mumpsimus' story - (now with pictures)

mumpsimus

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Hey everybody,

I've been lurking on these forums for about a year now and learned a great deal from reading hundreds of posts. Never really posted anything so far because I still feel like I know a lot less than many of you. Thought I would share my story though and post some pictures later (I have to get that organized first).

For people who just want to now about my status and don't really wanna read too much: I'm 26, I've first noticed that my hairline is receding when I was 16. My hair loss has been fairly slow, I'd say that I'm a Norwood 2.5 or 3 now, temples are badly receded, hairline has slowly crept up, probably two or three centimeters gone now. It's pretty easy to tell because I have one last hair from my original hairline sticking out of my forehead. It's like a good luck charm to me, not sure if people can tell, I don't really care either.

After avidly reading about other people's experiences for about a month I decided to be original and get on the big 3.
I've been on the big 3 since January 2006 (started with regaine 5%, nizoral and fincar 1.25 per day). Later started American Crew Spray and Serum (old formula). No dramatic results with my regimen, but I'm still happy. I have some decent regrowth around the temple area, probably like 1,5 centimeters. The left temple has gained a lot more than the right, which is not that unusual but I find it a bit annoying. My hairline has thickened a bit I believe, even though it's hard for me to tell by the photos.

My dad is in his early 60s now and sports a NW5, heading towards NW6.
Both of my grandfathers died in WW2, their hair looks alright on pictures, obviously didn't really help. Other males on my Mom's side are all in good shape, hairwise. My younger brother who is 25 is a solid NW2, barely noticable because his hair is thick and long.

So much for the bare necessities.

Now why didn't I get on treatments earlier if I've been losing my hair for over ten years now? It's pretty simple, I didn't know anything about hairloss until recently. Words can't describe how p***ed off I am about being so ignorant. See, I would describe myself as a fairly knowledgable person but I actually believed my parents when they told me that there was absolutely no need for me to worry and I felt no need to find out about hairloss myself.

Another problem is that since my hairloss was so slow it took me a long time until I figured out that I was actually losing my hair. I always thought I would keep that slightly receded hairline that I had with 16 for the rest of my life. Oh, the ignorance. Even when I did find out that I was losing my hair I didn't take action because I didn't know there were ways to fight hairloss. My dad always told me that all the stuff that they advertise were snakeoils. This shouldn't sound like I want to blame my parents for my advanced state of hairloss. I always did the exact opposite of what my parents told me anyway just not in that one case.

Well, I wish I could say that getting on treatments and actually seeing some results has turned everything to the better. Before I started getting on treatments I would lie awake at night thinking about how in about one or two years time the only chicks that I could score with were fat and ugly . Yeah, i know, i did it all for the nookie, I'm one superficial bastard. 8)
Truth be told, I spend a lot more time thinking about my hairloss now than I ever did before. I can hide my hairloss without using any concealers but when I'm out on the weekends I don't really like going to clubs that don't have lots of mirrors and if have to walk long distances I to get there I prefer to wear a baseball hat or something because my hair will get messed up anyway.
I was supposed to finish university this year but I failed one of my exams. I know this must sound weird to most of you, a 26 year old still studying at university but it's not unusual in Germany. Anyway, I've always been a decent student and I think my obsession with hairloss is part of the reason why this year's grades deteriorated.
Still, I know I would feel a lot worse about myself now if I wouldn't have started doing something about my hairloss. And even though I could be happier, the only regrets that I have regarding my hairloss are that I didn't find out about treatments earlier.

Ehm, maybe that's not a terribly positive post so far, I will try to come to a happy ending: I pull hot chicks all the time now and everybody compliments me on my great hair.
Ok, seriously: I've made completely reversed my hairloss and have even seen some regrowth. I keep preaching to all my receding friends about the wonders of minoxidil, proscar and what not, two of them have started treatments, I'm sure they will see some success as well.
And all this because of this forum. Reading about the experiences of you out there, struggling with the same problems that I am makes me feel a lot better. I know everything I've written in this post has been said before so it's not very original but maybe some of you who read this can relate and feel a bit better about your own problems.
Oh, and I wanna thank people like the Gardener, Aplunk1, Bryan, CCS, Jayman and all the others that spend a lot of time on here helping others. I've read so many of your posts, it almost seems like I know you. Sorry for the sentimental post, it's a friday night and I should be studying while my friends are out having fun, so what can you do :p

Oh, and I will post some pictures eventually...
Comments on my regimen are always welcome of course!
 
