My 8 Year Plan

[Fixed by 35]

I have read countless blogs and articles about the side effects of finasteride, the unknown dangers of dutasteride, the uselessness of herbal remedies and, worst of all, a lot of nonsense about learning to accept baldness and shaving the lot off. I think all of this, in this day and age, is not only defeatist nonsense but also a dangerous route to embark upon.

First, a bit about me. I'm 27 and I began losing my hair some time around the age of 19 or 20. I suffered a huge telogen effluvium when I was 19 and receding temples began to become prominent by 20. My remaining hair also became much more dry, kinked and uncontrollable thereafter. Since that time I have lost further hair at only a very slow rate but without intervention a Norwood VII is pretty inevitable by 60 (my father had a similar experience and is currently a Norwood Va at 50). I absolutely detest my appearance almost as much as I would detest my appearance with a shaved head, but I have never made any effort to 'cover up' because that would look even worse (though not as bad as a shaved head - I should point out I really really detest this look).

I think I would have been more accepting of hair loss if it was the one troublesome thing I have had to deal with in life. The trouble is I've gone through my whole life always being the most unlucky person within my group of friends. If something bad is statistically going to happen, it always happens to me. Indeed, should I ever grow my hair back, perhaps I should be concerned about what will happen next. Losing a limb perhaps, or an eye?

Anyway, enough negativity, I have now decided that I will have a full head of hair by 35, or I will die trying. As far as I see it, I have three choices in this life:

1) Living another 50 years with a look I detest, experiencing continued prejudice, unable to make a good first impression, unable to express my personality and going through the continued psychological changes that baldness causes.

2) Take extreme risks, such as taking dutasteride at high levels despite there being no testing of its safety, in an effort to get the look I want. This will either result in:

a) A full head of hair.
b) Death.

But at least I would have tried. It's worth taking the odd risk in life to get what you want. I'm prepared to be every doctor's guinea pig and every bald person's danger man to fight this horrible affliction.

Before you say I'm mad and need to learn acceptance, let me just say this. Hair loss stole my personality at 20. It has made me less confident; more introvert; more reclusive; more irritable; more negative towards others and more docile. If I continue to lose hair, all of these negative personality traits will get worse. To me, acceptance and a shaved head would actually be nothing more than an expression of my new, negative personality. It would mean giving up and succombing to a life I have no particular interest in living, where even the last fight, this fight, had been drawn out of me. Acceptance does not just mean accepting a loss of hair, it means accepting that you must be second best, that you have no right to look good and worst of all it means accepting a more introverted personality because like it or not this does not go away. You don't just lose your youth to hairloss then later learn to accept it on your terms, you learn to accept it on society's terms which are not favourable. The day I shave my head is the day I expect to then turn the razor on my wrists.

So, I have eight years to do something about this and I'm going to do it all. I'm going to start taking dutasteride at 0.5mg per day and will increase dosage after 6 months if results aren't visable; I'm going to take a mega load of saw palmetto and beta sitosterol and I'm going to use revivogen which, whilst often derided, is full of natural DHT blockers, in particular saw palmetto and beta sitosterol which I think will be beneficial topically (the shampoo is also much nicer than the cheap commercial rubbish like Pantene and L'Oreal). I won't use minoxidil simply because it's a load of old rubbish.

I'm going to put myself forward for every clinical trial going. I'll use histogen's product when it is available; I'm invested in Aderans and I support TRX-2.

At 34 I'll have a hair transplant and....

If none of that works, I plan to move to the outback of Australia or somewhere else equally remote to become a recluse, until I'm blessed by the good grace of a terminal illness.

[clee984]

I like you.

[thejack]

Thats the exact same mentality I have!! You'll probably find some dont agree but I'd rather die than fade away.. Baldness drains some peoples confidence so much in turn draining their personality therefore becoming a nobody. Whats the point in existing as a shadow of the person you could have been? Hope your plan all works out for you man . If mine fails, see ya in the outback haha

[Fixed by 35]

You're too kind.

What too many people forget to say is that acceptance is not the last stage of the balding process, except for men who look like Vin Diesel. Most men don't look like Vin Diesel.

