I Prevail. The End Of A Long Agonizing Road.

AnxiousAndy

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Hey all. You may have noticed I've been increasingly inactive recently. This is a section I've wanted to post in since I started my journey way back in November 2016. Safe to say this journey has been a rollercoaster ride of shedding, recession, sweat and tears.. but finally after more than 2 years of fighting to stop and reverse my hair loss I believe that day has come. One thing I want to make very clear which some don't seem to realise is that just because you're a non responder to finasteride doesn't mean it's game over. I'm one of those who believes finasteride actually hurt my hair rather than preserving it. After trying many different treatment combinations I finally found one that works for me! I'm currently using 12.5mg of Oral Minoxidil once at night, 1mg of Finasteride at night and 25mg of Cyproterone Acetate. Since staying consistent with these treatments after 9 months those tiny vellus hairs have grown an inch into halfway terminal hairs! My hair overall has thickened to the point I no longer need to use a thickening shampoo ( I still do lol )
During my journey I went from NW1.8ish to almost NW2.5 and back down to Norwood 2. If the other small vellus hairs thicken up I believe I will be a Norwood 1 again which I haven't been since I was 13/14!
Thanks to everyone who supported me through this journey and I wish eventual success to everyone else!
Here are current pictures of my hairline and current hairstyle. The thin hair in the pic with the red face block is REGROWTH which was completely bald before :D The pic with blue face block is with dermmatch on and as you can see i easily pass for Norwood 1! I'm too lazy to go look for my befores but they are floating about here somewhere!

EDIT: for those who want to see the earliest baseline I have its the pic with the red circle. That was taken a year into finasteride and 3 months into oral minoxidil. The hairs circled in red is the same hair that's in the picture with the red face block. After the baseline picture all that hair plus more fell out so you can really see how much I've regrown! :)

EDIT2: So I just found another pic of my hairline ( the wow pic ) I'm not sure when it was taken but it was before my absurdly long dread shed hit. I think it was probably about 2 months into oral minoxidil as no regrowth seems to be there yet. What amazes me is how much I've actually regrown.. I wish I had taken pics of my hairline just before my super shed ended because it looked f*****g awful.. Nonetheless I feel this pic really shows the difference :)
One last thing, to anyone who is shedding horribly with treatments.. Don't.Ever.Give.Up. I'm proof that even though the shedding lasted far, far too long that its possible to bounce back and get regrowth. Good luck all!

EDIT3: Nov28th 2021. Hey guys im back to drop an update! Still on finasteride 1mg, oral minoxidil 12.5mg and cyproterone 25mg. Still no sides effects! Still maintaining my hair for the most part..think ive lost a little on the hairline since my 2019 update but thats only because i became lazy with my treatments. I buzzed my hair for the first time ever and this is how my hair looks right now. Still looks pretty good i think! i am now 24and a half years old.

EDIT4: Its 2024 and this is my hair today :) I am turning 27 in a few months.
EDIT5: I didnt take those pictures today they are a couple months old but close enough!
 

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DuckThisSheet

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Looks really good brother, good luck in the future regrow
How old are you? Since When are you balding?
Are you not afraid of oral minoxidil (You take rly high dose)>? Do you consider cutting the dose in future, or there is no way? :D
Didnt you consider duta?
Any sides from Cypro or Oral minoxidil?
 

AnxiousAndy

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Looks really good brother, good luck in the future regrow
How old are you? Since When are you balding?
Are you not afraid of oral minoxidil (You take rly high dose)>? Do you consider cutting the dose in future, or there is no way? :D
Didnt you consider duta?
Any sides from Cypro or Oral minoxidil?
Thanks :) I'm 21, I started losing my hair at 14. Nah oral minoxidil doesn't scare me, never has. I actually plan on increasing the dose if it begins to lose effectiveness. Highest dose I'll go is 20mg but hopefully I won't need to. As I said in the opening post finasteride hurt my hair so I was under the impression dutasteride would do far worse, especially with all the horror stories floating around about it. I do have sides but I feel the trade off is worth it. In the mornings I get dark eyes from minoxidil, I also have increased body hair but I'm fairly hairless anyway so its a welcome change. The sides from cypro are reversible infertility, its harder ( not impossible ) to maintain erections, I have mild gyno but its not noticeable at all.. I believe it is not growing further. Severely reduced sebum is another side which is very welcomed.
 

nWo Wolfpac

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Once you've grown all your hair back you might be able to drop the minoxidil if you stay on cypro. The cypro should keep the hair that you have. I am on a similar regimen, you actually use twice as much cypro as i do.
 

Melocoton

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I read your some of your posts months ago. I'm glad you finally found something that works on you. Do you have photos of your hairline when you were recceding?
 

BalderBaldyBald

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It's been some time, glad to hear and to see pal, godspeed and may you never have to come here again...
Nice results but i don't have the balls to follow this regimen
I agree with @Melocoton, a Before/After set of pics can be nice
 

Ziggyz123

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Are there any before pics in there? Lol all of those pictures look the same. Your hair looks awesome for sure. I’ll pray for you dog that your hair stays put while on treatments. I was loving life on finasteride and topical minoxidil until a random scalp inflammation episode which nailed me and restarted my male pattern baldness itch and shedding/recession.

Keep it up man and always stay positive. You did great riding out sheds from oral min and what not. Props!
 

