Do you speak to anyone about hairloss?

[kanyon]

Hi there I'm just curious to know if anyone has confided in anyone in their lives about their hairloss.

I'm about to turn 29 and I started noticing hairloss when I was about to turn 21. Rogaine got me through nearly 7 years but I'm now back where I started.

It was very difficult when I was 20. I confided to my parents but that was it. My Dad accompanied me to meet with a hair surgeon (don't worry - he just recommended Rogaine and Propecia) at that point.

I mentioned to an ex girlfriend and a best mate that I was taking something for it but that's all I said to them.

Now for the past 9 months I've been suffering rapid hairloss again and I'm not sure if I'm willing to talk to anyone in my personal life about it. I do try my very best to try to conceal my hairloss but it's such a scary thing to open up about.

Also, how has hairloss affected your everyday life?

For me, I hate going out the day after I wash my hair. This is when it's at its most thin looking.

For many years when Rogaine worked I would exercise but now that my hair is thin again, I kinda think why bother working at being in shape when the first thing people look at - my head, is in such a bad state. I did actually go for a jog yesterday for the first time in quite a while, and only a year ago I was jogging around the park with a thick head of hair. Now I have to wear a hat because it looks ridiculous.

[Spex]

oh mate - your not alone the emotional trauma of losing ones hair is tuff, really tuff. Keeping it to yourself is VERY common in order to try deal with it and process it. Its a deep, deep issue regarding identity, self confidence and self esteem. I recently wrote a book and within it is a big section on the psychological strain of hair loss, identity, and aids to try deal with the lack of control you feel surrounding hair loss (including a hypnosis aid/talk by a trained professional). Its too lengthy for me to summarise here.

Have a read possibly and if you dont find it helpful i will simply refund you mate. Drop me an email if you purchase so i know who you are

http://thehairraisingtruth.com

I am trying to genuinely help here and not "plug" my book before people possibly attempt to twist this against me. The refund offer goes to anyone.

Spencer Kobren reviewed the book for me and found it an insightful and informative read hence why he kindly provided me with a testimonial.

Regards
SPEX

[mattj]

There's no sense in letting yourself go just because one aspect of your appearance had taken a hit. A lot of people do find that by getting in shape and gaining confidence in how their body looks, the damage that hairloss does to their self-esteem is decreased.

Did you ever take Propecia or was it just Rogaine?

[kanyon]

I still use rogaine because I'm scared not to but it's effectiveness has obviously waned.

I started Fin in February so 6 months ago. Not sure if it's working in keeping what's left of my hair.

It's so tiring positioning my hair 50 times a day to try and conceal the loss.

[hdude46]

Dr Greco in florida is doing something called prp. it might be worth a shot to stop your shedding. its expensive but might be worth a try. there are a bunch of threads here on it so do a little research.

[PayDay]

As Spencer Kobren always says “you are not alone!” You should listen or watch his show on Sunday nights at www.thebaldtruth.com and give him a call. I used to feel the same way as you until I started listen to Spencer. It’s great therapy and it will give you an outlet to talk to people who understand.

[VictimOfDHT]

The only one that knows a little about my hair loss problems is my brother. But he has no idea about the extent of the damage (psychological or otherwise) it has caused to my life, and until now he still doesn't know I've had hair transplants over the past decade. He knows I have no life at all but he doesn't know it's all because of the god damn hair loss curse I've been battling. Seriously, I don't understand the point of living if it's all going to be suffering or like living in a prison cell. My parents gave me this ****ing life and this curse (baldness) and I'm paying for their decision. Life doesn't make sense at all.

But yeah I understand you. All my life I've wanted to be a body builder but since I started losing my hair I have no desire to do anything. If you're feeling like shit about yourself you just lose your motivation. If I could earn some money working at home I'd lock myself in and never go out again.

[kanyon]

Haven't the transplants resulted in you having hair on the top of your head again?

Would you recommend a transplant?

[michael85]

Hi kanyon,

Hair loss is not obvious in my case, and I have been taking Propecia for 5 months and I believe it has slowed it down considerably(i dont care about regrowth.. I just want it to stop)...

I do know that a day will come when i will tart losing again, and so I keep joking with everybody about the fact that I will lose my hair one day...So its no secret... This way I guess people wouldn't be too surprised when I go bald .. But i am hoping Propecia will not let that happen...

[kanyon]

Hi Michael,

I know we have the other thread going cos we started Fin at roughly the same time. For me it will have been 6 months tomorrow. I've missed 4 days during these 6 months.

Not sure if it's working but I don't think I'm experiencing any side effects anymore (although I believe that I did a few months ago).

