Today is one of my lowest days ever

[Guest]

I'm no mug when it comes to male pattern baldness.

I'm no science expert like some of the guys on here but I have researched and read probably 75% of the posts on this site and on HLH.

I've seen the pictures of many successful posters.

I know about all the treatments available.

I know about sheds, hair cycling etc.

I have been on finasteride (quartered Proscar) for close to 8 months and on Minoxidl close to 6 months( just the hairline particularly the right temple area.

Nizoral about twice a week, MSM, good multi-vitamin, good diet.

I also added the lasercomb about a months ago.

Basically ever since starting these treatments (especially when I added minoxidil) my hair has got progressively worse in the front.

My hairline has receded about half an inch(virtually slick) apart from a few stray hairs on my right temple/hairline and my mid-frontal area has thinned so there is a diffused 'notch'.

My left temple and hairline up to the notch is almost perfect.

I'm just getting more and more worried about this and looking in the mirror today (with quite a bright light on) I can see the diffuse pattern of a norwood 3 on my right side. It's quite big and looks like its going to leave me with a thin strip running down the middle a la Phil Collins.

I know there is not a lot you guys can tell me but it is really getting me lately, I am embarrassed to admit it but I am quite vain and I am literally thinking about this constantly until I fall asleep at night.

I'm not depressed as such yet but feel i'm getting that way and i find when i fall asleep at night I wake up a lot with my hands and wrists curled up tight against my chest like someone with very bad arthritis, and it f*****g hurts for a few minutes afterwards.

I wish I didnt give a sh*t, but I do and that will never change. I'm pretty good guy - helpful, always willing to do stuff for people, always keep my cool in tense situations but this is starting to make me a little tetchy sometimes and I am occasionally short-tempered.

I cant help thinking that its the minoxidil thats ruining my hair because after 6 months of twice daily applications (only ever missed one app) I have seen nothing but shedding, no new hairs coming through (not visible ones anyway) zero regrowth. But I am totally scared to quit it just in case my whole temple falls out.

Maybe the finasteride might start kicking in soon, I don't know.

Sorry for the long post but I don't really rant very often and today I feel f*****g worthless like I have nothing to live for.

Sorry guys.

 

[hairschmair]

ranting is good...

How old are you if I may ask?

 

[Guest]

ranting is good...

How old are you if I may ask?

27 a couple of weeks ago.

First noticed a little thinning on my right hairline about 8 months ago and went on finasteride straight away.

I was wanker to start minoxidil so early - should have waited at least a year but i panciked when it got a little worse.

 

[hairschmair]

So you only started showing the symptoms of male pattern baldness 8months to a year ago?

 

[hair_tomorrow]

ranting is good...

How old are you if I may ask?

27 a couple of weeks ago.

First noticed a little thinning on my right hairline about 8 months ago and went on finasteride straight away.

I was wanker to start minoxidil so early - should have waited at least a year but i panciked when it got a little worse.

Hang tough Neil - the next 4 months will tell the story for you. You're one of those guys that will have to wait until the 1 year mark. Good luck!

 

[Guest]

So you only started showing the symptoms of male pattern baldness 8months to a year ago?

Yes - that's when I noticed. In fact, sadly I know the date as it was the day of my mates wedding August 22nd 2004.

It's actually about 7.5 months.

I'm sure it started before then but that when i noticed it.

Pretty f*****g quick i think I'm gonna be fucked within 2 years.

 

[hairschmair]

You should have plenty of hair still then? I don't believe it could possibly be that bad yet. Do you have any pics you can post?

 

[Guest]

You should have plenty of hair still then? I don't believe it could possibly be that bad yet. Do you have any pics you can post?

Compared to some guys yes i do still have a lot of hair but its going from the front and has badly diffused on the right temple and a little on my front centre.

Thats why i don't talk about myself much on the site because i know lots of guys are a lot worse than me but i can see it getting worse on a daily basis at the moment - shedding is nuts but all from the right temple and hairline area.

It really looks like i'm gonna have this thick head of hair with massive chunk of baldness on the right temple area and notch in my mid frontal region.

 

[Red Rose]

First noticed a little thinning on my right hairline about 8 months ago and went on finasteride straight away.

With respect, unless your hair is literally falling out and you have advanced from a Norwood 1 (full head of hair) to a Norwood 3 within the space of 8 months then I think (without the benefit of photo's of course) that you are probably exaggerating your claim that your hair is ruined. Your hairline has advanced just over a centremeter on the right temple and you are perpetuating language such as being worthless and having nothing to live for?! Sorry but I am having real difficulting reconcilling your degree of hairloss (with seems minimal) with the tone of your posts.

I would imagine in fact that you have subjected that small patch of slightly diffuse hair to such incredibly close scrutiny that you have convinced yourself that you are the true personification of baldness itself when nothing can be further from the truth.

Anyway rest assured that you are doing absolutely everything that can be done. You caught your hairloss just as it started. You should be OK.

If you haven't done so already - read Sock's story on this site or HLH. If you have read it you will know that like a lot of people he did not start seeing tangible results on the finasteride/nizoral combo until 12+ months. In fact he has alluded before to his hair being in its worst state at around the 8 month mark.

Believe me things get a lot worse before they get better.

Good luck.

 

[Guest]

First noticed a little thinning on my right hairline about 8 months ago and went on finasteride straight away.

With respect, unless your hair is literally falling out and you have advanced from a Norwood 1 (full head of hair) to a Norwood 3 within the space of 8 months then I think (without the benefit of photo's of course) that you are probably exaggerating your claim that your hair is ruined. Your hairline has advanced just over a centremeter on the right temple and you are perpetuating language such as being worthless and having nothing to live for?! Sorry but I am having real difficulting reconcilling your degree of hairloss (with seems minimal) with the tone of your posts.

