Looking to stop/reverse early hair loss

[tesseract]

Hey everyone,

I am a 21 year old that has recently noticed the thinning of my hair and some moderate (guessing) shedding happening in the shower. I went to a doctor and was told that I definately exhibit male pattern baldness hair loss. I just recently have read about the Norwood hair loss scale, and I think I am somewhere between NW2 and 3; my hair line hasn't really receded too much, but I have vertex problems along with thinning on the sides of the vertex as well as the middle-front of my head, therefore I am not too sure where I would fit in on the scale. I just started 5% Minoxidil a couple days ago, and I was wondering if I should add spironolactone to that as well. Now I know I'm probably overreacting a bit as I am still rather young and my hair loss isn't too bad, but I would really appreciate any suggestions as to how to tackle this. Also I should note that I really would like to stay away from any oral treatments and stick to topical. Thanks a lot!

 

[2guard]

Hey everyone,

I am a 21 year old that has recently noticed the thinning of my hair and some moderate (guessing) shedding happening in the shower. I went to a doctor and was told that I definately exhibit male pattern baldness hair loss. I just recently have read about the Norwood hair loss scale, and I think I am somewhere between NW2 and 3; my hair line hasn't really receded too much, but I have vertex problems along with thinning on the sides of the vertex as well as the middle-front of my head, therefore I am not too sure where I would fit in on the scale. I just started 5% Minoxidil a couple days ago, and I was wondering if I should add spironolactone to that as well. Now I know I'm probably overreacting a bit as I am still rather young and my hair loss isn't too bad, but I would really appreciate any suggestions as to how to tackle this. Also I should note that I really would like to stay away from any oral treatments and stick to topical. Thanks a lot!

i realize you're a bit worried about oral treatments, but it's a must if you want to control your hairloss. minoxidil will help but won't do anything for the actual process of hairloss. if you want to avoid finasteride or avodart, then i'd say yes add some spironolactone. but hey, why not start taking finasteride for awhile, you may not exhibit any side effects. i've been on it for awhile and i didn't get any gyno or have sexual sides.

 

[tesseract]

i realize you're a bit worried about oral treatments, but it's a must if you want to control your hairloss. minoxidil will help but won't do anything for the actual process of hairloss. if you want to avoid finasteride or avodart, then i'd say yes add some spironolactone. but hey, why not start taking finasteride for awhile, you may not exhibit any side effects. i've been on it for awhile and i didn't get any gyno or have sexual sides.

Sorry, haven't been able to get on the site in a few days to respond. To be honest, I just don't think I'm ready to try oral treatments yet. I know that it's silly, but I feel I'd like to mess around with strictly topical options right now, at least until I've given the minoxidil a bit of time to show what it's got to offer. As far as the spironolactone, I am a bit confused as to where to get it. Is it an active ingredient in many different products? If so, which one should I use? Also, I know that minoxidil is not intended for frontal (non-vertex) regrowth, does spironolactone work on this area however? If not, what's a good topical choice for this area? Sorry about all the questions.

 

[Goingat20]

i realize you're a bit worried about oral treatments, but it's a must if you want to control your hairloss. minoxidil will help but won't do anything for the actual process of hairloss. if you want to avoid finasteride or avodart, then i'd say yes add some spironolactone. but hey, why not start taking finasteride for awhile, you may not exhibit any side effects. i've been on it for awhile and i didn't get any gyno or have sexual sides.

Sorry, haven't been able to get on the site in a few days to respond. To be honest, I just don't think I'm ready to try oral treatments yet. I know that it's silly, but I feel I'd like to mess around with strictly topical options right now, at least until I've given the minoxidil a bit of time to show what it's got to offer. As far as the spironolactone, I am a bit confused as to where to get it. Is it an active ingredient in many different products? If so, which one should I use? Also, I know that minoxidil is not intended for frontal (non-vertex) regrowth, does spironolactone work on this area however? If not, what's a good topical choice for this area? Sorry about all the questions.

Minoxidil still works on the front area (it just wansnted tested on the front area). spironolactone will also help. Apply spironolactone first, followed by minoxidil 10 minutes after. Goodluck

 

[tesseract]

Thanks a lot for clearing that up. As far as obtaining some spironolactone, I realized that Dr. Lee is quite popular around here and I checked out his site. He has a 60mL bottle of 2% spironolactone for something like $20. How long would this last me (i.e. how much do I need to use)? If this isn't too cost efficient, is there another place to get this solution? Also, I'm assuming I don't need to mess around with the 5% lotion stuff, unless of course, there is a 5% easily applicable solution available somewhere.

 

[Goingat20]

Thanks a lot for clearing that up. As far as obtaining some spironolactone, I realized that Dr. Lee is quite popular around here and I checked out his site. He has a 60mL bottle of 2% spironolactone for something like $20. How long would this last me (i.e. how much do I need to use)? If this isn't too cost efficient, is there another place to get this solution? Also, I'm assuming I don't need to mess around with the 5% lotion stuff, unless of course, there is a 5% easily applicable solution available somewhere.

that 60 ml bottle will last you a month (as you apply it twice daily), i would stick to Dr Lee's. 5% works well for the hairline, if you wont you could apply the 2% to most of the thinning areas, and 5% on the hair line (once a day)

 

[maxtiger]

My advice is to get on Propecia ASAP. I really wish I would have started taking Propecia as soon as noticed my hair loss.

I am 25 now and noticed that I was loosing hair(receding temples) when I was 21. I tried topicals for a couple of years and didn't see any results. I continued to recede. When I was 24 I started using Propecia and my hairloss has stopped completely. My hairline has not receded any further since I started on Propecia, and I haven't experienced any side affects.

If I would have started taking propecia when I was 21 my hairline would probably be MUCH better today.