Oddly, a lot of people seem to think hair is just about being attractive. The thing with me is that I was ugly with hair and ugly without it. Just like 99.9% of the population. It's just that with it, I could at least express my personality! Ugliness never bothered me, so I was initially surprised at how much the hair loss did. I think maybe it's the fact that I've always thought that it's okay to be ugly as long as you don't look like a chav or a convict. The shaved head is a chav/convict look.

Some people have tried to convince me bald can look respectable but it can't. The list of celebrities they rattle off to convince me proves my point, not theirs! Except maybe Heston Blumenthal, but he's not actually balding.

The reality is that after 'acceptance' comes 'what now.' I went through a process of acceptance with very short hair. Guess what happened next? Once you let blogs brainwash you into thinking bald is cool or acceptable, you start to get on with your life. Then it suddenly dawns on you. The men with shaved heads at work are not in positions of responsibility unless they are exceptional; lots of loud mouthed idiots with hair get to the top without trying. You realise you were right all along; hair is socially very important. For a lot of men, they've let their follicles died and they're finished.

I'm not and I do not intend to let it happen to me.

[Fixed by 35]

Has anyone not noticed on most company websites that their career page has a picture of a man with stupid amounts of hair? If you're bald, you can still succeed, but you will not have the same life chances as someone with hair. Whereas they can walk into any job, you can only walk into jobs with companies who are not image conscious. Or, in other words, companies that are fewer and far between every single day.

No one cares about abilities these days. You don't actually have to be that good at something to succeed at it these days; skills are long since dead in the entrepreneurial, service economy. Intellect is treated with suspicion and envy rather than fascination. Perception is everything, so hair matters.

Bald men are condemned to be the background figure. Actually, there's often a token bald man on those career websites. Looking considerably older than his peers, he's the one still doing the same job he was doing 10 years ago whilst his younger, hirsuit colleague is his manager in the picture!

The fact is you can be the most confident person in the world. But the truth is you will be forced into the background if you are bald whether you like it or not.

[StayStrongMen]

Woah there buddy! I am going to have to disagree with a lot of what you said.

First of all, I'd take shaved head over a Norwood VII any day of the week. This is just my opinion but I think it looks 10x better and many girls and guys I talk to tend to agree. The exception is if you have an odd-shaped head....but to say that shaving your head equals giving up on life is RIDICULOUS! I often see shaved men on the street who look real handsome. (I'm straight and I have no problem saying that ) If this wasn't the case, then the people who choose to shaved their hair down to the skin, that actually have hair, wouldn't be doing so.


2nd of all, without a HT, you aren't going to miraculously grow that hair back. You seem very educated on hair loss based on what you said in your post. Hairloss happens practically to everyone, but at different rates of progression and different times of our lives. I started losing my hair pretty fast at 20 as well. If the hairloss is agressive, you and I both know that overdosing on every Hairloss treatment in the world isn't going to take us to a Norwood I or II.

And that sucks. I hear you. It defiinitely makes a serious psychological impact. Close friends making comments, girls not running up to you...I'm the same boat. It was terrible.

I completely disagree about the hair = people with power comment. If I really thought this was true, I'd buy a quality wig, and I'd be happy. Yeah there's some exceptions (running for president, the entertainment industry), but again, I'd buy a wig if I wanted to go that route.

I do agree that people with hair may have it easier, and people who are the best looking may have it easier. You say hair matters. While this is true, you say it as if it's the ONLY THING THAT MATTERS. There' other ways you can be attractive! Good personality & sense of humor, great body...these things do get you the jobs at interviews!

You may be thinking "I wish this guy would shut up, that's what everyone says and it's not true." I'm living proof my man! In my opinion, confidence is the main driver of a successful and happy life, not good looks. My current gf chose me over a very handsome man but she saw right through those good looks and realized he was a douche, and that I was a keeper

YOU GOT TO ADAPT MY MAN! YOU GOTTA MOVE ON! I've been thriving off a new-born personality since my hairloss became more agressive. I've lost a ton of fat and put on a ton of muscle. It's made me into a better person! If someone makes a comment about my lack of hair, I love it. I thrive off of it. I get in their head that having hair sucks lol!

I'm sorry to hear about your lifetime of bad luck. But looking at your life in such a negative light is not the way to go. If you act like your the f'n man, people will start treating you like your the f'n man. You can laugh at me but this is 100% fact. It seems to be that you're confidence was shattered when you lost your hair (like the rest of us). You need to find a way to get that confidence back.

