Rate my program please.

[ladysmanfelpz]

I know people post their stories at first, but I haven't seen anyone posting their programs and receiving input from others. Here is what I am doing and I'll try to keep it short. I am 22 years old probably a Norwood 2.5-3. Started balding at about 17-18. I'm very concerned about my looks and health and with no where to turn and no other way to get drugs I jumped on kirkland 5% minoxidil when I was 20. I went through a shed and then regrew on my crown. I continued using and progressed to my entire scalp. Thing is, the minoxidil did not work that well for me and only made my hair thinner. It was as if I was in a constant shed and I noticed I had an oily scalp when I first started balding and it only added to it. I just got on propecia 3 months ago and have completely quit minoxidil and am going through a pretty bad shed right now but hoping for the best. I am seeing colorless hairs on my hairline and I am hoping it will advance and come in colored over time. My program:

.25 mg of finasteride daily. Seems plenty. I am experiencing near no side effects, just the watery semen. I take a day off every once in a while as well as take one in the morning and one at night some days as well. I just recently took 3 days off the medication to try to keep it effective.

2% keto shampoo for inflammation and if I am correct heard it eliminates some dht as well? Use every 3-4 days.

Zenagen shampoo- haven't heard much about it on the forums but it seems to have every natural product that is supposed to prevent hairloss and I like how it makes my hair feel. Will see if it gives any results here soon. Anyone know or have opinions on it? Use every 3-4 days.

Supplementing vitamin D- Heard it is the major underlying cause of hairloss and I know I am vitamin d deficient as my mom was and I have bad acne, bad hair and had shingles at 20! I just got blood tested but I must be very vitamin d deficient so I hope it makes a big difference.

Aspirin- Gonna take a baby 81 mg aspirin a day as I heard it has many benefits and recently read a prostaglandin (PG2?) has been linked to hair loss. I've heard of people trying to apply topical aspirin but why not take a baby aspirin just to suppress the prostaglandin a little bit?

Getting off minoxidil as it did not help. I see the colorless hairs on the hairline and may apply to hairline to try and bring those back if I don't see any growth on hairline within the next 3 months. I just hate how I jumped on my hairloss right away and the minoxidil did not help at all and now when I come home and see friends who had thin or receding hair have way thicker heads of hair than me. It only did more harm than good and really wish I hadn't started it.

I am very fit as I competed in college track and eat a fairly clean diet. I have pretty messed up back from track and have some pinched nerves in my back that I am working on fixing because who knows maybe this is causing some of my hairloss. Also as I mentioned that I saw a very oily scalp when I first started balding I also have oily skin. I have fairly bad acne and recently saw a derm on treatment. I go to a liberal school and I noticed these super liberal kids always have clear skin and thick hair. I really do think sebum production does have something to do with hairloss as I do always see the two go hand in hand. This is why I think the oily minoxidil did not help me but only hurt me. Thinking of getting on accutane or at least antibiotics to clear up the skin and hopefully will also see thicker hair. Thats about all I have. I'll edit if anything else comes to mind and post some pics. I am a human biology undergraduate and have become quite obsessed with my hairloss and think I have I am hitting all parameters of it with treatment. Let me know what you think of my treatment program and let me know if you think I should be doing anything else.

Thanks for reading.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh a couple other things I was going to add as I may try the non masturbation thing as well. People say its bogus, but I do think there is some science to it and either way I feel way better when not beating off as often. Hopefully it will help.

As with taking the finasteride, I have experienced no side effects so far, but do you suggest I take an estrogen inhibitor while on the medication?

 

[Quantum Cat]

0.25mg finasteride per day? why bother taking it at all? a dose that low is unlikely to inhibit enough DHT to make a difference

 

[ladysmanfelpz]

Look up the study. For both dutasteride and finasteride doses as low as 0.10 mg prove just as effective of any dose higher. They even gave people doses as high as 80 mg and it inhibited dht by the same amount, around 70%. So all you have to do is keep .10 mg in your body. So thats why I do one day with .25 mg and the next day take .25 mg in the morning and .25 mg at night.

 

[Quantum Cat]

if true then 1mg per day is way too high, considering that minimising side effects is an important issue for finasteride.

problem is I use 5mg pills and it would be impossible to cut up into 1/20ths!!

 

[Rawtashk]

A: finasteride does not have a flat response rate. I was on .5mg for 3 years, then went to 1.25 and got even MORE regrowth. I identically started quarting 1mg pills because I thought they were 5mg ones...and I started an incredible shed within a month.

B: Skipping days and taking days off is just dumb. It's not going to "keep it effective". finasteride has been shown to be effective for a decade or more. You stopping and starting isn't going to extent that at all. If anything it's putting more stress on your body because it has to readjust itself every time you stop for an extended period of time and then restart. You should be taking it every day.

 

[ladysmanfelpz]

Wouldn't the shed from the .25mg dose mean that it was working?

