souldoctor's Story

souldoctor

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Hi everyone.

I'm a 22 year old medical student and literally last week i had my usual crop of messy, thick hair that always looked alright without needing to do too much to it, of course i've always liked spiking it and messing around with it, and I could always pull off a variety of different looks to suit an occasion...

anyway here it comes..so just a few nights ago i was doing my usual routine of waxing my hair before a night out clubbing, and i noticed it seemed a lot thinner, especially at the front where i usually spike it up to a quiff....if i did that, you could literally see through it to my scalp, which never used to be the case...i managed to sort it out kind of, so it looked okay, but i remembered thinkin it was unusual cos ive never really had to do too much with my hair in the past to make it look good...so anyway, i noticed it more and more over the next couple of days, even though i havent actually seen any typical signs of hair loss e.g hairs in the shower or on the pillow...it just seems to have 'vanished' into thin (h) air! (sorry for the pun). My hair still seems okay at the back but i get the feeling its a bit thinner at the sides too, but that could just be my imagination kicking in...it definitely feels a lot 'lighter' and thinner, drier and wispy at the front than it ever has been before :( It's not like a serious balding situation yet, but my hairline seems to have 'receded' definitely, as it seems to be higher on my forehead than before...

so...the point of this is that it's only been a week or so, less than that maybe since i've noticed this frontal thinning/receding and wanna know what to do!? i've read this forum a lot since noticing the problem and know there's plenty of other guys out there in my age group who have had this prob to some extent...it sounds superficial and arrogant, but i'm sure i speak for them as well as myself when i say that if you've been used to a fairly cushy adolescent/early 20s existence of being good-looking,popular etc and having funky hair and attention from girls, it's quite devastating to suddenly face the prospect of having to give all that up at the early age of 22 (nearly 23) !!


As a medic myself (a year or so away from being a doctor) i've been reading up on it all and my parents as doctors also reckon that it could be a temporary thing caused by bad nutrition and lifestyle..i go out clubbing most nights, hardly get much sleep, or if i do i oversleep and miss meals, so i don't eat much, i'm skinny/underweight and i smoke quite a bit so that doesnt help my appetite..is it possible this is a temporary, reversible thing caused by diet/sleep deficiencies?? Or should i 'nip it in the bud' and start considering treatment options straight away?? i don't like the idea of shedding and so on throughout my uni life...i have mates, a life, girls etc and can't be dealing with months of no hair? what the hell should i do...


i'm gonna quit smoking anyway and eat more and take some vitamins whatever happens now though...but would appreciate any advice

thanks
SD

UPDATE:

I've been on propecia now for about 5 and a half months now...to be honest i still dont know what the fucks happening...i started in May, and it was definitely a lot better by around july/august and then suddenly in september i started shedding and it's carried on up til the time of posting (october), so much that my hair's actually looking really sh*t these days. much worse than baseline...i hope it grows back soon...
 

Trent

Experienced Member
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dude, i think we may be twins. i too am a medical student, though i am 24, and had the EXACT same story. i always spiked up my hair and wore the messy look and pulled it off. was doing an internship over this summer with a hospital and BAM out of nowhere, the front of my hair you could see through my scalp, that never happened before. i felt the back and while i don't have a bald spot really or anything, it just felt thinner, in fact since i was noticing my whole top just felt kinda limp and wispy like you said. i totally freaked out, and thought maybe it was lifestyle too (cause i just got back from ireland shadowing doctors and getting wasted for three weeks striaght) and stress from med school, but i really don't think it is unfortunately, then i thought maybe it was from putting so much wax in over the years, and since i hardly ever washed my hair (cause it dried it out) i thought that had just built up and damaged my hair. that was almost four months ago, i went to see a derm and he said i have very early stages of male pattern baldness so dammit.
as you can imagine my studies have sucked lately cause i'm so obsessed over this! anyway, sorry its so long just seems like we have a similar situation going on. honestly, my recommendation is to call a dermatologist, get on propecia and nizoral (i wouldn't bother with minoxidil yet, its a huge pain, and gives you an itchy scalp, plus you may want to "save it" as a back up plan) as soon as you can. though i've been through a rollercoaster ride so far, i'm thinking getting propecia very early was a good decision.

good luck trying to style your hair spiky, its a b**ch for me now!
 

Trent

Experienced Member
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ps i smoke too, and trust me its hard to quit when you are stressing over hair loss. hopefully you are not as obsessisive as me, i'm really vain.
 

souldoctor

Member
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hey mate

cheers for the reply...i looked up a few of your posts..seems like using propecia is working for you then? Good luck!

I might as well first go and find a dermatologist in my own med school hospital informally for a brief word in private and maybe they'll have a quick look then tell me whether or not it's worth making an appointment to discuss it properly (possibly with them or with a reputable colleague or something...).

the only reason im reluctant (in denial??) about trying to take steps is because to be honest i'm not noticing any more hair loss or anything, so maybe it'll just stay as it is for a while, which wouldn't be too bad...starting treatment with propecia obviously means having to experience sheds at some point and stuff, which could last for months and therefore make certain periods of my life quite tricky...and obviously i'd rather put off starting any kind of treatment til i have to. On the other hand, evidence seems to suggest starting early is the best thing to do...but with all these continuous sheds/regrowth, i'm not sure how i'd handle it! What does propecia really do...if you're on it for life, do you have sheds and bursts of growth for the rest of your life? Or do you just get sheds for a bit at the start, then hopefully normal growth again?
My hair doesn't look that good shaved/really short...so i duno how i'd deal with the shedding business...

if you or anyone else has got the answers to these questions, thanks in advance!!

SD
 

Trent

Experienced Member
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yeah, a lot of people don't really go through sheds, so its not a for sure thing. basically the way that propecia works is for the first year you slowly start to slow hairloss down, and regrow some, thicken up existing hair, usually after about a year or so, it sort of stabilizes. The reason for the sheds is a sudden synchronization of your hair cycles (in other words as new hairs come in, old ones fall out, a lot of them at the same time, and as more DHT is removed more hair follicles "wake up" again many at the same time) over time however, the hair cycles become less synchronized and you just have normal hair growth. go to the FAQ on the hairlosssucks.com website, there is one about shedding.
 

pleasehelpme

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wow... both med. students? when you guys become MDs if you guys find that cure for hairloss let me know please. heh good luck to the both of you
 

souldoctor

Member
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Hey, how's it going people...

I went to my GP, he said he didn't notice anything blah blah blah....written me up to have some bloods done for thyroid, iron deficiency and all that sh*t, but i know i haven't got any of those symptoms...said it could be stress-related, but everyone knows it *could* be, but probably isn't... and i'm gonna see a dermatologist next week, so i'll see what he says...

having read up a bit more, i don't think i've got male pattern baldness as such...it just seems to be diffuse thinning all over, and a slight recession...but maybe it's not receded that much, it's just thinned everywhere, so it just looks like its receded. Is there such a thing?? i'm not sure what to classify my hair loss as...?

In any case, if the problem's diffuse thinning, which is more like female pattern baldness,then will finasteride still work, or is that just for "male pattern baldness....any advice people? What's the best thing to go for?

Thanks,
SD
 

Trent

Experienced Member
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hey man, yeah finasteride will still work, diffuse thinning is what i have too, though its mostly in the front, i don't really have a "receeding hairline" either maybe a norwood 1.5. some people with male pattern baldness just don't follow the basic pattern.
 
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