Please diagnose me and give me some advice (Pics included)

foeplay · Sep 16, 2005

First off, Thanks for all the posts on this board!

Here is a link to my hair pictures
http://briefcase.yahoo.com/re4play (if link is broken, scroll down to direct links on a post reply)

I am 29 and just realized I was going bald in the past 3 months. I didnt have any balding in my family so I never thought something like this would sneak up on me. My hair seems to have thinned majorly at the top and frontal area. Does this look like male pattern baldness?

I started with generic minoxidil on 7/21/05. I found a friend to prescribe me Propecia and started on 8/24/05. Then I learned about Nizoral from this board and started on 8/29/05, 2-3 times per week. I havent experienced any sides, so hopefully that doesnt mean its not working.

As far as hair loss, i look at my hands after shampooing and I have 10-15 hairs total. Dont know how long this has been going on since I was ignorant about the hair loss. Now that I started paying more attention, I've noticed when i tug on my hair the hairloss comes from the areas I dump the most minoxidil. Not sure if this is what is meant by shedding or just regular diffuse hair loss. Am I on the right regimen or what do you guys suggest? Should I elimate or add anything?

I've noticed black velum hairs coming out on my hairline and seem the be growing, not sure what those mean or if its any of the regimen. I want them to grow some on my scalp to reduce the white scalp showing through. In lower light areas you cant really tell, but I am afraid of the sun and direct light. I am a prime candidate for T.E., but that is probably just wishful thinking. I have a dermatologist appointment next friday as well to clear things up.

I am hanging out with a cute 22 year old this weekend that just became single and I havent seen her in a month and a half. I am so scared cus I feel way different now that I know I am going bald and think she will reject me. :cry:

I appreciate all the advice, and thanks for reading!

noorur · Sep 16, 2005

thats definetely male pattern baldness in my opinion.

87david · Sep 16, 2005

First off, I think your hair looks very good--looks normal to me. However, I can see a slight thinning at the very top of your head. Whether this is male pattern baldness or not, I can't say. But I don't think you can predict such a thing based on your parents. One thing is for sure, however, I wouldn't push the panic button just yet. I think the minoxidil and nizoral are fine for you at this point; just see how they work and go from there. In addition, don't be so vain about your hair; there is absolutely no reason to feel different about yourself for something so trivial right now. I know the initial signs of hairloss can be a little traumatic, but just try the treatments, see if you respond in the weeks ahead, and just get on with life. But if you really do have male pattern baldness, I think your off to an excellent start.

jimbojones001 · Sep 16, 2005

i cant see the pictures

foeplay · Sep 16, 2005

87david · Sep 16, 2005

Oh, I guess I didn't see your last pic. What happened? I know that your hair is wet, but you look quite a bit thinner in that one.

Idaho X · Sep 16, 2005

Looks like male pattern baldness to me too. Your regimen should help though.

foeplay · Sep 16, 2005

87david said:
Oh, I guess I didn't see your last pic. What happened? I know that your hair is wet, but you look quite a bit thinner in that one.

Thats cus my hair is thin, so water makes it 100x worse

87david · Sep 16, 2005

Foeplay, I compiled a partial list of natural hairloss treatments that I found searching through some of the boards and have decided to try. I canâ€™t give you any personal testimonials yet, but I can at least point you in some direction. And others will undoubtedly voice their recommendations. Of course, you can try Propecia to round out the â€œbig 3â€ in your hair regime. However, what I will say is to make sure that youâ€™re getting adequate nutrition. For example, at one point I tried to become a vegetarian, and it really messed up my hair bigtimeâ€”not enough protein. In addition, search through Google groups. There are lots of archived posts that you can quickly weed through for useful information.

I know that this seems obvious, but you first have to stop losing your hair before you can grow some back. You might be losing your hair because of other factors besides male pattern baldness. Does your scalp itch a lot? If it does, maybe you have some kind of scalp condition. Could you be allergic to something? In these cases, no hair treatment for male pattern baldness will probably work. If nothing comes to mind, well...you have to come to grips that you do indeed have male pattern baldness and search and search for something that might work. Also, examine the hair that comes out. Is the diameter noticeably thinner or lighter in color, or both? Is there a build up of grease (or whatever you call it) on the hair bulbâ€”for me, I sometimes see hardened oil amassed at the root of the hair that falls out.

