JimmyG
03-19-2009, 05:12 AM
Hi all,
Firstly a thank you to the creators and participants of this forum. I only discovered it a few hours ago, but from my experience running online communities and what I have seen here so far, this forum is about as high quality as you can get. To see so many professionals and experts from all over the world posting in the forum is quite amazing. :)
My story: I'm a 23 year old male, dark brown wavy hair, who has been experiencing thinning and recession at the hairline and temples since around 19 or so, progressing to a clear M hairline. Right now I'm somewhere approaching a Norwood 3.
It's become particularly bothersome in the past year or so - I've begun to notice the odd comment or two, am becoming VERY self-conscious about it, have a frustrating time trying to do my hair (and it *always* looks terrible without 'creative' styling), hate it when the wind blows strongly, don't want to get my hair wet in public, don't want anyone touching my hair etc.
It wouldn't be so obvious had I not been born with a high hairline, but unfortunately the combination is now very unaesthetic. The problem is clearly not going away, and is beginning to consume alot of mental energy, so it's time to do something about it. Thankfully, modern medicine gives me this option. :)
I clarified in another thread that there is at least one doctor here in Australia who specialises in HT procedures (Dr Woods). So that takes care of that in the slightly longer term, unless I still want to fly to the USA to have it done by someone else, for whatever conceivable reason.
I think the first step however is to prevent any more loss (something I wish I had done 2 years ago - in this case, 'wait and see' was not the best approach).
From what I have read, the starting point is a prescription for Propecia, but I'm not entirely sure who to speak to. General family doctor? Dermatologist?
Fortunately a close relative is a doctor, so I can get prescriptions for just about anything, but I want to know who would be the best to create a 'Master Plan' to do the initial consultation, track my progress, do follow-ups, manage my case when I get the HT procedure, etc. I want to do this in the correct way.
Basically my concern is that not all doctors are created equal, and I'm paranoid that a doctor I see might not be very knowledgable about treating hairloss, as opposed to one of the gurus like Dr Woods or the Drs listed on the IAHRS site, whom I unfortunately don't have access to locally.
On one hand I feel cursed for having to deal with this problem, but on the other hand, incredibly blessed that there are options to fix it, communities like this to help me, and I've caught it relatively early...
Thoughts?
P.S. Apologies for the long read!!
Cheers,
Jim
Firstly a thank you to the creators and participants of this forum. I only discovered it a few hours ago, but from my experience running online communities and what I have seen here so far, this forum is about as high quality as you can get. To see so many professionals and experts from all over the world posting in the forum is quite amazing. :)
My story: I'm a 23 year old male, dark brown wavy hair, who has been experiencing thinning and recession at the hairline and temples since around 19 or so, progressing to a clear M hairline. Right now I'm somewhere approaching a Norwood 3.
It's become particularly bothersome in the past year or so - I've begun to notice the odd comment or two, am becoming VERY self-conscious about it, have a frustrating time trying to do my hair (and it *always* looks terrible without 'creative' styling), hate it when the wind blows strongly, don't want to get my hair wet in public, don't want anyone touching my hair etc.
It wouldn't be so obvious had I not been born with a high hairline, but unfortunately the combination is now very unaesthetic. The problem is clearly not going away, and is beginning to consume alot of mental energy, so it's time to do something about it. Thankfully, modern medicine gives me this option. :)
I clarified in another thread that there is at least one doctor here in Australia who specialises in HT procedures (Dr Woods). So that takes care of that in the slightly longer term, unless I still want to fly to the USA to have it done by someone else, for whatever conceivable reason.
I think the first step however is to prevent any more loss (something I wish I had done 2 years ago - in this case, 'wait and see' was not the best approach).
From what I have read, the starting point is a prescription for Propecia, but I'm not entirely sure who to speak to. General family doctor? Dermatologist?
Fortunately a close relative is a doctor, so I can get prescriptions for just about anything, but I want to know who would be the best to create a 'Master Plan' to do the initial consultation, track my progress, do follow-ups, manage my case when I get the HT procedure, etc. I want to do this in the correct way.
Basically my concern is that not all doctors are created equal, and I'm paranoid that a doctor I see might not be very knowledgable about treating hairloss, as opposed to one of the gurus like Dr Woods or the Drs listed on the IAHRS site, whom I unfortunately don't have access to locally.
On one hand I feel cursed for having to deal with this problem, but on the other hand, incredibly blessed that there are options to fix it, communities like this to help me, and I've caught it relatively early...
Thoughts?
P.S. Apologies for the long read!!
Cheers,
Jim