Am I a Norwood 2 or 3? (or 2A or 3A?)

[guygroomes12]

If i had a dollar for every person watching their hair in the mirror way to much and working themselves into a hysteria. I would be a rich man. How about wearing a hat and taking some time off from obsessing about it

[VMRockshow]

I think your hair looks great in the first photo where it's shaved. I also would not say your past a Norwood 2 but i'm not great at analyzing that.

[Kirby_]

I trust a consultant dermatologist (a CONSULTANT dermatologist) who checked my scalp with a 'scope over anything I read on forums from non-doctors. I learnt the hard way that I should have gone to a doctor on day 1 of noticing signs rather than getting amateur advice (e.g. 2020 claiming I had hyper androgenicity)

[WarLord]

Again, I'm not sure what to ask for in terms of 'blood tests'. I'll ask my GP if I'd be allowed an NHS blood test to check on my DHT levels.

FWIW, the consultant dermatologist I saw said I should definitely get a 'liver function test' every 6 months when on fin, which I'm set to do, and recommended minox, but only on the bitemporal area. He also said that I should definitely not be on dutasteride yet.

I do hope that you already know that doctors are not the most reliable wells of knowledge. These are idiotic pieces of advice. Does he want to wait, until you are completely bald?! But before the start of dutasteride, you must definitely know your DHT and testosterone levels.

And as for minoxidil: It is very short-sighted to apply it only on areas that are currently thinning.

[Kirby_]

Again, I'm not sure what to ask for in terms of 'blood tests'. I'll ask my GP if I'd be allowed an NHS blood test to check on my DHT levels.

FWIW, the consultant dermatologist I saw said I should definitely get a 'liver function test' every 6 months when on fin, which I'm set to do, and recommended minox, but only on the bitemporal area. He also said that I should definitely not be on dutasteride yet.

[WarLord]

I don't know how/if I can get 'lab ltests' on the NHS. I certainly would if I did/can.

If anyone reading this knows if I can get them on the NHS, and if so what to ask for, please LMK.

You made a fundamental mistake. You were basically idly watching your disappearing hair without any counteractions. No lab tests, no increase of dosing, no addition of minoxidil, dutasteride etc.

I now have problems with finasteride, too, but I try to do something. I added it to my minoxidil routine in late June and when I was on it for 6 weeks, I started to observe a nice regrowth, but it stopped after several weeks and then it was basically stable for 2 months. Subsequently, all of a sudden (in late October), I began to lose hair along my hairline. The hairs were disappearing almost overnight.

It took a lot of effort to find some laboratory doing tests of DHT, but eventually, I got my lab test from 8th November: DHT 52 ng/dl (!!!) It was an immense shock for me and for a while, I thought that the laboratory made an error in the decimal point. I immediately increased my finasteride dosage from 1 mg/day to 1.25 mg/day and on 5th December, I got 32 ng/dl.

This is already at the bottom of the normal range (30-85 ng/dl), but still unusually high for a finasteride user, though. But my initial DHT levels may have been high, because I have always suffered from symptoms of hyperandrogenicity (besides hairloss I also had horrible acne and seborrhea).

The shedding around my hairline still continues, but as far as I can say, the lost hair has virtually always regrown back. But I am not sure, what it means. Perhaps it is only a temporary shed induced by finasteride. However, it's been going for nearly 2,5 months already with no end in sight and I start to doubt, if it is normal. In any case, I again increased my finasteride dosage a bit and this week I want to check my DHT levels once more.

[peterpan]

One year mark... Hair worse than ever, certainly far much worse compared to baseline. Finasteride is a joke. There is no working treatments for MPb, and any are the best part of a decade away, if ever. We're all deluding ourselves.

im in the same boat as you... had temple recesion and started fin, now i have diffuse thinning throughout. allthough im holding out some hope. something to consider though is that your stress is making things worse, if youre super stressed out your body will divert its energy from growing hair to other areas. this is something ive been considering more and more and have been thinking my constant stress is related to my hairloss and could have done some damage to my adrenal gland as i have symptoms consistant with this. it tends to happen sometimes from constant stress from what i can understand and i started to lose my hair after my dad was diagnosed with cancer and my girlfriend of seven years who i had planned to spent my life with dumped me and moved on instantly. my hairloss really took off after my dad died so this might be indicative of the relationship between stress and hairloss. seems like you, like me are predisposed for letting stress get the better of you. best thing i can reccommend is just exercize man, not to get ripped(unless you want to) just to feel better and get your mind off of shit, its the only thing thats helped me that i can recommend. trying to get healthier has really helped me to lower my stress levels which im hoping will help my hair so i can at least get through college and find a girl i can love again. i feel like maybe if your big focus in life is your hairloss theres no way youll grow anything back cause youll always be bummed looking in the mirror.

