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Ever since I was young I had gorgeous ginger wavy hair which always made me stand out(Especially since I'm Egyptian) I'm not sure exactly when I started losing hair but I speculate it started pretty early (at around 15 years old) I noticed when I rubbed my hair I'd keep dropping hairs with some form of dandruff ( later turned out to be subherroic dermatitis) , didn't pay much attention to it until I entered first year in high school , I was about 16 at that age and while moving my finger around my hairline I noticed I can touch skin right next to midline of my hairline more towards the left temple , I was super shocked since I could feel the difference of temperature between the skin of my scalp and my finger. as soon as I went home I started examining infront of a mirror and there it was; a gap in my hairline. I remember rushing to the barber's and getting a buzz cut almost immediately while looking to start treating it. I went through a fair share of speculations to why this was happening, I knew at some point my genetics would kick in because my dad is bald and my entire mom's family side has males with shiniest heads you can think of, but not as early as 15 or 16 years old , so I thought it might be because of (stress, dandruff , malnutrition etc) so I tried some generic oils and home remedies and they of course did nothing.
I started pressuring my parents to send me to a specialist but they brushed it off as me being delusional , when we finally settled on going to one he'd barely inspect my hair at all and brush it off like it was nothing ( I made the mistake of not taking pictures or showing him the density difference under direct light or so) First thing i was prescribed was Nixodil (supposedly a hair tonic) twice a day, used it for about 6 months .barely maintained but didn't seem to grow any hair yet it seemed to reduce the shedding though, but for a 16 year old that wasn't enough and I wasn't well educated about hairloss or male pattern baldness in general (plus I thought my hairloss wasn't genetic and the "specialist" coudn't diagnose any thing nor did they seem to care) so when I insisted i wasn't regrowing any hair I was prescribed Minoxidil 2%, used it for a while then it started to cause massive shedding after like 2 months of use or something ( which makes no sense to me today lol) so on witnessing that sight I immediately ditched it and went back to Nixodil to help stop the shedding. (Note that my specialist at the time didn't explain minoxidil's mechanism nor did he mention any shedding to be expected all were promises that it's all gonna be okay and stuff like that).
I don't recall how long I jerked around with Nixodil with no proper medication or treatment or for how long I ignored the issue all together and stopped looking in mirror's and counting hairs on the pillow and all that (I'd say around 6-8 months) until I noticed my other template started receding and decided to get help from another specialist which someone who found results actually recommended to me. At first when I called her she expected to see a norwood 4-5 17/18 year old (from what I described on the phone at least cuz that's the only way they feel alarmed, examine you properly or take you seriously, if your hair is grown out and maskable it's not an issue in their eyes) .
As soon as she saw my hair looked somewhat decent and normal. she was like "It's no where near as bad as you described". She barely did any examination, described two generic hair tonics and sent me home, again not addressing the main issue of male pattern baldness, not asking about my genetic history or anything, just a bunch of stress and malnutrition to take care of with these tonics and you'll be good to go, I was at my final year of high school so studying occupied most of my time so I just followed the prescription and shaved my head off to prevent distractions, after my hair grew out a bit I made sure it was short enough for the hairloss to be visible went back to her, finally got taken seriously and was prescribed Minoxidil 5% and Nizoral shampoo(as I had inflammation on my skin due to subherroic dermatitis as previously mentioned) for the first time near the end of my senior high school year.
Upon using minoxidil for about 4 months I felt the results were really nice (even though I still didn't take any pics) which is the biggest mistake I've ever done but I was again back to being super paranoid about my hair so when results kicked in for the first time I noticed and going into college with improved hair was amazing.
