Your advice please! 25 and losing hair starting treatment

[shaolin]

Hi guys, just found this site and was amazed at the amount of good info on here. I'm 25 years old and of Asian descent (not sure if that matters). I have always had a high hairline and over the last 5 years or so have not been sure if it has been receding but now I am sure it is. I see my GP maybe once a year (who I will admit is a very very good GP and I has been my GP my entire life) and ask him every time to look at my hairline and what he thinks, he has always said I have good regrowth and don't need to start treatment yet.

I saw him again a couple of weeks ago and said my hairline is typical of male pattern baldness but still has good regrowth and no need to start treatment yet. He said when the time comes I can begin using Propecia.

Since browsing through this site I have seen there are so many more treatment options and was hoping some of you could provide some advice on this. I have read a lot of people using the 'Big 3' - minoxidil finasteride and Nizerol? Could someone break this down for me?

I am considering starting some sort of treatment anyway despite my GP saying it is not necessary, as I have heard you'll get the best results if you start early!
But would really appreciate some thoughts on this from you guys who are little more familiar with the treatment options.

If it makes a difference, my father is not bald but nearly every one of my uncles from my mother's side is.

Anyway, here are some pics from today (just woke up hair)

http://imageshack.us/g/822/img0471kt.jpg/

Thanks so much!!

 

[2020]

He said when the time comes I can begin using Propecia.

that's dumb... why not start treating your hair loss now before you lose even more hair?

 

[Naltima]

You definitely have male pattern baldness, but the good news is that you caught it fairly early. It is important to get on treatments right away if you want to keep what you have despite what your doctor is saying. Propecia (Finasteride) is the most important part of the Big 3, it should maintain what you have and thicken up your crown area. Don't expect too much (or any at all) regrowth in the hairline area with just Propecia. Your main priority is to halt further loss and any regrowth is a bonus. If in 5 or so years you think you have succeeded at doing that you can possibly start looking into a hair transplant to get the hairline back if that's the route you decide to take.

You can try using Minoxidil on the hairline, but the chances of regrowth are not that great.

I have very similar hairline recession as your and have been on Finasteride for about 4 years. I have, for the most part maintained what I had when I first started, I did lose a little bit of ground at the very tip of the hairline, but I was expecting that. I was using Minoxidil on the hairline at the beginning of the treatment for the first 8 months and was seeing small hairs along the hairline, but did not feel my hairloss was severe enough to justify the time and effort needed to apply minoxidil twice a day so I stopped using it.

Currently I am only using Finasteride and Nizoral and am pretty satisfied with the results.

 

[shaolin]

So you would advise using Propecia, Nizoral and maybe Minoxidil?

I have been looking at some old photos of me to see how fast my hairline is receding, it's pretty hard to see cos my hair is mostly kinda long and shabby so a little hard to tell, but I looked at some photos from around 4 years ago and would say it has receded very very slowly since then, definitely not super aggressive, in fact some photos I would look and think 'it looks exactly the same as it does now'

Thanks for the advice I will read up on Propecia and Minoxidil.

Any other treatments I might consider?

 

[IrishFella]

Propecia alone CAN help with the hairline, as long as it's not super aggressive which doesn't seem to be the case, most likely it would thicken it up if you were having problems.

 

[shaolin]

I have read Finasteride can result in loss of libido - anyone experience this?

I also live in China and I'm not sure if Nizarol, Rogaine and Propecia are readily available here. Can anyone advise on this?

If not are there any reliable online stores that ship worldwide?

Thanks again!

 

[Kirby]

I have read Finasteride can result in loss of libido - anyone experience this?

I had that issue for the first three weeks of taking finasteride (1mg). That disappeared a week or two after that though, guess my body adjusted accordingly. I was terrified for those few weeks, but I just remembered what I'd read on this and similar forums, give it time, don't panic, etc. (My long-term girlfriend told me that she saw no difference at all in regards to libido dampening, incidentally.)

 

[Rocky88]

Shaolin,

I just saw your post and I am Asian as well. I started to lose my hair around 25 with recessions in the temple ( now I am 29). I went on propecia and it helped stop the regression as well as restored a lot of my hair on top. ( I was shedding like crazy at the start). I actually had to quit propecia 2 weeks ago as I was noticing some of the usual "side effects"...

Anyways, I started now on rogaine, Nizoral, laser comb, and the revivogen shampoo... and hope they can be as effective as the propecia...

The world is an international place, those products you are looking for should be available online. I just started my regimen, so not sure how it will go.

This is my recent thread here...

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=71997

and my pics as well

http://s1162.photobucket.com/albums/q529/rocky881/

My crown is fine as of now, but I need to protect the temple from further deterioration. You are not alone.

 

[shaolin]

thanks for sharing.

I saw my gp the other week and he said he had no problem prescribing finasteride if i wanted to start taking it.

propecia is too expensive. so he prescribed me just finasteride 5mg and i am breaking these up and taking 5mg per week (propecia is 1mg per day). will let you know how i go.

he also tells me the nizoral shampoo won't do anything. but is harmless if i want to try. any thoughts on this?

 

[Rocky88]

Get the nizoral

 

[shaolin]

anyone know of a reliable website that ships internationally where i can buy nizoral?

 

[maximiliani]

anyone know of a reliable website that ships internationally where i can buy nizoral?

Amazon =)

 

[Thom]

The pharmacy can order Nizoral too. At least Walgreen's pharmacy told me they would.

I'm starting to see it on shelves again though but it sells out quickly!

 

[kc444]

Nizoral's active ingredient is ketoconazole. You may be able to find ketoconazole shampoo under a different name. Rogaine's active ingredient is minoxidil 5%. I'm sure there are generic equivalents in China.

 

[abcdefg]

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I still say if propecia did not exist there would be no fight against hair loss. Without propecia nothing helps against any fundamental process involved with male pattern baldness it will just slowly progress. Nizoral is a minor help at best for most people but you will most likely keep losing plenty of hair even with it.
My opinion is if your using propecia you have no choice but to keep using it or you can try a bunch of other stuff and probably just lose hair like you did before propecia.

 

[shaolin]

i couldnt find a reliable source to ship nizoral to china. i have asked someone from my home country to mail it to me. so now am using finasteride (approx 7.5mg per week) and nizoral twice a week.

will post updated photos in a few months to show you all any progress.

 

[shaolin]

what do you guys consider excessive shedding/hair loss?

i know they say you should lose around 50-100 strands a day...I have no idea how many I lose per day

But when I shampoo my hair in the shower, after rubbing the shampoo in i look at my hands and I have at least 10 strands in my hands..is that normal or?