Getting bald, but it is fine :-)

[DepressedByHairLoss]

And one last thing: I would give my left leg for a doctor to say "here's how we're gonna treat your hair loss and it's not gonna involve cutting your head open".

[Havok]

people say 50% of all men will suffer some form of hair loss during their lifetime yada yada yada but the fact is it's a rare occurrence to run into someone in their 20's and early 30's with significant hair loss. those who are devastated by hair loss and are willing to do anything they can are the one's in their 20's and 30's. that's a very small market. they also tend to have very little disposable income. now why would a pharmaceutical company pour millions of dollars on hair loss research when the only way to make a decent return on their investment would be to charge a premium that's out of most peoples (target group) price range?

[DepressedByHairLoss]

That's the problem with these huge pharmaceutical companies: all they care about is money; I don't think they give a rat's ass about helping people. I disagree though that only mainly people in their late 20's and early 30's are the only ones willing to do anything about it. Hair loss prevention and treatment is a multi-billion dollar industry and I always see people on here in their 40's and 50's who use Rogaine and Propecia, or who have gotten hair transplants.
However, I read a statistic somewhere that despite the fact that hair loss is a multi-billion dollar industry, only 7% of all hair loss sufferers seek out some kind of treatment. And it certainly isn't because they're satisfied and content in accepting their hair loss. It's because there are no effective treatments out there. Rogaine flat out doesn't do anything. Propecia may have some slight effect in slowing hair loss down but is only marginally effective. And hair transplants oftentimes do more harm than good; who wants scars and marks all over their head for the rest of their lives?
In terms of hair loss research, there's more than enough of it on the books. It's just that the researchers are more than content in experimenting on mice for their entire lives and never developing anything viable for humans. And a lot of the doctors are making more than enough money with their hair transplants that it would not be in their best business interests to develop anything new.
Unfortunately due to shitty genetics, a lot of us are forced to rely on a money-driven pharmaceutical industry to do something out hair loss; when they largely have no interest in doing anything.

[VictimOfDHT]

Depressedbyhairloss, one of the main reasons why I don't bother talking to people is because of the stupid stuff they say like "what are you gonna do..", "just accept what you can't change...." Bull ****ing shit I say. Somethings you can live with, something you CAN'T. And hair loss is one god damn thing I can't live with. I've been battling this curse for the longest time. I've spent thousands and thousands of dollars that I really can't afford to lose....but every time I see a hair in the comb or in my hand I feel like I'm going to drop to the floor. It makes my heart sink. The past few months have been literally hell for me because of the massive sudden shed. Never enjoyed one damn day in my life because I was always thinking about this curse. I wasn't even bald and still the fear of baldness was crippling me. So obviously crap like "accept it", "learn to live with it", "it's just hair..." is NOT gonna help. I wish I were one of those guys who didn't give a crap about it. Unfortunately, I'm not. So, what to do ? Living with it isn't gonna happen.

People say so are you gonna just keep living like this and worrying....Well, what else can I do ? How can I make myself forget about it or not care about it? It's not in my hands really and I wish people could understand our suffering.
Well, like I always say, life isn't fair. Some people are born to suffer and I know I'm one of those, and not only because of my hair loss. God knows I really prefer to die than lose my hair and I pray to god to take my miserable soul before the day comes when I look in the mirror and see myself bald. I just can't live with it.

And like I said before, if some son of a bitch 30 or 40 years ago cared enough to find a cure for this god damn curse we would not have this problem now. But I guess they were too busy studying sharks or some other ****ing useless shit like they're still doing now.

[boricotico]

Amen to that brother. I'm also one of those Who works for changing what don't like and I was wondering Why I can't just live with this is happening to me so fast and you absolutely gave me the reason, it's because simply can't accept it can't be changed.

If you can accept your hair loss and not care about it, God bless you. But I agree with VictimOfDHT, I cannot accept my hair loss, especially when I see most people around me with full heads of hair. I just hate that word 'acceptance'. In my case, acceptance of hair loss would mean looking in the mirror every day and absolutely hating the way I look. That's why I can't talk to any shrinks about my hair loss. All they're gonna tell me to do is 'accept it and adapt to it', which in my mind is utter horseshit. Every time there if something in my life that I hate, I work to change it, not to just live with something that I hate so much. I know that there are no effective treatments or cures out there, but I also know that I just cannot live a life being bald. For me, it's not so much about getting a decent woman (although that has something to do with it), but I want my hair back 'for me'. I love all that long-haired 80s metal and to look at all those guys on stage with their full heads of hair and then look at myself suffering from male pattern baldness is just way too much for me to bear. I cannot just 'accept' that I will never look like this, and feel depressed about it every single day. As I've said before, it is absolutely unbelievable to me that in this day and age, there is no cure for hair loss. I mean, we can send space shuttles into outer space and change a man into a woman, yet we can't regrow a bit of hair where it was lost??!! Just unbelievable and inexcusable. Of course scientists are going to say that it's a complex issue. If scientists cannot figure out a problem, they're not gonna say "this is a simple issue, but we just cannot figure it out". They're gonna give some excuse as to why they can't figure it out. And when compared to regrowing parts of limbs, launching space shuttles in outer space, and creating Ipods and high tech computers, I'd say that regrowing hair is an easy issue compared to these others. I'm telling you, this hair loss pisses me off so much every single day. Yet what pisses me off even more is that we have no effective options to combat hair loss. Man, I want to fight this hair loss so bad, yet Rogaine and Propecia don't do goddamn thing (I think Propecia is even affecting my muscular structure) and I'm not about to permanently scar my head for life by getting some hair transplant that doesn't even regrow hair to begin with.