Keep fighting hairloss, but please don't do the things you say you're going to do. You claim that you're permanently in the background due to your baldness. That's how YOU see it. Carry yourself in a confident manner and I GUARANTEE you will see some changes.

By the time you're 35 I have a hunch you're not going to care that much about your hair anyway.

[Fixed by 35]

Okay, just a quick response for now:

1) People who choose to shave their heads but have hair are chavs. They do it to look like David Beckham. A shaved head does look better than a Norwood VII, but it doesn't look that much better and frankly it would be far too much effort to spend 30 minutes every single day shaving my head to go from looking very bad to just bad.

2) I know I need a HT. Planning to do so at 34, in seven years time. If my family hairline is anything to go by, I expect it will be a very successful procedure. I'm currently a Norwood 3a. Don't ask me how, I lost hair in the first year and it's hardly changed in the last six.

3) I actually wanted to go into politics. I was probably made bald by fate to stop me doing it, because I'd be an awful politician!

4) Hair mattered to me because I don't have a strong personality or a good sense of humour. Looking average helped a lot. Now I have absolutely no positive traits whatsoever. The only jobs I've succeeded at getting in the last four years were with bald or balding interviewers. I failed every interview with people with hair. Figure that one out!

5) Confidence is great. I have some about my abilities but I'm also a realist. People's attitudes towards me changed when I lost my hair and a big gulf grew between what my abilities were and what they were perceived to be. Guess what? I spend all day doing a crap, unchallenging job because an idiot with hair makes a better impression than me.

6) I am not spending 50 or 60 years as a bald man. I have no interest in playing the hand of cards I've been dealt. The only game I want to play is a risky one. If I fail, I quit. I won't do anything stupid like kill myself, but I will definitely stop doing anything to prolong my life. I see a life of fatty foods, excessive alcohol and no exercise ahead! Hair by 35 or a huge binge followed by a fatal heart attack by 36. That's my plan!

[recedo]

come on mate, reading this makes me want to shave my head and u watch what i achieve. there's loads of balding guys, who've done what they wanted to, jason statham, goldie, mitchell bros, rooney and tons more. It sucks going bald and i'm just about to try minox, fin and nizoral, but if they don't work i will just shave it off and move on. THERE'S MORE TO LIFE THAN HAIR!!!!
peace.

[Fixed by 35]

Baldness only started bothering me when I started getting treated differently by others. I went from high flier to career stagnation from the year it started to seven years later. That's not through lack of hard work or results either.

I get overlooked at work all the time by hairy idiots and I've grown sick of it. The previous company I worked for, they did a photo shoot to market the company - out of the 8 employees, guess who the only one without any photos on the website was?

[hdude46]

Listen man,

Everyone on here has been affected by hairloss and are seeking remedies to treat it. It is very very hard to deal with. With that said, I feel sorry for people like you with this outlook on life. If the be all end all to your existence is hair then u are an empty person. You are being treated differently b/c u act differently. Yes, some of that is b/c u lost hair, but if u are counting on this to get you to succeed in life then i dont really know what to say to you. I have more than a few friends who are thinning too and no one treats them any differently. They are still outgoing, still get girls, good jobs, ect. Most men will loose some hair in their life. Its harder to accept now but as I look at my dads friends very view of them have a 'full head of hair'.

I would encourage you to work on your self esteem issues b/c hair is not the only thing holding u back whether u believe that or not. It does suck as Im dealing with it myslef at a young age (almost 26 and a nw3), but im taking proscar and doing what i can to slow the process. my dad is a nw1 and so are my brothers. no relatives are too bald so i dont think i'll get to a nw 6 or 7 knock on wood but its still hard. however u have one life to life and if u let this get in the wasy u will regret it when u are much older.

[heynow1234]

HAHAHA i gotta say i disagree with you on this one, but that line about "Hair by 35 or a huge binge followed by a fatal heart attack by 36. That's my plan!" is freaking hilarious, i sometimes think like that too and then i smack some sense into my head. Half the men in my family are bald and they all have awesome successful lives and families, so when I think of that I don't feel too bad. Im 26 now and a shitty NW 3 or possibly even worse, i grow my hair long and can cover to an extent. I just keep telling myself, that hair cloning or something will be around by the time im 35 so whats the worst that happens i suck it up for 10 years and live the life of a bald dude and then get my hair back. I dont ever think id get a transplant alot of the ones ive seen look pretty shitty. Hair loss sucks but billions of men have gone through it and prospered, and I refuse to think that they are all better and stronger than us!

