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*UPDATE 04/09* Propecia .5mg/ Minox 5%, Great results!
HI Everyone.
I'm new here and just did a bunch of browsing though many posts. Fascinating stuff. Spent far too long just going through everyone's story, its crazy how obsessed a person can become over hairloss!!
Anyhow here is my story. I've been losing my hair for about 10 years. I am 28 now. Its been a slow frontal hairloss, like my dad. He is 60 or so and still has hair on top but its thin and ugly. Just a life long slow balding.
So when I was like 21-22, I went to a doctor to ask about it. He told me just to cope and there is nothing I could do because rogaine and propecia are only for bald spots. That day the doctor should've at least sent me to a dermatologist, and spared me a lot of the pain I've been through from having my self esteem affected from hair loss.
Anyhow like I said I am 28 now. I have been on rogaine 5% for the past 3-4 years. At first I had AMAZING regrowth coming in! I felt so great! But its so hard to not miss a treatment or 2. Because of traveling and stuff, I always eventually missed a dose, and that would **** everything up. So I thought it was a miracle and it turned out not to be. My hair continued to recede regardless of how well I kept up my dosage.
Strange thing: I notice some of my hairs were growing thick/thin/thick/thin/thick/thin like stripes along the hair. I only noticed this when I looked closely, but its like it was struggling to work.
So recently, I went to a doctor, she reluctantly gave me a prescription for finesteride. I am taking .5mg a day I am paying $30/month for a half dose a propecia, and using dirt cheap kirkland minox 5% from online.
My propecia experience so far:
Within 2 weeks I started seeing activity. at almost 4 months now I see some major regrowth and thickening.
I am very optimistic about my progress so far, but wonder what the future will hold? I am thinking maybe I caught my hairloss not quite too late and I might experience some great results?? What do you think? Honestly I am quite happy with the results so far and regaining more hair would just be so fantastic! I've experienced no dread shed from propecia but realize this could happen, but I am almost at the 4 month mark.
What do you guys think? I'm trying not to be too optimistic, but I do notice I have small hairs all over my forehead. Could they possibly return to normal or close to my original hairline? Realistically a complete stop in hair loss would be great as well.
This is about a month before I started propecia:
3 months after I started taking propecia:
This is about a month before I started propecia:
3 months after I started taking propecia:
My advice to people is to try the propecia half dose. There is a petition online that is asking Merck to re-examine their dosage recommendation of propecia, because appearently 1mg shows to be no more effective than .2mg
I would take .2mg if I could, because I totally believe this study, and am entirely distrustful of big pharma! especially when it comes to things like fertility side effects!(eugenics!).
I would appreciate any thoughts and predictions of how I am doing! It feels great to talk about this and get it all of my chest.
Thanks for reading my story., and I will post updates soon.
*UPDATE*
Things have still been going well. I have lowered my propecia dose by taking .25mg propecia every 3rd day. I have not noticed any difference.
Here is a photo comparing before I started propecia, and 4.5 months after starting propecia(that would be today).
I am really really excited about this. I feel like a new person, and my hair is so much fuller now. I have way more confidence. Just in time too because I felt it dwindling away as I was getting thinner. As you can see my hairline has crawled back from the dead a bit, and the overall density and thickness has increased to a more pleasant amount. Once all the new hairs are grown out longer, it should look great. I also hope to grow much more back, but only time will tell.
I am still keeping a close eye for propecia side effects. Sometimes I feel testicle pressure/sensitivity, but it always passes. Definitely clearer semen as well. I've read a lot of people online have really bad sides and not recovering from them even when stopping the meds. This is a reason I reduced the propecia dosage. I'm thinking I could get away with alternating .5/.25 dosages and still see the same results more or less. This might be my next step. I will post updates in another 1-2 months.
Last edited by g k; 09-04-2009 at 01:59 PM.
Reason: update
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IAHRS Recommended Hair Transplant Surgeon
I am really glad that this regimen appears to be working well for you. However, certain patients need different doses of medications to obtain similar results.
I try to work with the patients and adjust the doses until we agree that we are getting a good result or we need to try something different. Finasteride doses can vary from .5 mg to 2.5 mg daily. Minoxidil can be used with concentrations from 2%-15%. If a patient feels they have found their optimal dosage a particular medication they should stick with it, and only make changes if they are developing side effects or feel the effectiveness is decreasing.
Dr. Glenn Charles
Member, International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeons
View my IAHRS Profile
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Originally Posted by Dr. Glenn Charles
I am really glad that this regimen appears to be working well for you. However, certain patients need different doses of medications to obtain similar results.
I try to work with the patients and adjust the doses until we agree that we are getting a good result or we need to try something different. Finasteride doses can vary from .5 mg to 2.5 mg daily. Minoxidil can be used with concentrations from 2%-15%. If a patient feels they have found their optimal dosage a particular medication they should stick with it, and only make changes if they are developing side effects or feel the effectiveness is decreasing.
Thanks for the info Dr. Charles. I would say that my hairloss is slow and maybe not as aggressive as some, and perhaps the minimum is sufficient for my needs.
Is it common for a patient to need to increase dosages, with a regimen that at first works very well?
I feel that maybe the years I was on rogaine, although unsuccessful in stopping my hair loss, managed to preserve the follicles longer. Adding the propecia seems to have awakened them.
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*updated in original message*
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Member
hi GK how are you doing?.. can you post new pics?
cheers..
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Ok here is an update.
What happened was at about 7-8 months I started getting sides. Essentially my dick went numb. Also brain fog. So rather than lower the dosage which I should've done I freaked out and skipped 2 days then reduced to 1/4 pill.
Skipping those 2 days turned out to be a mistake, because I shed a lot of what I gained. However I still have far more hair then when I started. So for the past couple of months I have been on 1/4 with minimal sides and its been bushing up again. Looking at the pics I have lost a little since the shed, but I am still very happy with it. I remember right before the shed I would look in the mirror and it was almost as though I had no hair loss at all! I was so happy and would show off my hair a lot by running my fingers through it. Its not so bad now(definately way better than when I starter propecia), and I see where all the hair had grown back prior, it is starting to come in again. I am just hoping it will come in with the same vigor as it did on 1/2 pill. I would actually like to knock it down to 1/6, because I still get very mild sides, and based on Rotsens progress I have faith that it is still effective. I am going to add the keto+sali acid shampoo, and also try out Dr. Lee's spiro topical since it will be easy to apply and hopefully effective.
So far my hair loss battle has been pretty effective. I think I have a fairly passive for of hairloss, as the pictures you see is the result of about 10 years of hair loss. In that time I've lost about an inch of temple.
I am happy with my hair now, it looks thick, dark and youthful(whereas before propecia it was pale and limp looking).
The funny thing is a few years back when I starting on just rogaine, I grew almost all my hair back. But I found that even missing a day of treatment would cause major sheds. Because of travelling and other stuff I ALWAYS ended up missing a day eventually so it was very annoying.
I think I can grow most of my hair back but its really a matter of finding a routing that works perfect for my case. I can't believe how many hours I've dedicated to reading up and experimenting on hair loss....I should get a job as a hairloss consultant lol. The tricky thing is having the patients to properly gauge the results.
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