Blondes can lose 80% of their hair without detecting it readily. The best way to determine how much hair you are actually losing is to get a HAIRCHECK test and then you will know exactly where you stand. You may be losing more hair than you are seeing. For finasteride, only 2-4% of people get sexual side effects, so starting at the regular dose is okay. If you only take half the dose, it will be 80% as effective with some people reporting less sexual side effects.
14 weeks on finasteride (photo)
I’m Just Taking Medication Until Cloning is Ready
I have been losing my hair since i was about 17 and a half and i have found it deeply depressing and i am sick of the smell of hairspray! I was just wanting some helpful advice …
I have been taking Propecia for about 4 months and i am yet to notice any results and i am beginning to consider but as i am only 18 i will probably be denied such treatment. I just want something to tide me over until hair cloning is made public. Do you have any idea when this may be?
Any Advice you have i would be very grateful to receive.
Yours sincerely
I just got back from the annual ISHRS hair doctor convention (this year was in Amersterdam), and that very same question about cloning was asked to the experts who where on a panel that I chaired. The answer is that there is no cloning in the near future. I’ll write more about the ISHRS meeting in a future post this week.
My honest opinion is that cloning is still a decade away from being available to the public. They’re making progress, but even the clinical trials seem not to be working as hoped. If you follow message boards, some believers will tell you to give it another year or two… but that’s a moving timeline. I’ve been reading it’ll be available in “5-10 years” for at least the past decade. If you believe that someone has the answer, please let me know as it might just be good marketing hype.
You won’t see results in just 4 months of Propecia use, but stick with it. The most common question I get from 18 year olds on Propecia is about hair loss in the hairline. I don’t know what your hair loss is like, but keep in mind that full regrowth isn’t a benefit of the medication that you should be expecting. Just stopping the hair loss where it’s at is benefit enough. The peak benefits of Propecia takes 2 years and the gain in the second year slowly appears.
Are my 1500 grafts placed close enough to give me good density?
I’m Scared of What I Read About Propecia AND Minoxidil’s Libido Issues
Listen guys, I am sure you get this question a lot, but I’m 18 years old. Within the last year, my hairline has receded noticeable and on the crown of my head there is definitely thinning.
The side-effects of propecia (loss of libido, impotence, etc) turned me off to the product, so I first considered minoxodil (aka rogaine), well upon further research it seems that rogaine has a very rare and similar side-effects such as loss of libido and impotence which is long-lasting affecting the youthful and the more elderly.
Can anyone clear the air on this matter, please if you use/used rogaine explain if those horror stories hold any water. The company does not list it as a possible side-effect, but the amount of scenarios ive read on the internet (i know not very reliable) has implanted an idea that this may somehow be correlated with sexual side-effects.
I appreciate all of the help, I would really like to retain what I have, family does not have a good history with balding, yet speaking with them all, I am very young to have already begun experiencing this, most of them began in their late 20’s early 30’s, so I’m crossing my fingers because i like wearing my hair long.
All medications have side effect potential. Growing old also has a side effect of loss of libido, as well. Thinking about a side effect and growing scared to take a medication due to possible side effect after reading (as you state) “unreliable” information on the Internet, can cause that side effect to manifest itself.
I am sure you will find people who used Rogaine (minoxidil) claiming loss of libido, but it’s not a known side effect in the literature as far as I’m aware. Many of the people on forums that talk about various side effects they get from any medication diagnose themselves and look for the easiest answer to come up with as a source of their problems.
Get a clear diagnosis of your medication condition. Then find a doctor who can go over your treatment goals and come up with a Master Plan. After weighing out your risk and benefits, you can make the ultimate decision if you want to take the medication.
17 Year Old with Hair Loss
My 17 year old son has premature balding. He already has a very predominant receding hairline. He is very self-conscious of it. My dad and my dad’s half-brother both had hair loss at an early age but I’m not sure that it was as young as my son. We ran some bloodwork to rule out any physical problems and all were negative. Is there anything that we can do to slow down or improve his hair loss? I was told that he is too young for Rogaine but are there any other options?
Sometimes, hair loss occurs in very young people. As a male, he can take the drug Propecia which hopefully will stop the hair loss. First, get him examined by a competent doctor who will quantify the rate of miniaturization in his balding area. This is important, because when he starts on the drug Propecia we will want a starting point to determine if it is working and by how much. I would hold off on Rogaine until a good baseline is in hand and the rate of hair loss is documented. Please see my similar postings on age-related topics here: BaldingBlog – Age.
I’m Using 3 Hair Treatments and I Want to Wean Off Them
I have been using minoxidil and proscar as well as laser treatment for hair lose for the past 8 months and have had amazing results. I am 21 and don’t want to keep taking all these products for the rest of my life. Is it possible to slowly reduce the use of these products tell i no longer need them or at least be less dependent on them?
Of the three treatment options, you can stop using the laser treatment since it is very unlikely that it has contributed anything to your results. For finasteride, the 1mg dose has been judged scientifically as the ideal overall dose. There is no reason to change it. Since you have seen good results to date, stay on the minoxidil. Some people do develop minoxidil dependence, which means that when you wean off of it, the hair that were dependent on it may very well fall out. A very important take home message here is that once you are on the finasteride, then you are always going to be on it. If it is stopped, you will lose hair in the amount that you would have lost if you were never of the medication. You can’t lower the dosage until it isn’t needed — you will lose hair if you do this.