 

[Quantum Cat]

I agree that stopping for extended periods of time and restarting is dumb, but 1mg per day might still be unecessarily high. it was probably settled on as a convenient compromise dose by Merck - high enough to be effective for nearly everyone, but low enough to avoid side effects for most people.

My regimen is now 1mg, 5 times per week (skipping Wednesday and Sunday). That shouldn't effect DHT levels too much, but might help lessen sides

 

[ladysmanfelpz]

K so just trying to understand hairloss more, it seems like people get some great results from finasteride, but if I have aggressive balding, will it do much? I noticed my thinning since 17 and started minoxidil at 20 but it didn't work and now starting finasteride at 22. My dad was full bald before 30 and had lost a lot of his hair by undergrad. Does that mean my hair is highly affected by dht or that I have a very active 5a enzyme? Like how well will the propecia work for me?

 

[Quantum Cat]

nobody knows for sure, but you would be wise to start on it now rather than leaving it any longer

 

[ohmanohno]

Everyone's response to finasteride will be different. When I took 1.25mg daily my hair went to **** and the sides of my head thinned. I now take .25-.5mg EOD and my hair looks much better. I have been on finasteride for close to two years as well.

 

[The_Mentalist]

Just read this, though keep in mind everyone is different and only you would know what works best for you

The shed you are seeing now, after 3 months on Propecia and quitting minoxidil, might be due to loss of minoxidil treatment, or due to routine shed experienced by new finasteride users, or both. We wont know for sure because you seemed to have manipulated your treatment routine at the same time. If you really quit minoxidil 3 months ago, then do not restart (yet). Keep taking finasteride. as you are now, whatever dose and frequency you mentioned. The key is to find your best and optimal treatment with the least amount of different treatments and doses. No one knows what that is-everyone reacts differently. Thus, only you can assess the best remedy for yourself. You have reported thin baby hair in frontal and it is a good sign that finasteride might be working for you.

You need to give several months before you would know for sure what has worked for you. If finasteride works for you and satisfactorily, then it is easier to pop a pill than to use minoxidil twice a day. That is why it is better to use one treatment at a time.

If you have oil hair, then Keto will help a lot. Keto is very drying: see if you will need to use any conditioner afterwards because you wouldn't like your brittle straw hair much. I would use Keto 2% rather than 1%.

It has been recently confirmed that Vitamin D seems to protect the hair sheath/root from effects of dht-the main culprit. Thus, vitamin D is essential for healthy hair. BUT, it has been established that it is not the deficiency of vit. D itself that is a factor in balding, but its receptors in hair roots that are deficient. There is a release of certain chemical that decreases or diminishes the vit. D receptors. Thus, you may have excess vit D floating around but useless for hair if there is nothing to bind to. Loading heavily with vit. D will not help unless you have vit. D deficiency (and normal receptors for it). Most people do not have vit. D deficiency.

What I have understood from reading, Aspirin does increase PG (Prostaglandins). But, PG is the mother of two sub-PGs that control hair growth cycle, well known as PGD2-off-switch to hair growth, and PGE2-the on-switch. Thus, theoretically the net result of Aspirin would be null, nada. There have been reports that Aspirin actually resulted in loss of hair due to increase production of pgd2, the off switch.

The above I presented is just to give you general idea and you decide what you think might work for you, as I 'm no certified expert. Let me know if I missed something or misunderstood.

 

[ladysmanfelpz]

Ya right after starting the finasteride I stayed on the minoxidil for just about 2 weeks and then decided to quit. I noticed the hairs I shed were thick and my hair is definitely thinner, but I don't really see any fall at all. So does minoxidil just thicken up your hair or does it add hair count? Seeing as I look thinner but shed much less I interpret it as it thickens the hair. Would it be beneficial to use like 2% minoxidil once every other night or every night and see results, or is it an all or nothing type drug? I would have no problem using it to boost volume, but staying on top of the twice a day thing and going in and out of sheds was too much for me to handle and it didn't give me good looking hair.


This was me about 6 months in of 5% minoxidil twice a day for about 6 months and I was NOT in a shed when I had been an infrequent user for over a year.

 

[ladysmanfelpz]

I know I am not that far into my treatment on finasteride, but I am still considering getting on dutasteride as I hear great things about it and it really gets the hair regrowth people are after, and since I am responding great to finasteride i don't see why not. My question about it is what would be the proper dosage? I know this is still a highly debated subject, but since 0.1 mg is more effective than 5mg finasteride and the half life is a crazy 6 weeks, wouldn't only a .1 mg dosage once a week be good enough? I hear people talk about a loading stage but that seems retarded with dutasteride with such a long half life. I think either a dosage of .25mg or higher once a week or .1 mg twice a week would be perfect. Cuz as long as you keep .1mg of dutasteride in your system you are inhibiting 90% of dht in your system correct? Or do drugs lose efficacy after the initial introduction to the system even if you keep the levels above the effective amount since they are still slowly decreasing and being metabolized by the body?