One year and half my hair later.

[samian]

Not that I want to have any of these side effects but I don't know why the hell I don't have any of these finasteride side effects. I sleep like a Bear, nothing wrong with me sexually, no girl titties. I don't get it. I'm just seriously immune to all of these side effects or something. I take 1.25mg fin daily for nearly 2 years, it stopped my hair loss but never gave me regrowth.

Why do you think side effects are all that common? Remember, the people you see on forums are more likely than not the people that are having trouble with their treatments - if they were working for me without a hitch, I certainly wouldn't be here.

[rdawg]

Why do you think side effects are all that common? Remember, the people you see on forums are more likely than not the people that are having trouble with their treatments - if they were working for me without a hitch, I certainly wouldn't be here.

Pretty much this. I too don't suffer from any side effects a little over 2 months on the stuff.

So much fear mongering on propecia. Dont get me wrong, side effects do and can happen, but it's to a very small, vocal minority. And there's probably millions that dont suffer from any at all.

[VictimOfDHT]

Pretty much this. I too don't suffer from any side effects a little over 2 months on the stuff.

So much fear mongering on propecia. Dont get me wrong, side effects do and can happen, but it's to a very small, vocal minority. And there's probably millions that dont suffer from any at all.

Yup. I just want to second that motion. Obviously, the only people who are going to be here talking about Fin's side effects are the ones who have it. The vast majority of people who take and don't experience anything aren't going to come here and tell us they have no issues. Unfortunately, most readers take that as a "proof" that most of the people on Fin are actually suffering from sides when that is NOT the case at all. I myself have been taking it since it came out and I have yet to experience any of the sides but unfortunately I can't say Fin is doing me much good.

[VictimOfDHT]

I agree, but hair loss is looked down because it's not "physically" harmful.

I guess that's all that matters. It doesn't matter how harmful it is mentally and socially. A disease has to literally hurt or kill you for people to take notice.

Unfortunately, how bad or harmful something is seen depends 100% on how we are programmed (by society) to perceive it. Somethings are bad and harmful (to us) but we're programmed to see them as good or at least harmless. For example, alcohol is bad (it's a poison) but hardly any one doesnt drink (alcohol) and in fact people think of it as a good thing!
Depression is harmful. Billions are spent on depression treatments and research and people are encouraged to seek immediate help if they suffer from depression. Some people actually qualify for disability because of their depression and no one can force them to work.
Now, we all know how extremely depressing and devastating hair loss can be. We all know how it can affect every aspect of one's life YET, depression that's caused by hair loss isn't even recognized as legitimate. A man who dares to say he's depressed because of his hair loss is ridiculed, scolded, and looked down upon and even told he's not "man enough"! He's usually attacked -I don't mean physically- especially by other MEN for being "weak".... Even other bald men would tell him to shut up and "be a man" and to get on with his life.... and I'm 100% sure these men only tell him that because that's what they'e been PROGRAMMED AND CONDITIONED to say to other men who dare to complain about their hair loss. I'm also 100% sure these tough men feel like SHIT inside about their own hair loss and probably wish every second of their lives they could get their hair back but they dare not admit it, again, because they're afraid of the backlash and the shaming that our society is always ready to mete out to any man who dares to complain about "frivolous" or "trivial" things such as hair loss.
You see, we live in a society (well actually a world) that tells men their suffering, their feelings or whatever is of their concern are UNIMPORTANT and don't count. Imagine if baldness hit women and young girls in the same rate it does men. I'm so damn sure a cure would've been found like a 100 years ago. I'm sure Obama would've enacted laws that would've made it mandatory on all medical research labs to allocate a certain amount of money, time and effort to find a cure for baldness. I'm sure billions and billions of dollars would've been spent on funding hair loss research and scientists would've been racing to find a cure (the US spends 4 times as much on female-specific research than it does on male-specific research). I'm sure even the UN would've convened to come up with a solution to the problem.
But since baldness is MAINLY a male issue that mostly affects men -the gender whose feelings and concerns or sometimes even lives don't matter (close to 80% of all who commit suicide are men and male teens, yet nothing special being done to address the problem like it would've been had it been 80% women.... )- NO one seems to give a rat's ass about it, ESPECIALLY that it doesn't kill, even though it would be really really stupid (on the part of society) to think it doesn't HURT (men). To say hair is not important to men, and to dismiss someone's concern about his hair loss problem or call him vain for wanting to do something about is beyond FU-CKED UP. NO. It's NOT "just hair". It's more than that. Much more than that. Otherwise millions of men wouldn't be depressed about it, despite the fact that society tells them they don't need their hair. If hair wasn't important -to you who say it isn't- WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HERE WASTING COUNTLESS HOURS AND DAYS TRYING TO FIND SOMETHING THAT WORKS? IMO, hair is just as important as any part of your body and maybe even more so. I've seen people with missing fingers or limbs and they're functioning normally. However, many many balding men have had their whole lives shattered because of their hair loss problem and will never live normal lives or see their dreams (achieving their goals) come true. Many of these men live like hermits. I myself have been held hostage by this curse and my life has gone down the drain because of it, especially that I have BDD. Now, just because you happen to be one who doesn't feel this way, DON'T think every other balding man should or CAN feel the same way you do-something some people seem to have a hard time understanding. Don't expect us all to have the "whatever" attitude about our hair loss. That's just IMPOSSIBLE.

