I decided to post my story to help myself (and whoever's interested) keep track.
I'm 29 now. I started noticing some hairloss when I was about 25. My temples were receding just a touch. I got married at 26, and around the time of my 27th birthday I started to noice that just past the front of my hairline I was beginning to see more scalp. The hair just wasn't as thick there.
So about April of 2005 I decided to attack it with generic 5% minoxidil and nizoral. I did pretty well applying it for a while. I think I started out just doing it once per night but realized that it wasn't enough, so I went to 2x daily. I did it pretty solid for about 3 months. At first my hair was shedding like crazy, so it made me want to stop, but I stuck with it. Eventually the shed stopped. Then I started to get lazy and would miss an application here and there, or sometimes a day or 2 here or there. I started shedding again in full force. I reevaluated my situation and decided that minoxidil had caused me nothing but problems. Although I had no side effects like itchy scalp, or the other crazy stuff I read on here, I decided to stop all of my treatments. I felt like I hadn't regrown or maintained any hair. That was about January 2006
About 3 more months went by and I was STILL shedding. I figured maybe the minoxidil just had to get out of my system, but this was ridiculous. I had very strong diffuse thinning on top with extra thinning on my crown and just behind my hairline. My temples were receding and it was getting noticibly thin on top. When my hair was wet you could definitely tell there was a problem.
That brings me to where I am today. I decided that the shedding could just be male pattern baldness and that I needed to do something. Still being fearful of minoxidil, I've decided to give finasteride a shot and get back on nizoral. I began my routine on April 23, 2006.
Obviously things are still the same, but I am hoping I will get the same results as Back In Time who has similar hairloss. He is using minoxidil too though.
***** Previous Journal *****
This is the journal I kept previously on my last go around.
4/10/05 - Started using minoxidil 5% twice daily around this date. I had used 2% irregularly once before, recently, but stopped. Some thinning present just past the hair line on top and a little thinning in the crown
4/18/05 - Noticing heavy shed. Probably at least 50 thin hairs are shed everyday in the shower while shampooing
5/7/05 - Heavy shedding continues. Appear to be thinning all over the top now. You can see my scalp pretty easily under the bright lights in the bathroom when my hair is wet. A little hard to see when hair is dry and fluffed. Wondering if I should be starting finasteride now or if that will worsen the shed.
5/24/05 - Shedding may be slowing down. Seems like I am seeing less hair on my hands after shampooing. Not conclusive yet though. The top of my scalp is fairly thin. When wet you can easily see some scalp. When hair is dry it's a little more difficult.
June/July - Shedding pretty much stopped
Sept/Oct - Started getting laxed in my minoxidil treatment. Shedding started again.
November 05 - February 06 - Shedding continues. I decided that minoxidil is not producing any positive results so I quit using it.
March 06 - April 06 - Not using anything. Heavy shedding still continues.
4/22/06 - Began using 1.25mg finasteride daily (proscar and fincar) and nizoral. Still shedding a lot.
7/10/06 - Still on finasteride and nizoral. Still having heavy shedding. Scalp is visible under bright lights even when dry. Crown seems to be thinning faster than the front. Thin spot on the crown is about 1.5" in diameter. Temples have receded maybe 1/4"
7/13/06 - Shedding may be decreasing. Over the last 3 days I've noticed a dramatic change in shower shedding. Instead of having about 40 hairs on my hands after shampooing it's been more like 20.
7/20/06 - Not so sure shedding is decreasing now. Seems to still be about the same
***** 1 MONTH UPDATE *****
May 2006
I've been on proscar/fincar 1.25mg daily and nizoral 2x/wk. My hair is still shedding like crazy. I probably lose about 30-40 in the shower and then more randomly throughout the day. Scalp is easily noticable when wet and under bright lights it's fairly noticeable when dry. Here are recent pics with wet hair.
***** 4 MONTH UPDATE *****
August 2006
It has now been 4 months since I started finasteride. About 2 or 3 weeks ago I decided to start minoxidil too because I was still losing hair and didn't think I could withstand the minoxidil shed if I waited much longer. So I dove it. I'm using 5% morning and night.
Before I started the minoxidil I hadn't noticed anything from the finasteride. I was still shedding/thinning about the same although I did notice a slight itch in my scalp. So I know something was happening. Maybe just too early to tell.
I'm now about 3 weeks into minoxidil and the shedding began about a week ago. The strange thing is that I'm no longer losing thick hairs, the hairs I'm losing are ALL thin. There are definitely more of them though. But I realize this time around that it's the minoxidil and not my hair abandoning me.
I feel like my hair looks pretty crappy right now. It has gotten quite thin and the minoxidil is causing dandruff a lot worse than last time I did this. I think that must be due to the addition of finasteride, though.
***** 5 MONTH UPDATE *****
September 2006
This is the best update because I'm happy to report that I am growing hair!!! I once thought it was impossible and that I wasn't going to respond since my whole family is decimated by male pattern baldness. But about a week or so ago I noticed small dark hairs starting to pop up around my hairline. Also my hair feels healthier, thicker, and denser. So I am really excited right now! The pictures are slightly darker than normal but I tried to reproduce the lighting as well as I could. I will try to post some brighter ones later.
