i probably should post this in the "your story" section, but it seems like a lot more activity and responses would come up here. so, i guess i'll explain where i'm at and what seems like the options i might want to take. im hoping that i can get feedback based on what options im looking into. so, before i get started, thank you to anyone who is willing to read this or help me.
im twenty years old and am unsure of whether or not i'm losing my hair. i have had absurdly fine hair my entire life. there was always a tad of scalp showing in the back, and i've always had one of the harshest widows peak hairlines of anyone i've seen. i've had all of this my entire life. however, i started taking accutane in my senior year of highschool(17) and noticed thinning while on the drug(this is a reaction to the drug and it stops once you stop the meds). this made me concious of my hairline and density ever since. over this(03) summer is when i become most concerned about my hair loss. i'm not sure what really sparked the concern, but since the begining of summer i have kept a close eye on what condition my hair is. sometimes i shed a fairly descent amount, other times not. i will do hair counts, which are obviously very rough estimates. one time i noticed about eighty hairs being shed in the shower. this was also after about two days of not washing nor keeping track and having used hair spray both days. i do feel like when i use hair spray that as the hairs shed, they stay untill the hairspray is cleaned off. but no less, i do feel like my widows peak might be getting pointier, and that the hair in my vertex is thinning. no one notices this but me of course. in fact, the few people i have told about any of this, think im a paranoid fool. sometimes, i can be. i do have pretty bad obsessive compulsive dissorder beyond my hair obsessiveness. but no less, i can't help but shake it. hairloss does run in my family on both sides to certain degrees. my mothers side has pretty rampant hair loss. both her brothers are bald, with one brother starting in his twenties, her father started loosing his hair in his late twenties and was pretty much bald by his fifties. my father's side is a little different. my grandfather has always had my same widows peak and it's receeded over the years but he still has got a head of hair(think jude law completely grey and a little longer down his hairloss road). his started doing it about my age. i keep thinking i'd be just fine with his hairloss, however, can't shake the fact that my hair seems to be thinning in the back. i will eventually post pictures when i get a hold of my mom's digital camera. my father is just starting to loose a tiny bit of hair. a little recession, a little thinning. his family has hairloss but much longer down the road in life.
i've been doing a lot of research on the internet and have found no clear cut solution. i understand that there really isn't one, but i would like to find something that is best suited for me. my biggest concern is that since it seems like it might be starting early, that also means it will go more rapidly. being higher up on the norwood scale before thirty does not sound appealing at all. i would be more than happy to maintain what i have than worry about making my hair thicker, for i have never had thick hair. however, being with fine hair, can make hair loss more noticable and treatments like transplant surgery not very usefull.
my biggest questions are this:
1. if were to use rogaine or propecia, would they eventually stop working over time? i am under the impression that most medicines do. i had started having acne when i was about twelve, it was never terrible, but was pretty consistent. one antibiotic worked for a little while than stopped after time. this is why i chose to take accutane, b/c it's only a six month long treatment. it worked and i have since never had any problems with my skin. but no less, my trials with acne drugs did make me realize that drugs do not work for ever. would these drugs be good for maintaining hair for a long period of time? if they stopped growing hair or improving hair after a few years, but still kept what you had then that would be fine by me. except with propecia, im skeptical of two things. one: taking hormone altering drugs for a long period of time starting in your twenties seems kind of risky. also, i've heard it can make your skin oily and more prone to acne. i already went through this and do not want to go through that again if i can help it. i do however take much better care of my skin now, then i did when my acne started so i do feel like i could control it. but mainly, how long will these work? what good is propecia or rogaine going to do for me if after four years, when im twenty four, everything i grew and maintained fell out to where it was headed anyway? it seems like a waste of money and a big risk for something that, in the long run, does nothing, but hold off the same inevitablity for a few years.