Didn't last long at all however, after exactly one month into college noticed shedding again and hair was considerably thinner ( didn't take pics so it still could be my imagination but since i was super paranoid I monitored every hair I lose or gained and the texture and density of my hair daily almost religiously ) but I still went on with the treatment for my entire first year because I was actually educated on how minoxidil works this time for once, I speculate my loss may be due to stopping using minoxidil for about a week straight, then only managing to use it once a day for the 5 days a week in which I had to go to college in. add in factors like stress and probably malnutrition since I've always been skinny and never ate except when I had to. gradually my doses became very messy, I sometimes used it once sometimes twice and so on, I had read somewhere online that since the half life of the drug is 22 hours it's safe to take it once a day so I just went with it.
MY HAIR UP UNTIL THIS POINT WAS EASY TO MASK AND UNDER MOST CIRCUMSTANCES LOOKED FAIRLY NORMAL, IT WAS HARD TO NOTICE ANY BALDING UNLESS YOU EXAMINED CAREFULLY, MY HAIR WAS WET, OR DIRECT LIGHT WAS SHED ONTO MY SCALP.
My biggest fatal mistake came after my first year in college , when I suddenly decided minoxidil wasn't effective and stopped using it without any alternative treatment, I also partially wanted to test if I actually had male pattern baldness or not "I'm retarded I know". This is also partially due to my specialists who all seemed to be potatoes so I thought maybe it was a false diagnosis to begin with. you could expect what happened next. Massive shedding , severe hairloss and I grew my hair out so long to mask it, didn't wash my hair at all in fear of it all going down the drain. bet when I finally had to wash it all my masking went away and it all got exposed. everyone noticed how bad it had deteriorated for the first time in my life a lot of ppl started calling me out for balding and losing my hair.
so after I finished my first semester I buzzed my hair and was shocked to see I had the classic old man look where the sides are much more dense than than middle, it was diffused norwood 7 looking hair (pics included) so I changed my doctor for the third and final time and decided this time I wont say a thing and let them examine and talk to me about male pattern baldness and if they provided sufficient and proper information i'd listen, otherwise I'll go to another one, luckily I finally found one that did proper diagnoses and talked about the only 2 FDA approved medications, DHT, A5 and all that so I decided to go with her prescription. minoxidil 5% 2x a day , fanastride 1 mg once a day , and nizoral shampoo once a week.
I managed to get minoxidil and Nizoral from pharmacies, but couldn't find Propecia( turns out here in Egypt it's under another brand name) Also I was SUPER scared of sides, I've never been the most sexually rigid guy and I'm still not confident when it comes to fanastride. going with the prescription I experienced a shedding phase again but after 4 months or so I was regaining ground and my hair looked much better, one of my friends who lived with me and noticed my hairloss after stopping minoxdil thought I got a transplant when he saw my hair just 4 months after ( remember I also have maskable hair).
But of course after about 1 month back into college with malnutrition, and stress( but no fluctuating doses this time) density started going down hair started looking bad again and ever since the anterior 1/3 of my scalp got hit pretty hard , posterier 2/3 is nice but it seems i'm starting to lose density there as well.
So about 1.5 months ago I've decided to add derma rolling with 1.5mm needles twice a week to the regimen and I've noticed increase in the amount of baby hairs in my scalps and around my hairline but none of them seem to be going terminal and they're not aesthetically noticeable yet, is there something I can do to make them go terminal? or should I just keep going and they'll eventually go terminal on their own?
FINALLY THESE RECENT TWO MONTHS OR SO I LOST A MAJOR PORTION OF MY TEMPLATES
MY ANTERIOR 1/3 DENSITY IS WRECKED AND MASKABILITY IS AT AN ALL TIME LOW.
I'm sorry the post was so long I've never had the courage to dig into the details and write this all down and share my thoughts with a lot of ppl but I find a lot of ppl are welcoming and can give proper advice and help here. so if you made this far thank you very much
Points to clear up:
1) all I ask for is some regrowth in anterior 1/3 of scalp for me to be able to mask it again (don't care about restoring my hairline)
2) Minoxidil increased hair all over my body and grew me a beard upon using so I believe I'm a good responder to growth stimulants
3) if all fails I wanna stabilize and maintain my hair as it is or at least somehow reduce the speed of the loss process
4)I'm scared of the sides of propecia(fanastride) I'd rather someone recommend a topical yet effective DHT blocker
5)I almost never wash my hair (maybe once a month) upon washing it I lose all maskiblity until it completely dries which takes multiple days plus It seems my hairline and density gets worse this time with pics after showering. therefor Nizoral is barely ever used.