[Mojo Risin]

if you think like this - they want money. some $ and you own a girl

Yup, ask Prince Albert about it. Ugly dude, with a hottie.

[DepressedByHairLoss]

I know what you guys are talking about. It is so easy for some one who is not suffering from hair loss to just say stupid and shallow statements like 'accept it and adapt to it' or 'focus on other qualities like your wardrobe, your fitness, and your personality'. It's just total horseshit. People who don't experience hair loss will NEVER understand until it personally happens to them. As I've said before, I've tried seeing shrinks about my hair loss but their advice was absolutely useless. I am not going to 'accept it and adapt to it'. Having a full head of hair is just too damn important to me to live without it. If I don't have a full head of hair, I'd be miserable every day (like I am now) and that's no way to go through life. And as I've said before, so many other discoveries that are much more complicated than hair loss have been discovered/solved so it really is unacceptable to me that in this day and age, there is no cure or effective treatment for hair loss. The other bit of advice like 'focus on other qualities like your wardrobe, your fitness, and your personality' usually come from some cutesy and insensitive little article from some shitbag magazine like Men's Health. They'll mock baldness in the article and try to make light of it by mentioning useless losers like that character from Seinfeld, along with a picture of some guy's bald head for illustration. U think that any magazine would mock female hair loss like that?? Hell no!! That's why I give Spencer a ton of credit for creating this website, which helps to show the insensitive world that baldness is a debilitating and depressing disease, and not some comical source for jokes.
VictimOfDHT, I give you a ton of credit for 'refusing to accept' baldness and going through all of the hair transplants to try and rectify it. Believe me, I have that same fighting spirit that you have and a 'refusal to accept' baldness, except I'm just not sold on hair transplants. It is a huge procedure that people tell that if I'm not sure about it, then don't do it. Mainly, I'm afraid of all the permanent scarring that it causes. I'm afraid that not all of the transplanted hair will hold (you're not the only I know who has experienced loss of transplanted hair), and I'd be forced to shave my head. The only worse thing than a shaved head to me would be a shaved head with noticeable scars and cobblestone marks from a hair transplant. I also heard that there are permanent little cobblestone marks from where the hair is yanked out before it is transplanted to the desired area. I am really looking for a procedure that can cause miniaturized hairs to regrow normally again. I have contacted several doctors about PRP or PRP/Acell, and I'm thinking about doing those. I just haven't seen any definitive results from either one. As I've said before, what really frustrates me is what few options we have to combat hair loss. Rogaine hasn't done a damn thing for me. Propecia can slow down hair loss but it hasn't done a damn thing to regrow hair. Although I think that Propecia has affected my muscle structure (making my muscles soft and flabby instead of hard and muscular), I'm not gonna get off of it because I'm SCARED TO DEATH of losing any more hair. I've always been a powerlifter so having muscles has always been very important to me. So what I'm doing is taking creatine (supplement) in addition to Propecia. Hopefully creatine will get my muscles back to where they used to be without causing hair loss. In terms of hair transplants, although I really do not begrudge people for getting them (no one wants to be bald), I've come to the conclusion that most people on here will not get them because of all the stuff that can go wrong (permanent marking and scarring, shock loss, loss of transplanted hair, etc.). I think that a lot of doctors know that most people won't get hair transplants but they do them anything because it makes them the most money. Man, it's really about ****in time we have more options to combat hair loss.

[DepressedByHairLoss]

Oh, and one last thing. I've been looking for other options for hair loss than are not hair transplants and I came across Dr. Alexander Kulick in NYC. Apparently he uses mesotherapy, where he injects vitamins and nutrients like biotin and silica and dutasteride directly into the scalp to thicken existing hair and reverse miniaturization. His argument is that since he is injecting these nutrients directly into the scalp, it has a significant effect on the scalp only, as opposed to when these nutrients are taken orally and thereby given to all parts of the body. I'm not sure if I buy it or not.
Oh yeah, and another last thing (-: Does anyone notice extra shedding in the summertime?