2. cosmetic options. im more concerned about these than anything. is there ANYWAY a hair piece, or hairclub or any of that could be natural looking? i've heard the horror stories and i've seen some bad pieces. but, i've also think i've come across some pretty impressive ones as well. my sociology professor might have had one. i could never tell, but there were a few minor clues that led me to believe he MIGHT. but everytime he got a haircut people complimented him on it, he had some great hair. i am very liberal with the way i style my hair, i'll dye it, i cut it in all different ways, and i've never shown my hair line due to the fact that my widows peak doesn't fit my face too well. so, since i do not show my hairline and would style it in anyway imagineable(longer, shorter, whatever), i'm wondering if cosmetic options are the better way to go. if there is any possible way to make it look natural and not look like im on that seventies show(i hate that shag hair sh*t more than anything, that's the only type of hair i couldn't live with) then i'd be more than happy with it. what about couvre? i have dirty blonde hair, but kind of think, if black is there best color, that i'd dye my hair black and use that. it seems like it just looks like product is in your hair, that's cool by me. and laser comb? that seems pretty promissing. what's the deal? did it get rejected by the fda as a medical device? i saw that it was supposed to be done and approved earlier this year, but i can't find anything on it since then, which is making me skeptical. but if it thickens your hair, that'd be good b/c i could def. afford to thicken my hair up being as it's ALWAYS been really fine.
money is not really my concern. my parents are fairly well off and would respect that hair loss, for me, at twenty, would not go over well. not to mention, i do well in school and will be going to law school, so eventually, i could afford to pay for this myself as well. i'm pretty concious of my looks and have always considered myself a good looking guy. my acne was never terrible, but it bothered the sh*t out of me at the time. i feel like i'm having the same problem with hair loss. i've never thought of myself as some studly dude, but have always felt like my looks have never hindered me in anyway, cept for a little while with my acne. i have already become more self concious with girls and such b/c of this. which is a shame, b/c in general i have always been able to get the girls i've wanted. i feel like this would stop me if it started so young. i, like everyone else, has standards when it comes to what they want in the opposite sex, and i really fear having to drop mine so early in life. especially, being as i feel like i could have taken better advantage of the opportunities i had, being as, well, im still a virgin b/c i figured there was no reason not to wait for the best opportunity to come along. i do not want to shave my head, the one thing i know is that i look terrible with a shaved head. i am far more content with having receeding like jude law and using what i have than getting rid of all of it. i was never affraid of hairloss before, i figured it'd start in my thirties and i'd eventually be bald, but that it wouldn't really be too big of a deal b/c that wouldn't happen till i was much older and i'll make an ok looking bald man. but for now, it just seems like it's going a little too soon and fast.
so please any help with what i've talked about would be great and appreciated SOOOO much. thank you again everyone!
im twenty years old and am unsure of whether or not i'm losing my hair. i have had absurdly fine hair my entire life. there was always a tad of scalp showing in the back, and i've always had one of the harshest widows peak hairlines of anyone i've seen. i've had all of this my entire life. however, i started taking accutane in my senior year of highschool(17) and noticed thinning while on the drug(this is a reaction to the drug and it stops once you stop the meds). this made me concious of my hairline and density ever since. over this(03) summer is when i become most concerned about my hair loss. i'm not sure what really sparked the concern, but since the begining of summer i have kept a close eye on what condition my hair is. sometimes i shed a fairly descent amount, other times not. i will do hair counts, which are obviously very rough estimates. one time i noticed about eighty hairs being shed in the shower. this was also after about two days of not washing nor keeping track and having used hair spray both days. i do feel like when i use hair spray that as the hairs shed, they stay untill the hairspray is cleaned off. but no less, i do feel like my widows peak might be getting pointier, and that the hair in my vertex is thinning. no one notices this but me of course. in fact, the few people i have told about any of this, think im a paranoid fool. sometimes, i can be. i do have pretty bad obsessive compulsive dissorder beyond my hair obsessiveness. but no less, i can't help but shake it. hairloss does run in my family on both sides to certain degrees. my mothers side has pretty rampant hair loss. both her brothers are bald, with one brother starting in his twenties, her father started loosing his hair in his late twenties and was pretty much bald by his fifties. my father's side is a little different. my grandfather has always had my same widows peak and it's receeded over the years but he still has got a head of hair(think jude law completely grey and a little longer down his hairloss road). his started doing it about my age. i keep thinking i'd be just fine with his hairloss, however, can't shake the fact that my hair seems to be thinning in the back. i will eventually post pictures when i get a hold of my mom's digital camera. my father is just starting to loose a tiny bit of hair. a little recession, a little thinning. his family has hairloss but much longer down the road in life.