I would imagine in fact that you have subjected that small patch of slightly diffuse hair to such incredibly close scrutiny that you have convinced yourself that you are the true personification of baldness itself when nothing can be further from the truth.

Anyway rest assured that you are doing absolutely everything that can be done. You caught your hairloss just as it started. You should be OK.

If you haven't done so already - read Sock's story on this site or HLH. If you have read it you will know that like a lot of people he did not start seeing tangible results on the finasteride/nizoral combo until 12+ months. In fact he has alluded before to his hair being in its worst state at around the 8 month mark.

Believe me things get a lot worse before they get better.

Good luck.

Thanks Red Rose

I am fully aware about what you are saying and I realise things always look worse in our own eyes than to anyone else's.

You are also right in what you say about over-scrutinising my hair which is something that I am defintely guilty of.

I am feeling particularly down at the moment but that is probably my pessimistic nature - I kind of look at my hair gettting worse and imagine the worst possible scenario.

Just a character flaw I guess. It's kinda why I don't talk about my own loss very much on the site as it makes me feel worse about it, just today its looking pretty bad to the point where its very assymetric.

I have read Socks story and photos many times - fingers crossed I respond well over the next few months.

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

I spend too much time here.

depressed bump.

 

[thylax]

same sh*t with me...

yes yes... f*****g temples... (the same with me, but I wont say that I have nothing to live for)

 

[hairschmair]

Instead of bumping this thread, call a good friend and go watch a movie at a theatre or something. Kill a few hours, have a chat, you'll feel better!

Jay

PS: I don't mean to sound patronizing...

 

[The Gardener]

Hey Neiltom,

First off, you will not be 'fucked in two years'. male pattern baldness does not progress in a straight line, so even if treatments do sh*t for you chances are your hair will stabilize. The last 8 months have been a recession spike, and from my experience male pattern baldness is a handful of pronounced recession spikes that are placed in certain periods of our lives, and between these spikes, the hair usually maintains.

So, what you perceive as a natural 'next step' as to how your hairline might look probably will not happen for a long time. I think you have the same pattern that I had... at 25 I thought my temples were toast, but they actually held on for another 7 years or so, albeit thin but still stylable and cosmetically acceptable. And this was without treatment!

So, although your treatments may be facing somewhat of a headwind right now because I truly think you are undergoing a spike, once the underlying chemistry stabilizes a bit and the DHT level is consistantly lowered by the treatments, your hair should regain some footing. Your relative newness to the regimen leads me to believe that you have a lot of altitude left with which to soar, give your treatments time.

They say that minoxidil works best on hair that was most recently lost to recession. Your temples are freshly recessed hair, and it takes 3 months for a minoxidil-juiced hair to grow long enough to even be visibly seen above the hairline much less reach potential haircut height. And that is just the first cycle. It takes several cycles, and thus several months PAST the three month mark for enough cycling to occur before you start seeing some thickness in those once-atrophied strands along your hairline.

Patience. I know you have probably read many times on this forum that year one ALWAYS has its bite the bullet moments. Consider yourself in the midst of your first one. Stop looking at the mirror and obsessing, and put some blind faith in the statistics behind the treatments. They are on your side, especially since you caught it in the midst of a recession. But those hairs will rest for three months, then three months to grow beyond skin level, so keep cool and keep perspective. Stay religious with the regimen, consistency is the key. Keep on keepin' on. That's Gardener's stand.

 

[Ol'MacDee]

I'm 25 and I used generic minoxidil for a couple of weeks and I swear it made my hairline WAY worse. My temples were just starting to noticably thin but the front of my hairline was fine until I put that 5% sh*t on there. Of course I'll never know for sure but I'm pretty convinced that stuff really accelerated my hairline going to crap. On the plus side, I started finasteride (proscar) over a month ago and have had no noticible sides. Suppose things could be worse.

 

[Guest]

Keep plugging away. You are doing the best you can with the most up to date regiment that money can buy. I'm sure you will pull through this.

I too am a little vain and take care of my appearance. I think we all are. That's why we are all bothered about hair loss. The thing that worries me is that I have come this far and at 36 I still have a decent amount of hair. I think people would look at me and think I just have a mature hairline and accept that I have some temple loss. I'm just worried that my hairloss will suddenly get worse and then kaboom, it’s all gone.

I hope this does not happen. I just want to keep my hair like everyone else here and I will fight like hell to keep it. I think we can all do this together and support each other.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all the replies guys especially you Gardener I really appreciate the time you took to write that reply.

I will ride it out, I will never stop taking my proscar that's for certain.

It's just the f*****g minoxidil, I apply it religiously but dread putting it on. I put it on just thinking that its literally making my hair fall out.

I'm recently 27, and I guess that I have been more fortunate than some of the younger guys on here but my life is very unsettled at the moment in terms of my future.

I have a decent job but its not what i'm looking for in terms of a career, I have no girlfriend and have been goignh through a dry spell lately in terms of dating.

My fear is the baldness effecting my ability to get chicks, job etc.

I really want to settle down with someone and would love to have some kids soon but I cant see that happening due to my obsession with this f*****g hairloss.

 

[amrod]

we've all been in the pit of depression mine started from before i was 15 so i dont even know what my real character would have been like without male pattern baldness

think urself lucky u caught it early

 

[The Gardener]

No matter what condition your hair is in, you have to live you life unaffected by it, or at least try your hardest to be unaffected by it. You have to walk tall, with poise, keep your chin up, and be confident in your abilities and in your person regardless of your norwood.

Don't let male pattern baldness keep you from kicking *** in life.

I know that women find a nice hairline to be attractive, but men who have inner confidence, walk tall, and kick *** in life are very sexy in a woman's eye as well.