[VictimOfDHT]

I don't buy any of the "hair vitamin" crap that some clinics/so-called doctors try to sell us. So I don't believe what this Alexander dude claims and I wouldn't even bother with it. The rule still stands- if it worked it would be all over the news.

Well, it's a fact that some or maybe even most people -balding or not- do experience more shedding during certain times of the year. Some say in winter some say in summer. For me, my hair seems to go into a massive shedding period from around Jan to early summer. This only has been happening for the past 3 years, but this year is the worst and most devastating for some god damn reason.

[DepressedByHairLoss]

Yeah, you are probably right, the vitamins injected into the scalp are probably b.s. But at least he was one doctor who didn't seem so indebted to the goddamn hair transplant. But I did see some validity to his injecting dutasteride into the scalp as opposed to taking it orally. Then it only affects the scalp and doesn't screw up hormonal production throughout your entire body. I know a lot of people don't have any side effects taking Propecia, but I believe that I have some side effects in terms of muscle building. I believe that it stands to reason that Propecia will have some side effects since its goal is to drastically alter hormonal levels with the entire body. At least by injecting stuff like dutasteride into the scalp, at least it only affects the scalp and not the entire body. But to those who have no side effects taking Propecia, God bless you, keep continuing to take it. Hell, as much as I don't like it, I'm gonna continue to take it because I'm scared to death of going bald.
But you're right VictimOfDHT, the vitamin injection probably ain't gonna work. But I disagree to a certain extent that if there was some effective treatment for baldness, that it would be all over the news. If there was a one-shot miracle cure, then yes, it would be all over the news. But in terms of the media reporting things, I don't trust them at all. I mean, we see them reporting all the time on the stupid 'mouse' experiments that 'could', 'may', or 'might' grow hair in humans, yet there were much fewer stories on Histogen's successes with hair regrowth. I dunno, I really think that initially we're going to have to aggressively seek out tratments on our own as opposed to relying on what the media does or does not report.

[DepressedByHairLoss]

Also, one last thing to clarify myself. Maybe the media would report some huge development that would promote robust hair growth but in terms of lesser-known strategies that would thicken existing hair or regrow miniaturized hair, I think we need to seek those out on our own. Treatments that involve things like PRP or PRP+Acell; I think we would need to seek out those treatments on our own. I mean, I'm not even looking for something right now that would totally regrow my hair out of the blue. If something like PRP or PRP+Acell would turn my miniaturized hairs into terminal hair and/or thicken my hairs, I would jump for joy.

[Jcm800]

Yup, ask Prince Albert about it. Ugly dude, with a hottie.

Hair or no hair-if you ain't got the bucks you won't get the hot ****s

[VictimOfDHT]

Actually, depressedbyhairloss, if the media report success achieved in regrowing hair in mice all the time, imagine what they'd do if a real treatment for hair loss (in humans) was discovered. There's no doubt it will be major news for some time. There is no way such an event would go unnoticed by the media big and small. That's why I'm skeptical even about PRP injections. If they were so good why aren't more doctors performing them and why aren't more people getting them ? Why aren't we even hearing more about them ?

[DepressedByHairLoss]

Hey VictimOfDHT, you and me are really in the same boat in that we refuse to accept hair loss, but I just don't trust the media at all with regards to reporting new and innovative hair loss treatments. But if there was something huge, then I agree, at least some elements of the media would be all over it. I agree that PRP hasn't been proven to do all that much, but I think that many doctors aren't performing it (or looking into performing new hair regrowth methods) simply because they could make a lot more money doing these hair transplants. Most hair transplants I believe cost at least $10,000, oftentimes more than that, yet these PRP injections go for around $1,000. And a non-invasive, non-surgical hair regrowth procedure (if developed) would probably have to cost a hell of a lot less than a hair transplant. Who knows, maybe the right mix of PRP and Acell will work?
Also, I remember you saying that your transplanted hair is now falling out (so sorry about that, man), but I really believe that this is a far more common occurrence than we're led to believe. My friend had the same thing happen to him. Also, I thought about this as I was hangin' out over the weekend and I saw a guy with an ear-to-ear linear scar and a shaved head. I can only imagine that his hair transplant went horribly wrong and he was forced to shave his head. God, if there was even an option to regrow hair without scarring right now, I would literally pay something like $30,000 without even thinking twice.

[Havok]

there hasn't been anything newsworthy regarding hair loss treatment since propecia. i'm surprised all these small experiments using mice are receiving the attention that they're getting. even on paper future treatments like what histogen and aderans is working on doesn't seem all that promising. if someone finds a 'cure' for hair loss then it will be BIG NEWS, TMZ style.