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Guest

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good post, bro.

looking forward to the pics. the big 3 really does work as you can tell.

jayman
 

mumpsimus

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Quote:
Both of my grandfathers died in WW2

Wehrmacht?

Well, it's save to assume that they didn't die as resistance fighters or I would know more about them.

Best advice I can give: Stay on finasteride and don't look back.

Yeah, I know it. I'm doing pretty much everything I can at the moment to fight my hairloss, no use to get worked up about the past.
 

mumpsimus

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ok, so here are some pictures of the last 10 months or so. please tell me what you think!

first off, i have a bad webcam, i am a lousy photographer and i am very
unorganized. so the pictures are not in the same angle, sometimes i
forgot to take pictures, sometimes i didn't hold my hair back properly.
please don't complain, i know i could have done a much better job and
i'm not really happy with the way i did it either.
i think it should be obvious that i've made some progress though,
especially on the left temple. don't really know about the hairline and
my right.


left temple

before treatment

three months

seven months

ten months



hairline
before treatments

three months

five months

seven months

ten months


right temple
i don't have a before treatment pic for my right temple, don't ask me why, i must have accidently deleted it. i think you can kinda tell what
it looks like on the before treatment hairline pic though.
now that i look at it again, it seems like my right temple has gotten
worse? at least between month three and five.


three months

five months

seven months

eight months

ten months



that's all folks :)
 
G

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Hey mumpsimus,

a really nice introduction, but I can´t see your pics.
 

mumpsimus

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Hm, that's strange Taugenichts.
Because I can see them, even if I'm not logged in... Anybody else having problems? I just copied the thumbnails from photobucket...
Oh, and how to I quote people with their name?
 
G

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Sry, my fault. I am just using some random w-lan network and I am quite new to this. Your pics do show up now. Looks good, I can definetly see your improvement on the hairline.

You can quote people with their name by the button on the right top which says quote.
 

recboi

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mumpsimus said:
Hm, that's strange Taugenichts.
Because I can see them, even if I'm not logged in... Anybody else having problems? I just copied the thumbnails from photobucket...
Oh, and how to I quote people with their name?

I can see them. Man, I'd kill to have only your level of recession.
 

chino20

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I'd say it has got better! You seemed to get better, then slightly worse, then better again. Hows the crown and vertex? Do you apply minoxidil there too or just the hairline?

Hairloss also really ruined my grades too mate, I've got a lot of catching up do to, a real uphill struggle because of it :(
 

mumpsimus

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Man, I'd kill to have only your level of recession.
Well, I know it could be worse and I'm lucky that my hairloss has been slow but still, I wish I could just leave the house without having to worry about my hairloss showing (and it does most of the time, I seldomly have what I like to call "good hair days").

@chino20: Crown and vertex are fine, it's just my hairline and temples. I think finasteride will take care of maintaining my crown. Plus, I couldn't really apply anything even if I wanted because my hair is way to thick back there.
 
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yo

ur hair isnt too bad. A "mature" hairline is noticable but as far as what is aesthetically pleasing ur hair still looks decent. Im the exact opposite still have a pretty decent hairline but diffues thinning in teh crown. ALthough hair loss sucks i think u arent in too bad of shape and u have nothing to be embaressed about, most people wont notice hair loss liek yours or find it unnatractive. Good luck with the regrowth man
 

mumpsimus

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ur hair isnt too bad. A "mature" hairline is noticable but as far as what is aesthetically pleasing ur hair still looks decent. Im the exact opposite still have a pretty decent hairline but diffues thinning in teh crown. ALthough hair loss sucks i think u arent in too bad of shape and u have nothing to be embaressed about, most people wont notice hair loss liek yours or find it unnatractive. Good luck with the regrowth man

Thanks a lot for the encouraging words Letsget2thepoint. It really helps to hear that. I just always have the feeling like my hair screams into everybody's face: Look at me, I'm balding. But then, I have kinda turned into the eternal Norwood spotter, like so many here and I shouldn't really assume that everybody else is like me... Can't watch a movie or look at a magazine without looking for potential baldies.
It's like in the sixth sense: "I can see balding people...", hehe.

