I have the good hairstyle.

I was panicked and depressed also about that before, I noticed it when I was 20, it droves me crazy for a year.

I did finasteride and other stuff... And then I stopped because of huge sides that makes me realize that my dick is so much more important than my hair hahaha

More seriously, I just "accepted" it after a while, and now I know that i'm balding and I'm good with myself. If it continues slow like that, I will try a hair transplant and hope for future treatments (pray for the cure)

I think you're still in the process of accepting balding and you're in those phases of "depression"; you're doing the good thing to maintain it, so now what else you can do more ? You can't have regrets if you tried at least all the possible (reasonable) things to do to fight it.

Try topical I don't think you would get sides from that! I've been on both and still haven't got sides although I don't wanna risk doing that forever.

Yeah you're right though. I was thinking about adding RU but I'm not sure.

 

[20YearsOnFin]

It's the luck of the draw whether or not , you will be able to get back to baseline, the odds are slightly stacked against you though, as most people won't be able to turn the clock back fully , by using the treatments that are currently available. The best you can do is just stick with it and see how it goes for the next few years.

 

[wellheweare456]

It's the luck of the draw whether or not , you will be able to get back to baseline, the odds are slightly stacked against you though, as most people won't be able to turn the clock back fully , by using the treatments that are currently available. The best you can do is just stick with it and see how it goes for the next few years.

Do you think after approaching 7 months if I was going to have better results it would have started to show by now or is it still too early to tell?

 

[20YearsOnFin]

Do you think after approaching 7 months if I was going to have better results it would have started to show by now or is it still too early to tell?

I think if you were going to be a super responder and recover your hair line 100% than you probably would have more new vellus hair filling in at your temples by 7 months, but to improve overall density from finasteride takes many hair cycles and can take 2 or 3 years to get the final result.

I would carry on with what you are doing, use finasteride to stabilize your hair loss and improve density, but to get any further temple regrowth you may have to play around with trial and error by adding or removing additional growth promoting treatments

 

[wellheweare456]

I think if you were going to be a super responder and recover your hair line 100% than you probably would have more new vellus hair filling in at your temples by 7 months, but to improve overall density from finasteride takes many hair cycles and can take 2 or 3 years to get the final result.

I would carry on with what you are doing, use finasteride to stabilize your hair loss and improve density, but to get any further temple regrowth you may have to play around with trial and error by adding or removing additional growth promoting treatments

Thank you. What else can I try? I can’t really think of what could be effective there.

 

[20YearsOnFin]

I would give it the full year to see if you can get any regrowth at the temples like this guy.

https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...here-any-progress-and-what-norwood-im.135205/


Otherwise there's other option's you could add at a later date like you said RU or oral minoxidil, i'm not the guy to give advice on those treatments as I've never taken them myself.

https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...l-minoxidil-also-is-my-crown-thinning.132112/

 

[wellheweare456]

I would give it the full year to see if you can get any regrowth at the temples like this guy.

https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...here-any-progress-and-what-norwood-im.135205/


Otherwise there's other option's you could add at a later date like you said RU or oral minoxidil, i'm not the guy to give advice on those treatments as I've never taken them myself.

https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...l-minoxidil-also-is-my-crown-thinning.132112/

I think RU would probably be my next step. Just enough for the hairline maybe. But you're right I should give it more time and hope for the best

 

[Norwoodcel]

It's over

 

[20YearsOnFin]

It's over

Nah its fine, you just have to believe in reincarnation, i'm planning to come back as this guy.

 

[wellheweare456]

It's over

Ok!

 

[NickyA]

If it's any help I actually think your hair quality has improved compared to your sixth and seventh pictures. Your front looks way denser and healthier in the last three pictures to me, and there seems to be some slight improvement towards the temples too. Dunno what you mean by "baseline" but if you take the orthodox definition for it (The state at which you were before starting any treatments) then you're already above it.

In any case, diffusers tend to respond better to meds and it is still early so you might be able to see some more improvements over the next 6 to 9 months. Just remember to monitor it and compare, and consider that hair transplants tend to be harder for diffusers so it might be worth it to plan a course of action (Concealers, seeing doctors, stronger meds, higher dosages or experimental treatments depending on how important hair loss is to you and your risk profile) in case it starts worsening down the line.

 

[wellheweare456]

If it's any help I actually think your hair quality has improved compared to your sixth and seventh pictures. Your front looks way denser and healthier in the last three pictures to me, and there seems to be some slight improvement towards the temples too. Dunno what you mean by "baseline" but if you take the orthodox definition for it (The state at which you were before starting any treatments) then you're already above it.