Hang in there man, and if you do reach 35 and are bald let me know about that binge, id like to join you, it sounds like a blast!

[Fixed by 35]

Despite beginning to lose hair early, I think it's unlikely that I will reach a Norwood VI until I'm 60. I am perhaps fortunate in that my hair loss is very slow - I only recently started taking dutasteride again a week ago after spending three years doing nothing at all with very little regression. For the four years before that my efforts were sporadic and didn't involve much more than Revivogen shampoo. You may wonder why I took so little action at the beginning. Well, it used to bother me less and I didn't really think anything would work anyway. I've now been convinced by dutasteride, I like using Revivogen whether it works or not and I've also realised my plan to just wait for the cure could be fatal (the big future cures seem to be based on stopping any further follicles dying and regenerating healthy hair, so it's extremely important to hold on to what's left. I doubt anything will ever come out that works for a Norwood VII in my lifetime).

The two most concerning aspects of hair loss for me are not personal appearance or women. I have a stable relationship and besides basic hygeine appearances have never really concerned me. What is concerning is the way people treat you differently and the amount of extra work involved to change that.

When I was ugly, overweight and had hair I was still taken seriously. When I started losing hair, I didn't try to hide it, I didn't comb it over, I just cut it shorter. Since that day, I have received snide comments and my careers stalled, not for want of trying. I wasn't the one who lost confidence in me when my hair started to fall out; it was other people. Don't try to convince me otherwise. And by the way, I still think I'm great! I've still got my high IQ and my qualifications, I still have my work ethic. It's just a shame you need hair to sell it. I have a lot of confidence in myself, just no confidence in society's ability to operate without prejudice!

The only way you can become socially acceptable again, from what I can tell, is to shave your head so you look like a neo-Nazi and then spend most of your free time at the gym. I presume diet has to change too. Now, I'm sorry, but that is just too much work. I don't mind spending a lot of my time trying to regain hair, because I'm motivated to do it, but the idea of spending a significant portion of my life at the sink or in the gym just so my baldness can be socially acceptable is just not going to happen.

Seriously, why has no one else ever given this more thought? Shaving your face takes about 10 minutes, your head probably another 20. Shaving for 30 minutes every single day, just so you can look like a fashionable Nazi instead of a goof ball? Seriously now, life is too short that.

The there's the gym work. What, 1 hour a day, 7 hours a week, 365 hours a year, 10,920 hours of my life before I'm too old to need to be socially acceptable anymore? Just to look like Vin Diesel or someone else equally chavvy looking? There's no way I'm giving up a year and a half of my life for that.

And it's not just the gym either is it? Then there's diet. Basically, I'd have to adopt the diet of a diabetic or some other disease to look 'buff' enough. And they say hair loss sufferers only have a cosmetic problem. When you have to start changing your diet, that's a medical problem in my book! Plus, cooking has been a hobby all my life, I'm not going to give it up to eat rabbit food so I can look like a thinner version of Mussolini.

From what I can tell, there's three choices. First, be socially unacceptable and just bounce from one failure to the next until you can retire. Second, there's the option of giving up on your health, enjoying the binge and dying young. Finally, there's making an effort to be socially acceptable which will take up a huge amount of your free time. As far as I see it, cneither onstant failure or a life in the gym is particularly appealling, so I choose option 2.

[wheresMYhairDUDE]

Fixed By 35 - I arrived at your post from a search for one of the medications you metioned.

My story; my hair probably started thinning when I was 22 and has been ever since to the critical point - I'm 34 now and at the point where a visible bald spot is starting to form around my vertex, I have visible slight receeding hairline something lesser than a NW 2A (but not 2) and in my opinion if the pattern continues then one day I'll wake up a NW 5a, then a NW 6 then possibly a NW 7.

Do I want to be bald: NO.

Am I going to do something about it: YES - but in moderation and sensibly and not that it takes over my life.

