26, balding since 24, propecia is to blame

[thegenius]

Hey Guys,

I've read this forum on and off for a couple years. I bit of my background:

I had started noticing a little more hair coming out in the shower at age 24, not an alarming amount but I figured before I lose my beautiful hairline I should start some sort of treatment. At this time my left temple was starting to bow a little bit.

I did the usual minox and propecia combo, and the resulting rape of my hairline was both rapid and aggressive. Under this program I noticed 100's of hairs come out, the longer I was on propecia, the worse it got day by day. It was torture to see and I remember thinking, "jesus with all this hair I see in the shower, today when I look in the mirror I'll be completely bald!"

The visible thinning of my hair had progressed so rapidly that within a 2 month period this slight hairline bowing turned into a handicap left temple, a completely see-through scalp and a balding vertex when I had no issues with it before. I then started looking at transplantation as a solution but was certain I would be bald within a short period of time.

My left temple had these baby hairs that grew in place of the hair that used to be there, if I didn't have product in my hair it looked like my hairline was normal, but if I had some product in there, my hairline would instantly appear to be an inch or so further back because that's where the useable hair was.

I scraped enough cash for a transplant and went to an SD area doctor to do it. At this point I was losing an acceptable amount of hair each day but my donor area, the back and sides had also thinned to the point where it was see-through as well. I thought there was no hope left because propecia was the "cure" and it couldn't prevent this ravage beast.

I did the strip method and the procedure was affordable and the scar is still the bane of my existence. I didn't feel any pain during the procedure and I only used one of the pain meds the first night to sleep. I puffed up like a balloon and had to hide from work and school for a while and made up excuses to everyone I knew as to why I look like a fish. The swelling moved from my forehead into my eyes and then eventually my cheeks before it dissapeared.

I had experienced shock loss after the surgery and one morning I remember i gently brushed my hair back with my hand and the entire front line of my right temple came out in one swoop. WTF! propecia and a transplant and I'm still ****ed!??

At this point I thought if I'm going to lose it even on propecia, I'm not going to burden myself with a daily dose of this boner fighting poison, so I quit filling the prescriptions. I've been trying for over a year and the side effects (especially the hairloss) is no longer worth the hope it once gave me.

I went on a work trip and decided to shave my head because I couldn't stand to see my friends leave me in droves every morning in the shower and I needed to get used to being bald. At the time I was off propecia but was still riding a momentum of hair loss. I put all kinds of shit on my newly bald head during this time to help my scar heal, the scar was very visible even with long hair covering it because I didn't have the quantity I used to even in the back and sides so I figured rubbing whatever scar treatment cream in there while I'm bald would help when the hair came back.

within 2 weeks I had a revelation, my hair at this length looked as full as my hair did when it was long, you could see the same amount of scalp, I had hope that shaving my head turned those midget hairs into real hair. When my hair grew out to the length of about an inch, my hair was almost as thick as it was in high school. Even when I put wax or gel in my hair, you could not see through to the back as you could compared to 2 months prior without product in the hair. The best thing about it is I didn't lose a single hair from my scalp in 4 months after shaving.

I know what you're going to say, I was still losing hair but the hair was too short for me to see it, and to that I say, **** you. There's no way you can tell someone obsessed with their hairloss that they're just not noticing, it was all I thought about night and day. My vertex filled in and my hairline was for the first time in a longe time, STRONG. My right side that had left in a second has never come down to its original position, and to this day my only regrets are not shaving my head at the first sign of trouble and taking propecia.

For those of you who are going to say my success at recovering my hair was due to the propecia, I also say **** you. Tired of reading that shit on here from brainwashed people, I've seen propecia work for people and I've read similar stories to mine of people who get raped by it. If I meat a merck employee I'm going to punch him in the balls in an attempt to castrate him for the hell I went through. I would absolutely not have lost my hairline in such a short period of time had I not taken propecia that is 100% non negotiable and the crown area going bald wouldn't have been as bad even at 60 years old by the looks of my family.

Anyways, I'm currently looking for a place to do an FUE to fill in my right temple and my strip scar, I will then have a head like I did before propecia, I should get compensation from merck for at least the cost of all these procedures to just get back to where I started. They're assholes.

[8868alex]

Wow, that's quite a story. Hope things work out for you. Can I just clarify, you are saying that your hair regrew when you stopped propecia? If so how do you account for this in your opinion?

[thegenius]

Wow, that's quite a story. Hope things work out for you. Can I just clarify, you are saying that your hair regrew when you stopped propecia? If so how do you account for this in your opinion?

Hi,

Stopping propecia didn't halt my hair loss, shaving my head did. I believe that either shaving my head shocked the follicles into a growth cycle that would've taken a while to get to naturally or that the old wives tale that shaving makes hair thicker is actually true.

To add, the hairs that were falling out eventually became almost see through they were so wimpy and the girth of the hair follicles now is normal if not impressive.

[8868alex]

First and foremost, I hope that your situation continues in a positive direction. My experience with Propecia was entirely differant to yours, but I'm not here to preach, rather I am genuinely interested in hearing how others deal with their individual predicament. With the greatest of respect, it is highly unlikley that shaving your head had any affect the rate of loss or hair growth. Having said that, it would be interesting to see how it pans out as you seem quite convinced of it. Either way, I wish you the best. If you've been listening to the show recently, then you no doubt are aware of the new developments (particularly Replicel) in the field. Here's hoping there is a brighter horizon for us all!

[mattj]

Yours is a very unusual case so it might draw some doubts, but I'm pleased things improved for you.