My 9 months nightmare

[amadeus]

Sorry to hear about your hairloss. I too as anybody ever to come to this sight knows how you feel.

What country did you come from?
Are you married? If so when did you get married?
Are you taking any vitamins or supplements? If so which ones?
Is there anything that used to be regular in your diet that is almost absent now or something you never eat before and now is regular in your diet?
How has your sex/masturbation changed? This one is important. Are you doing either much more in the recent years? Did you start watching porn?
Do you exercise? If so has the amount changed sense loseing your hair?

If your doctor didn't even ask you any of these questions before throwing you on the Big 2 (Rogaine, Propecia) then you have quickly been introduced to the American Medical System way of doing things. Doctors hardly have enough time to research each patient they take on. If you could answer some of these questions I may have a few pointers from my own extensive research on the topic. Good luck Buddy.

I am sick of these lunatics posting crazy claims that they have cured hair loss with vitamins and abstaining from sex. Ignore these spammers, you are doing the right thing by starting medical treatment. Baldingbakwords, please stop hijacking every thread! The admims have humored you enough by allowing you to have your own thread on the topic, keep your craziness in there please!

[UK_]

BackwardsBaldings' method is currently in Phase S.H.I.T of clinical trial, we should have results shortly.

Please be patient, I understand what you are all going through.

[scar85]

My story is the same so your not alone. Im 26 years old and always had a thick full head of hair with no prior hairloss. Infact, my last haircut done by a barber was in early September of 2010. Everytime I went there, I was told how my hair is so thick that i can cover 3 heads of hair. I had no hairloss, never worried about it but I did look at my hair in every angle everyday and made sure it was just as thick as ever. But that all changed. In November of 2010, I noticed my hair feeling less thick as usual..and overtime i started to keep my eye on my hair at all times. I would see hairs falling off my scalp, thought nothing of it untill one day in November 2010, as I was shampooing my head, my hands were covered in hair. It seemed like i could be in the shower all day and the hairs wouldnt stop coming out..i was losing 300-500 hairs. Something wasnt normal.

I took a number 6 clipper and shaved down my hair, and thats when I nearly passed out. The thinning in the crown, much like your pictures showed. At first, it started out as slight thinning, but as the days went by, the spot started to expand. In just 9 months, just like you, my hair went from full thickness to thinning, and it continued to thin everyday at an abnormal rate.

I went to go see a dermatologist in January of this year, and he diagnosed me with fungal infection (sebberheic dermatitis) and hairs were falling in front of him and he assured me it was the infection causing the hairloss. He prescribed me topical ketaconozole 2% foam to kill the fungus but simply applying that to my scalp, no matter where i applied it, hairs were coming out in clumps. I was going bald overnight. I couldnt take it, i couldnt bear waking up everyday looking at more and more thinning..i decided to shave my head bald and finally got on proscar at the end of january.

I continued to lose hair untill month 5 when it started to slow down, and around month 6 it mostly stopped my hairloss. As my hair was growing, my thin spot expanded on my left side of my crown and it seems to be the same since. I cant believe just last november I had a thick full head of hair with no prior hairloss, and just 9 months later it feels like Im going bald.

I stress about hair everyday now, its all i can think about. Its especially hard on people like you and me who have never experienced something like this..people who think hey were 26 now or 30 we will be just fine and not go bald..and then it instantly happens. Life changes in an instant, self confidence goes down the drain..and the fear of things getting worst and worst everyday.

I have not seen any regrowth yet while on proscar, and there are days i still lose a few hairs in the scalp..even around the crown area sometimes and it just scares the shit out of me because i feel like not one healthy hair that fell grew back and if i continue to lose hair in the crown, i will for sure have a bald spot. At this rate, I feel like I will be completely bald in the next couple of years. How just yesterday everything was fine, and today it completely changed. I still get visions in my head when i go to certain places, it feels like i was there just yesterday with thick full head of hair, and today its like my life fastforwarded to 20 years.

Just hang in there and keep me posted on your situation. I will say one thing to everyone on here..i much rather lose hair gradually knowing I will be bald one day than to have it happen overnight. I just didnt see it coming..thats what has left me in complete shock and disbelief.

[boricotico]

scar85 I know how you feel, thanks for sharing your history with me. In my case never see a lot of hair falling back, just the months went and as I saw myself in the mirror I noticed how my hair was getting thinner and thinner but I guess what people notices in 1 year for me was like 1 or 2 months.