If nothing helps: F**k it, shave it off and get on with my life - I know plenty of bald guys who are top people and get on with life. While I don't like the idea (and would prefer to have a head full of hair) I'm not going to let life pass me buy while I faff about with bald treatments and remedies and deal with side effects.

While reading your post I am overwhelmed by the level of negativity and defeatism you are projecting. I agree having hair is cool but not a necessity for a fruitful life. Obviously I can only comment on the state of play in England and can genuinley say that from my experience, in the employment market there is little difference (& significance) whether you have a full head of hair or are bald - unless of course you are applying for a shampoo commercial acting job.

Unless things are seriously different where you are from my gut feel is that you are being way too negative and have crossed over to a view of extreme negativity, defeatism and have other issues.

Yes, hairloss bothers me (hence why I am here) but then again I'm not the first or last male who will have this issue - obviously until a 'cure' or permanent 'fix' is released.

As I said before, I know a lot of balding, balder or men with shaved heads who accept their hairloss situation and are getting on with life (wit the people around them) and not letting their hair situation interfere.

If you are genuinely reflecting your feelings and anticipated actions in your post then so be it, but from what you have written I get the impression that you are letting (or anticipate) your hair situation get in the way of your day to day life. I also get the feeling that because of this you are shutting yourself out in day to day life in some way and it is this which has resulted in others treating you differently and hence lead to your convinced opinion that this is because you are subject to hairloss. I can only speak from my experience in England, but while hairloss certainly changes the way you look and may make you less attractive to some ladies it doesn't change you as a person. I have a couple of schoolfriends who have gone through hairloss and they have excellent personal situations as they have strong personalities and are nice people.

Sure I'm going to give hairloss treatments a go - I have started using rogain foam twice a day, taking some supplements once a day and am now looking to order some propecia or avodart to incorporate it into my regime. I'll give it a go as its fairly nice and easy. If I don't see results then thats too bad - the next step will be to consider a hair transplant. If all that fails then, hey ho, I'm going to keep what hair I have left very short or shave it all off completely. When that time comes I'll see how I look with either option. By no means am I going to turn into a boring old fart with a bald head - I'll still be me, but minus the hair - we come into the world bald and chances are will leave the world bald - its quite a consistent outcome.

If I find people will treat me differently with no hair, then f**k them, I'll find new people to hang out with - everyone is probably better off without people who can be so shallow. I'm still me, same person, same personality - but with little or no hair. My schoolfriends who have lost their hair are still the same person inside but with less or no hair on their heads and while they look different to school photos they are still the same lazy cheeky buggers with crap jokes and crap taste in music.

Bottom line in my opinion is that if hairloss bothers you so much then its going to take over your life. You seemingly 'slag' off shaving your head as in your estimation it takes too long each day, then you slag off men who work out as it also takes up a lot of time and involves a special diet. Well not every bald man works out to, I would go as far as to say the majority of bald/ing men don't work out and just accept it. Personally you just have to do what you feel comfortable with, whether it is shaving your head on a daily basis and working out or from your perspective feeling bitter about it and hating people around you. I mean, if you feel hair is so important to you then why don't you go for a hair transplant or if that isn't viable, get a wig.... thats like an instant fix - full head of hair with a well made modern wig - yes there is maintenance involved but its all relative to how much you value it.

Personally, from reading over your comments I get the impression that you are either over exagerating in your posts for some reason or you have outstanding issues in addition to hairloss.

Bottom line is that nobody wants to be bald, far from it, but then again the majority of men accept it and get on with their lives to the max, as you should. Its a fact of life and something that lots of people other than balding men accept. Bottom line is baldness isn't life threatening and if all that happens to you in life is you go bald - then I'd consier myself to have had a good life.

[Fixed by 35]

From reading your posts, I think you would be shocked and appalled at what goes on in some of the board rooms in England. As a former auditor, who regularly performed audit testing on companies' payrolls in the UK, I would like to point out the following:

1) I never audited a company in two years where the managing director was bald.

2) Bald men in the offices I audited were typically the most discriminated against, before women too, in terms of what they got paid for doing the same job.

3) Bald men were typically older than colleagues employed at the same level as them.

