Nearly 4 Years Later: Losing the Battle Against Hairloss

[YungKeynes]

I've been on propecia for nearly 4 years. Although propecia significantly slowed down my rate of hair-loss, my hairline continues to recede at a moderate pace. If I was 43, I would be very pleased with these results but I'm only 21. If this continues to happen, I'll look like a balding man in ~2 years, which is unacceptable to me.

I know, I know: you shouldn't take propecia when you're as young as I am. I couldn't care less, I was balding at a fairly rapid pace when I was 17. I still have a pretty full head of hair, outside of a horseshoe type hairline which can be disguised. If my trajectory stayed the same, I'd be stereotyped as a soon-to-be bald man, which would make me feel pretty miserable. I want no part of that, which is why I registered here.

Are there any alternatives? I'm pretty willing to try dutasteride but I'm skeptical that it will be more efficacious than propecia. This question is aimed at people who felt disappointed with propecia but found success with dutasteride.

Also: are there any cover-up type products that do a good job of disguising hairloss? Does topix actually look real and seem satisfying? I would change my hairstyle but one of the reasons I've chosen to battle my hair-loss is my preference for longer styles. I don't want to "rock" a buzzcut. If I did, I would have embraced going bald...

edit: I guess I've sort of won the battle against hair-loss in the sense that I still have a pretty normal-looking head of hair. My Dad went fully bald (NW5-6) when he was ~23. I'm 21 and am at NW 1.8 or so. It could be worse but I also don't want to go bald until I'm at least 40-50.

[GSD]

try dut alone or add RU to your current regimen.

[Dan26]

Ya I'd go with dut.

[fred970]

No one can win that battle. That's why I always laugh when I see posts like this. "Winning the battle over hair loss" never happened for any man in the history of mankind.

[Pboy101]

No one can win that battle. That's why I always laugh when I see posts like this. "Winning the battle over hair loss" never happened for any man in the history of mankind.

Do you care to elaborate on your statement? What is your standard for "winning the battle against hair loss"? The guy said he's a NW 1.8, not even NW 2.0. That's practically nothing and we haven't even seen his before and after pictures yet to judge for ourselves.

As for me, I feel like I've won my battle against hair loss. I'm 24 years old and it looks like I will have my looks throughout my 20's and probably even into my 30's, possibly even 40's if better treatments come out by then or I upgrade to dustasteride. Plenty of time to mingle and enjoy life with hair if you ask me. That my friend, is victory but I'll wait to hear what you say.

[mlamber5]

If winning means stopping at what norwood you currently are and maybe slight reversal or slowdown then yes, some people have won. Winning as in turning a norwood 4+ back into a norwood 0,1, or 2? Hasn't happened yet short of hair transplants. We will have won the battle against AA when we can REVERSE hair loss completely. Some serious options in development the next 5-10 years may be able to do just this. Slowing down or barely improving your current state has left a huge market still very upset with the current treatments. We already have things that are pretty effective at slowing hair loss (dut/fin/minoxidil).

[fred970]

Finasteride and dutasteride won't work forever, if that was the case, they could be labelled a cure. But they aren't, are they?

My point is that if you're losing hair, especially at such a young age, you will be bald a point. Then maybe you can make it look like you have hair with a hair transplant.

But no one is "winning" against hair loss. If you're on treatments, you've not won. It's a life-long battle.

I've had a successful hair transplant but it's not over, my crown is starting to go to, and I will need to have another one, then possibly beard grafts and SMP.

You don't win this battle, you fight until the day you die, you fight it with everything you have, you resist. But you can never say at any point "I've won."

[mlamber5]

You are right about not working forever. At some point, fin and dut will stop working as well. Why is it that older people who have LESS androgen's tend to go balder faster? They have less test to convert into DHT. It is a paradox. I was on fin from 16-21, I've definitely noticed my hairloss pickup since then. On minoxidil only now the past couple months and that has helped. But even while I was on it I wasn't really improving. Just regressing at a really slow pace. The problem with fin is it only blocks 70% of conversion from testosterone to DHT. Some DHT is still getting by. Also this is why in my personal opinion I don't think the androgen based cure pathway is going to reverse hair loss. It requires androgens to initiate the process, but something else it really the major cause of the miniaturization (Prostaglandin dis-regulation, Wnt's, IGF?) Stopping the androgens after they've been initially introduced may just allow the body to use another pathway to promote the major cause of AGA. I think the pathways downstream of androgens hold a lot more promise at reversal (if possible).