anyway, sorry for the long post. i wish you the best man

[Kirby_]

Thanks, that has boosted my mood.

[BigThinker]

BTW I have to admit that I won't yet believe that finasteride actually works full stop, all the photos and data off the Internet I will consider disreputable/faked until I can see a positive difference from using the drug with my own eyes. A working medicine shouldn't have left an ultra thin ultra see through patch the size of an orange on the top of my head.

Everyone reacts differently to fin. The fact that some people experience permanent sides while others never have any sort of sides is testament enough of that. There really is no "cure-all" for any disease. There will always be some anomaly of a person who doesn't respond well.

Sorry for your frustration. I'm also extremely frustrated with my shedding which has just escalated. It's easy to get heated and be irritable when MPB is constantly on the back of your mind.

Regards.

[ThinningB420]

One year mark... Hair worse than ever, certainly far much worse compared to baseline. Finasteride is a joke. There is no working treatments for MPb, and any are the best part of a decade away, if ever. We're all deluding ourselves.

Can you please post a picture. I'd like to see what your hair now looks like. I'm sure it would help you to have independent people verify what you are seeing.

[Kirby_]

BTW I have to admit that I won't yet believe that finasteride actually works full stop, all the photos and data off the Internet I will consider disreputable/faked until I can see a positive difference from using the drug with my own eyes. A working medicine shouldn't have left an ultra thin ultra see through patch the size of an orange on the top of my head.

[Kirby_]

I understand your frustration, but you shouldn't be so negative. What are your DHT and testosterone levels? I wouldn't be surprised, if you haven't done any lab tests. If you don't know, how effectively finasteride decreases your DHT levels, then you can take the stuff for years without any visible effect. However, if you knew that it simply didn't work properly, you could immediately jump on dutasteride and don't waste your time.

I don't know how/if I can get 'lab ltests' on the NHS. I certainly would if I did/can.

If anyone reading this knows if I can get them on the NHS, and if so what to ask for, please LMK.

[WarLord]

One year mark... Hair worse than ever, certainly far much worse compared to baseline. Finasteride is a joke. There is no working treatments for MPb, and any are the best part of a decade away, if ever. We're all deluding ourselves.

I understand your frustration, but you shouldn't be so negative. What are your DHT and testosterone levels? I wouldn't be surprised, if you haven't done any lab tests. If you don't know, how effectively finasteride decreases your DHT levels, then you can take the stuff for years without any visible effect. However, if you knew that it simply didn't work properly, you could immediately jump on dutasteride and don't waste your time.

[Kirby_]

One year mark... Hair worse than ever, certainly far much worse compared to baseline. Finasteride is a joke. There is no working treatments for MPb, and any are the best part of a decade away, if ever. We're all deluding ourselves.

[mpb47]

Yes, exactly.

I'm not willing to let myself go bald in the hope that some future treatment option could restore all my hair, when I have the choice of a (very flawed) currently-existing treatment to prevent baldness, for the time being.

Unfortunately, I don't think it's a matter of when, it's a matter of if any of these super-treatments are ever available. I'd love as much as anyone to imagine by 2015 at least one super-treatment would be available, for the cost of a typical hair transplant or lower, able to restore plenty of hair. Or even better, something like OC000459 doing the same for cheaper. But realistically, any of that is unlikely to happen.

I'd have attempted to treat my hairloss even if we knew hard facts about effectiveness and release dates for treatments. We know neither.

I am with you. I am going to keep using what I know works. I keep hearing about all these new treatments but so far it's mostly just talk. When a bunch of guys start using them and show it's working then I might give it more thought..

Oh and be careful of those pills. They are ok for short term use but a friend's girlfriend has to use them everyday now as she is hooked.