***** 6 MONTH UPDATE *****
October 2006
I'm now 6 months into my new regimen and I am very pleased with the results. The regrowth seems to have slowed down, but I'm ok with that. I like the way my hair looks now and I'm not self concious about it anymore. I'm currently using saw palmetto and MSM but I'm going to try to remove those from my regimen when I run out... just to see what happens. I don't like taking 4 pills every day. My hair is shorter than usual in the pictures but I had to get my haircut b/c it was getting so long.
Sorry about the photo sizing. Photobucket sucks and is really buggy.
***** 9 MONTH UPDATE *****
January 2007
Hey guys just wanted to stop back by and give an update. I guess it's really true that people who are succeeding at treatment don't really frequent the boards much. So take that as encouragement. I guess this would be a 9 month update.
I don't have any pictures, but based on my other pictures I can describe. I still have some diffuse thinning up front and a little less on my crown, but it looks normal when my hair is done. Basically it looks pretty close to how it did when I was 26 which is when I first started thinking I might be thinning. My temples have made no progress, but I'm not really concerned about them. They're at an acceptable place. I just want to maintain at this point.
I'm still on the big 3. I've missed a few applications of minoxidil here and there but for the most part am really good about doing it. And I'm still using fincar from inhousepharmacy.com broken into quarters daily. Plus nizoral 3x week.
Best of luck.
***** 10 MONTH UPDATE *****
I have started shedding. I'm guessing this is the normal 10-12 month shed from finasteride so I'm not too worried. I've lost some density, but I'm hopeful that it will come back. My hair still looks good so I'm just riding it out. After 4 or 5 solid months of having good hair I know this stuff is working. (Just look at my pics)
***** 1 YEAR 10 MONTH UPDATE *****
Well it has been a year since my last update so I thought I should be a nice guy and come back and report my status. It is still the same as a year ago. In the last year I've probably had 2-3 sheds. I don't really seem to lose any density, just more hair falls out all over the place. Then it slows down for a while. I'm still doing the Big 3 and haven't changed that. I am definitely maintaining and am very pleased with how my hair looks. Sometimes I miss a minoxidil application here and there and very seldom miss a finasteride dose. These have been great products for me. I just turned 30 last November so I at least feel like if I start going bald now it will be ok. (Much better than 26. ) I don't expect this treatment to work forever and expect to eventually be bald, but I'm holding on as long as I can. My brother and dad who both went bald in their 20s hate me for it! The only thing they say is "wow you have a lot of gray hair." (I do have some, but oh well ) I know they're jealous. unk:
I'm 29 now. I started noticing some hairloss when I was about 25. My temples were receding just a touch. I got married at 26, and around the time of my 27th birthday I started to noice that just past the front of my hairline I was beginning to see more scalp. The hair just wasn't as thick there.
So about April of 2005 I decided to attack it with generic 5% minoxidil and nizoral. I did pretty well applying it for a while. I think I started out just doing it once per night but realized that it wasn't enough, so I went to 2x daily. I did it pretty solid for about 3 months. At first my hair was shedding like crazy, so it made me want to stop, but I stuck with it. Eventually the shed stopped. Then I started to get lazy and would miss an application here and there, or sometimes a day or 2 here or there. I started shedding again in full force. I reevaluated my situation and decided that minoxidil had caused me nothing but problems. Although I had no side effects like itchy scalp, or the other crazy stuff I read on here, I decided to stop all of my treatments. I felt like I hadn't regrown or maintained any hair. That was about January 2006
About 3 more months went by and I was STILL shedding. I figured maybe the minoxidil just had to get out of my system, but this was ridiculous. I had very strong diffuse thinning on top with extra thinning on my crown and just behind my hairline. My temples were receding and it was getting noticibly thin on top. When my hair was wet you could definitely tell there was a problem.
That brings me to where I am today. I decided that the shedding could just be male pattern baldness and that I needed to do something. Still being fearful of minoxidil, I've decided to give finasteride a shot and get back on nizoral. I began my routine on April 23, 2006.
Obviously things are still the same, but I am hoping I will get the same results as Back In Time who has similar hairloss. He is using minoxidil too though.
***** Previous Journal *****
This is the journal I kept previously on my last go around.
4/10/05 - Started using minoxidil 5% twice daily around this date. I had used 2% irregularly once before, recently, but stopped. Some thinning present just past the hair line on top and a little thinning in the crown
4/18/05 - Noticing heavy shed. Probably at least 50 thin hairs are shed everyday in the shower while shampooing
5/7/05 - Heavy shedding continues. Appear to be thinning all over the top now. You can see my scalp pretty easily under the bright lights in the bathroom when my hair is wet. A little hard to see when hair is dry and fluffed. Wondering if I should be starting finasteride now or if that will worsen the shed.
5/24/05 - Shedding may be slowing down. Seems like I am seeing less hair on my hands after shampooing. Not conclusive yet though. The top of my scalp is fairly thin. When wet you can easily see some scalp. When hair is dry it's a little more difficult.
June/July - Shedding pretty much stopped
Sept/Oct - Started getting laxed in my minoxidil treatment. Shedding started again.
