Balding Blog

I had a patient who I brought to the International hair meetings where there were about 400 doctors present. He had alopecia totalis, not a single hair on his body anywhere. He had SMP done by us, and when the doctors met him, none of them could tell he had SMP even though they knew. A well done SMP should be undetectable. The hair can be shaved or long, nothing in-between works as well.

People with SMP, can you tell its SMP from really close? from tressless

So I just got some blood work done to decide if I wanted to start finasteride. My main concern is developing gyno. Anything here that sticks out to anybody? Thanks.

Test -618 ng/dl (Ref:264-916)

Free test -15.2 pg/ml (Ref:9.3-26.5)

DHT -47 ng/dl (Ref:30-85)

Estrogen -72 pg/ml (Ref:40-115)

Estradiol -37.5 pg/ml (Ref:7.6-42.6)

Prolactin -19.9 ng/ml (Ref:4-15.2)

I’m also about to turn 21 in a few days and I’m in pretty good shape physically.

The tests are normal and that is what I would expect. You can’t predict Gynecomastia when taking finasteride and the blood tests will not tell you anything.

I am a 23 y.o male thinking about trying Fin. Actually, I am open to all options, be it Minoxidil or Keto shampoo or whatever. Currently, I think I should wait until the 14th to see the results of the Brotzu trial everyone is raving about. In the meantime, I want to speak with some doctors to see their perspective on the drug. So, is there any way of telling the likelihood of Fin side effects? I read by some other posters on this subreddit that there is a 1 in 100,000 chance of ED. I was just wondering what your perspective might be? What would the procedure be with ensuring the highest chance of keeping my dick if I chose to use Fin? What about peppermint oil, rosemary oil, coconut oil, and other herbal remedies? Do you have any insight on these? Also, I just wanted to thank you for all your contributions to this subreddit. I have learned a great deal reading your comments.

There is no way to determine if you will get side effects, but people who are primed mentally are the ones that mostly get it. In reality, the risks are about 3%, and if you happen to be the 3%, there are ways to reduce the dose to address side effects that work in half of the men on the drug. Remember, if you believe this will happen to you, it will happen to you. When my son went on it, he thought he was taking his daily vitamin P, he told me. His sex drive went down, so he called me and asked if that was a side effect. I told him it was for about 3% of people.

No. Telogen Effluvium is a temporary problem that resolves over time; however, some people find as they age that their hair gets finer.

My doctor is a woman and I’m 18 years old. If i ever experience sides from finasteride, i’ll feel weird to ask my doctor about it. Does it matter about what gender doctor is? I just feel more comfortable in talking to a guy about sides if they ever show up.

Women doctors are just doctors and they often speak about sexual problems with male patients without embarrassment. Focus on your needs, not the sex of your doctor.

I’m 23 and I started losing hair since 18 but not in an aggressive way. I am still an NW 2/3. Recently, I’ve started TRT because my Testosterone results came back a bit low. For the past two months. I have been thinking about hopping on the big 3 minox/fin/niz since I still have a good amount of hair, but I am really hesitant to start Finasteride because of the horror stories I have read and heard about the side effects.

So, what do you think?

I’ve been on the finasteride and minoxidil stacked for a little over a year now, and I’ve had great results with minimal sides.

I just recently got into styling my hair. I’ve been using pomade daily, and I’m concerned about the amount of hair I’ve been seeing on my hands and comb/brush when styling.

I’m wondering if this is indeed increased shedding from the styling product, or if I’m just catching “sticky clumps” of hair from the pomade.

I did an FUT in 2010. I was told by a respectable clinic in Turkey that I can do a second FUT, where the old scar will be cut and the surgeon will perform an incision on top of scar and remove it. So, instead of old scar, I will have a newer thinner one. How is this possible? I’m aware I can do an FUE on top of the scar. Unfortunately with FUE, I’d have to shave my head, which would make the old scar visible. My long term plan is to do an FUE on top of scar but not now.

A second surgery almost always increases the size of the scar, if it is another strip surgery. Sometimes, I remove the scar and create a trichophytic closure which helps hair to grow through the scar. However, I reserve this for the last surgery I do when I perform a strip surgery. Strip surgery scars can easily be treated with scalp micropigmentation (See here: https://scalpmicropigmentation.com/scar-covering/)