Northman: 2 months in (38 years old)

Northman

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Northman: 3 months in (39 years old)

Trying to gather information and planning to track my progress as I begin to try and do something about my hair loss.

I'm 38 years old and first started noticing that I was losing my hair when I was about 19. I've lost most of my frontal hairline and have thinning throughout the upper scalp with more in the back, but no bald spots there yet. Some coverage everywhere back of about halfway on my head. For the last two years I have considered myself functionally bald and essentially keep my head cropped down to 1/4" to 1/8".

I just started applying minoxodil 5% yesterday and have some finasteride en route. I plan to take 1.25 dose daily once I have the meds.

I'll be trying to get some pictures added as I am having a hard time really evaluating my loss, and I want to have a good baseline for how my hair MAY improve. I'm guessing I'm closest to a 4A on the Norwood scale and figure I'm destined for a 5a or 6 without treatment.

Surgery for me is cost prohibitive and have other concerns with it.

Add: I've added some photos. Fresh 1/4 inch hair cut this morning.

My best hope is that I could somehow get back to that 2005-6 range, but we shall see.
 

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SuprisedGuy

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

Wow to start losing at 19 and still have a decent amount of hair 20 years later is great. I think your gonna have some awesome results especially with rogaine/finasteride together.

I started losing at 19/20 too and if I hadn't got on treatments I would be NW6 bald right now three years later.

Good luck and keep us updated.
 

Northman

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

I briefly tried a couple of things over the years but never stuck with anything for any duration either due to cost or inconvenience. I took propecia once before, 10 years ago, for two months. I used minoxidil briefly and Nioxin hair products probably the longest, but never really felt like they did anything at all, I used Nioxin perhaps 2 years intermittently over the last 10 years. My loss has been relatively gradual and as recently as 2008 I had viable shoulder length hair. There is a reasonable distribution of hair still middle/crown and I am hoping to fill that all in better.

I have fine, moderately oily hair that was never very thick, common for lighter haired people I think.
 

Northman

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

I've also attached a better Day1 Crown picture.
 

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Northman

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

So, is anyone out there that is a similar age category or with similar loss that has experienced good results? I've been pouring through other write ups and success stories, but most of the ones I am seeing are for guys much younger or with much less hair loss. Please post pics or links to your story if so. Thanks!

I guess I'd categorize myself with significant temple loss and fairly advanced diffuse thinning.
 

Northman

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

4 days into the minoxidil with no side effects. Didn't expect any. Getting some of the shampoo today and hope to have the finasteride in hand soon. I've learned something I didn't know before when I briefly tried propecia. I used it for two months and quit for two reasons. It was expensive and I could swear my hair had actually started getting worse. I had never heard to expect a shed phase. It actually makes me hopeful that it was working then, and will work now.
 

2020

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

Northman said:
It was expensive and I could swear my hair had actually started getting worse.

probably a shed.... If you just stick to it for 12+ months, I'm sure you would get great results
 

Northman

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

Maybe I'm just hoping but I seem to be reading that folks that have had long term slower hair loss seem to respond well to treatment. I know that when I look very closely at my scalp I see tons of the tiny semi-dormant hairs. Anyone have any evidence or studies pointing to a relationship between regrowth response and prior rate of loss?
 

ffsffs

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

Hey Northman - I'm in a fairly similar situation to you: fairly slow progressing pattern loss which started in my early 20s (in my early forties now) but recently noticing some accelerated loss in the crown / vertex (along with receding hairline).

Didn't take any action because of denial/worries about drug side effects etc. and I regret at least not trying something out sooner.

I just ordered some generic finasteride so unfortunately I don't have any info for you about long term slower loss and how those may respond to minoxidil/finast but hopefully we both get some results/success.
 

Northman

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

I've read through your whole thread Captain Combover. I'm hoping the combination of treatments I'll be using will do some work for me. I am ok with the majority of the temple loss. I've had much of that for years so if I can thicken it up in there and then add density all the through the mid and crown I would be very happy. Based on what I see for my thinning, I believe I have a moderately good size donor area should I ever decide to change and go that route. Still waiting for my finasteride to arrive in the mail. 1 week in to the 5% minoxidil, and eyeballing those miscroscopic hairs daily. :)

I have attached some pictures with some mock up hairlines. In the front view, in red, I show what I hope to restore to some extent. In black, I have drawn where my hairline started its adult life.

The next one shows my hair as:

red - final untreated destination (NW6?)
blue - existing dying front
green - hopes for restored front (thickening throughout)
black - Fair weather traitors that left me long ago.
 

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Northman

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

ffsffs said:
Hey Northman - I'm in a fairly similar situation to you: fairly slow progressing pattern loss which started in my early 20s (in my early forties now) but recently noticing some accelerated loss in the crown / vertex (along with receding hairline).