Again, it's all about how we are programmed to perceive something. Hair loss...as long as it's a man that's losing his hair -and not a woman- it's trivial and funny and many people won't think twice about making jokes about a guy's receding hairline. Now god forbids it were a woman losing her hair and I guarantee you any one who dares to make fun of her would be attacked and beaten by every one around. WHY? What's the difference? And who the fukc decides hair to a man should be different than what hair is to a woman? Why is it that a man is seen as vain if he wants to do something about his hair loss but the same thing isn't said about a woman who wants to do something about her hair or looks (trying to look younger through countless face lifts, breast implants.....) A guy gets hit in the groin is funny, despite the fact that it's painful!! A woman gets hit in the same area and it's sad and every body feels sorry and no one would find it funny of course! WHY? I'm just bringing this up to show the DOUBLE STANDARDS.

Depression is serious shit and no one would make fun of you if you were suffering from depression, and insurance companies will cover your treatment....UNLESS...you tell them your depression is a result of your hair loss and suddenly they (insurance and people) tell you to fukc off and "be a man". WTF? So apparently not all depressions are the same. If your depression was caused by hair loss and you were suicidal, or at least your social life was on the line and you were suffering every moment of your life, your depression isn't seen as legit or serious and you're left to suffer alone.

So, I have no doubt in my mind baldness would've been a thing of the past LONG TIME AGO had there been a genuine interest and effort put into finding a cure/treatment to this curse. I find it hard to believe that scientist claim to be able to clone whole beings but still unable to clone part of a being (hair). I don't think hair loss is the mystery that it's made out to be and had someone genuinely tried to research it 30 or 40 years ago the only place we'd be seeing bald people is in photos, or at least it would be a choice.

[Soxfaninfl]

I've been in Fin for almost 6 months with no side effects. I would have quit it if I experienced ED. It wouldn't have bothered me if I experiece a decreased libido. I'm single so I'm not getting laid often like I was when I was married.

[DepressedByHairLoss]

VictimOfDHT, you're totally right bro. I totally agree with what you say with regards to depression related to hair loss. You can get looked at with all the sympathy in the world if you suffer from depression, yet if you tell some one that your depression is being caused by hair loss, people will say stupid s**t like "hair doesn't make the man", "these were the cards you've been dealt in life", or "accept and adapt to it". Hell, my friend is the one that told me that "hair doesn't make the man" and he wears a friggin wig for f**k's sake!! So much for practicing what you preach!! I remember when I told certain people that I was depressed (I didn't tell them it was because of hair loss) and a couple of them said to me: "why, did you break up with your girlfriend or something"? I mean, certain people actually think that breaking up with your girlfriend would be more of a reason to be depressed than hair loss!! Are you kidding me?? I've had girlfriends break up with me plenty of times and hair loss hurt me a million times more than a girlfriend breaking up with me. As a matter of fact, I've had girls that I cared about break up with me several times. I felt bad for maybe a couple of days but then I just didn't give a s**t. After all, you can get a new girlfriend anytime but you can't get back your old hair (at least not with today's methods).

Unfortunately, you're right about there being a double standard when it comes to men's hair loss vs. women's hair loss. I've seen articles and television news stories written about women's hair loss and they are written with such compassion and empathy. Yet when it comes to men's hair loss, the articles or new stories have to be comedy pieces with baldness jokes. I actually was watching Fox News when George Cotsarelis made the news with one of his hair loss discoveries. (Man, I really wish there were more people like him attempting to cure hair loss). Anyway, Fox News intro'ed this story with that dumpy lump of s**t from Seinfeld having his wig ripped off of his head. I immediately turned the channel, feeling totally disgusted. Hair loss is a "terrible epidemic of Biblical proportions", not some source of comedic fodder for some cutesy little tele-journalists.

