Disclaimer: Please do not lecture me on my current regimen. I have done 20+ hours of research of the current drugs and know the possible short-term and long-term side effects. I do not plan to stay on the harsher drugs (e.g oral spironolactone) forever as I do love lifting, and can hopefully maintain some of my gains with consistent dosing of dutasteride and possibly topical RU. I posted this for to educate others and to break the tread of individuals who stop posting updates once they begin to see regrowth (drives me NUTS!!)
So my story. Currently I'm 24 years old and have battling hairless since 21 or so. When I was younger I had the thickest hair. Every barber I went to up until I was 20 said my hair was insanely thick and had trouble cutting it. I attributed to my mother's genes as both her and her mother have extremely thick hair. Unfortunately, right before my 21st birthday I decided to dabble with Prohormones (basically more dangerous, legal at the time, oral steroids). I was on them for approximately three months but the whole time the only thing i was worried about was my hair loss. Starting the prohormones kicked my forever battle of hair loss into high gear and I have never been able to get back to baseline after that. After receding at the temples DRASTICALLY I gave up prohormones forever as they were not worth the risk for me. (Not just in-terms of hair, in many ways) I have tried finasteride along with dutasteride since then with slow but good results. The results were so good that after almost so good two years later I began to slack off on my treatment (finasteride and dutasteride). During the most recent summer, (2015) I went from having the best hair I've had in years, to the worst in my life. Though I was slacking off, looking back I made 60 Dutasteride tabs last about 110 days. At first I couldn't believe that skipped that much, but then it also made realise that my hair was just not weak to high affinity androgens, that my hair is extremely sensitive to DHT as well.
So after losing more hair than I ever did previously from my natural androgen levels, I believe I will never gain hair back from Dutasteride or any less extreme regimen that something that of spironolactone. Initially I completely throughout spironolactone for hair loss as it scared me too much lowering T. Rebounding my test levels from oral prohormones was awful and men are not supposed to have low T and DHT. After doing a ton of research, and reading encouraging success stories such as this one
http://www.hairlosstalk.com/interac...-16-NW3-at-19-Now-22-with-Norwood-0-5-1/page2 knowing Sides such as gyno ED and not easy are not that common to take place in my body. After thinking about it for weeks I took the plunge and told myself it started to affect me to much physically or mentally I would stop
Age 20 No Hair loss
http://imgur.com/8R6ZRSl
To the pictures!! Initially after I started prohormones, slightly maturing already (Age 21, mid 2013)
http://imgur.com/6dB3K5X
http://imgur.com/ZouV2Ow
3 Months after I started prohormones around and when I stop as well. Absolutely Devastated
http://imgur.com/mRu1e2f
http://imgur.com/KMBDMKl
1 Year later (Mid 2014) (1 year of dutasteride/minoxidil/finasteride
http://imgur.com/miStjzu
Alternatively, here is a picture taken 3 days later with a different light angle that looks awful
http://imgur.com/11tuXF5
6 Months later, 1.5 years of dutasteride/finasteride/minoxidil (Winter of 2014/2015) Hair mucher thicker and was able to style it well to hide the little recession I had. Hair was also thick around the temples where there was prior thinning, though still had slight recession)
http://imgur.com/Q8Qw8rP
http://imgur.com/rtpLr0g
Shaved at the beginning of summer (did not take picture for hair purposes lol) Close to two year of dutasteride/finasteride/topical minoxidil. Still
http://imgur.com/Zz5bm8J
Hardly took any pictures this summer as my hair was so good I wasn't worrying about it much. I kept it at a medium length, (guard 5/6) and didn't have to style it at all to hide recession because there was so little.
Fast forward towards the end of summer and I started losing hair rapidly. (Early August 2015)
http://imgur.com/OF0GWAy
http://imgur.com/lymcHr5
http://imgur.com/RlPNJor
http://imgur.com/QhQN7ce
Few Weeks later (Mid August 2015) Hair was worst ever and felt terrible. I couldn't believe what skipping dosages of dutasteride and finasteride had caused so quick
Few Weeks after I started spironolactone 200mg/Oral minoxidil 10mg/ Dutasteride .05 - all daily
http://imgur.com/vunJeko
http://imgur.com/MSRo490
( Early september 2015)
http://imgur.com/u6M88x1
Early Early October 2015 - 1.5 months on spironolactone/oral minoxidil/dutasteride. Long peach fuzz/slightly dark hair is beginning to appear in temples. It looks like they cover my entire area that I have receded even from when I initially started loosing hair in 2013...
http://imgur.com/zTaLwm8 - Entire Head overview
http://imgur.com/Wgu6kCK - Right Temple
http://imgur.com/EMq29JU - Left Temple
November 8th, 2015. 2.5 months of oral of current regimen. I have thick peach fuzz/wispy terminal hairs I have not since since losing my hair originally. Things are extremely promising.
http://imgur.com/AK1xIeO - Entire head
http://imgur.com/I7LUCDc - Right Temple
http://imgur.com/MiHUGY0 - Left Temple
Page 2 update (Dec 4th, 2015, 3 1/4 on regimen) - Note much change from 2.5 months in sadly. Many of the new vellus hairs popped up so quickly I had gotten excited but these areas were bald for multiple years so progress of the miniaturized hairs/long vellus have been SLOWLY improving. Sides so far are still only lowered libido.
Overview of head:
http://imgur.com/pCgBOcH
Right temple (side with most vellus/ministrized hairs):
http://imgur.com/a/kZAGN
Left Side( very close to full recovery)
http://imgur.com/HGbamA0
As of now, this is this is the most and quickest regrowth I have ever seen in bald areas that have been present since 2013. Thickness is getting much better in areas that were thin at the temples but are still not yet as good as dutasteride had helped after two years. I can absolutely say that their are tons of wispy thick peach fuzz hairs that cover my entire temple regions that I have not seen since 2013. I can't believe how good my hairline once was looking at the outline of what looks like terminal hairs eventually.
As for the downfalls/side effects. Lower libio is really about it. I can get it up just as easily and in terms of gyno, I actually had a small pea sized gyno deposit under one of my nipples and has actually disappeared. I am keeping an eye and have timox and an AI on hand but everything is okay as of now. I am also a avid weight lifter and considered decently big for a natural 24 year old so I am keeping an eye on weight/muscle loss along with strength but as of yet I have yet to notice anything. Below is a SHIRTLESS picture of me if you would like to see the baseline of my upper torso. This was from this past summer.
Shirtless Pic from this summer
http://imgur.com/psKWks8
Current Regimen:
200mg Oral spironolactone
10mg Oral minoxidil
Topical minoxidil along with microneedle with A-Ret 0.1% (for hopefully better absorption)
