Howdy,
I am new to the site and am way, wya, way behind you guys in terms of knowledge of the balding treatments but here is my story anyway. SOmethign tells me it will sound all too familiar.
I am 36 (look 28 thank god) and noticed my hair was thinning at 22. I noticed because I wore my hair "off my face" like this: http://i.listal.com/image/1705414/500full.jpg and when I sweated, like in the gym, the sweat would act like a hair gel and hold it perfecty in place. Then one day, at aged 22, I had this strange sensation - my hair was soaked with sweat yet it was limp and hanging over my eyes and no amount of brushing it up would stop it falling down. Basically the density was shrinking and there wasn't enough to resist gravity anymore.
As you'd expect, I became insanely depressed and paranoid and from then on (and to this day) check out the hairline of every man I see. It was too subtle for anyone else to notice and so my mum thought I was exaggerating. Looking back at pics at 25, 27 & 30 (where I still looked half decent) I now wish I made the most of my hair instead of panicking like mad like I did.
I can't tell which norwood I am as I could be one of a a number. Suffice it to say my hair has receded backwards and at the same time my fringe got narrower. My full hairline is now halfway back and I have the last remnants of a frontal bit So I could be Norwood 2A, 3, 3A, or 4A though looking at my older bro, I think I'll end up eventually as a Norwood 5A and look like your typical history teacher.
In todays' age of the bald/shaved man, and the rise of stars like Statham and Diesel I should be fine, right? Wrong. I've always styled my hair, always prided myself on my hair and, not to blow my own trumpet, I've always been good looking. In the late 90s, many people commented how I looked like Val Kilmer, I even had a signed pic of him with a near identical hair style to me (except for his insanely long fringe down the right side of his face): http://amandavee.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/val_kilmer.jpg and friends/family would ask why I had a picture of myself.
What am I getting at? What I am getting at is this: my hair was intrinsic to me. My identity. My mate started balding too - but he's always had it uber short. and he was never classed as "a heartbreaker". I was the pretty boy, the good looking blonde haired & blue eyed boy, the Val Kilmer lookalike. And even though I'm just 5' 8" I was alwasy very confident because of my looks. That may sound shallow or not politically correct but it's true
But now I'm just a short, bald guy. And I'm only gonna get older and wrinklier. I've let myself go and have pile don the weight - eerily mimicking Val Kilmer yet again.
Overkill? Doom & gloom? Perhaps. But it's how I see myself.
To many, especially unsympathetic women, I am being overly sensitive and told that baldness in men is natural and that Sean Connery is still sexy etc. Yet you try and tell them women that cullulite is natural and they say you don't understand. well likewise with me. They don't understand. My mate is balding and he doesn't care but for me it's the end of the world. And if I do nothing then I will have to shear it off completely and I hate that look. It's alien. The very person I have been for 30 years will be no more.
I am kicking myself because in about 2000, when my hair loss wasn't too noticeable, I discovered Propecia (hadn't been licenced over here yet) and bought some from the internet but never kept it up and here I am, 10 years on fighting to keep the last few strands of my frontal section! I also had a transplant consultation about 5 years ago but put it off at the time due to concerns about furtehr balding and then, as you know, life gets in the way and the next time you pause to reconsider, half a decade has past and so has half your hairline.
Despite illustrating how much my hair means to me, if a quality transplant (like James Nesbitt) is out of reach then I will suffer the shaved head route. Some of the posts here show some guys taking an entire pharmacy of products and I don't have the patience, nor the disposable income, to maintain such a regime.
Anyway, hope to enjoy my time at this forum and thanks for reading.
I am new to the site and am way, wya, way behind you guys in terms of knowledge of the balding treatments but here is my story anyway. SOmethign tells me it will sound all too familiar.
I am 36 (look 28 thank god) and noticed my hair was thinning at 22. I noticed because I wore my hair "off my face" like this: http://i.listal.com/image/1705414/500full.jpg and when I sweated, like in the gym, the sweat would act like a hair gel and hold it perfecty in place. Then one day, at aged 22, I had this strange sensation - my hair was soaked with sweat yet it was limp and hanging over my eyes and no amount of brushing it up would stop it falling down. Basically the density was shrinking and there wasn't enough to resist gravity anymore.
As you'd expect, I became insanely depressed and paranoid and from then on (and to this day) check out the hairline of every man I see. It was too subtle for anyone else to notice and so my mum thought I was exaggerating. Looking back at pics at 25, 27 & 30 (where I still looked half decent) I now wish I made the most of my hair instead of panicking like mad like I did.
I can't tell which norwood I am as I could be one of a a number. Suffice it to say my hair has receded backwards and at the same time my fringe got narrower. My full hairline is now halfway back and I have the last remnants of a frontal bit So I could be Norwood 2A, 3, 3A, or 4A though looking at my older bro, I think I'll end up eventually as a Norwood 5A and look like your typical history teacher.
In todays' age of the bald/shaved man, and the rise of stars like Statham and Diesel I should be fine, right? Wrong. I've always styled my hair, always prided myself on my hair and, not to blow my own trumpet, I've always been good looking. In the late 90s, many people commented how I looked like Val Kilmer, I even had a signed pic of him with a near identical hair style to me (except for his insanely long fringe down the right side of his face): http://amandavee.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/val_kilmer.jpg and friends/family would ask why I had a picture of myself.
What am I getting at? What I am getting at is this: my hair was intrinsic to me. My identity. My mate started balding too - but he's always had it uber short. and he was never classed as "a heartbreaker". I was the pretty boy, the good looking blonde haired & blue eyed boy, the Val Kilmer lookalike. And even though I'm just 5' 8" I was alwasy very confident because of my looks. That may sound shallow or not politically correct but it's true
But now I'm just a short, bald guy. And I'm only gonna get older and wrinklier. I've let myself go and have pile don the weight - eerily mimicking Val Kilmer yet again.
Overkill? Doom & gloom? Perhaps. But it's how I see myself.
To many, especially unsympathetic women, I am being overly sensitive and told that baldness in men is natural and that Sean Connery is still sexy etc. Yet you try and tell them women that cullulite is natural and they say you don't understand. well likewise with me. They don't understand. My mate is balding and he doesn't care but for me it's the end of the world. And if I do nothing then I will have to shear it off completely and I hate that look. It's alien. The very person I have been for 30 years will be no more.
I am kicking myself because in about 2000, when my hair loss wasn't too noticeable, I discovered Propecia (hadn't been licenced over here yet) and bought some from the internet but never kept it up and here I am, 10 years on fighting to keep the last few strands of my frontal section! I also had a transplant consultation about 5 years ago but put it off at the time due to concerns about furtehr balding and then, as you know, life gets in the way and the next time you pause to reconsider, half a decade has past and so has half your hairline.
Despite illustrating how much my hair means to me, if a quality transplant (like James Nesbitt) is out of reach then I will suffer the shaved head route. Some of the posts here show some guys taking an entire pharmacy of products and I don't have the patience, nor the disposable income, to maintain such a regime.
Anyway, hope to enjoy my time at this forum and thanks for reading.