Hoping This Will Be A Success Story

[Explorer79]

While I am just getting started with my battle with balding and this may not be a success story (yet), just like everyone here I am hoping it will. I am 40 years old, my hair loss started when I was around 27. As you can imagine it got progressively worse and it has been quite an interesting journey watching my hair not just disappear over the years but the texture turn coarse and unhealthy. After much debate with myself I decided to take the plunge and gave gotten into my hair loss treatment plan (Rogaine 5 %, Finesteride 1mg, Laser Cap and I will be getting the Nizoral shampoo soon) I started the Rogaine and Finasteride on August 19th 2019. I plan on posting my progress and sharing my journey with my fellow comrades here.

Thanks to everyone who has shared their story before me and cheers to everyone who is on this journey with me.

PS- Attaching pictures I took today as a starting point. First time posting in these forums, take it easy lads if I don't get attachments right the first time.

Cheers!

 

[transam]

Good luck!

 

[baldingviking]

Good luck! and keep us updated!

 

[Explorer79]

Baldingviking, Transam, Thank you.

I will try to post (regularly) so I can share my journey and my experiences as I go through this. it has been 2 weeks since I started the routine and it looks like the initial shed cycle had begun from the Rogaine. I am including pictures of my hair 2 weeks in (I don't expect any changes as it is too soon to see any results) but I sure can see the initial reaction from the Rogaine I suppose, I have started to shed quite a bit (see pictures) I applied Rogaine foam this morning and massaged (rub) it in good to get full coverage and I noticed some hair falling so I put a paper down on the sink and started to shake all the loose hairs off and boy did I get a good amount hair that started falling off. Since this is well documented and to be expected, I am not too worried about it.

On the other hand, I haven't seen any change in my Libido but I did had a minor episode yesterday when my liver started to hurt. I don't know if it was because of the Finesteride (1mg) but just to be safe I skipped my finasteride yesterday. I am not sure if it was just something ate or if it is related to the Finesteride. Either way, I recovered mostly this morning other than a slight dull pain in my abdomen and back (felt like I got punched in the gut, started off as back pain and I quickly realized it most likely is my liver as I have had this pain in the past when I have had food poisoning or ate something that my liver just did not like one bit)

Anyhow, I started off with finasteride again today (took a 1 day break) and will continue to monitor things carefully as we all know, Finesteride while very useful can have risks and it is good to be carefully optimistic.

PS-Let me know if anyone else has had some abdominal pain (as I mentioned, I am pretty sure it was my liver based on past experience with food / liver related issues) I want to be careful and also understand and be able to differentiate the "good" expected from the "bad" expected reactions and symptoms...

Cheers everyone, will update in 2 weeks if everything looks normal.

Cheers ...

 

[Explorer79]

It has been 90days since I started and I am currently on the same regime
1mg Finasteride Daily
Nizoral Shampoo (3 times a week)
Rogain Foam - Once Daily)

I am not sure if there has been any improvement, No Side Effects to report so far, I had some liver pain as mentioned above but that went away in 2 days and probably was unrelated.

I am including 2 photos one from day 1 and the other from today (90days into 1mg Finesteride) I did get a hair cut so my hair is shorter than my day 1 picture.

Curious to see how other have been doing or have done at the 90 day mark. It would be great to have some data from others to compare and see ...

Forgot to mention, I am pretty sure that the shedding has stopped all together, I don't see any shedding happening now.

Cheers !

 

[Jifgilfos]

Thanks for update! Stop shedding is great! congrats

 

[Explorer79]

Hey folks,
Its been 6 months since I started as mentioned originally I started on August 27th 2019. A few things in my routine have changed

1) I have kept up 1mg finasteride every day. I probably missed finasteride maybe 10 days in the last 6 months
2) I have not been very consistent with Rogaine Foam, I'd say I use it maybe once a week
3) I have been using Nizoral once a week

With that out of the way I have included a 6 month update photo comparing August 2019 versus February 2020.

What I think I see and feel is that my hair texture has improved and has gotten a bit thicker. In terms of my vertex filling up, I don't think I have grown new hair but rather the existing hair has gotten thicker.

I wonder if I have miniature hair growing but I can't see and maybe they will thicken up and be more visible if I continue on Finesteride.

As for Side Effects, none thus far.

Let me know what you guys think of the progress.

I also wonder if Derma Rolling will trigger new hair growth that will help with better coverage on the vertex area.

 

[transam]

Hey folks,
Its been 6 months since I started as mentioned originally I started on August 27th 2019. A few things in my routine have changed

1) I have kept up 1mg finasteride every day. I probably missed finasteride maybe 10 days in the last 6 months
2) I have not been very consistent with Rogaine Foam, I'd say I use it maybe once a week
3) I have been using Nizoral once a week

With that out of the way I have included a 6 month update photo comparing August 2019 versus February 2020.

What I think I see and feel is that my hair texture has improved and has gotten a bit thicker. In terms of my vertex filling up, I don't think I have grown new hair but rather the existing hair has gotten thicker.

I wonder if I have miniature hair growing but I can't see and maybe they will thicken up and be more visible if I continue on Finesteride.

As for Side Effects, none thus far.

Let me know what you guys think of the progress.

I also wonder if Derma Rolling will trigger new hair growth that will help with better coverage on the vertex area.

I can definitely se an improvement.
But using minoxidil once a week is not good enough. Please at least try to do once a DAY.
There is much better consistency there.
But as for finasteride, it's doing excellent work. Great results buddy!

 

[Topher]

I'd agree with @transam minoxidil once a week probably isn't helping. Microneedling is proven to give some results. I'd recommend getting a micro needling pen use it EOD at .5mm and apply minoxidil after and at least once a day. I'd say you are a certainly a success story mainly due to finasteride, congratulations looks good!

 

[Explorer79]

I can definitely se an improvement.
But using minoxidil once a week is not good enough. Please at least try to do once a DAY.
There is much better consistency there.
But as for finasteride, it's doing excellent work. Great results buddy!

transam,
thank you for the feedback. I agree, I need to put more effort in if I want better results and I need to be consistent. I am going to force myself to be consistent about Rogaine every day. Lets see what the next 6 months is like.

Thank You once again.

 

[Explorer79]

I'd agree with @transam minoxidil once a week probably isn't helping. Microneedling is proven to give some results. I'd recommend getting a micro needling pen use it EOD at .5mm and apply minoxidil after and at least once a day. I'd say you are a certainly a success story mainly due to finasteride, congratulations looks good!

Yeah, I need to do better than that and be consistent about Rogaine.

As for Micro needling, thank you for the input, I will look into and see I can start on that routine.

Thank you once again, the Journey continues.