In any case, diffusers tend to respond better to meds and it is still early so you might be able to see some more improvements over the next 6 to 9 months. Just remember to monitor it and compare, and consider that hair transplants tend to be harder for diffusers so it might be worth it to plan a course of action (Concealers, seeing doctors, stronger meds, higher dosages or experimental treatments depending on how important hair loss is to you and your risk profile) in case it starts worsening down the line.

Thank you! That’s good to hear. Maybe because the change is slow it’s hard to notice on yourself. By baseline I meant the thickness it had a few years ago, I don’t know if I used the word correctly or not. It’s also hard to compare though because it’s so much shorter now so I will try and grow it out and see how it compares when it’s the same length. Might try like thickening products and see if they help. Also, it looks so much worse in the sense of just being poor quality hair but I think that’s because of the PG in minoxidil so after these liquid bottles run out I’ll swap to the foam. And I’ll look at the other things you recommend, so thank you again

 

[NickyA]

Thank you! That’s good to hear. Maybe because the change is slow it’s hard to notice on yourself. By baseline I meant the thickness it had a few years ago, I don’t know if I used the word correctly or not. It’s also hard to compare though because it’s so much shorter now so I will try and grow it out and see how it compares when it’s the same length. Might try like thickening products and see if they help. Also, it looks so much worse in the sense of just being poor quality hair but I think that’s because of the PG in minoxidil so after these liquid bottles run out I’ll swap to the foam. And I’ll look at the other things you recommend, so thank you again

The Youtuber Ben Arthur has a video about hair thickening products, I saw it and it seemed interesting to me but I never got around to trying them, maybe it can be useful to you. I've read here that dermmatch is a good concealer for the frontal hairline too. It is possible to get regrowth to the state of your hair years ago pre-hair loss but it isn't as common for most people unless they are great responders to meds, hopped on treatments very early or are on a ton of different treatments at once.

 

[Tbrhuss]

Hey! This is driving me insane and I really need help so please allow me to take you back.

I'm 23 now.

This was my hair in 2017 and 2018, it’s my baseline. I know the pictures are really bad because they don’t show the hairline but they are the best I have. My hair was so thick at this point that I actually believed I didn’t have male pattern baldness. My dad is NW7 but my mum’s dad had no MBP so I hoped those were my genetics and from the thickness of my hair I belived they were.

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Having said that, in hindsight, my hairline was actually not great and I have one picture of that from 2017. This drives me crazy because I eventually started to get paranoid and I would ask barber’s and everyone for an opinion and they would tell me I wasn’t going to lose my hair because it was too thick.

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And looking at this picture from 2020, it seems as though it had not even started diffusing then.

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Then, it went downhill. Fast! Fast forward to Spring 2021 and I knew I had a problem. The hairline got worse and it diffused very fast.

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I knew it was bad but after joining this forum everyone let me know just how urgent it was to start treatment. This was the state of my hair at the point of starting treatment.

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So I started oral finasteride, topical finasteride and minoxidil 6% twice daily, Nizoral, microneedling, biotin, MSM. I wanted to throw the kitchen sink at it and get back to baseline. Additionally, I tried a new hair style to hide it.

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However, after approaching 7 months now, I haven’t noticed any improvement. I know that the goal of treatment is to prevent further decline and it hasn’t got worse, but I am so unhappy with it like this, I need improvement. This is it now.

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It’s on my mind constantly, ruining my mental health.

Any help would be so appreciated. Or any opinion!

Can I get back to where I was or do I need to go for the other hairstyle? Is there anything else that could help?

Many thanks!

Wellheweare-
Take it from me, I’ve been where you are now. I’ve tried it all. Some facts:
You will not get back to baseline using any medications/ creams/ needles given current available options.
the best you can hope for is to stabilise/ not lose any more. You have correctly chosen the best available regimen except for possibly adding dutasteride (once or twice per week).
Hopefully one day there will be a medical treatment that can regrow hair.
Now you have a tough choice - if you REALLY can’t stand the mature hairline look, you can consider a hair transplant. But this is a big decision. If you choose a good surgeon, you will be back to baseline, but you will need more surgery as your hair loss progresses. And you will be stuck on the meds.
having chosen this route, I honestly think I regret it. I had a great cosmetic result but have had 4 procedures so far and will soon need another. I wish I just accepted the inevitable, shaved my head, and went to gym.