Best of luck (damn, I wrote best of look first, that's what you call a Freudian slip...) to you too! I don't know this from experience but from the posts I read: if you catch it early like you, you have a very good chance to regrow around the crown area. I'm sure you've already looked at the success stories... So keep doing what you're doing and I'm sure you will see some results!
 
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norwood 3.

big 3 should at least maintain your regrowth. if you want more look into avodart.
 
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yeah

no problem. I too have found myself checking out other guys hair like obsessivly, and to be honest a receeding hairline sucks, but most people wont notice at all, and if they do its really not a big deal. if u coudl maintain what u had i wouldnt worry about other people saying much to u at all or even noticing anything. I have the same feelings though i feel everyone is gonan notice my hair etc, but in reality that just ISNT the way things work. I think the only guys who would really take notice of early stages of male pattern baldness are OTHER guys who have the same problem. What a funny world we live in.
 

mumpsimus

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Well, I'm not exactly in the early stage of male pattern baldness, as Jayman did correctly observe, I'm a Norwood 3 (I was hoping I was still a Norwood 2.5 which is kind of stupid because it's just a model anyway and whether I consider myself a higher or lower Norwood doesn't matter for my looks and shouldn't affect my self-esteem....).
But you're right, I should be happy if I don't see any further regression in the next couple of years.

Jayman, I was going to stick with finasteride for at least 12 months and see if I'm happy with it. Plus, I really don't think that I can expect much more regrowth from any medication because my temples have receded for such a long time (like 10 years of slow decay). Haven't heard of any cases of massive hairline/temple regrowth with dutasteride (or anything else for that matter?) where follicles have been dormant for such a long time.

TopGone had success with regrowing receding temples that had been like that for 13 years but he was a NW1.5 when he started treatment so he gained relatively little (maybe it hard to tell by the pictures but I would say I have gained almost as much in my temple area).
If you know any cases please point them out to me, I would very much like to be wrong here...
 
G

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no youre right. if theyve been dormant for a long time it will be more difficult. you could also look into proxiphen from http://www.drproctor.com. it runs 100 a month but if you only use it on your hairline and temples it is prob 50 a month. still expensive but it is a prescription-strength topical and people on here have had success regrowing their temples and hairline with it. not guaranteed of course but if you want a good non-surgical way to attempt to regrow it i would at least try that before looking at an hair transplant. make sure to continue to stay on the finasteride this whole time though if you want to maintain. also if you start using the proxiphen then you don't have to apply minoxidil to your hairline/temples during that time since proxiphen contains minoxidil in it as well as spironolactone etc. so that might be a bonus for you.
 

mumpsimus

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Jayman, I have considering adding Proxiphen to my regimen (I've basically considered adding everything that is out there).
I could live with the high price (even though I only work part time and my regimen is not that cheap as it is), the problem is, that it's a prescription only drug and you are not allowed to import prescription drugs into Germany if they're not coming from within the EU. Not that I would give a rats *** what the German law says but my last two orders of Nizoral have been checked by German customs and dutifully destroyed. Paying a hundred bucks for a one month (or maybe two months) supply of this stuff is one thing but knowing that there is a pretty good chance that some lazy *** bureaucrats will pour it down the sink is just too much for me. So unfortunately I don't think I will be able to try Proxiphen.
I have thought about hair transplant too, but I simply cannot afford it at this point. Plus, I told myself that I would never cross that border when I first started treatment. I can't rule out that at some point I will be desperate enough to do it anyway though...
 
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