My 9 months nightmare

[boricotico]

This is my sad vertiginous hair loss story.

I'm 33 yo now. I came to the US In august 2008 at 30 yo age. Until then I never had suffer any significant hair loss, in fact I consider I had a pretty good hair, always healthy and so thick.

Well after my 31 birthday I started to notice a thinner effect on my hair but it was no noticeable to people, actually I remember asking my stylist and He said I had a very good hair.

The real story begun for me just 9 months ago, I remember it was in September 2010 (yeah, just last year) after trimming my hair I noticed a thinner spot in my left side at the parental area it was not so big but I noticed it. My hair grew up and I went to a wedding (I'm going to post some pictures from that day) and the spot was yet tiny to notice.

I went to my Primary Dr. and He told me I was ok, He inspected my hair and He said I could go to the dermatologist but He thought I was just fine, and that time I still was, just a spot and the rest of my head has a good quality hair.

But month after month I expected the hair loss stop yet it continued and I was getting worst. In February I decided to cut my hair very short so I could see how much hair I had lost that time. (I'm posting some pictures too) and actually I was glad I din't see myself too bad.

Well my hair grew again and then again the time came to cut my hair at the end of may. Before that I decided to check my hair in the bathroom light where I used to style it every day with a powerful neon light that always tells the truth. I was so shocked to see I had so many thin almost bald spots all over my head that I decided to go to see a very respectful Dr. in Miami. He saw me, checked my hair and told me I have MPB so I asked him why is this happening to me at this speed, He said it just happens some times. Anyway He send me Propecia and recommend Laser Light Therapy to control the hair loss and between 1600-2100 grafts to repair my hair.

After that I decided to finally take some pictures (I didn't do it before because I didn't think it was too bad and was hoping the phase stopped). I'm really depressed seeing the pictures and I still shocked with the sudden loss. I decided to give it a try to the LLT He recommend me and started on Propecia 15 days ago.

Last Monday I took another set of pictures just to torture myself again and then I trimmed my hair again, I still seeing my hair loss is progressing and I'd like to know when it's going to stop and if possible why it happened to me so ferociuosly, may be I have some health problems or a fungus, I don't know but never had seen anyone losing his hair the way I'm




PS. Look for the dates in the pictures.

[8868alex]

Hi

You have plenty of hair left and the doctor you saw seemed to be giving good advice. There are a some very good doctors in Florida (Charles, Bauman, Epstein) I wish I could visit those guys for treatment as we don't have this in the Uk. You seem to be at a point that I am. A little careful styling and your hair looks pretty full. However, make few changes / ruffle it up and it looks bad. You have to remember that a non balding head will show level of scalp in strong lighting. The crown shot that you provide looks a little thin under those conditions, but please remember, in all likelyhood, people will not see that image (even in sunlight) as you have photographed yourself in extreme, static conditions. You always have minoxidil as well, but I think your doctor knows his stuff. There is a lot of scepticism about Laser therapy but I for one feel that it does have some value (particularly with propecia). For what it's worth I think you've taken action just in time and you will probably be able to stop things getting worse until a new therapy come along. If you are lucky you may even thicken up a little. I know how you feel, but try and take some comfort in this. Stick with your regime, check up with your doctor and find a styling option that you feel good about. Then, put it out of your mind.

Good luck

[boricotico]

Thks alex for share your thoughts with me.

Just to point that.


Pictures
1-6 ----> Between March 2008 and August 2010 Was me before all my loss started.
7-8 ----> October 2010 one month after all this started.
9 -------> February 2011 I decided to cut it very short (comb #2)
10 ------> End April 2011 My crown in a picture during a party outside.
11-15 ---> First days of June after seeing Dr Epstein.
16-19 ---> Last Monday.


What worried me the most is that the progression still being so fast. I know just one month before I could it take the last 4 pictures and no spot would be noticeable and when got it short in February I was much better than now.

Thant's just 4 months ago and I wonder at this pace the Propecia and the LLT might not have time to work.


And I know it's not like the end of the world, actually shouldn't be worried cause at the end it's just hair and I'm able to still doing any activity, but I can't help to keep thinking about it.