4) Bald men were the only group I ever saw who bore the brunt on cheap jokes. There were plenty of other easy targets: short men, fat women, heavy smokers for example, but for some reason their feelings are allowed to be spared.

The truth for bald men is that they are discriminated against in the workplace, most just aren't aware of it. The reality is that the discrimination isn't all that noticeable, but it is there. In a lot of cases, it just means you don't get the job or the promotion when you're against a similarly qualified candidate who has hair; you'd still get the job against a less qualified candidate, but it's harder to aim higher.

You'll also notice that as your career develops, you end up getting more technical rather than managerial roles (if you work in an office); you'll have to deal with the prejudice that bald men aren't managers. In the office I work a lot of bald men work in different senior roles, but they don't manage anyone.

You'll get paid less than others for doing the same job. That's just how it is.

You'll be excluded from front office work because you're not able to project the same 'professional' image too.

And so it goes on.

[wheresMYhairDUDE]

Fixed by 35, interesting post focussing on baldness in the workplace and your rather draconian opinion on treatment of bald men.

I have a question for you...

In your working life, how many men have you come across who wear hairpieces/wigs in the workplace and whose colleagues have no idea they are bald? Because I can assure you there are lots of men who do in offices/boardrooms up and down the country.

In my experience;

1. Sounds like you have been auditing the wrong companies over the last 2 years as in my experience of UK companies the boardrooms are full of balding or bald men and now even women.

2. There are things called 'anti-discrimination laws' which deal with such examples of discrimination. Again in my experience I have never come across a company or office that made balding/bald men sit in the corner or in the stationary cupboard.

3. This point makes no sense at all. Yes bald men can be of various ages as can their colleagues at comparable level - I think the key issue here is experience, maybe the 'older men' at the same level are only there because they do not have adequate experience to be at a higher level. Alternatively younger men might be at the same level as older men because they are quick learners/advancers.

4. See point 2, discrimination in the workplace laws are in place to tackle issues in situations where your company is full of a**holes who poke fun at anything because they are natural born jerks. Also how do you quantify that bald man bore the brunt of more jokes than fat/short people - did you do a study or come up with a mathematical equation?

To be honest I don't understand your motives behind posting here and from your posts I get the feeling you have becomes a very bitter person from your hairloss experience. Perhaps as you say you have had a bad life experience so far and feel life is out to get you. But the more I read of your posts I get the feeling that this might be an exaggeration and in actual fact its not been as bad as you make it but perhaps topped off with personal dissapointments which you have 'tagged' onto your physical balding condition.

This is of course unless your posts are purely aimed at having 'a bit of a laugh'
or your are doing some sort of research.

Fair enough you started off expressing your personal emotions in response to your balding and then put forward your action plan. Yes, you do sound very negative and I agree that this is to be expected amoung balding men as it is a big life change from a physical appearance perspective. What did strike me is that your posts present a big 'no hope' characteristic which in my opinion is completely the wrong approach to have. I find from other posters that they manage to get over their initial negativity and in a lot of cases become open to accepting baldness as a 'fact of life' and switch their primary response of 'oh my god' to a more subdued attitude of 'its only hair, if it falls out it doesn't change me as a person'.

The majority of posts on this subject matter I have read portray that the poster feels there is hope and through their actions they hope to find this through managing to stop their balding and regrow their hair.

I really do think that you have some deeprooted issues which may be worsened by your hairloss experience and anticipated future experience.
I would suggest that you seek professional help rather than continue posting about how bald men are the underclass when it comes to employment and the working environment. Quite frankly the majority of what I have read in your posts on that subject matter is poppy**** - I'm looking at the possibility of being bald and from an employment perspective this doesn't really faze me whatsoever.

You should realign your efforts into your hairloss regime. It's good you know that you don't want to shave your head or spend time in the gym to attain a better body to substitute not having a full head of hair. You have also set yourself some goals, which is excellent but which I do think you should reconsider slightly and remove the negative aspects of them.

Now it just remains to inject some positivity into your attitude towards your hairloss and regime as without it you will inevitably be starting on your journey with the perception it won't work and such an attitude usually leads to one outcome.

Head up high and I really do hope you manage to get over your current issues resolved and you see visible results with your regime - but remember life doesn't end because your hair falls out, despite common misconceptions and bumping into jerks who laugh at baldness.