Hi, I am 24 years old and am experiencing some frontal hair loss. Nothing major, but my hairline has receded a few centimeters beyond what I would consider a mature hairline. On my mother’s side, my grandfather still has his hair as do most of my uncles. My father also still has his hair, but his father went bald in front.
I just started taking Propecia this week to prevent further loss. In your experience, have men in situations like mine managed to keep their frontal hair after taking Propecia for a long period of time? Or should I simply consider Propecia a stop-gap measure?
As a side note, I noticed on your blog that you suggested Propecia can only slow down frontal hair loss in most cases-that is, it will continue eventually. But I recently looked over a study on Propecia’s effects on frontal hair loss and the results seems more promising than you suggest (you are probably already familiar with it). Here’s the link: http://www.hairlosstalk.com/download/finfront.pdf
According to this study, investigators and a global assessment found that almost all the people on Propecia halted frontal hair loss (about 94 and 99 percent) over a one year period-and the study suggests that the effects even improved after a 24 month period.
Has this also been your experience?
In my experience with patients taking Propecia, I find that Propecia generally has better observable effects on the crown than the frontal hairline. I have little doubt that Propecia slows down frontal hair loss if it is clinically indicated and I have seen good results from it in the frontal area, therefore agreeing with your reference. I have seen a very small number of young men actually reverse frontal hair loss.
Paid advertisements (not an endorsement):
I have been taking propecia now for 5.5 months. Initially, after 3 months, I saw some promising new sprouts. I was excited. However, they dissapeared after 2 or 3 weeks, and my hairline has since become much more sparse. My hairline is becoming very uneven, the left side is in very bad shape, whereas the right side looks very normal for a 30 year old man. At first I was worried about the temples, but now that the front has developed a balding pattern that I have never seen, the temples are the least of my concerns. I am trying to stay positive. My questions are: Why did I experience regrowth, only to have the regrowth and more disappear? Is it unusual for balding in the front to begin at the midpoint between the center of the forehead and the temple? Is it unusual that one side progress far ahead of the other?