Hey everyone! I been lurking for quite some time. Decided to start Propecia after reading about it for like a year and so far it looks like I will get to keep my hair! I started very early into my male pattern baldness because I was on the lookout for it and also aware that most treatments let you keep your existing hair at best. Dad bald NW6/7, brother bald NW6 (only 2 yrs older than me!), grandpa on mothers side bald NW7, most uncles bald NW5+. I don't feel comfortable putting my age out there with pics for all the internet to see but I am under 30.
For the countless lurkers like me trolling around the forums trying to decide whether to take the plunge for treatments... STOP LURKING AND DO IT NOW. Your hair is only going to get worse while you wait, and you will get the same side effects and stuff from anything whether you start now or a week from now. If you think you are losing your hair you probably are. If enough people have mentioned you seem to be losing your hair in the last year that you can remember them mentioning it, you are probably losing your hair. If you are concerned enough to be trolling the forums and reading this post, you should be treating your hair loss. I lost probably 1/2 inch of my hairline because I sat around forever festering in denial, and I will likely never get it back.
Here's the strategy that finally convinced me to get on finasteride. I said to myself "I am NEVER going to treat this, I'm just going to let it happen no matter how bad it gets". I laughed at myself for how ridiculous that statement was, and made an appt with a derm Doctor for the next week. Don't base your treatments solely on what is said on the internet, and especially take any horror story with a grain of salt. Look up "selection bias" and realize that a huge majority of people that like something will never say anything about it, but almost everyone that doesn't will chime in. I used to work retail and i saw just how powerful this effect is. If I did something that pissed someone off, ~90% chance my boss was gonna hear about it, but I did 1000's of nice things for people over the years and got maybe ten mentions to my boss about how great it was. Not complaining, just saying selection bias is that strong. Some of these specialist docs have treated thousands of men, random guys on the web have only treated one...themselves. Talk to a competent Doctor before EVER changing your treatments or throwing options out the window. Thats one thing this forum is really good for, finding a competent doctor.
That's the main reason for my post here, to say that finasteride works great for me despite scaring the **** out of myself reading stuff on the internet. Its not always horrible and might even work for a majority of guys, even though you would think otherwise after reading stuff on the web. Just look at me, it's worked well enough that I didn't even bother making an account until I'd been on it for 6 mos, and I really only made one to say that not everyone's dick falls off after they start finasteride.
So how well has finasteride worked? Hard to say if I gained anything, but like everybody says it usually takes quite a while to notice a difference. I have a pretty full head of hair so it might take a few years before I can confidently say it has stopped my balding in it's tracks. Might have gained a little bit of my hairline back, but I didn't take any before pics so it's hard to say
. Definitely doesn't seem like my hairline has gotten any worse, and it was going south pretty damn fast when I started. Pretty confident it has either stopped my balding or slowed it down greatly, and I'll update you guys in another 6 mos or so when I'll know for sure.
Side effects from finasteride? The one side effect I have noticed is decreased body hair. My beard/balls/armpits are fine but everywhere else my body hair is definitely reduced significantly. Not enough that anyone else notices but I would say around 30-40% on my chest and arms. Its actually a very welcome side effect since I don't have to shave that **** as much . On a side note look up finasteride treatment for hirsutism(excess body hair), some scientific studies show that it does in fact significantly reduce body hair, in women at least. Not a terrible side effect but surprising because not many guys mention it.
ONE OTHER THING: GO TO A REAL Doctor AND GET REAL MEDICINE. I'm convinced half the guys that say finasteride/dutasteride/whatever doesn't work are getting it from some shady illegal overseas mail order crap. Are you ****ing kidding me? Why the hell would you take that **** when finasteride is so cheap to get legally? Probably cheaper than getting it illegally at least in the states. Why would you put that **** in your bodies? It's probably a sugar pill at best, at worst some totally random chemical. I see it this way: for the guys that have smoked weed, how many of you have gotten screwed with **** weed at some point? Most of you? And thats with something thats really easy to tell if it's working or not...and probably from a friend or at least a guy you know IRL. So how much greater is the chance that you're getting something real when 1. it's someone you don't and wont ever know IRL that probably lives on the other side of the planet 2. its something horribly illegal to mail across said planet 3. its something that takes a lot of time to know whether it's working and 4. it has a much smaller underground market and is much harder to get . Anyways, I bet there's a chance somewhere near 0% that you are getting real medicine from overseas pharmacies.
