MONTH 4 UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE
Hello,
I'm 24, going on 25. I wasn't going to post my story, but I think I owe it to this forum because these stories are what made me finally decide to go on treatments. I never went on anything consistently before this because I was afraid of finasteride's side effects and didn't feel it was worth trying anything else without finasteride. I started noticing shedding in the shower at 16-17 and it went downhill from there. I thought I would just accept losing all of my hair, but then I realized that it was getting really depressing waking up every day only to have less hair. I wish I started treating it sooner, but oh well.
Treatments:
1mg finasteride daily
2mL/full cap of minoxidil (foam in the morning, liquid at night)
Nizoral 1% every other day
3000mcg Biotin (started a week ago)
I put 2.5-3 months into the title because I started finasteride on 1/1/2012 and minoxidil on 1/16/2012. Since minoxidil typically shows its effects sooner, I assume that most of the effect that I've seen so far has been due to that. I began using Nizoral on 1/26/2012. I started taking Biotin because the new hairs growing in are mostly still about 1/5 of the length of my normal hair and I hope to grow it out long enough to get it cut again around this time next month so that they are equal length. I may add MSM soon. I think this will show an even greater improvement, so expect more pics in a month or so.
As far as side effects... from finasteride, I thought that I was getting a bit of gyno, so I began taking .25mg of Arimidex every other day. I've always had a little bit of gyno from puberty. It may have been because I began eating more than usual and gaining weight, so I may go off of it soon to see how that works out because I started losing weight again. Pretty sure it was the finasteride though. My sex drive was bad before and it's still about the same. Arimidex may have helped a bit. Semen quality is fine.
When I started, I could rub my hand across my head in certain spots and feel my smooth scalp. About a month ago, I realized that it was no longer smooth.. there was hair growing there. I also noticed a lot of new hairs coming in in the frontal region, which is the only area I can really inspect closely in the mirror. As you can see in the pictures, my hair line was not that bad relative to the diffuse thinning before I started, but there is a lot of new hair growing there, which is nice. Along the hair line is where its been most effective apparently, looking at the pictures.
I tried to get pictures that are as representative as possible, hopefully in similar lighting and angles. Hair length should be the same. When I took them today, I wasn't expecting that much honestly, but I was pleasantly surprised and apparently didn't realize how bad it is was before. Both pictures were taken after a shower after towel drying my hair completely.
And now.. the moment you've all been waiting for. Pictures on the left were taken right after started Propecia and the right, today. I didn't take any pictures of the vertex because I didn't want to look at it, but I don't think its any worse than the rest of my head.
Hello,
I'm 24, going on 25. I wasn't going to post my story, but I think I owe it to this forum because these stories are what made me finally decide to go on treatments. I never went on anything consistently before this because I was afraid of finasteride's side effects and didn't feel it was worth trying anything else without finasteride. I started noticing shedding in the shower at 16-17 and it went downhill from there. I thought I would just accept losing all of my hair, but then I realized that it was getting really depressing waking up every day only to have less hair. I wish I started treating it sooner, but oh well.
Treatments:
1mg finasteride daily
2mL/full cap of minoxidil (foam in the morning, liquid at night)
Nizoral 1% every other day
3000mcg Biotin (started a week ago)
I put 2.5-3 months into the title because I started finasteride on 1/1/2012 and minoxidil on 1/16/2012. Since minoxidil typically shows its effects sooner, I assume that most of the effect that I've seen so far has been due to that. I began using Nizoral on 1/26/2012. I started taking Biotin because the new hairs growing in are mostly still about 1/5 of the length of my normal hair and I hope to grow it out long enough to get it cut again around this time next month so that they are equal length. I may add MSM soon. I think this will show an even greater improvement, so expect more pics in a month or so.
As far as side effects... from finasteride, I thought that I was getting a bit of gyno, so I began taking .25mg of Arimidex every other day. I've always had a little bit of gyno from puberty. It may have been because I began eating more than usual and gaining weight, so I may go off of it soon to see how that works out because I started losing weight again. Pretty sure it was the finasteride though. My sex drive was bad before and it's still about the same. Arimidex may have helped a bit. Semen quality is fine.
When I started, I could rub my hand across my head in certain spots and feel my smooth scalp. About a month ago, I realized that it was no longer smooth.. there was hair growing there. I also noticed a lot of new hairs coming in in the frontal region, which is the only area I can really inspect closely in the mirror. As you can see in the pictures, my hair line was not that bad relative to the diffuse thinning before I started, but there is a lot of new hair growing there, which is nice. Along the hair line is where its been most effective apparently, looking at the pictures.
I tried to get pictures that are as representative as possible, hopefully in similar lighting and angles. Hair length should be the same. When I took them today, I wasn't expecting that much honestly, but I was pleasantly surprised and apparently didn't realize how bad it is was before. Both pictures were taken after a shower after towel drying my hair completely.
And now.. the moment you've all been waiting for. Pictures on the left were taken right after started Propecia and the right, today. I didn't take any pictures of the vertex because I didn't want to look at it, but I don't think its any worse than the rest of my head.
unk:
