Experience shows that early hair loss responds better to finasteride than people who have waited for years before starting it.
At the age of 18, it is not advisable to do anything surgical (like a hair transplant) to address the uneven hairline. You will not know if you are balding until you are at least 26 years old.
Almost every day I get emails (because of my internet presence) from patients who had surgery and find their doctors don’t seem to answer their concerns and questions. Many of these men see an abrupt change in the doctor when compared to before their surgery. I guess it is like being sold a used car and the salesman is all over you, attentive to your every need, until…. that is, you purchase the car and have problems. As they already got your money they don’t to have to be responsive anymore.
Being a good doctor means taking care of the patient and all of his/her needs before, during and AFTER the hair transplant. I find, however, that I am stepping up to help those whose doctors just don’t seem to care about them after their surgery. This may be more of a problem as Medical Tourism is becoming very common (I get both types of post-surgery emails). If for example, you go to Turkey and have a surgical procedure, then go back to your home country, local doctors will have no interest in you and the doctors in Turkey (assuming that they were doctors – which is often not the case) certainly have no structure put together to help you in your home country.
My advice for anyone reading this post is to meet and speak with patients who had surgery with that ‘doctor’ you are considering before you make the decision to go with that doctor or that clinic. Their patients will always share with you what their experience was, so this way you hear it first hand and will avoid the problems if you listen to what you are told.
Just want to preface this by saying that I’m all for fighting hair loss in any way you want if it’s what you wanna do. I’m genuinely not here trying to sway anyone one way or the other. That’s why I’m not even gonna mention what I’m doing/not doing for my hair loss. Just wanted to comment on how some people in the hair loss community might have a bit of an unhealthy relationship towards balding and I think we all torture ourselves more then we need to.
I had to say that I had a very enlightening talk with my therapist and also spoke with some of the good people on the r/bald sub and it was quite enlightening for me. I’d realized that it was super unhealthy to obsess about image and my hair to the extent that I was doing it (in the back of my head at all times, sucking all joy out of my life at the worst moments)
realized that a key for me was to not catastrophiez hair loss more then it needed to be and to realize that even the one thing I was fearing most in the whole world (being bald) is not something that’s that bad.
If we wake up bald tomorrow our family will still love us, our friends will still be there, we will still enjoy every hobby, tv show, movie, video game, book, interest that we had prior. It will be an adjustment period sure, it’ll be weird to look in the mirror and you’ll have to relearn to like how look the same as when you had hair and also for a little while after our loved ones will have to get used to the new look. But then after a few months at most, life will go on just how it was before. Having that mentality of ‘whatever happens it’ll be ok’ is so important in this situation.
I think most people who lose hair young torture themselves much more then they need to by making the stakes in their head so high. If you think being bald is a death sentence then of course you are going to stress over it 24/7 and drive yourself mad. If you think balding is just a natural part of life that happens to many people, just like wrinkles or skin sagging or any other changes our body goes through over the course of our entire life. If you convince yourself that if it happens to you it won’t be a huge deal, then you will have a much healthier perspective and be much more comfortable, whether you decide to fight your hair loss or accept it. Bring down the stakes a little, it’ll be a weight off your shoulders:).
So yah I think this sub is great and that if you want to fight your hair loss then by all means, more power to you. I just think that some people on here could tone down the animosity and negativity regarding certain topics and I know that if people had a healthier perspective and relationship with their hair loss and overall body changes then they might be a lot happier and more calm with whatever they decided to do. Even the worse case scenario for us would be ok so we don’t need to be as terrified as we think.
Wanted to get this off my chest because I recognize a lot of myself in the people on here with how I see them stressing so much with this all or nothing mentality and making the stakes so high in their heads that they spiral into bouts of depression.
Again nothing wrong with taking finasteride or whatever other method if that’s what you want and you’ve balanced the sacrifice/reward in your head. Just want people to know that they should do this because it’s something they want that would bring them pleasure, not because they should feel like they absolutely have to or else their life will be over because that can lead to being in a bit of an unhealthy place mentally.
This is all, thanks to anyone who read this far, wish you the best
What you said is important for Reddit readers to understand. There is a lot of information on this site and opinions like yours are an important contribution to the readers evolving opinions. Hope spring eternal for those with hair loss and there are many people working to reverse the hair loss with either a simple treatment or a cure. A simple treatment may be closer than you think. We are working on it right now as I write this post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
People say that Finasteride loses its effectiveness. Is this actually true, since DHT levels are similar till 40? I don’t see the logic of why it would lose its effectiveness.
