Started on Propecia on 3/5/2011

[michael85]

(re-posting a comment I put in another thread)

For me Propecia works... I Have been taking it for a little over 7 months.When I started , every time I ran my fingers across my scalp a few strands(5 to 6) of hair would show up in my palm. I would then stand in front of the sink and run my hands vigorously over my scalp, and atleast 15 - 20 strands of hair would shed... Obviously my hair was very thin and in a very bad state

7 months into Propecia, as I write this, I ran my fingers across my scalp and in the first 2 occasions no hair was shed.. On the 3rd attempt 1 strand of hair showed up on my palm.... Obviously my hair has grown slightly thicker and stronger... I don't think new hair has grown (so my hairline stays the way it is right now), but the existing hair has become stronger and thicker.. The thickness gives a fuller look..

Ditch minoxidil and go with propecia only... also applying minoxidil twice a day is harassing/smelly/and publishing to the world that you apply it.... In my case I just pop a pill and nobody ever gets to know that I'm on medication for hairloss.

Hope this helps,

Cheers ,
Michael

[michael85]

r82,

I'd seriously advice you to stop visiting this forum and other similar sites... Now that you have started the medication, there is nothing anybody here can help you with... However some people can add suspicion into your head causing irrelevant stress and an illusion that a side effect is striking you...

if they were to happen, do not stop medication for atleast 4 months....

Pop the pill and stop worrying about hair-loss!

[r82]

thanks for reply jstyler and kind words.

i have just started on the drug today, if i get sides i will stop but touch wood i wont.

its the front of my hair where the widows peak that has got thin so fast which is a little odd, who knows it maybe slightly stress as well as mpb as i have had a very tough 6 weeks with a family illness.

sounds like your glad you took it then mate and its kept your hair well which is cool. i will keep you posted on how things are coming along over time. keep in touch. fingers crossed.

[jstyler]

My hair was similar to yours r82 but I probably delayed taking Propecia about two years beyond where yours is now so mine was quite a lot thinner on top when I actually started.

I've been taking Propecia 24 weeks now so at 26 weeks weeks I'll call it 6 months. I've had no side effects that I'm aware of so that's a win.

I never had a totally bald spot as such, more general thinning and my aim was realistically just to stop the rot rather than reverse it but my hair coverage is slightly better now compared to when I started, particularly on the crown. I don't think that it's grown more hair so much as made the existing hair thicker but either way it's been positive and I've no doubt better than if I hadn't started taking it.

Hopefully you'll have a similar experience and you're already starting from a better position than I did.

[michael85]

^^ I haven't !!

[SBTRKT]

I cannot believe so many of you guys have lost morning erections and still take finasteride. That is CRAZY.

[r82]

r82.. my hairline was almost identical as yours.... This was when I started on Propecia 7 months ago.... Now its slightly better. Hairline stays the same, but it appears to have become a little denser.....

7 month update:

Still the same.. no apparent improvement in hairline (i'm ok with this). I have no further hairloss, and when I tell people I am losing hair , they dont believe it! So I guess my hair has becomes a little denser too... I am happy with what propecia is able to achieve till now....

thanks for fast reply micheal85. ah that is interesting. yeah i mean people are saying your not going bald, as ive always had a similar hairline-ish. (carflick and widows peak) but i am and may as well face it, the front is were its the thinnest.

I'll keep you posted on my story and thanks for this thread.

[michael85]

r82.. my hairline was almost identical as yours.... This was when I started on Propecia 7 months ago.... Now its slightly better. Hairline stays the same, but it appears to have become a little denser.....

7 month update:

Still the same.. no apparent improvement in hairline (i'm ok with this). I have no further hairloss, and when I tell people I am losing hair , they dont believe it! So I guess my hair has becomes a little denser too... I am happy with what propecia is able to achieve till now....