I'll supply this with every pic I possibly have with the time stamps on each one, I'd appreciate any advice in regards to regimen or what to do in general. and again sorry for the long post and thanks in advance. <3
I started pressuring my parents to send me to a specialist but they brushed it off as me being delusional , when we finally settled on going to one he'd barely inspect my hair at all and brush it off like it was nothing ( I made the mistake of not taking pictures or showing him the density difference under direct light or so) First thing i was prescribed was Nixodil (supposedly a hair tonic) twice a day, used it for about 6 months .barely maintained but didn't seem to grow any hair yet it seemed to reduce the shedding though, but for a 16 year old that wasn't enough and I wasn't well educated about hairloss or male pattern baldness in general (plus I thought my hairloss wasn't genetic and the "specialist" coudn't diagnose any thing nor did they seem to care) so when I insisted i wasn't regrowing any hair I was prescribed Minoxidil 2%, used it for a while then it started to cause massive shedding after like 2 months of use or something ( which makes no sense to me today lol) so on witnessing that sight I immediately ditched it and went back to Nixodil to help stop the shedding. (Note that my specialist at the time didn't explain minoxidil's mechanism nor did he mention any shedding to be expected all were promises that it's all gonna be okay and stuff like that).
I don't recall how long I jerked around with Nixodil with no proper medication or treatment or for how long I ignored the issue all together and stopped looking in mirror's and counting hairs on the pillow and all that (I'd say around 6-8 months) until I noticed my other template started receding and decided to get help from another specialist which someone who found results actually recommended to me. At first when I called her she expected to see a norwood 4-5 17/18 year old (from what I described on the phone at least cuz that's the only way they feel alarmed, examine you properly or take you seriously, if your hair is grown out and maskable it's not an issue in their eyes) .
As soon as she saw my hair looked somewhat decent and normal. she was like "It's no where near as bad as you described". She barely did any examination, described two generic hair tonics and sent me home, again not addressing the main issue of male pattern baldness, not asking about my genetic history or anything, just a bunch of stress and malnutrition to take care of with these tonics and you'll be good to go, I was at my final year of high school so studying occupied most of my time so I just followed the prescription and shaved my head off to prevent distractions, after my hair grew out a bit I made sure it was short enough for the hairloss to be visible went back to her, finally got taken seriously and was prescribed Minoxidil 5% and Nizoral shampoo(as I had inflammation on my skin due to subherroic dermatitis as previously mentioned) for the first time near the end of my senior high school year.
Upon using minoxidil for about 4 months I felt the results were really nice (even though I still didn't take any pics) which is the biggest mistake I've ever done but I was again back to being super paranoid about my hair so when results kicked in for the first time I noticed and going into college with improved hair was amazing.
Didn't last long at all however, after exactly one month into college noticed shedding again and hair was considerably thinner ( didn't take pics so it still could be my imagination but since i was super paranoid I monitored every hair I lose or gained and the texture and density of my hair daily almost religiously ) but I still went on with the treatment for my entire first year because I was actually educated on how minoxidil works this time for once, I speculate my loss may be due to stopping using minoxidil for about a week straight, then only managing to use it once a day for the 5 days a week in which I had to go to college in. add in factors like stress and probably malnutrition since I've always been skinny and never ate except when I had to. gradually my doses became very messy, I sometimes used it once sometimes twice and so on, I had read somewhere online that since the half life of the drug is 22 hours it's safe to take it once a day so I just went with it.
