Hair Loss Treatment: Success After 13 Years.

[Def]

Hi All

I am a long time user of these forums but haven’t been on here since about 2007.

I thought I would come on here to share my success story. It is unique because it seems to really have taken a step forward recently… 13 years after I first started treating my hair loss…

Now before everyone starts claiming that I am a shill or otherwise promoting products, I can assure you that I am in no way affiliated with any hair product, brand or range. I don’t have a website or otherwise earn money for sharing my success story. You can simply look through my previous posts on here and it will be pretty clear that I am a genuine user. I am just here to share what has, and what is, working for me after many, many, years of struggling with male pattern baldness…

To give you a quick overview of my hair loss chronology:

• 2001: first noticed thinning at the crown aged around 23.

• 2003: discovered Hairlosstalk.com and started using finasteride (1.25mg), minoxidil and nizoral. This regimen seemed to seriously slow down my hair loss, so I stuck with it. I never had any regrowth but was able to pretty much maintain the status quo.

• 2003 - 2007: tried every kind of topical under the sun, copper peptide sprays, minoxidil (5, 10, 15%), minoxidil with azelaic acid and retinol, Revivogen, Morocco method shampoos, MIN styling products, etc etc. I didn’t respond to any of these products, and still had no regrowth whatsoever, so around 2007 I stopped using topicals altogether and just continued along with finasteride (1.25mg) and nizoral (3 times/week).

• 2009: started using Couvre concealer as my crown thinning had slowly become quite noticeable. I love this stuff. It makes my thinning undetectable, takes seconds to apply, lasts all day, is waterproof so you can go swimming and restyle hair, but easily washes out with shampoo at night.

• 2011: had 2000 FUE hair transplant into the crown region. This resulted in a reasonable improvement, but my crown thinning was still noticeable without Couvre.

• 2016: quit finasteride and started using Trichogen 8% and Minoxidil 5% with azelaic acid and other anti DHT ingredients. At 38 my thinning crown is now filling in again…

Why did I quit finasteride? Well, after nearly 13 years on the stuff, it was time. While I had absolutely zero side effects from 2003 until about 2011, in the last few years I started suffering from weaker erections, lower libido, no morning erections etc – to the point where I was routinely using v**** for sex over the past 2 years. I was usually able to masturbate without any assistance, but then even that started to become an issue in the last 6 months of 2015 – to the point where I basically couldn’t achieve an erection. That is when I finally decided to get off finasteride and quit cold turkey in January 2016. I should add, that I don’t know if the finasteride caused these symptoms for sure. Over the past 10 years I had the typical professional work hard – play hard lifestyle – long hours during the week, binge drinking every weekend, holidays that were either ski trips or party trips, and exercising only a moderate amount. In the last couple of years in particular, I have also really struggled with my sleep and poor sleep is a notorious libido killer. In the past 6 months I have really cleaned up my lifestyle, drinking far less, eating healthier, exercising loads and my libido is slowly returning – what is most positive to see is that pretty much every morning I wake up with an erection and in the last month or two, I have been able to have sex with my girlfriend without using v**** or anything else (she has no idea about any of this btw!).

Anyway, ditching the finasteride left me searching for topical options, and I was really surprised to find that nearly 15 years after I started researching hair loss treatments, there have basically been no advances in topical, anti DHT, hair loss treatments!! After hours of searching, I finally came across this guy’s website: hairforkeeps. com/male-hair-loss-treatment-stimulate-hair-growth and thought his regimen sounded simple, easy to follow and like it was getting results. This was before he added finasteride into his regimen, so basically just Lipogaine (5% minoxidil with some anti DHT ingredients), Profolla Anasta Ha (8% Trichogen) and Nizoral shampoo.

He (like I’m sure I will be) was accused of being a shill but the regimen works for me. I have no idea why this regimen works for me, particularly since I was not a responder to minoxidil beforehand and I doubt Trichogen would be this effective on its own. But hey... I'm not complaining...

As I am located in Australia, I use:

• Foligain D8 – Trichogen 8% (morning and night);
  
  
• Foligain D5 – Minoxidil 5%, azelaic acid and other anti DHT ingredients (night only); and
  
  
• Nizoral every other day.

So where is the proof you ask? I have attached 3 photos and you can search the forums for my earlier progress photos.

2010 – pre hair transplant:

2016 – before quitting finasteride:

2016 – 3 months after quitting finasteride and switching to Foligain D8 and D5:

I hope this helps,

Def

 

[Roberto_72]

No one says it is a shill but you might have noticed that your guy's regimen includes Finasteride and says:


NOTE*: When I stopped using Propecia years ago, I experienced an alarming amount of hair loss in a very short time. As with minoxidil, finasteride only works while you take it. Once you stop any hair loss that was prevented will happen very quickly, so keep that in mind!

 

[Def]

To be honest, I don't think I even read that part of his website. I thought he only recently got on finasteride.

In any event, I'm not saying that this regimen is the holy grail or anything, but it has now been 6 months since I've been off finasteride and onto the Trichogen and Minoxidil regimen and my hair is better than it has been in years. I thought I would be really bald by now..

Perhaps I'm just lucky or perhaps the great finasteride stopping shed is yet to come (I bloody well hope not!!!)... Either way, I will post again in another few months to give you all another progress update...

Cheers

Def

 

[Johnmpb]

Did you change anything else in your life? Jobs, better sleep habits, etc?

I just find it hard to believe that some herbal concoction helped your hair thicken. I do see some results however.

 

[Def]

Hi John

Once I came off finasteride I did start exercising more, eating better and drinking less. That was mainly to try and increase my health and genera libido. My sleep however has actually been quite a lot worse. However, I have always been in pretty good shape and pretty healthy, so I don't think that is the reason for my success.

Like you, I didn't really have much faith in the DHT stopping power of Trichogen. But I ended up going for it because there is basically no decent DHT stopping topical on the market that I could find - and a few guys had reported success with it. I'm not sure if it is the Trichogen or the type of minoxidil I am using but something is working...

I should add, I do consider the 13 years I had on finasteride as a success too. I think it helped me maintain my hair in much better shape than it otherwise would have been.

I'm not trying to stop people using finasteride or start using anything. Just trying to help with what is working for me...

Cheers

Def

 

[PRM]

Very interesting thread. I have been using finasteride for 18 years. I am trying to formulate a regimen without it.

Did you have depression or anxiety using finasteride? If yes, are you feeling better now?

Thanks for sharing your regimen.

 

[Def]

Hi PRM - no depression or anxiety on finasteride whatsoever... None of the other suicidal thoughts, man boobs, shrinkage, or other things people report. Only a noticeable decline in my libido and erections over the past few years. Stopping finasteride and trying to be a bit more healthy seems to be helping with that...

Def

 

[Def]

Edited original post to fix broken pic links.