2008-08-11 12:34:182008-08-11 11:14:14I’m Using 3 Hair Treatments and I Want to Wean Off Them
18 Year Old with Hair Loss or Mature Hairline? (With Photos)
Dear Doc,
I’m an 18 year old male and worried that my hairline’s begun to recede. I don’t have any particular family history of balding. Both of my grandfathers had most of their hair, and so does my mother’s brother. Only my father is balding (he is 50 and has lost lots of his hair on the top of his head).
I’ve noticed that when I run my hands through my hair I occasionally lose one or two. Also, when my hair is wet, I tend to lose a few if I run my hand through my hair. I don’t see more than two or three on my pillow when I wake up.
I’ve always had a high hairline with temples higher than the rest of my hairline, but I think its starting to move back slowly.
I also have little red spots near the receding areas of my hairline, almost like acne (I have very little acne on the rest of my face). Looking at my pictures, would you say this is just a mature hairline or the start of the balding process? Also, sorry for the long e-mail, but I’ve tried to list everything I can. I’d appreciate some advice on what I can do, as my hair is still very much part of my identity, and I don’t want to spend the next couple of years worrying and counting hairs.
Many thanks.
While I thank you for permission to post these, I usually require a frontal view with the eyebrows lifted high so that the creases on the forehead show. You supplied two side views with the eyebrows lifted and a poor quality photo that requires me to guess. I’ll take a stab at it anyway. Click the photos to enlarge.
It does look like you are developing a mature hairline. There is also a sign of some thinning that goes further back than just the leading edge, suggestive of miniaturization behind a maturing hairline.
You need to get your scalp mapped out for miniaturization, and see if there is thinning behind the leading edge and how far back it goes. This )is suggestive of early male pattern balding at a level where a drug like Propecia (Finasteride) can stop it. I would try to find a doctor who has a HAIRCHECK instrument which will tell you if you are losing hair elsewhere on your heat that you don’t see (https://baldingblog.com/haircheck-test-how-it-is-done-video/. See a doctor who cares about you and what may be early balding. If you have balding, you must know that it is a progressive process and the quicker that you address it by a professional, the better chance is that you will retain hair for all of the important years yet to come.
Importance of Scalp Laxity, FUT Scar Concern, FUE Drawbacks
Hi Doctor Rassman,
I have a few questions concerning transplants.
— How big of an issue is scalp laxity? I.e., do you often have patients who still possess donor hair, but who are unable to have FUT a 2nd/3rd/4th time because their scalp has become too tight? Should this be a concern in planning for the future?
— You’ve said that one of the drawbacks of FUE is that it can waste precious donor hair (i.e. some hair doesn’t survive the transplant procedure?) — just how much hair might be “wasted” by going with FUE rather than FUT?
— Why are some readers so concerned about FUT scars? In most of the photos I’ve seen, the scar is a very thin hairless line — not a repulsive, gnarled mass or anything like that. Even if one cropped one’s hair short so that the scar were visible, what’s the big deal?
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this blog.
Scalp laxity become tighter after successive procedure, but this is not usual. The use of scalp exercises solves the problem. It sometimes takes 30 minutes/day for 3 months to adequately address the scalp laxity.
In our original article when we introduced the FUE technique a decade ago, we reported a situation where patients differed with transection rates. We believe that if you assume that the surgeon does FUE perfectly, that some percentage of patients will have unacceptably high transection rates. Although this has become less of a problem as we perfected our FUE skills, it is still present in about 10% of patients. It will be interesting to see if the ARTAS robot can impact these problems in those patients. As Dr. Robert Bernstein (co-author on the original FUE article) just got an ARTAS robot, it will be interesting to see if he experiences the 10% patient problems with transection. FUT should produce less than 5% damage in the hands of a good surgeon.
FUT scars are, as you said, not a problem in 95% of patients on the first procedure. Rarely can you see the scar when the hair is kept long. Even after a second procedure the incidence of scarring is not high either, but if it can be seen, it is only seen if the hair is cut very short or if one lifts the hair to examine it. I would ask, even if the scar is visible, how many times would a person with such a scar that is hidden with longer hair (1 inch in length) gets stopped on the street and asked about it.
I Am 19 Years Old And I Am Balding Like My Norwood 5 Father.
I’m 19 and play college football. My Dad experienced hair loss around my age and was a Norwood V by the time he was 30. His hairloss was gradual and then slowed way down.
I have a lot of stress right now because of playing football and tough academics and I broke up with my gf. It seems this is accelerating some of it. But, I try to calm myself down. What would you recommend me trying to take for now? I will get a transplant or something later after I play college. I just need to get through another 4 years!
Thanks in advance.
As you are finding out hair loss is genetic. In general many men who have the trait of Norwood 5/6/7 patterns will have the pattern show in their 20’s. It does slow down in their 30/40s.
If you want a medical treatment, you need to see a doctor to explore your options such as taking Propecia or Rogaine. It is the only two medication that work. Shampoos, vitamins, and products you may find on the Internet despite the great advertising persuasion, does not work to stop or regrow hair. At best it may be “good” for your hair in terms of keeping the hair’s shine and body.
Other options would be simply shaving! Bald is beautiful (or handsome)… as they say.