I'll tell you VictimOfDHT, my dream is for a bald scientist to be fed up with his baldness, work hard in the lab to create a cure (or at least an effective treatment) for baldness, and then market this treatment/cure. And this treatment would be autologous, so that it would have to go through the rigorous and excessive FDA requirements and it would not be ridiculously expensive. And if this treatment/cure was somehow deemed unsafe by FDA in order to hinder its release, then this scientist could then just market it overseas. I know that guys like you and me would fly to friggin Antarctica if it meant that we could regrow our beloved hair. I really believe that if a concerted effort was made amongst the majority of the hair loss doctors and scientists (and not just 4 companies in the world!) to cure hair loss, then I believe that it wouldn't be excessively hard to do.

I really feel for you that you suffer from BDD. I thankfully do not. I tell people all the time that all I want is my hair back, nothing else. I have permanent stretch marks from years and years of power-lifting, but I never complain about those. I've got a long nose and I was noticeably overweight for a significant portion of time in my life, yet I never complained about that. Yet when hair loss hit me up, it was like a bullet from hell. And I always tell people: all I want is my hair back, that's it. I don't ask for anything else. I really don't think this is too much to ask for.

Moderators: please excuse some of the foul language that I posted; I did my best to try to censor myself. I just really had a terrible day today (largely due to hair loss) and I really needed to vent. Thanks!

[VictimOfDHT]

Thanks, depressedbyhairloss. I believe most of what people say -or do- is copied from what they hear or see others around them say or do even though they might not realize it. That's why I believe most people aren't any better than parrots. Your friend is obviously only parroting -MINDLESSLY- words (hair doesn't make the man....) he always hears around him without even giving it a second thought. If he stopped and thought for a second about what he said he'd either throw that wig in the trash or he'd never say stupid stuff like "hair doesn't make the man" ever again. Also, like I said, people are also programmed -socially- to respond automatically to certain situations with no thought involved. It's usually the guy with the full head of hair who preaches to hair loss sufferers about how to just accept their baldness and embrace it. Just like the rich guy always preaches to the poor man on how unimportant money is or how he (the poor man) should be content with the crumbs that his measly minimum wage income can provide. Very few things piss me off like when people think they're consoling us with their stupid meaningless BS and nonsense especially that I know most of them would NOT practice what they preach if they were in the same situation.

Yeah, I have to agree that breaking up with a gf is nothing compared to losing hair. Gfs come and go and you will ALWAYS get over it sooner or later no matter how depressed and sad you are but the same can not be said about the sadness and depression that come with losing one's hair. It's just one horrible feeling that just keeps renewing day in day out and in fact it increases with time as you see the dramatic (negative) change in your appearance. Like I mentioned before, I've had a shi-tty childhood and life and still do now and I've gone through a lot of hardships but yeah, the trauma that hair loss has caused me (now I have nerve damage that makes me limp sometimes) absolutely had the worst impact on me especially that hair loss keeps holding me back from moving forward and trying to work on improving my situation. It's a nightmare that never ends.

If I were a rich man, I'd build my own hair loss research facility and hire some good researchers and even work on this myself. I have no doubt the solution to this curse isn't as complicated as we might think. It's sickening that the fate of millions and millions of balding men who are suffering silently and whose lives are being destroyed by this hair loss curse, is in the hands of a handful of researchers who are taking their sweet time finding a cure.

[DepressedByHairLoss]

I agree with that last paragraph, VictimOfDHT. I really don't think it would be as hard as people make it seem to find a solution for hair loss. We've talked about the problem before. That most of these scientists are just relegated to testing potential hair regrowth chemicals on mice and not doing a damn thing to benefit humans. In one of my earlier posts, I think I made a whole laundry list of chemicals that have been proven to regrow hair in mice but have never been tested on humans. I remember I spoke of scientists who spent nearly a quarter of a century fiddling around with mice, but not doing a damn thing to try to cure hair loss in humans.

The only problem I think we have is that there are not nearly enough people researching or even working towards a cure for hair loss. If we had as many scientists working to find a cure for hair loss as we have doctors performing hair transplants (something like 1500 doctors in North America), then I believe we would be close to a cure already. But instead we're being sold total b.s. like head tattooing. Head tattooing??!! Are these people insane??!! (Maybe it could be of use to conceal a scar, but to tattoo bald areas of a scalp is completely insane and it floors me that reputable doctors are even offering it.)

[DepressedByHairLoss]

Also, stem cells from other parts of the body are currently being used to repair tendons, joints, and even muscle. I really wish that similar stem cell procedures would be tried to regrow hair. I know that companies like Replicel and Aderans are doing this, but the aforementioned studies that I mentioned to repair tendons, joints, and muscle are autologous and thereby do not need FDA approval.

[itssomuchfun]

Same thing happened to me. Turned 31, hair started falling out slowly, then quickly. 1 1/2 years later and I'm very thin on top and thin on the sides, receding badly, and have small bald spot on the crown. MPB hits us all at different speeds.