November 05 - February 06 - Shedding continues. I decided that minoxidil is not producing any positive results so I quit using it.
March 06 - April 06 - Not using anything. Heavy shedding still continues.
4/22/06 - Began using 1.25mg finasteride daily (proscar and fincar) and nizoral. Still shedding a lot.
7/10/06 - Still on finasteride and nizoral. Still having heavy shedding. Scalp is visible under bright lights even when dry. Crown seems to be thinning faster than the front. Thin spot on the crown is about 1.5" in diameter. Temples have receded maybe 1/4"
7/13/06 - Shedding may be decreasing. Over the last 3 days I've noticed a dramatic change in shower shedding. Instead of having about 40 hairs on my hands after shampooing it's been more like 20.
7/20/06 - Not so sure shedding is decreasing now. Seems to still be about the same
***** 1 MONTH UPDATE *****
May 2006
I've been on proscar/fincar 1.25mg daily and nizoral 2x/wk. My hair is still shedding like crazy. I probably lose about 30-40 in the shower and then more randomly throughout the day. Scalp is easily noticable when wet and under bright lights it's fairly noticeable when dry. Here are recent pics with wet hair.
***** 4 MONTH UPDATE *****
August 2006
It has now been 4 months since I started finasteride. About 2 or 3 weeks ago I decided to start minoxidil too because I was still losing hair and didn't think I could withstand the minoxidil shed if I waited much longer. So I dove it. I'm using 5% morning and night.
Before I started the minoxidil I hadn't noticed anything from the finasteride. I was still shedding/thinning about the same although I did notice a slight itch in my scalp. So I know something was happening. Maybe just too early to tell.
I'm now about 3 weeks into minoxidil and the shedding began about a week ago. The strange thing is that I'm no longer losing thick hairs, the hairs I'm losing are ALL thin. There are definitely more of them though. But I realize this time around that it's the minoxidil and not my hair abandoning me.
I feel like my hair looks pretty crappy right now. It has gotten quite thin and the minoxidil is causing dandruff a lot worse than last time I did this. I think that must be due to the addition of finasteride, though.
***** 5 MONTH UPDATE *****
September 2006
This is the best update because I'm happy to report that I am growing hair!!! I once thought it was impossible and that I wasn't going to respond since my whole family is decimated by male pattern baldness. But about a week or so ago I noticed small dark hairs starting to pop up around my hairline. Also my hair feels healthier, thicker, and denser. So I am really excited right now! The pictures are slightly darker than normal but I tried to reproduce the lighting as well as I could. I will try to post some brighter ones later.
***** 6 MONTH UPDATE *****
October 2006
I'm now 6 months into my new regimen and I am very pleased with the results. The regrowth seems to have slowed down, but I'm ok with that. I like the way my hair looks now and I'm not self concious about it anymore. I'm currently using saw palmetto and MSM but I'm going to try to remove those from my regimen when I run out... just to see what happens. I don't like taking 4 pills every day. My hair is shorter than usual in the pictures but I had to get my haircut b/c it was getting so long.
Sorry about the photo sizing. Photobucket sucks and is really buggy.
***** 9 MONTH UPDATE *****
January 2007
Hey guys just wanted to stop back by and give an update. I guess it's really true that people who are succeeding at treatment don't really frequent the boards much. So take that as encouragement. I guess this would be a 9 month update.
I don't have any pictures, but based on my other pictures I can describe. I still have some diffuse thinning up front and a little less on my crown, but it looks normal when my hair is done. Basically it looks pretty close to how it did when I was 26 which is when I first started thinking I might be thinning. My temples have made no progress, but I'm not really concerned about them. They're at an acceptable place. I just want to maintain at this point.
I'm still on the big 3. I've missed a few applications of minoxidil here and there but for the most part am really good about doing it. And I'm still using fincar from inhousepharmacy.com broken into quarters daily. Plus nizoral 3x week.
Best of luck.
***** 10 MONTH UPDATE *****
I have started shedding. I'm guessing this is the normal 10-12 month shed from finasteride so I'm not too worried. I've lost some density, but I'm hopeful that it will come back. My hair still looks good so I'm just riding it out. After 4 or 5 solid months of having good hair I know this stuff is working. (Just look at my pics)
***** 1 YEAR 10 MONTH UPDATE *****
Well it has been a year since my last update so I thought I should be a nice guy and come back and report my status. It is still the same as a year ago. In the last year I've probably had 2-3 sheds. I don't really seem to lose any density, just more hair falls out all over the place. Then it slows down for a while. I'm still doing the Big 3 and haven't changed that. I am definitely maintaining and am very pleased with how my hair looks. Sometimes I miss a minoxidil application here and there and very seldom miss a finasteride dose. These have been great products for me. I just turned 30 last November so I at least feel like if I start going bald now it will be ok. (Much better than 26.
) I don't expect this treatment to work forever and expect to eventually be bald, but I'm holding on as long as I can. My brother and dad who both went bald in their 20s hate me for it! The only thing they say is "wow you have a lot of gray hair." (I do have some, but oh well ) I know they're jealous. unk:
