My Story - Advice needed!

[Signals]

So the story so far is I've not dropped onto using Rogaine or finasteride, but currently going ahead down the natural supplements route (controversial and not proven, I know).

I use Nizoral x3 a week, 320mg Saw Palmetto, 1000mg Beta Sitosterol, 500mg Green Tea, Super Strength B Vitamin Complex and apply Emu Oil to my hairline everyday either in a shampoo or oil format.

I'm currently I'd say, in between a Norwood 1 and 2. My hairline has receded about an inch at the front to about 2 inch either side and with miniturisation occurring. I'm unsure as to whether I'm in the phase of a shed or not at the moment, I feel like I've receded quite a lot over the past 4 months I've been on this regimen, I don't know whether this is because of the regimen I'm on or whether this is just natural progression of my hair loss. I've not experienced any thinning on top luckily yet, still got a good thick head of hair, however, it's the thinning at the front I'm worried about and I feel like I need to act now before it's too late!

Do I jump onto the Rogaine? What is my next step of action do you think? Here is pretty much the extent of my hairloss at the moment.



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Thanks in advance!

 

[Naltima]

My loss is almost identical to yours. I've been maintaining for about 4 years now on finasteride and Nizoral alone. The hairline has gotten a little worse but that's to be expected.

How old are you?

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=69782

 

[Signals]

I'm 23.

I really feel I need to throw finasteride or minoxidil in there soon - I've been on this for 4 months now and I expected a shed, so I may stick it out for another 6 months to see if it improves on this regimen. If nothing happens, the only way is finasteride I guess!

 

[Naltima]

I started finasteride when i was 22. There's really nothing else out there that will stop the progression of your hairloss unfortunately, the vitamins and supplements probably won't hurt but if you truly want to keep what you have you will have to jump on finasteride asap.

You should be able to maintain for the most part for the next 10-15 years. If there's no cure by then there is bound to be something more powerful and more effective as far as treatments go.

 

[Signals]

Have you had any regrowth? What norwood do you think I am on at the moment?

 

[Naltima]

Have you had any regrowth? What norwood do you think I am on at the moment?

I can't say that I've had much regrowth. Regrowth at the temples is almost impossible to achieve, I've seen other people on here get some regrowth but those cases are pretty rare.

When I first started using finasteride I also used minoxidil for about 7-8 months and I did see a lot of very small dark hairs on the hairline which could possibly have matured into terminal hair with time but to be honest my recession never bothered me that much and I though minoxidil was a big hassle and really not worth it in my situation so I dropped it.

However, in the last 6 months or so I've changed how I use Nizoral by leaving it in the hair for approximately 8-10 minutes everytime i use it and I seem to be getting a lot more small hair popping up on the hairline so I'm not sure what will happen with that.

As far as Norwood. I guess you're probably the same as me, around Norwood 2 pushing 2.5, but it's a little hard to tell from that angle. But basically when I have my hair cut pretty short it's almost impossible to tell that I have any kind of hairloss which I'm thankful for.

I'm hoping that as a worst case scenario my hair will be like Jude Law's when I'm around 37-40 at which point I will get a hair transplant. But hopefully it doesn't progress to that point.