Studies comparing two groups (1) people who stay on finasteride vs (2) those that do not take it or stop it show that those on finasateride keep hair counts higher for longer. Some further studies by others seem to show that the spread between the two groups continue past 5 years and from my clinical experience I have seen it extend to 20 years. For those that take it and stop it, they shift to the lower curve fairly fast (3+ months) which I have also seen in my practice.
How long does it take for Minoxidil Hypertrichosis to disappear when a person stops the minoxidil?
The new hairs (the hypertrichosis hairs possibly on the face) are always dependent upon the minoxidil, so when it is stopped the hairs fall out because they need the minoxidil to stay and thrive.
I am a female who has been using minoxidil for 1 month. I have a lot of minituarized hairs and I’d like to know how Minoxidil would work on these short hairs. Will Minoxidil work by pushing out these minituarized hairs and allowing new and stronger hairs to come out? OR Will Minoxidil allow these short hairs to remain and stimulate them to grow stronger and thicker?
Minoxidil doesn’t replace existing hairs but it produces new hairs when it works that grow out of the scalp. New hair growth is a known side effect of this drug which was originally produced for high blood pressure. There are also suggestions that it may reverse miniatutrization of existing hairs.
I have a lot of neck hair, can I use it for a hair transplant?
A hair transplant at this stage and at your age may bring you up to a full head of hair providing that you stay on the drug. Stick to the donor area if you have a hair transplant and do not use nape of the neck hair as it is a problem for two reasons: (1) taking it from there leaves scars and (2) this hair is not permanent in many men. At 28 you can have a hair transplant and reshape your hairline from the donor area alone. Results can be impressive, often in one surgery, if your hair is not fine.
I was really worried about it, so went to quite a famous derm, who told me I had no miniaturization(using the proper equipment, I assume, not just by eye like another derm did). Cut to now, my scalp is beginning to show even more, and the itching continues.
Should I hop on fin + min? I wanted to get a dermaroller, and have no problem with proscar, but was hoping to delay it, maybe try coco butter or rosemary oil to slow down the shedding.As I said, I have no problem with the big three, but am afraid it would only rush the fall process without any recovery, seeing the unusual pattern.
I first defined the term DUPA and it is very rare. For reasons that confuse me, many men make that diagnosis based upon fear, no facts. To make the diagnosis you need a hand microscope to measure the miniaturization in the ‘donor area’ hair which must be significantly over 20% miniaturization to be DUPA (Diffuse Unpatterned Alpecia). Since it is rare and you probably don’t have it, you need an expert like me to tell you what is going on. Did your expert dermatologist look at your hair with a hand microscope on your head? Most doctors rarely do this so that they can’t make the DUPA diagnosis. That is good news for you, as if you don’t have DUPA, then there are many things that you can do and you have options.
I know this question might be silly, but I’m a little concerned. Some nights I find myself waking up from my sleep while itching my scalp really hard, like nails digging in a little in my scalp. Nothing too intense of course, but just enough to have some flakes peeling off.
I’m kind of freaking out that I’m causing some bad damage to my scalp. I was looking for input from people knowledgeable on the matter, or have had any similar experiences and know good remedies.
Any input would be appreciated.
Scalp scratching causes hair loss and can introduce folliculitis. Never scratch your itch other than rarely and softly
What minoxidil has done after nearly 6 months, my existing hair looks worse and bald spot looks bigger…. I’ve been on fin for like a month and 2 weeks, I think I should taper off it now before it does any more damage any input?
The finasteride will take up to a year to see the value. I would stay on the minoxidil. You have to be patient!
You need to see an expert doctor like me, who can do a HAIR CHECK test (https://baldingblog.com/haircheck-test-how-it-is-done-video/) on you to determine if you are going to go bald. This is a lot of recession in someone 20 years of age. Who do you take after in your family line? Blondes are the BEST candidates for hair transplants, but at your age, I would be hesitant to recommend it. You should absolutely be on the drug finasteride if you want to keep your hair. I find that blondes are the best hair transplant candidates because of the low contrast between hair and skin color. If hair is important to you, you will look at my comments seriously.
The only way to prevent shock loss (the loss of your native hair) following a hair transplant is to take the drug finasteride prior to the transplant and then after it for a year or more. When this happens in women, there is no known way to prevent shock loss as the mechanism is different