[r82]

great thread guys. started on it 2mo will chip in with my updates.

my hairline as of 10days ago. which is in the light, and tbh this was a grade 3, but still there's something there.

http://s1181.photobucket.com/albums/x424/rrrrrrrrrr8/?action=view&current=Picture0051.jpg

[kanyon]

My 8 month update:

1) Unsure how my hairloss has progressed and if it's working. Possible slow down or stopping of hairloss. I have very little hair left on my crown (as when I started it) and I wear my hair very long to disguise it. When I sweep it this away and that (from the back and sides) it seems to look the same as it did 8 months ago (when mixed together with the hair I still have on my crown) so that could be good. I didnt take any candid photos before starting it.

2) Definitely no hair regrowth. I think I have many dead hair follicles that are incapable of regrowing hair.

3) I no longer get morning erections or spontaneous erections but I am able to get it up when I watch porn or am intimate with a girl. Erections don't seem to be as strong or last as long. This isn't a problem for me right now as my girlfriend is living overseas. If I have sexual problems when we're reunited, I'll re-evaulate my dosage.

4) I still shed a lot of hair in the shower and when I brush it.

I will continue to use it as it may be slowing down or stopping hairloss.

If it's not windy, wet or my hair hasn't been washed on the day or the day before (when it looks extra thin) I can just get by with concealing my hairloss (I think). So if it stays as is on Propecia, well it'll be difficult but I can grudgingly accept it.

[michael85]

My 6.5 month update:

1. No further Hair loss I guess.
2. But hair re-growth has not happened.
3. Started getting pimples on my forehead(which go away in like 2-3 days).. never had this in my life. Only strange thing I have noticed during the course of this medication.
4. No sexual problems
5. No muscle loss


My brother is almost bald now. He is 2years older than me. When he has my current age, he had already lost almost all his hair. I seem to have stopped it, and for me that is the most satisfying prospect.

[scar85]

Let me start off by saying that I know exactly what everyone is going through with losing hair. I may have not said this yesterday (yesterday meaning it feels like this happened so sudden), but i can say it now. I am 26 years of age, had a full thick head of hair, so much hair that my barber/stylists would always talk about how I have thickness to cover 3 heads of hair. Everywhere I went, someone would always compliment me on the thickness. However, that changed in November of 2010. I didnt see it coming, but it happened to me.

I was taking painkillers everyday, and i continued to take them even when I wasnt in great discomfot. I noticed hairs falling off my head but thought nothing of it. Over the course of 2 months, I began to feel that my hair was a bit thinner than before, and as i started to worry and stress about it, IT HAPPENED. I was losing hair in clumps in the shower, hairs were popping out of my scalp resting on my head 24/7. Im talking about hundreds and hundreds of hairs everyday. I was terrified, I honestly thought I had some sickness and that everything would return back to normal.

I went to see a dermatologist in January of this year, and was diagnosed with Seberheic dermatitis..a fungal infection. Hairs were coming out in front of him, and he assured me the hairloss was because of this. He prescribed me a topical medication Ketaconozole to kill fungus, but I talked to him about possibly getting on propecia/proscar as a security measure. He asked if any of my parents had baldness in the family. This is where it hit me, and I knew deep down inside the truth hurts, but it had to come out. YES, my father is a NW3 now in his 50's, and my mothers side is cursed with MBP, my moms brothers are both bald and so was her father. All my cousins, started going bald when they were 16. I have one cousin who is only 19 and he is a NW3! I WAS THE ONLY ONE, saved from this horrific gene, atleast thats what I thought. How could this happen to me all of a sudden? I never used to see any hair clogged in shower drains, or in my hands while shampooing! How could the MPB gene all of a sudden wake up from the dead one day and say I will take your hair now..you have lived 26 years without hairloss but now im going to take your hair overnight and make you catchup with the others! Its almost like showing up for work one day with a thick head of hair, and the next day you show up balding!