i've been doing a lot of research on the internet and have found no clear cut solution. i understand that there really isn't one, but i would like to find something that is best suited for me. my biggest concern is that since it seems like it might be starting early, that also means it will go more rapidly. being higher up on the norwood scale before thirty does not sound appealing at all. i would be more than happy to maintain what i have than worry about making my hair thicker, for i have never had thick hair. however, being with fine hair, can make hair loss more noticable and treatments like transplant surgery not very usefull.
my biggest questions are this:
1. if were to use rogaine or propecia, would they eventually stop working over time? i am under the impression that most medicines do. i had started having acne when i was about twelve, it was never terrible, but was pretty consistent. one antibiotic worked for a little while than stopped after time. this is why i chose to take accutane, b/c it's only a six month long treatment. it worked and i have since never had any problems with my skin. but no less, my trials with acne drugs did make me realize that drugs do not work for ever. would these drugs be good for maintaining hair for a long period of time? if they stopped growing hair or improving hair after a few years, but still kept what you had then that would be fine by me. except with propecia, im skeptical of two things. one: taking hormone altering drugs for a long period of time starting in your twenties seems kind of risky. also, i've heard it can make your skin oily and more prone to acne. i already went through this and do not want to go through that again if i can help it. i do however take much better care of my skin now, then i did when my acne started so i do feel like i could control it. but mainly, how long will these work? what good is propecia or rogaine going to do for me if after four years, when im twenty four, everything i grew and maintained fell out to where it was headed anyway? it seems like a waste of money and a big risk for something that, in the long run, does nothing, but hold off the same inevitablity for a few years.
2. cosmetic options. im more concerned about these than anything. is there ANYWAY a hair piece, or hairclub or any of that could be natural looking? i've heard the horror stories and i've seen some bad pieces. but, i've also think i've come across some pretty impressive ones as well. my sociology professor might have had one. i could never tell, but there were a few minor clues that led me to believe he MIGHT. but everytime he got a haircut people complimented him on it, he had some great hair. i am very liberal with the way i style my hair, i'll dye it, i cut it in all different ways, and i've never shown my hair line due to the fact that my widows peak doesn't fit my face too well. so, since i do not show my hairline and would style it in anyway imagineable(longer, shorter, whatever), i'm wondering if cosmetic options are the better way to go. if there is any possible way to make it look natural and not look like im on that seventies show(i hate that shag hair sh*t more than anything, that's the only type of hair i couldn't live with) then i'd be more than happy with it. what about couvre? i have dirty blonde hair, but kind of think, if black is there best color, that i'd dye my hair black and use that. it seems like it just looks like product is in your hair, that's cool by me. and laser comb? that seems pretty promissing. what's the deal? did it get rejected by the fda as a medical device? i saw that it was supposed to be done and approved earlier this year, but i can't find anything on it since then, which is making me skeptical. but if it thickens your hair, that'd be good b/c i could def. afford to thicken my hair up being as it's ALWAYS been really fine.
money is not really my concern. my parents are fairly well off and would respect that hair loss, for me, at twenty, would not go over well. not to mention, i do well in school and will be going to law school, so eventually, i could afford to pay for this myself as well. i'm pretty concious of my looks and have always considered myself a good looking guy. my acne was never terrible, but it bothered the sh*t out of me at the time. i feel like i'm having the same problem with hair loss. i've never thought of myself as some studly dude, but have always felt like my looks have never hindered me in anyway, cept for a little while with my acne. i have already become more self concious with girls and such b/c of this. which is a shame, b/c in general i have always been able to get the girls i've wanted. i feel like this would stop me if it started so young. i, like everyone else, has standards when it comes to what they want in the opposite sex, and i really fear having to drop mine so early in life. especially, being as i feel like i could have taken better advantage of the opportunities i had, being as, well, im still a virgin b/c i figured there was no reason not to wait for the best opportunity to come along. i do not want to shave my head, the one thing i know is that i look terrible with a shaved head. i am far more content with having receeding like jude law and using what i have than getting rid of all of it. i was never affraid of hairloss before, i figured it'd start in my thirties and i'd eventually be bald, but that it wouldn't really be too big of a deal b/c that wouldn't happen till i was much older and i'll make an ok looking bald man. but for now, it just seems like it's going a little too soon and fast.
so please any help with what i've talked about would be great and appreciated SOOOO much. thank you again everyone!