Didn't take any action because of denial/worries about drug side effects etc. and I regret at least not trying something out sooner.

I just ordered some generic finasteride so unfortunately I don't have any info for you about long term slower loss and how those may respond to minoxidil/finast but hopefully we both get some results/success.

May we both get great results!
 

Northman

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

Edited: Note that I have adjusted the green line to the area I intended to most represent where I hope to have some growth or thickening.

Ben, I'm certainly not expecting to have full dense coverage in that area without surgery. It is more an area I hope to see improvement. I'm cautiously optimistic but I am also trying to temper my expectations with reality.

The idea of a hair transplant scares me a bit as I would rather be bald than have a truly messed up head of hair. It is also a significant investment. I would have to do a lot of research to be sure I was getting just what I needed. What are the going rates these days for a FUE type procedure? Obviously that is graft dependent, but I am not even sure at this stage how many thousands of dollars I'd be looking at.
 

Northman

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

Just took my first quartered finasteride pill. I can see this pill cutting is not an exact science. We'll see how it goes.
 

WillNotLetItHappen

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

Northman said:
So, is anyone out there that is a similar age category or with similar loss that has experienced good results? I've been pouring through other write ups and success stories, but most of the ones I am seeing are for guys much younger or with much less hair loss. Please post pics or links to your story if so. Thanks!

There you go, enjoy!
http://www.bernsteinmedical.com/medical ... nt-photos/


Oh how I love posting that link :punk:
 

Northman

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

This is just a picture to better show the density I am working with for hair. This is two weeks after buzzing it down to 1/4 inch and two weeks into my treatment.

Edit: Also to note, no real side effects to speak of with the finasteride 5 days in as far as I can tell. I may have had some mild testicular ache to report, but don't know that I would have even thought to make note of it if I wasn't specifically looking for it. I've also concluded through this process of taking pictures of my head and really assessing it; that while I have a reasonable amount of hair, I have less than I thought.
 

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Northman

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

I know I'm less than three weeks into this process (and only a week on finasteride) but I am now quite certain that I am already experiencing a very small degree of regrowth which I can only attribute to the minoxidil really at this stage. I have a small number of hairs growing around and external to the hairline that have not grown for some time. These are hairs that I used to personally refer to as 'renegades' as my hair has been falling out, because they were hairs that grew isolated out from where the rest of the hairline had receded to; sort of 'Last Stand' kind of hairs.

This makes me believe that there is already similar hair growth internal to my hairline as well. It isn't anything I can really show on a camera yet, but it is something I can see and offers me some hope for cosmetic improvement going forward.
 

Northman

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

Well, it is 4 weeks since I started using 5% minoxidil and about 2.5 weeks into the finasteride. From here on out I'll just go by the start of minoxidil for my date of start. No real camera visible results yet but I have some definite signs of regrowth occurring.

The primary place I am seeing changes is around the top front and upper temple area. I have had sparse hairs start to grow out from where the hairline has been and I can also see many fine nearly invisible hairs which look like they have started to grow some. In the front view you can probably make these out above the black line. The hair has also started to feel a little thicker.

I've attached a top and front picture nonetheless. This is with about 10 days growth from a 1/4 inch cut. I'll buzz it again within the next day or so to show the same cut I started with and to get the side and crown views.

No sexual sides to report, though I did have a little heart racing from the minoxidil a few times. Nothing I was concerned with really and it hasn't been continuing.
 

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Northman

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

Ok some new and comparison pictures. I have not colored my hair at all and this is an equal length hair cut. There is nothing in my hair except the minoxidil foam I put in this morning.

As far as the change in my hair color, I'm blond normally and it lightens up a bunch in the sun, which is evident here as I've been outside a lot.

Any increased density you are really seeing at all at this stage I attribute to somewhat less harsh lighting in the newer pictures.
 

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Northman

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

Just posting to note the optimism I am experiencing. I am checking my hair in the mirror to a ridiculous extent but what I see up close is encouraging. What a good feeling it is to wake up every morning and feel like I have incrementally more hair than the previous day.
 

Northman

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Re: Northman starts tracking (38 years old)

Ok, here is an 8 week top picture for now. I'm not going to do a whole series becasue there isn't much photo visible evidence in them yet. This is probably the harshest lighting yet, and I did the 1/4" cut 4 or 5 days ago, so it is a little longer here than the first two pictures.

I continue to see improvement around the upper temple area with sparse hairs growing in and many very light hairs starting. The hair feels thicker to me and looks thicker to me in the crown. 8 weeks in, I am attributing most of the modest improvement I am seeing to the minoxidil and am hoping the finasteride will provide a kickstart soon.

It is tough to be patient.
 

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