I'm on the verge of telling my ex girlfriend and now best friend about my hairloss woes. She pointed about my hair was thin about a year ago when it was actually much much thicker than it is now. I'm quite suprised she thought it was thin back then because I didn't - I was still riding the Rogaine high. Although I guess we used to go swimming and stuff and I'd go over just after washing my hair when it looks the thinnest. But I want to fully reveal to her how much it is devestating me now and effecting my life. I think it would be good to confide in a caring person.

My current girlfriend is living in France for the next year and if we stay together during this time, I may talk to her about it when she gets back (if I have any hair by then is another thing). I think i did an ok job of concealing my hairloss but it's possibly got worse since she left 2 months ago.

[DepressedByHairLoss]

This is really a good topic for discussion here. It is very hard to open up about hair loss. And it is increasingly hard to open up to some one who has never experienced hair loss. People who haven't experienced hair loss for themselves simply cannot understand the magnitude of depression that a person suffering from hair loss feels on a daily basis. They simply just fail to realize how vitally important a full head of hair is. In my case, I was forced to tell some of my friends what was causing my depression. As I became more withdrawn and stopped returning phone calls, my friends started to become worried about me and came by my place to see if I was OK. For the most part, my friends were very understanding and helped me out. Interestingly enough, 4 of my friends that I told about it were experiencing varying degrees of hair loss themselves. One of them started losing his hair right around high school and just shaved his head. He's really not bothered by it at all, despite hearing comments about hair loss. I could never put up with that. If anyone commented on my hair loss, I would want to break their f'n jaw. My other friend wears a hat wherever he goes; I'd never seen him without it until he took his hat off for me a few months ago to show the extent of his hair loss in an attempt to ease my worries about hair loss. My other friend pays a ton of money every month for a very expensive hair system; I don't think he could ever live with viewable hair loss. My last friend really doesn't have extensive hair loss, just two receding hairlines. But he simply doesn't give a shit (or pretends not to). Maybe that's cus he's got a wife and kids and doesn't need to go out looking to impress women with a full head of hair. So I guess I've told many more people about my hair loss worries than many people on here have.
What really pisses me off about hair loss is that it ruins a lot of your hopes and dreams. I've always been into rock n roll and recently learned to play the guitar. I dreamed of having a full head of long hair and playing in a rock band. My friend even plays in a Kiss cover band and hints about me joining the band. Except how can I play any of the Kiss members if I am suffering from hair loss? I guess that's what pisses me off more than anything else: looking at all of my rock n roll heroes with these full heads of long hair and then looking at myself with hair loss. It just absolutely breaks my heart.
Some one on here also said about how they wanted to be a body builder all their life but now they have no desire to work out anymore. I've been lifting weights my entire life and I always loved being a big, muscular guy. Ever since I noticed hair loss, I haven't worked out much at all anymore. I just started getting back into it about 2 months ago. The problem that I have is that I think Propecia is messing with my workouts and muscle building. I muscles used to always feel very hard and defined after a workout and now they feel all flabby and soft. I've never experienced this before so I really believe that it is an effect of the Propecia. I believe that this stands to reason since Propecia works to knock out the production of a male hormone that leads to muscular development in the first place. So that's my dilemna: do I keep taking Propecia and watch my workouts and muscular development suffer, or do I stop Propecia and regain my hard muscles and risk losing my hair. Right now, I'm taking Propecia 3 times a week, hopefully enough to stop losing hair but not enough to affect my workouts. Why can't they develop a product or treatment that eliminates the production of DHT in the scalp and not wiping out its production in your entire body?
It just really pisses me off because I know so many people who take such bad care of their bodies yet still have a full head of hair. They never exercise, they eat like shit, they do ridiculous amounts of drugs, yet they still keep their hair.
I guess that's why I'm always complaining that there are not nearly enough options to treat hair loss. Hair loss is so unbearable to live with for so many people, and in this day and age, we should have way more options available to us to combat hair loss.

[VictimOfDHT]

depressedbyhairloss, I'm not sure if Fin affects muscles or not but in my case it didn't. I'm not a muscular guy or anything but I didn't notice any difference in my biceps after so many years on Fin. I don't work out any more like I said because I feel like shit -thanks to the massive shed I had a few months ago- but I know that when I work out for a month or so my biceps feel hard and when I quit they become softer. So, in my case I know Fin isn't affecting my muscles.

[kanyon]

If there is any positive out of my story it's that I was meant to be bald at 21 but with rogaine I was able to get my youth back to the age of 28. Unless fin works amazingly for me, I'll be bald at 29-30. So I did get some amazing years in between there.

One thing thats hard to deal with is that none of my friends are thinning whatsoever. Only 3 people my age that I even know of are thinning but I'm not close to them at all. So it's hard being the weird balding guy in my group.