I'm thinking to go to see Dr Charles and get a second opinion from Him.

[8868alex]

Great idea to see Dr Charles. The good thing about him (apart from being a genuine, decent guy) is that he is open to numerous therapies. He will discuss PRP and laser therapy with you and will remain honest about how they may or may not work out. If you haven't got much worse on the therapies then I would relax and just see how it goes. I appreciate your concern with regards to the speed of it's progression, but that does not indicate the rate of continual decline for certain. Like I said, you are still in decent shape and have plenty to save. What is sometimes hard is dealing with what is already gone. I think your goal should be maintenance at the moment. Hope it goes well with Dr Charles. Post back after you see him if you can as I'm sure it will be worthy if it.

[boricotico]

Sure I will, I think maybe I'm going to see Him in the next two weeks and Of course I'll post it back and sure I'll share my LLT + Propecia experience periodically.

So far I'm not experiencing any side effect with Propecia, a couple days ago I was feeling so anxious but I relate that to me thinking so much in my loss.

Again I thank you and I'm going to work in trying to relax myself and wait for the therapy to hopefully show me some results.

[8868alex]

Good for you mate. Stay positive and ignore the bullshit. I wish you all the best!

[VictimOfDHT]

I feel the pain, man. I too have been losing a lot of hair. Just 3 or 4 months ago my hairline looked different. It was thick and full. Now it looks like shit. I don't understand how or why shedding can happen so quickly all of a sudden. It only slowed down a bit but hasn't stopped and I'm really scared. Hopefully Fin and Minox will help stabilize your hair loss or even regrow some back.

[boricotico]

Thks VictimofDHT. I know many folks here share my pain and that just make me feel not so alone. I hate that I started to live in the shadows and keep wondering what could possibly happened with me that triggered my loss and I'm not a Dr. but there would be something that just made this start.

Anyway I'm trying now to stop thinking about it and just waiting for Propecia + LLT + Rogaine results. I've been taking the pill for 20 days and I guess it's pretty soon to tell.

[VictimOfDHT]

You're welcome, man. Unfortunately, even when you know many others suffer from the same thing you do, that still doesn't take away the pain and depression.

It's hard to forget about hair loss when you have to look in the mirror every day.

Yeah, just keep using the meds and see what happens. You might be one of the lucky ones.

[boricotico]

Well I finally went to see Dr. Charles.

First I have to say He's a very nice person and I was very confident with Him. He gave me his valuable opinion and that's I should at least wait 6 months to see how Propecia works and that I'm actually not so bad (still being bad if I consider I had no problem just 9 months ago) and that I have a very good donor area more than average and finally if I go with HT I'll need 1500-2000 grafts. He also was so kind to give me a large prescription for finasteride.

Overall I think it was a good meeting and I'm sure I'm going to see Dr Charles again in six months.

What I missed to ask Him is something I'm worried. I've read finasteride purpose is merely stop further hair loss but I wonder what happens with the miniaturized hair already have? am I going to loss that hair that's already miniaturized or it's just going to remain that way? I'm wondering because at the beginning it was just a little spot I had that way but month after month it was growing fast and now I can say I have thin hair (maybe not miniaturized yet) all over my top and if I'm going to lose that then the finasteride don't make much sense to me. However if finasteride could make me keep that thin hair I can say I still have a chance.

Last Friday I cut my hair with #2 , very short as I did it last February and I saw a really noticeable difference, back those days I could say my hair still in very good condition and just had a thinner spot on the left an very little in my right temples , nowadays I can say those spots are wider and also went all over my top =(

The progression makes me wonder what can I expect in the coming 6 months.

Anyway I recently reached my Propecia's first month and LLT in home 2nd month. I'm also applying Rogaine at nights only. I can say I've seen a lot of my hairs in the ground
and when applying the Rogaine gently I see like 15-30 hairs falling. That for me is too much cause I remember using gel to style my hair before all of this and I used to see no more than 10 hairs falling down. Also I'm feeling some burning down my bladder, it's not so bad but I guess it's maybe because of the Propecia.

Greetings you all.