Nearing 1 year mark....just some rambling...

[ChiaPet]

Well I'm approaching the 1-year mark, but I don't want to give an update until Feb 15 (the full 1 year point)

I just wanted to give a couple words of advice to those who are affected by hair-loss...

I want to say that you MUST give the treatments time to work. You cannot make any generalizations until you have given them at least 1 full year to work. I know that has been said many, MANY times, but it is often ignored by those who panic after going through crazy sheds early in their regimens.

Heck, at month 11, I'm still shedding 50-75 hairs in the shower and I think this is completely normal. Counting hairs in the shower is meaningless...I mean, before treatments, I noticed maybe 10-15 hairs in the shower, but I was losing ground.. Now, with the increased shedding, my hair has improved, but I will give the full update in 1 month from now, just to see if there is any change...male pattern baldness is usually a very gradual miniaturization process, and so it does take a while for it to grow back stronger when on treatments...but that's enough of hair-loss 101..

I just wanted to say that you should not allow yourself to be consumed by this. Rather, learn from the experience. Don't isolate yourself. I think I wasted a year just obsessing over this crap - I just focussed on school and hair, and cut off almost everything else that made life fun. I'm tired of this same routine and I'm not going to waste anymore time -waiting- for my hair to get better.

Anyways, I'll give a full update next month with before/after pics...

 

[Sir_LagaLot]

what Norwood are you..or were you before you started treatment..

and did you shed this 75 hair throughout...?

and what point did you feel your hair was getting better..

i'm nearing 7 months and i'm shedding the same since day 1 of finasteride..the same 50-70 hair everyday.. and some of them are really thin.. losing alot from the nape of the neck which is weird..plus sideburns are vanishing.. .and the spot behind the hairline is the thinnest.. i know its not helped me one bit because with every passing day its getting harder to style my hair and it just sticks to my head..and i touch scalp immediately if i poke through with a finger...

and i think if its not even made the slightest of a difference in 7 whole months then i doubt its gonna make things better all of a sudden in the remaining 5. I doubt my shedding'll just go down one day.

 

[ChiaPet]

Sir_lagalot: before starting treatments I would say I was a Norwood 2.5 - receding hairline, huge forehead, thinning vertex.

My shedding never completely stopped EVER throughout the entire year. At best, there was decreased shedding - maybe around 30 hairs in the shower, which occurred at months 5 and 6. My hair was probably the thickest at this time. (Vertex filled in completely and hairline started to become more V-shaped). Months 1-4 was insane shedding -> about 100 hairs. From month7 to this day, I would say I shed anywhere from 50-75 hairs in the shower. I stopped counting, because it is in no way any accurate reflection that male pattern baldness is progressing.

Right now, my hair is probably a little worse off than months 5-6, but slightly better than baseline. That is why I wanted to wait at least 1 more month before giving a proper evaluation - because I think my hair is getting thicker and growing in...

 

[ang_99]

I just reached the 1 year mark on finasteride myself and I can say for sure that it works. By that I mean you will keep what you have on your head when you started. Perhaps you may see some slight regrowth. For me that is all I expected and I am satisfied.

 

[exstatic]

what Norwood are you..or were you before you started treatment..

and did you shed this 75 hair throughout...?

and what point did you feel your hair was getting better..

i'm nearing 7 months and i'm shedding the same since day 1 of finasteride..the same 50-70 hair everyday.. and some of them are really thin.. losing alot from the nape of the neck which is weird..plus sideburns are vanishing.. .and the spot behind the hairline is the thinnest.. i know its not helped me one bit because with every passing day its getting harder to style my hair and it just sticks to my head..and i touch scalp immediately if i poke through with a finger...

and i think if its not even made the slightest of a difference in 7 whole months then i doubt its gonna make things better all of a sudden in the remaining 5. I doubt my shedding'll just go down one day.

WHy dont you add minoxidil to your regime?

 

[-cj-]

The suspense is killing me .

 

[Aplunk1]

Chiapet,
When I was in my 10th month of Propecia, I was just then ending a huge shed... I had lost a considerable amount of hair in September-November, and I'm still recovering. I think that I basically quitted Propecia at the same time that I was ending my shed... Do you think if I would have stayed on for another 1.5 mos that I would have gained a lot of hair back?

It's just that, for the entire year (almost 1 year) on Propecia, I don't think I maintained at all-- actually, my hair came back thinner in every cycle... Eventually to the point where my hairline receeded greatly and my scalp was starting to show...

I've recovered a lot since switching to Dutasteride in early December, but that makes me think that I might just be recovering from a Propecia-induced shed...

My question to you (sorry about the ranting!) is, do you think I would have benefited from that last 1.5 months on Propecia?

 

[ChiaPet]

Aplunk: I really couldn't tell you dude...I mean, my hair was looking amazing during month 6 (After looking at pictures, it was noticably thicker....) I think I'm just coming off a shed now, so my hair isn't looking too great these days..

I'm going to give it a little longer...if it improves within the next month or 2, then I'll be totally convinced this stuff works... It's kinda f*cked up though...
You sacrifice 4 months of bad hair to get 2 months of good hair, and this process keeps repeating until it finally stabalizes into your original hair that you had before starting treatments --- maybe a little better. I guess all you can expect is maintainence - that's what it seems to be for most people anyways.

As for your question - I really don't know. That's quite the monster regimen you got there, so it could be due to many factors. I would have stayed on the Propecia a little longer, but if you're saying your hair kept getting worse, then maybe you did the right thing by switching. My hair looked amazing at month 6, so I know that it -did- work.....hoping this same thing happens again.