As I applied the topical medication, I would see hundreds of hairs come out in clumps, it came to the point I couldnt take it anymore. I trimmed my hair down to a number 6 clipper and thats when it hit me..I saw the thinning..in the CROWN. How could this happen overnight? Just the day before, I had enough hair in the crown to fill up 3 crowns..my cousins were always jelous how i had so much hair there and always asked me what my secret was. I nearly cried, and proceeded to just shave my head completely bald as it would be easier to apply medication without seeing hundreds of hairs come in my hands. I had the derm put me on proscar 30 days later.

I have been on proscar for 6.5 months now and I will share my results so far but before I do that, I do want to mention that I battled the fungal infection till this day. Egg like round fungus (not lice eggs) were always stuck to the roots and would cause all the hair to continue to fall out. I continued with the hairloss for months because of this, and just recently have been able to maintain a mosly clean scalp from mixing tea tree oil with shampoo and scrubbing my scalp daily. I still get a couple of strands that have that egg like fungus attached to them, but I have mostly solved that problem. Whats strange is that my sister just now had the SAME EXACT problem, we never shared towels or pillows or combs/brushes. Her hair came out in clumps because of that too. Anyways..now onto my results

Month 1-hairloss continued
month 2-hairloss continued
month 3- hairloss continued
month 4- hairloss continued
month 5- hairloss somewhat slowed down
month 6- hairloss pretty much halted

I have not seen any visible regrowth just yet, no major side effects to report although I will say that Im more horny than usual after starting the med. I did encounter some testicular discomfort/pain a couple of days but havnt had that happen again. My crown is still very unevenly thin, I have streaks of visible skin thats uneven. The worst thing about is this, the top/sides/back are still very thick with no thinning, but the crown is still thin. You look at me from the front you would not even think Im going bald. I do want to add most of the fungus was in my crown area..derm says it could be because I use to not clean my hats when I wore them occasionally and didnt shampoo my scalp well. I admit, I used to only coat my scalp rather than scrub it.

In conclusion, I dont know exactly what caused me nearly going bald overnight, wether it was the fungal infection or medication, but 1 thing is for sure..those hairs did not grow back. And I guess I have the MPB gene to blame for that..which seemed like didnt exist for 26 years, but I lost my hair overnight. That is what scared me, people who have been gradually thinning for years know they are going to go bald, but me..this was a SHOCKER..something even till this day I cant recover from. Im a different person now, no self confidence, i think about hair all the time..its completely changed my life for the worst. Just yesterday i used to take walks on the beach, go out to parties and bars, and I felt as if Life was perfect. Girls would run there fingers through my head..and today its changed. I feel like I am going to continue to bald. I hope there is a cure one day for this sickening disgusting gene called MPB, as I would not wish this upon the worst of my enemies.

Sorry about the loooong post. Ill keep you guys posted on my further results, Im hoping I can atleast regrow back some of what I lost..because having thick head of hair minus the crown looks downright silly..almost looks like my barber only shaved my crown down with no clipper.

[michael85]

5 month update:

I don't seem to notice any further hair loss nor has my hair line receded. In my first month I did exp minor sexual sides, but not anymore. I get the morning mood which appears to be the yard stick to ascertain if we are sexually active or not...

I make sure that I take my daily 1 mg Generic Propecia (finpecia) pill. I also do my daily workouts and there is no evidence of muscle or strength loss in me...

I guess I am happy with the results thus far(or rather the fact that it has not become worse)...

[VictimOfDHT]

You could see either some hair regrowth/thickening, a halt in further loss or it might slow it down dramatically. Of course that's assuming it's going to work for you.

[kanyon]

I've been on Fin for just over 5 months. I'm not sure if it's working but I don't think I've lost a lot more hair since I started. I still see lots of hair coming off my head and think about hairloss a lot.

I would love to see improvement (regrowth or thicker healthier strands of hair) so I can tell if it's working for sure.

If it is maintaining hair then I wonder how long it'll work for.

People say that they see results between 6 months and 12 months but what does that mean? What do you see at that time?