Looking for a safe, long-term regime

[Machiavelli]

Hi!

I am a 23 year old guy that has been suffering from noticeable hairloss for about 1-1.5 years. As hairloss starts gradually, I guess it takes quite a while before you notice that you are, in fact, getting bald. At first I just had some "bad hairdays" every once a while until I had to admit that I am indeed loosing my hair. The thought that I might get bald just absolutely scares me to death as I love my hair and will not look that well bald (unlike some other guys).

At the moment my hair status is not too bad but I do notice that I am loosing hair at the temples and the crown. Last year I visited my family doctor and I got some finasteride, but after performing a lot of google-searches I decided not to use it because of fear for sides. Also, I did try minoxidil for a while but I got the feeling that it gave me chest pains and discontinued usage.

At the moment I am only using Alpecin Shampoo w/ Alpecin Liquid (topical caffein) with Biotin supplements. I do realize that this is a rather weak regime and that I will not win the "fight" with such a weak regime!

One problem I have come across is that it seems to be very hard to get good advice on hairloss products. Family doctors know hardly anything, e.g. my family doctor had to search for the possible side-effects for fina and just cited the "less than 1% side-effects". In addition, the few specialised hair clinics that my country seem to be misleading their customers as they basically only prescribe their very expensive fina (with some extra ingredients) and will deny any possible side-effects. Therefore, I really believe that I can obtain the best feedback from experienced hairloss forum users and therefore I have created this account.

Back to my situation, my goal is to keep as much as I have today and a little regrowth would be awesome; but increasing my current hair quality and apparance would be nice as well. Also, it is important to tell that I am a 23 year old guy that just started an extremely challenging job that involves a lot of travelling and that I do not want to be worried about any systemic side effects. Also, I am an athlete and I am highly concerned about my long-term health and physical shape/muscle growth. I am a disciplined guy and would be able to apply a topical solution everyday.

Back to my regime, I am looking for a strong regime that will help me reach my hair(loss) goal. I do realize that fina is the most used and proved drug on the market, but my fear for side-effects and long-term effects will make me unable to use this drug for a long term. I just know myself long enough that just the thought that I could become one of the propeciahelp.com-guys will make eventually discontinue the drug. Therefore, I rather not start with it as I am certain I will eventually stop using it.

Currently, I am considering adding Topical spironolactone and Revivogen to my regime. I am hoping you guys, as experts or guys in the same position, could give me adivce on what to do in my situation.

In summary,
goal: maintain/little regrowth/improved quality
person: disciplined but very worried about side-effects (self fulfilling prophecy)

Any help would be higly appreciated and I apologize for any grammar/spelling errors (I am not a native English speaker)!

 

[TheGrayMan2001]

From all of my research I've concluded it is silly to attempt anything that doesn't start with trying finasteride. If you have side effects, you reduce doseage and\or quit, and you move on to something else.

finasteride is the best hair loss stopper out there. You might be one of the ones who regrows it all and never loses another hair. Or you might feel a little weird or lose hair anyway while on it. You don't know unless you try.

That's why I just ordered some--I finally got over this stupid fear of drugs and decided without trying something that will actually work I'll end up losing too much hair.

Back to my regime, I am looking for a strong regime that will help me reach my hair(loss) goal. I do realize that fina is the most used and proved drug on the market, but my fear for side-effects and long-term effects will make me unable to use this drug for a long term. I just know myself long enough that just the thought that I could become one of the propeciahelp.com-guys will make eventually discontinue the drug. Therefore, I rather not start with it as I am certain I will eventually stop using it.

That is a weak statement and will doom you to failure. Sorry to be so blunt...I just felt the same way 6 months ago but now I've decided I am going to stop this before it gets any worse. Hopefully finasteride will be good for me.

 

[timbo]

Nobody is going to deny the fact that finasteride (like every drug) has possible side effects. And it is true that most doctors are ignorant about finasteride and hair-loss in general. The only advice I can give you is to take things that you read on the internet for what they are: Unverified anecdotes from any person that knows how to use a keyboard. Logic says that peer-reviewed medical studies and clinical trails are more reliable than anonymous people on internet message-boards. Finasteride was approved by the FDA almost 20 years ago and there has been countless research done investigating its action. Permanent side-effects have not been proven, and I would imagine that if they exist, they are very rare.

I am not a salesman for Propecia. In fact, I don't really care if you take the drug or not. But I will say that it strikes a funny nerve in me when I see people taking seriously some of the things that are said on websites like propeciahelp.com. I guess I figure people should be smarter than that.

If you are interested, here are some more thoughts on the issue.
http://www.baldingblog.com/2010/02/19/r ... m-outrage/

 

[TheGrayMan2001]

The biggest factor is this: How many of these problems are caused by pschological problems? If you're prone to being scared\fearful\OCD about taking a drug, the placebo effect has a greater chance of occurring. You might get the side effects but its completely unrelated to the drug.

 

[Machiavelli]

The biggest factor is this: How many of these problems are caused by pschological problems? If you're prone to being scared\fearful\OCD about taking a drug, the placebo effect has a greater chance of occurring. You might get the side effects but its completely unrelated to the drug.

The biggest factor is this: How many of these problems are caused by pschological problems? If you're prone to being scared\fearful\OCD about taking a drug, the placebo effect has a greater chance of occurring. You might get the side effects but its completely unrelated to the drug.

I definately agree with you there, I know myself long enough that I am certain I will experience side-effects because of paranoia. But hey, at least I know that and therefore I will not start with fina. But my first post has caused the opposite of what I was aiming for ( a discussion about fina-usage & side effects). Instead I was hoping for advice about a reasonable non-fina regime.....

I was thinking of combining topical spironolactone with Revivogen. Especially topical spironolactone appeals to me as it works where I want to work (at my hair follicles), should have no systemic effects and does have science backing it up....

Any advice on spironolactone or other non-fina drugs?

 

[timbo]

But my first post has caused the opposite of what I was aiming for ( a discussion about fina-usage & side effects). Instead I was hoping for advice about a reasonable non-fina regime.....

Any advice on spironolactone or other non-fina drugs?

In my years of reading stories on Hair-loss forums. There is not much success with Propecia-less regimens. That is why is was trying to convince you to take another look at Propecia.

 

[Bryan]

Any advice on spironolactone or other non-fina drugs?

Have you considered trying Proxiphen? The stuff is fairly expensive, but Dr. Proctor thinks it's more effective than Propecia. I tend to trust his judgement.

 

[andrei_eremenko]

take the drug...almost one month on 1.25 mg and no side...and i took the real from merck!