Anyways thats my rant, feel free to ask me any ?'s about my experience with finasteride or whatever! I know how much you guys like pics so here ya go! I still have pretty good hair and I will hopefully keep it that way.
For the countless lurkers like me trolling around the forums trying to decide whether to take the plunge for treatments... STOP LURKING AND DO IT NOW. Your hair is only going to get worse while you wait, and you will get the same side effects and stuff from anything whether you start now or a week from now. If you think you are losing your hair you probably are. If enough people have mentioned you seem to be losing your hair in the last year that you can remember them mentioning it, you are probably losing your hair. If you are concerned enough to be trolling the forums and reading this post, you should be treating your hair loss. I lost probably 1/2 inch of my hairline because I sat around forever festering in denial, and I will likely never get it back.
Here's the strategy that finally convinced me to get on finasteride. I said to myself "I am NEVER going to treat this, I'm just going to let it happen no matter how bad it gets". I laughed at myself for how ridiculous that statement was, and made an appt with a derm Doctor for the next week. Don't base your treatments solely on what is said on the internet, and especially take any horror story with a grain of salt. Look up "selection bias" and realize that a huge majority of people that like something will never say anything about it, but almost everyone that doesn't will chime in. I used to work retail and i saw just how powerful this effect is. If I did something that pissed someone off, ~90% chance my boss was gonna hear about it, but I did 1000's of nice things for people over the years and got maybe ten mentions to my boss about how great it was. Not complaining, just saying selection bias is that strong. Some of these specialist docs have treated thousands of men, random guys on the web have only treated one...themselves. Talk to a competent Doctor before EVER changing your treatments or throwing options out the window. Thats one thing this forum is really good for, finding a competent doctor.
That's the main reason for my post here, to say that finasteride works great for me despite scaring the **** out of myself reading stuff on the internet. Its not always horrible and might even work for a majority of guys, even though you would think otherwise after reading stuff on the web. Just look at me, it's worked well enough that I didn't even bother making an account until I'd been on it for 6 mos, and I really only made one to say that not everyone's dick falls off after they start finasteride.
So how well has finasteride worked? Hard to say if I gained anything, but like everybody says it usually takes quite a while to notice a difference. I have a pretty full head of hair so it might take a few years before I can confidently say it has stopped my balding in it's tracks. Might have gained a little bit of my hairline back, but I didn't take any before pics so it's hard to say
. Definitely doesn't seem like my hairline has gotten any worse, and it was going south pretty damn fast when I started. Pretty confident it has either stopped my balding or slowed it down greatly, and I'll update you guys in another 6 mos or so when I'll know for sure.Side effects from finasteride? The one side effect I have noticed is decreased body hair. My beard/balls/armpits are fine but everywhere else my body hair is definitely reduced significantly. Not enough that anyone else notices but I would say around 30-40% on my chest and arms. Its actually a very welcome side effect since I don't have to shave that **** as much
. On a side note look up finasteride treatment for hirsutism(excess body hair), some scientific studies show that it does in fact significantly reduce body hair, in women at least. Not a terrible side effect but surprising because not many guys mention it.ONE OTHER THING: GO TO A REAL Doctor AND GET REAL MEDICINE. I'm convinced half the guys that say finasteride/dutasteride/whatever doesn't work are getting it from some shady illegal overseas mail order crap. Are you ****ing kidding me? Why the hell would you take that **** when finasteride is so cheap to get legally? Probably cheaper than getting it illegally at least in the states. Why would you put that **** in your bodies? It's probably a sugar pill at best, at worst some totally random chemical. I see it this way: for the guys that have smoked weed, how many of you have gotten screwed with **** weed at some point? Most of you? And thats with something thats really easy to tell if it's working or not...and probably from a friend or at least a guy you know IRL. So how much greater is the chance that you're getting something real when 1. it's someone you don't and wont ever know IRL that probably lives on the other side of the planet 2. its something horribly illegal to mail across said planet 3. its something that takes a lot of time to know whether it's working and 4. it has a much smaller underground market and is much harder to get . Anyways, I bet there's a chance somewhere near 0% that you are getting real medicine from overseas pharmacies.
Anyways thats my rant, feel free to ask me any ?'s about my experience with finasteride or whatever! I know how much you guys like pics so here ya go! I still have pretty good hair and I will hopefully keep it that way.