32 year olds, thinning hair, treament options

[tony1]

Hello all!

I’ve joined this forum to see if I can get some advice as to how I should treat my stage of hair loss. My story begins in my teenage years.

My father is bald and from looking at photos of my parents dating, he was noticeably balding by age 23. I naturally began to wonder and worry if that too was my fate. The hairline at my temples began to slightly recede to about a N2 inbetween the ages of 20-23 and then completely stopped. I basically had a full thick head of hair and began to think the bald gene had skipped over me. My Mother’s father’s hair slowly thinned over the course of his life and I assumed I was taking after him. I stopped worrying and cruised through the next 8 years, until I started to notice more receding.

At 31, a friend took a photo of me bent over with my scalp showing and you could see thinning hair towards the back of the crown. I also noticed the back of the crown feeling more cold when the temperature dropped. So, before I panicked I figure I would monitor it throughout the year. It did thicken up a bit, but thinned even more towards the end of 2018. So, in October of 2018, I came to terms with the fact that I am starting to loose my hair and that the bald gene was going to get me in the end.

So where am I now? I want to try and fight it and at least try to slow it down, since it appears that my MPB is the slower kind. I first went and got blood work done and I am in excellent health. I then figure I would start with supplements and then add chemcials to my routine. I’ve been taking Collagen, Biotin, Vitamin D, and Saw Palmetto, in hopes for strong and healthy hair growth. I then went out and got a precription for Nizoral 2% shampoo and started dermarolling. I researched Minoxidil and Finasteride and decided to hold off on fin because of the insane amout of horror stories that I have read. Minoxdil seemed to be the route for me, but I experieced some sides (fast heartbeat, fatigue, minor swelling). I did this for a month and switched to the lower dosage of 2%. The heartbeat side seemed to dissapate, but I still experienced fatigue and minor swelling. So, I stopped and went to a hair restoration clinic to see what my options were (Dr. Troy Fallon Beaverton Oregon). Since I’m not bald yet, I am a candidate for PRP treatment, a transplant, or fin. He wrote me a prescription for fin and he assured me that fin was safe and that if I were to experience any side effects that they would go away after treatment stops. I went to the pharmacy and got a bottle of it. I have not taken and it has been sitting there for weeks, because I’m honestly afraid to try it.

I know this was a very long winded personal story to read, so I thank you for your time. My questions are: what are some suggestions as to how I can move forward with available treaments? Are the stakes of taking fin worth it? Are fin horror stories blown out of proportion? Does PRP treatment work and if so, for how long? Was the hair restoration doctor I saw, reputable?

Thank you!

-Tony