The most exciting news to me to come out this decade so far has been that stem cells are still in tact in balding scalp. That's absolutely huge. It suggests that maybe the hair isn't gone forever if the main inhibitor/inhibitors is found and treated. I may be in the minority but I think that science would have an easier time making our body wake this dormant/dis-regulated process and have our own heads start growing hair again than it would have of literally cloning the elements of a hair in the lab and giving people new hairs via that way.

[KO1]

Finasteride WILL work forever, if you lose ground it'll just mean MPB is outrunning fin by a little bit. That said, do you have photos that clearly demonstrate thinning from baseline? Just looking in the mirror may not be conclusive.

[Pboy101]

Fred, what is your evidence for Finasteride not working forever? A quick google search will tell you that 10 year studies done on Fin saw no decrease in efficacy over a long time, including a thread on this forum. Fin inhibits 70% of the DHT that causes hair loss. If you need to go stronger, Dustasteride will take you into the 90's percentile. That's like halting hair loss almost completely.

Perhaps to you it might be considered a "fight", but to pop a small pill right before bed time is not much of a fight at all. Many of us like myself consider it a win if we can maintain our hair over several decades time.

[fred970]

Perhaps to you it might be considered a "fight", but to pop a small pill right before bed time is not much of a fight at all. Many of us like myself consider it a win if we can maintain our hair over several decades time.

You also have to take into account the fact that you might stop taking it for plenty of reasons: conceiving a child, sides appearing, being afraid of sides.

I understand some people can take this pill without a worry in the world. But I would never be able to do that, especially having suffered from drug-induced gynecomastia.

Who know the damages that playing with your hormones could cause in the long-term.

The thing is, you will not maintain your hair for several decades if you started balding in your 20's or teens, don't even count on it.

[KO1]

The thing is, you will not maintain your hair for several decades if you started balding in your 20's or teens, don't even count on it.

Please back up this statement. Show us photos of one person who took finasteride at an early stage of thinning and advanced to anything more than a NW4.

[fred970]

Please back up this statement. Show us photos of one person who took finasteride at an early stage of thinning and advanced to anything more than a NW4.

Hair loss is usually way too aggressive when you start losing it early in life. You'll see it for yourself if you're in your early 20's and already losing hair.

Finasteride has been approved in 1998 so you won't find such results, yet. You would need to have a 20 year old guy who was NW2.5 (so sure it was not a mature hair line) and he would be only in his mid 30's now.

Because if you show me a 35 year old NW2 who took finasteride since 1999, I could argue that it was just a mature hair line and he might not have receded further without finasteride.

Common sense here.

[KO1]

Hair loss is usually way too aggressive when you start losing it early in life. You'll see it for yourself if you're in your early 20's and already losing hair.

Finasteride has been approved in 1998 so you won't find such results, yet. You would need to have a 20 year old guy who was NW2.5 (so sure it was not a mature hair line) and he would be only in his mid 30's now.

Because if you show me a 35 year old NW2 who took finasteride since 1999, I could argue that it was just a mature hair line and he might not have receded further without finasteride.

Common sense here.

So you don't have any evidence and all you're relying on is your best guess and presenting it as fact? btw, Proscar came out in 92, so we have twenty years on it.

[fred970]

So you don't have any evidence and all you're relying on is your best guess and presenting it as fact? btw, Proscar came out in 92, so we have twenty years on it.

Yeah because hair loss sufferers in theirs teens/20's knew about that at the time, especially without the internet.

Look, you're just trying to reassure yourself. There's only one truth for all of us, we will all be bald at a point of our lives.

Even Spencer Kobren paints the thin parts of his head so maybe he would appear severely bald without his dermmatch.

And he's been on finasteride since 1997 and caught his hair loss relatively early, what does that tell you?

You'll sleep better at night if you accept that fact now: yes you will go bald eventually.

But don't worry, there are always hair transplants to restore what you've lost.

Plus you'll have saved way more hair than if you hadn't used medication.

But don't act like we have a cure (finasteride) that will stop hair loss forever at our disposal, that's just not true.