MY HAIR UP UNTIL THIS POINT WAS EASY TO MASK AND UNDER MOST CIRCUMSTANCES LOOKED FAIRLY NORMAL, IT WAS HARD TO NOTICE ANY BALDING UNLESS YOU EXAMINED CAREFULLY, MY HAIR WAS WET, OR DIRECT LIGHT WAS SHED ONTO MY SCALP.
My biggest fatal mistake came after my first year in college , when I suddenly decided minoxidil wasn't effective and stopped using it without any alternative treatment, I also partially wanted to test if I actually had male pattern baldness or not "I'm retarded I know". This is also partially due to my specialists who all seemed to be potatoes so I thought maybe it was a false diagnosis to begin with. you could expect what happened next. Massive shedding , severe hairloss and I grew my hair out so long to mask it, didn't wash my hair at all in fear of it all going down the drain. bet when I finally had to wash it all my masking went away and it all got exposed. everyone noticed how bad it had deteriorated for the first time in my life a lot of ppl started calling me out for balding and losing my hair.
so after I finished my first semester I buzzed my hair and was shocked to see I had the classic old man look where the sides are much more dense than than middle, it was diffused norwood 7 looking hair (pics included) so I changed my doctor for the third and final time and decided this time I wont say a thing and let them examine and talk to me about male pattern baldness and if they provided sufficient and proper information i'd listen, otherwise I'll go to another one, luckily I finally found one that did proper diagnoses and talked about the only 2 FDA approved medications, DHT, A5 and all that so I decided to go with her prescription. minoxidil 5% 2x a day , fanastride 1 mg once a day , and nizoral shampoo once a week.
I managed to get minoxidil and Nizoral from pharmacies, but couldn't find Propecia( turns out here in Egypt it's under another brand name) Also I was SUPER scared of sides, I've never been the most sexually rigid guy and I'm still not confident when it comes to fanastride. going with the prescription I experienced a shedding phase again but after 4 months or so I was regaining ground and my hair looked much better, one of my friends who lived with me and noticed my hairloss after stopping minoxdil thought I got a transplant when he saw my hair just 4 months after ( remember I also have maskable hair).
But of course after about 1 month back into college with malnutrition, and stress( but no fluctuating doses this time) density started going down hair started looking bad again and ever since the anterior 1/3 of my scalp got hit pretty hard , posterier 2/3 is nice but it seems i'm starting to lose density there as well.
So about 1.5 months ago I've decided to add derma rolling with 1.5mm needles twice a week to the regimen and I've noticed increase in the amount of baby hairs in my scalps and around my hairline but none of them seem to be going terminal and they're not aesthetically noticeable yet, is there something I can do to make them go terminal? or should I just keep going and they'll eventually go terminal on their own?
FINALLY THESE RECENT TWO MONTHS OR SO I LOST A MAJOR PORTION OF MY TEMPLATES
MY ANTERIOR 1/3 DENSITY IS WRECKED AND MASKABILITY IS AT AN ALL TIME LOW.
I'm sorry the post was so long I've never had the courage to dig into the details and write this all down and share my thoughts with a lot of ppl but I find a lot of ppl are welcoming and can give proper advice and help here. so if you made this far thank you very much
Points to clear up:
1) all I ask for is some regrowth in anterior 1/3 of scalp for me to be able to mask it again (don't care about restoring my hairline)
2) Minoxidil increased hair all over my body and grew me a beard upon using so I believe I'm a good responder to growth stimulants
3) if all fails I wanna stabilize and maintain my hair as it is or at least somehow reduce the speed of the loss process
4)I'm scared of the sides of propecia(fanastride) I'd rather someone recommend a topical yet effective DHT blocker
5)I almost never wash my hair (maybe once a month) upon washing it I lose all maskiblity until it completely dries which takes multiple days plus It seems my hairline and density gets worse this time with pics after showering. therefor Nizoral is barely ever used.
I'll supply this with every pic I possibly have with the time stamps on each one, I'd appreciate any advice in regards to regimen or what to do in general. and again sorry for the long post and thanks in advance. <3