I'd expect if yours is for a fungus should regrowth after treatment, I hope you'll be better. As for me I'm almost finishing my first 3 month supply of Propecia and after I'm moving into the non branded one. After made a bad mistake shaving my hair and the painful wait for regrowth, finally my hair has grown and I really think that minimum Propecia has stopped my loss at this time, the first 2 months I kept seeing my hair thinning in new areas but now I feel I'm stable and if that's true I think I can wait some years before thinking seriously on a HT, hopefully something better could raise the market before that.

[SBTRKT]

Are you experiencing any side effects from the finasteride? just be careful.

[boricotico]

Today I took my last pill for my 3 months initial supply of Propecia, as for tomorrow I'd be starting to take just the generic one.

Side effects I've had the common I guess.
1. Watery semen
2. A decrement in sexual attitude.

The first one started after the first month and the second probably after the second month and last for 15-20 days I guess. For a moment I started to think if might stop taking the pill for a few days, but then it just went away. And for the watery semen one week ago I noticed iit changed for good last week, I hope it remains like that.

[boricotico]

I just wanted to update my thread.

Well, it's not been a happy story for me. I don't know if it was the change in the pill from Merck's to generic, but the loss of libido came back and it it never disappeared, no mater if I tried with just 1/8 of the 5 mg pill, my libido just was gone and also I felt that something was just not right down there.

I must say in the 4th month my hair seemed to be reacting very good to the treatment, I'd really regained my confidence and was very happy, I even could see myself in a mirror without detecting any spot.

But not only my libido was bad, also my hair started to thin again and so I took the decision of stop taking the pill after 6 months of trying.

Now I'm 2 months out of the pill and in the last day I've seen my hair going worse and worse, I'm seeing the pictures I uploaded in my first post and I can tell from those that I'm worst than then. =(

The only good thing is my libido is coming back, is not the same as before yet but I hope for it.

I really saw results with the pill and I'd like to stay but it seems that I can't handle it.

[clandestine]

Sorry to hear, boricotico. That's unfortunate, regarding the sides you experienced.

[25 going on 65]

boricotico:


FYI, shedding at 6 months on finasteride is OK. It doesn't mean the drug is making you go bald, it's more likely weaker hairs being ejected, to be replaced by stronger hairs later on. I would have suggested staying on the medicine for at least a full year to determine its impact on your hair.
In fact, if your hair got worse after quitting finasteride, that is a sure sign that the drug was working for you.

Sorry to hear about your sexual side effects. If your libido isn't back to normal soon you should look into possible other causes than finasteride.

[boricotico]

Update. Almost bald after 18 months

Well, here I am after 18 months more or less of my nightmare. I still can't believe how fast this is happening to me.

20 days ago I almost shaved my head and now I have ir very short, but in the past 18 months I've done it 2 times and I can say every time has been worse.

I'm posting a picture from November 2011, that was after 5 months on Propecia. There was a point while being on it that I was very relief and IO thought I was going to be able to fight it and stoped visiting the forum, but due to the side effects I decided to quit in December. Also becayse my wife and I are planning to have a baby and with my loss of libido and the low volume ejaculation it's not going to be possible.

I'm still dealing with the sides so for me it's not a good time righ now. Im going bald and also having sexual problems.


Pictures

1.jpg --- > In November 2011. After 5 months on Propecia.
2.jpg - 4.jpg ---> This is me as of today.
5.jpg --> A comparision 9 months ago and today.

[DAVE52]

Good head shape
Cut it a little shorter next time.......if you are comfortable
Then the next time a little shorter again

[mpb47]

Don't throw in the towel just yet:

I had good results with FIN but had to stop after 2 years . About 3 months after I stopped I started losing tons of hair and I was sure I was going bald. Well it took about a full year, maybe a little longer but I recovered about 50-60% of the hair than I lost. It was not as much as I had on FIN but still much more than I had pre-FIN. Get on Minox if you are not already on it and give yourself some time to recovery from the FIN. Good luck!

[boricotico]

Well is pretty sad, I still can't believe it, all the people I know that are getting bald They've been practically the same for ages, and now in just 18 months I passed from NW1 to maybe NW4, and just from November to this date I, barely 4 months have passed and I went from having a relative good amount of hair to have lose my temples and as Dave says, I now must think in shave my head all the time.