What norwood am I? Should I start fin?

[kerelt]

Hello all.

Can anyone tell me what norwood stage I am and help me around with finasteride?
My hair has been a huge bottleneck on my mind past year and I need to move forward from it cause it's starting to make me feel depressed and controlling my mind.
It's important for me cause I got bipolar disorder and sometimes I feel nothing is wrong with my hair and others days I get nauseated by the ''signs of balding'', which leaves me very confused and unstable regarding my hair and works as a ''trigger'' for my disorder..

My hair is currently still really thick with some thinning on the corners of my hair and the right temple. The left temple points seem to be fine. Is this normal?

I'll be 23 in march, I barely lose hairs when showering, styling etc.

Here are some picture's

Hair combed back
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Left side. Notice little hairs growing back after I shaved them off, they looked really odd and thinned out so I removed them to see how it looked like if they were just completely receded.
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Right side, which appears to be worse
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This is me when I was young
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So what norwood am I on atm? Do you think it's wise to start fin now? and how much should I take?

Honest replies are really appreciated. I know it's probably not as bad as most people are experiencing here but i'd just like to know if I'm receding faster than I should of for my age.
Also a little information on what you guys look at when determining whether ill recede further or not would be amazing. thanks

[Notcoolanymore]

You are an early norwood, I would say NW2. I started losing hair around 22, if I could go back in time I would have started fin then.

[Jackaly]

What does that exactly mean, an early norwood? Is there a difference between being an early norwood and maturing of the hairline?

Can I expect it to go much further as years progress or how does that work?

[robincurtz]

consult a doctor. if u r not balding is good.but if u r balding it would quickly damage your hairline.fin is a good medicine.

[KMoney]

Doesn't fin come with nasty side effects?

[BiqqieSmalls]

You are an early norwood, I would say NW2. I started losing hair around 22, if I could go back in time I would have started fin then.

Dude, may I ask why you didn't start the big three then; 22 years old? I started losing hair at 19, gradually thinning and receding and I thought it was part of getting older. I didn't do anything about it because I had no clue about the treatments. Furthermore, I had no idea these forums existed.

[Jaclyn]

Doesn't fin come with nasty side effects?

I would disagree here. Fin is wonderful medicine, my husband is taking it for long time now. I would say, if you take it “under your physician’s guidance”, at an appropriate dosage, it wouldn’t cause any serious side effect. Most of the side effects associated with Fin are in our head, because we focus on them more instead of actual benefits. At the beginning, always start with lower dose and then increase the dose gradually if necessary. Chances of side effects increase if you start with higher dose directly. Most of them are temporary in nature and go away when you stop taking drug. Its natural tendency of us to correlate any abnormal feeling with drug we are taking and start blaming it; rather its disadvantage of incomplete knowledge we get from “Dr. Google”.

[mpb47]

I would disagree here. Fin is wonderful medicine, my husband is taking it for long time now. I would say, if you take it “under your physician’s guidance”, at an appropriate dosage, it wouldn’t cause any serious side effect. Most of the side effects associated with Fin are in our head, because we focus on them more instead of actual benefits. At the beginning, always start with lower dose and then increase the dose gradually if necessary. Chances of side effects increase if you start with higher dose directly. Most of them are temporary in nature and go away when you stop taking drug. Its natural tendency of us to correlate any abnormal feeling with drug we are taking and start blaming it; rather its disadvantage of incomplete knowledge we get from “Dr. Google”.

The only thing I will add is I would take the middle of the road approch ..that is use it but keep an eye out for gradual sides and use a lower dose if you can do that.

I got off of it because of sides, but I don't think it is entirely due to propecia, but rather the propecia was a catyalist. By that I mean when my weight is under control, everything is fine. When weight comes back , I seem to get sides. I let my weight start creeping up again last year and I think that is my main issue. Starting running again 2 months ago and will give it another go when weight is back under control.

If your health is good, you may never have any issues, just keep an eye out for gradual sides just in case.

The good news is the drug works really well for many people, just give it a good year as for me, it was much slower than minox yet worked much better if that makes sense.

[Hairismylife]

consult a doctor. if u r not balding is good.but if u r balding it would quickly damage your hairline.fin is a good medicine.

What!? Fin would damage hairline?

[RanDave]

I haven't seen the photos, as they are removed.

As about finasteride, I'd like to mention that it is true, starting any medication the patient should always keep an eye for any unusual conditions and to coordinate the steps with health practitioner who is always available.
But I'd also like to tell that there is no need to be too paranoid, as it can also play a bad joke on you. Expectation for any side effects can lead to their real occurrence. That is why, I suggest you to be patient and to behave as if you take vitamin tablets. And I'm sure you will notice only fin's good effect.

[Notcoolanymore]

Dude, may I ask why you didn't start the big three then; 22 years old? I started losing hair at 19, gradually thinning and receding and I thought it was part of getting older. I didn't do anything about it because I had no clue about the treatments. Furthermore, I had no idea these forums existed.

Like you I also had no clue about treatments. I did see a doctor when I was in my mid 20's and he said there was nothing I could do. He was a complete moron and I would tell that ahole off if I ever saw him again.