In addition to you current regime, look into: (some can be used topically)

Biotinhttp://www.bodybuilding.com/store/biotin.html
MSM http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/msm.html
Omega-3 (anti inflammatory) http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/efa.html
L-arginine http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/arginine.html

Also, I just recently started to take Country Life's "maxi-hair" for some extra insurance. http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/country/hair.html

foeplay · Sep 16, 2005

Hey David, thanks for the reply. I am pretty bad with nutrition etc. For Example, I've ate one meal today...and now I am going to drink at the bar. About 6 months ago I decided I wanted to lose weight. I began to run excessively, and went on a 1000 calorie diet, often about 800 calories a day. I managed to lose about 50 lbs in like 4 months. I started off at 220lbs, i now weigh 170 as of 10 minutes ago. I run about 5 miles daily as well. I dont take protein, nothing, just multi-vitamin. As of late, is when I started to realize that my hair was gone and was thinking maybe it was due to that. However, I noticed hair falling off about like 3 years ago, when I had a mental breakdown due to anxiety. I lied in bed for week, thinking I was going to die...I even woke up one night and stood up and I thought I was dead. I went to therapy, got put on paxil for a week, that made me feel worse, then I snapped out of it. I got hairloss in the shower for a couple weeks, but then it went away until the last 6 months.

I've always had poor nutrious habits though. This was mostly due to poor self esteem, mixed with severe anxiety. I've had general anxiety for about 8 years, for a couple of years I would puke my food right after I ate it, if I wasnt around a bathroom, which meant a "safe spot" if in case I got nausea. So I built this lifestlye that i would avoid food for hours to avoid social situations I might puke in. I would literally sometimes not eat until my day was over and I was safe at home. I even would self induce vomit to prepare for situations if something came up that I wasnt prepared for. I have now learned to control that somewhat, but some habits still remain.

Any more questions?

tenshi · Sep 17, 2005

I appreciate your honesty. I have not heard of anything like this. You made the right decision by getting on the big thrice

87david · Sep 17, 2005

Yeah foeplay, I think we definitely touched on something here. Unfortunately, none of us can diagnosis for sure on something like this, so your best bet is to first see a doctor before starting on your hairloss treatments. I read that you got a prescription for Propecia, but did you get checked out for malnutrition? But good lord, 800 calories a day : ) I empathize with you concerning your anxiety, but I have no idea if it could cause hairloss. If you're vomiting up your food chronically because of anxiety, I can imagine that this could indeed manifest itself as hairloss.But glad to hear you're better on your anxiety; I suffer from some social anxiety myself sometimes.

Oh, one more thing, I also take the amino acid glutamine and 1000mg of vitamin C. I started Glutamine because of bodybuilding and found that it really helped with my hairloss. And I'm not just imagining things because I got off this stuff several times because of laziness and my hairloss subsequently increased. You can also get Glutamine and other amino acids from protein supplements. I use Prolab's "100% Pure Whey." (click the nutrition label for contents)
http://www.affordablesupplements.com/100purewhey.asp

But I feel bad for listing so many things for you to look into and possibly buy--you probably think I'm a salesman : ) Sorry 'bout that. I got onto these other supplements because of bodybuilding. I won't say that these things will conclusively help your hairloss, but I will say without hesitation that if you're not eating very well, you need to get more protein. Either eat more, or take a supplement. I like Probab brand the best; I get it from the link listed above because their located in the same state as I'm in and I get it quickly and cheaply. The cheapest I seen it for is $26.95 on some other website so look into that if you want to save some money.

Good luck on our hairloss journey. This is one journey no one wants to take : )

pleasegodno · Sep 18, 2005

i have diffuse loss like yours and have experienced extreme anxiety for the past year. i guarantee that it has contributed to your diffuseness. your diet habits have very likely made things worse as well. my diet is sh*t too (too much fast food). stick with your regimen (5 months on finasteride here) and work on your anxiety and diet problems. if your anxiety is out of your control, consider getting on an anxiolytic (e.g. a benzodiazepine) rather than an antidepressant. if you do get on a benzo, increase/decrease dosages only very gradually as tolerance is a serious issue with these drugs. talk to your doctor about it.

also, do you experience scalp pain and/or itchiness?

foeplay · Sep 18, 2005

I am actually going to see a therapist again next week. I actually want to know if it's too late for the regimen to help me improve. Will the finasteride hault hair loss sooner or later? It just doesnt seem like the finasteride will work before I become completely bald.

WithTheLidOff · Sep 18, 2005

just my 2 cents: 1) Looking at your pictures, i wouldnt't conclude that you for sure, for sure, for sure have male pattern baldness. 2) It isn't beyond the realm of possibility that a drastic change in diet and very rapid weight loss could contribute to a temporary hair loss. 3) Anxiety probably isnt making you lose your hair, but it certainly isnt helping. 4) as awesome as this site is, the net is no place to be diagnosed with a medical condition, although it's a great place for advice.

Here's mine...don't start on such strong medication until you're 1 million percent positive that you've got male pattern baldness. I feel that catching the problem properly is more important than catching it early. In the meantime, youre hair doesn't look bad at all IMHO. Best of luck!

Please diagnose me and give me some advice (Pics included)

foeplay

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noorur

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87david

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jimbojones001

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foeplay

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87david

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Idaho X

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foeplay

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87david

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foeplay

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tenshi

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87david

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pleasegodno

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foeplay

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WithTheLidOff

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