AnxiousAndy

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Once you've grown all your hair back you might be able to drop the minoxidil if you stay on cypro. The cypro should keep the hair that you have. I am on a similar regimen, you actually use twice as much cypro as i do.
Seems a bit risky but if I see evidence of it being possible its definitely something I'd consider. I'm using 25mg as my hair loss is very stubborn and needs the extra oomph. How's your hair?

I read your some of your posts months ago. I'm glad you finally found something that works on you. Do you have photos of your hairline when you were recceding?
I do have photos on here. I have some in a thread I made about oral minoxidil, they don't quite show baseline but the start of regrowth from it, but I lost it again soon after. You can see from those photos the regrowth is half what it is now so its definitely a marked improvement :)

It's been some time, glad to hear and to see pal, godspeed and may you never have to come here again...
Nice results but i don't have the balls to follow this regimen
I agree with @Melocoton, a Before/After set of pics can be nice
Check out my oral minoxidil thread. Its not baseline as its pictures a year into finasteride but I was losing ground fast the whole time. The pictures you will see is the start of regrowth before I was forced to switch minoxidil tablet brands to likely fakes.. Shed horribly for 8 months after that. So I guess the regrowth I have now may be even better than I thought.

This regime is becoming tempting
It was my last hope really, I tried lots of different treatments but nothing worked.. Except this :) Do thorough research before considering something like this.
Are there any before pics in there? Lol all of those pictures look the same. Your hair looks awesome for sure. I’ll pray for you dog that your hair stays put while on treatments. I was loving life on finasteride and topical minoxidil until a random scalp inflammation episode which nailed me and restarted my male pattern baldness itch and shedding/recession.

Keep it up man and always stay positive. You did great riding out sheds from oral min and what not. Props!
I do on my oral minoxidil thread, you can find it by looking at my created threads. As I said above those they aren't technically baseline but its the best I got up here. My hair did get a bit worse after that but I was so depressed with the treatments seemingly stopping to work and with all the shedding I never took any more photos. Yeah oral minoxidil sheds are brutal to say the least lol. I literally shed around 250 - 300 hairs daily for like 8 months! Concealer, thickening shampoo and combover game was strong with me during that time lol.
 

AnxiousAndy

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I've added one of my earliest comparable pictures so you can see how much I've regrown :)
 

nWo Wolfpac

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Seems a bit risky but if I see evidence of it being possible its definitely something I'd consider. I'm using 25mg as my hair loss is very stubborn and needs the extra oomph. How's your hair?hh

My hair is doing really well right now. I almost went outside without any toppik in my hair today but decided against it. 6 months ago I barely had anything left to add toppik on so it's been a big change. I'm not actually using minoxidill because of side effects so Ive been using low dose estrogen for growth instead. So far the gyno hasnt been too bad. I plan to stop taking it once I'm satisfied with my regrowth and stay on low dose cypro to maintain.
 

AnxiousAndy

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My hair is doing really well right now. I almost went outside without any toppik in my hair today but decided against it. 6 months ago I barely had anything left to add toppik on so it's been a big change. I'm not actually using minoxidill because of side effects so Ive been using low dose estrogen for growth instead. So far the gyno hasnt been too bad. I plan to stop taking it once I'm satisfied with my regrowth and stay on low dose cypro to maintain.
Glad to hear bro :) Got any pics to share?
 

Ziggyz123

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Is gyno not bad on low dose Cypro? I’m getting some strange feelings on 100mg spironolactone and I feel kind of ill on spironolactone. May switch to Cypro. And does anyone work out that’s on Cypro?
 

Obsessive

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Congrats on great results. Also, your patience and committment is inspiring.
I notice you don't use any topicals in your regimen. Any reason why?
I'm tempted to try cypro. Did you notice any physical changes to your sexual organs? sensitivity, size, etc.

Did you ever consider topical estrogen (Egel)? I've been rubbing Egel into my slick bald temples for ~1.5 months and haven't seen any sign of life yet.
 

Lurker85

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I've actually been lurking for about 6 yeara and sorta followed your story. I'm on a similar regiment, minus the cypro, I do 1.25mg finasteride in the form of proscar and 5mg of oral minoxidil in the form of loniten. I also cycle various supplements scheduled around my growth phases. I started far worse off than you were before I started to fight back. I had aggressive diffused thinning all over. But now I went from having to shave my head to the illusion of norwood 1 with the help of a little bit of caboki. 1 bottle lasts roughly 3 months, applying every 3 to 4 days. Without it I can do a little combover and just have a spot that is like an inch forward of the crown which is about an inch and a half in diamater... this is coming back from almost nothing and having to shave.

I just introduced the oral minoxidil in about 5 months ago and have seen a huge difference. For me it is a double benefit from having high blood pressure. I go from 160/95 70 heart rate to 125/80 80 heart rate. Seeing your success post makes me want to try to up my dosage. While I'm very pleased with my results, I'd love to knock out my last problem area.

If anyone is desperate for their hair, oral minoxidil is worth at least a shot. If you have high blood pressure then it is a double benefit. They use 40mg to 100mg when prescribing it for heart issues, so small 5mg to 15mg dosages are safe even without a diuretic, imo.

Unfortunately, I can not risk trying cypro because if anything happens to my dick my girlfriend will be pissed. She is very supportive of my hair issues, knows my struggle, watched my regrowth, knows I use concealer (after hiding it for 9 months), but already said she draws the line at sides that effect that.

Why do you drink topical instead of buying the tablets? ADC has them.
 
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