One year and half my hair later. - Bald Truth Talk - Hair Loss, Hair Transplant and Hair Restoration Community

Identity Loss · 08-15-2012, 07:19 PM

It started soon after my 31st birthday. I was shocked and in disbelief once I noticed I was losing my hair. I have always had very thick hair and have zero family history of hairloss. Not only do I have full headed men on both sides of my immediate family, but my mother has an ancestral wall with photos of our family members going back to the mid 1800's. Not a bald head in the bunch. One thing that I'm sure is making thigs worse is my exceptionally stressful job.

It's been about a year now since my nightmare began and I've been doing all I can with poor results.

Since I still had most of my hair I started on Propecia. All was well until I was about two weeks in and started to experience sever insomnia. I tried to stick with it but it was getting to the point where my body was extremely weak due to the lack of sleep. I stopped with the propecia for a week until my sleep cycle normalized. I then started with taking half the dose (0.5mg) hoping I could get my body used to it. The insomnia started right back up again. Propecia just wasn't an option for me.

I then started to use Revivogen as my DHT blocker along with using Rogain foam to help grow back what I lost. For a few months I noticed the tiny new hairs from the minoxidil but I was still losing my hair at a rapid rate.

Then there were the minoxidil side effects. I had a lot of water retention to the point where my face ballooned and my clothes didn't fit right. A few months in my skin started to look like I smoked a carton of cigarettes a day.

I stuck with this combination for about 9 months but my hairloss has excellerated greatly. My sink is full of hair every morning just from mild brushing. My desk is littered with hairs and I've picked two off this iPad while writing this.

I finally gave up on the minoxidil recently once I started experiencing a rapid heart rate roughly an hour after each application. After the last episode of rapid heart rate ,which lasted about 10 minutes, my doctor and I thought it was time to call it quits. The side effects now outweighed the benifets.

In one year, I went from noticing a few extra hairs falling from my head to losing over half my hair volume on the top of my head and now a topical DHT treatment is all I have left as I try to fight this.

That's my story so far. Advice is welcomed. Photos shortly.

UK_ · 08-15-2012, 07:29 PM

I also had sleep issues with Propecia.

All the treatments we have are shit, Propecia causes side effects, minox is a joke, and everything else is just a scam.

Soxfaninfl · 08-15-2012, 07:30 PM

Did you try a sleep aid while on propecia? Maybe give it more time. That is crazy that you have no hair loss in your family, but your experiencing it. I knew that their was hair loss in mine, but it was still a shock to me that I had to deal with hair loss. Well don't feel too bad because my friends wife lost all of her hair. I mean everything. She wears a wig and has no body hair whatsoever not even eye brows. Did you try proscar or where you cutting the propecia pills in half?

Identity Loss · 08-15-2012, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soxfaninfl

Did you try a sleep aid while on propecia? Maybe give it more time. That is crazy that you have no hair loss in your family, but your experiencing it. I knew that their was hair loss in mine, but it was still a shock to me that I had to deal with hair loss. Well don't feel too bad because my friends wife lost all of her hair. I mean everything. She wears a wig and has no body hair whatsoever not even eye brows. Did you try proscar or where you cutting the propecia pills in half?

I've taken Lunesta and Ambien before my hairloss becuase I have trouble falling asleep. They would help me fall asleep initally but then after 3 hours of sleep I'd be wide awake even on the highest dosage. I've found that working out after work helps me best.

I read somewhere that DHT is used in the brain to aide in the synthesis of nitric oxide which is used to allow the brain to go into REM sleep which explains what I was experiencing. While I would lightly doze for a few minutes at a time, I could never experience REM sleep.

I was just cutting the 1mg propecia pills in half.

Dan26 · 08-15-2012, 08:48 PM

If insomnia was the only side effect that you got from Propecia, and it went a way when you stopped using is, maybe it is worth one more shot at 0.25 mg days a part or even less. 0.05mg all the way to 5mg inhibit the same amount of DHT. When you took it at 0.5mg, would you say the sides were just as severe as when you took it at 1mg?

If you want to scrap Propecia all together, look into RU.

yeahyeahyeah · 08-16-2012, 05:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Identity Loss

I've taken Lunesta and Ambien before my hairloss becuase I have trouble falling asleep. They would help me fall asleep initally but then after 3 hours of sleep I'd be wide awake even on the highest dosage. I've found that working out after work helps me best.

I read somewhere that DHT is used in the brain to aide in the synthesis of nitric oxide which is used to allow the brain to go into REM sleep which explains what I was experiencing. While I would lightly doze for a few minutes at a time, I could never experience REM sleep.

I was just cutting the 1mg propecia pills in half.

What do you work as, if you don't me asking?

DepressedByHairLoss · 08-16-2012, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UK_

I also had sleep issues with Propecia.

All the treatments we have are shit, Propecia causes side effects, minox is a joke, and everything else is just a scam.

Amen to that UK, and I'm glad I'm not the only one saying it. Only a small fraction of hair loss sufferers opt for today's treatments because today's treatments are not nearly as effective as they need to be and some of them come with highly negative downsides, especially with regards to hair transplants. As I've said plenty of times before, it's downright ridiculous that in today's day and age, we don't have much better treatments for hair loss.

PatientlyWaiting · 08-17-2012, 12:29 PM

Not that I want to have any of these side effects but I don't know why the hell I don't have any of these finasteride side effects. I sleep like a Bear, nothing wrong with me sexually, no girl titties. I don't get it. I'm just seriously immune to all of these side effects or something. I take 1.25mg fin daily for nearly 2 years, it stopped my hair loss but never gave me regrowth.

PatientlyWaiting · 08-17-2012, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DepressedByHairLoss

As I've said plenty of times before, it's downright ridiculous that in today's day and age, we don't have much better treatments for hair loss.

I agree, but hair loss is looked down because it's not "physically" harmful.

I guess that's all that matters. It doesn't matter how harmful it is mentally and socially. A disease has to literally hurt or kill you for people to take notice.

DepressedByHairLoss · 08-19-2012, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PatientlyWaiting

I agree, but hair loss is looked down because it's not "physically" harmful.

I guess that's all that matters. It doesn't matter how harmful it is mentally and socially. A disease has to literally hurt or kill you for people to take notice.

I know, and this is what pisses me off more than anything: that hair loss is regarded as some kind of joke by a lot of people. That in part is why we have such s****y options to treat it. However, there are plenty of other diseases out there that are not physically harmful that get like 100 times more attention than hair loss does.