Thinning Hair - Propecia / Proscar

LegacyUser

Hi, regular poster here going unregged for obvious reasons.

I'm almost 26, male, and in the past 9 - 12 months my hair has thinned dramatically. Its really starting to knock my confidence. I've always had a decent head of hair,always relatively light in comparison to thicker heads, but decent nonetheless, but the thoughts of having it all off in the next 1 - 2 years has me seriously worried. A few people have mentioned it here and there, so it isn't just me imagining things. My dad is bald, one of his two brothers is. Their father was not bald, but it looks as if I pulled a short straw. I haven't cut it in over 3 months which is the longest i've gone in years, and it is purely out of fear of how much scalp exposure there will be when I get it trimmed.

Basically, as the title suggests, I'm looking for opinions / experiences on Proscar/Propecia. Anything.

Oh, and i've searched for similar threads in the past and have noticed that they have been closed with the mod finishing with 'Go to your GP'. I spoke with him briefly last week about it (had appointment for something else but brought this up at the end). He basically said it was a choice that only I could make. Was I willing to have to take a pill a day for the rest of my life, on top of costs etc? Well to be honest, I think i'd get over that. The thoughts of me going around with nothing up there genuinely has me worried to bits.

Any constructive thoughts and opinions greatly appreciated!

von Neumann

I'm in a similar situation, the long march north has begon and I'm going grey to boot .

I supposed you should really be working on your confidence rather than your hair. I'm sure you have a load of great qualities that don't revolve around your hair.
Think about op if your in a pub or work do you see somebody who is bald and think I can't talk to them the're bald.

Brimmy

Hey OP don't worry about it, I'm only 20 and in the last 2 years my hair has thinned dramatically.. It's genes. If you really fear being naked on top there is a hair clinic on Georges street in Dublin right opposite the George and there's always the option of a wig/hair plugs

Jeep100

Dont worry about, shave it all off , when it starts getting worse, and stop the moaning, theres loads of people worse off than u at the moment....Good luck with it, a good fitness regimen and shaved head and ure laughing

_blank_

Read this

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=56887803&postcount=6

I'm 28, and have had thin hair since I was about sixteen.

doesn't bother me a bit. You need to embrace it, it's a part of you.

Don't go wasting your money on silly creams and snake oils that don't even work.

J.S. Pill

Answer: yes it works.

It improved my situation considerably. It works to different degrees for different people. Given the relatively low cost involved it is well worth at least trying.

starn

Try Iron supplements. I was thinning on top for a bit. It turned out I wasnt getting enough Iron

sunzz

Plenty of women and i know this for a fact like men with shaved/bald heads
Look at billy zane/jason stratham, look at callum best, they don't do to bad with women, if you don't show it bothers you people won't notice it.

gl

cantdecide

I've just turned 27 and I've been losing it slowly since 19 (when I had the thickest head of curls you ever saw) and let me tell you, it affects people badly in the beginning, myself included. It really knocks your self esteem. I just let the inevitable happen and trust me, after a while it just becomes a part of you. I couldn't care less now and haven't cared about it in years. I've been on the blade 1s for years and it's a perfectly acceptable haircut in this day and age.

If you want to feel you don't want to go without a fight, that's fine too as long as you aren't prolonging the misery. Avoid the snake oils, obviously and maybe they'll work for you.

Freethinker

what people never seem to tell you when you consider using the products you mentioned is that most of the effective ones were developed for treating prosate conditions and as such, they will affect your prostate.

They can, and dont be fooled, they very often do, lower your sex drive quite considerably even in some cases almost eliminating it.

I have not just heard, but know guys who have been rendered impotent and have had to explain why to their girfriends. Some guys will not even produce any semen when they orgasm because these drugs are so powerful. These symptoms can dissappear over time when you stop taking the pills.

The drugs mess with your hormones and stop testosterone from being broken down into variousforms in the body. this will alter your hormonal balance and the effects can be quite noticable to you. You may even develope breat tissue.

Trust me, these drugs are very powerful chemicals and it is not a trivial thing to commit to taking them for life.

My advice is simple, dont take the drugs.

J.S. Pill

Des wrote: »

Don't go wasting your money on silly creams and snake oils that don't even work.

And what are you basing this on Des? Proscar is relatively inexpensive and, while not a miricle cure, it works for a lot of people.

Freethinker wrote: »

what people never seem to tell you when you consider using the products you mentioned is that most of the effective ones were developed for treating prosate conditions and as such, they will affect your prostate.

They can, and dont be fooled, they very often do, lower your sex drive quite considerably even in some cases almost eliminating it.

I have not just heard, but know guys who have been rendered impotent and have had to explain why to their girfriends. Some guys will not even produce any semen when they orgasm because these drugs are so powerful. These symptoms can dissappear over time when you stop taking the pills.

The drugs mess with your hormones and stop testosterone from being broken down into variousforms in the body. this will alter your hormonal balance and the effects can be quite noticable to you. You may even develope breat tissue.

Trust me, these drugs are very powerful chemicals and it is not a trivial thing to commit to taking them for life.

My advice is simple, dont take the drugs.

I think you just looked up proscar on wikipedia and decided to tell everyone about the horrible side effects that these drugs can have for people who vainly trying to stem their hairloss. You forget to mention that for hairloss treatment, these drugs are taken in a fraction of the dosage that are used to treat prostate conditions. We're steering dangerously close to giving medical advice here so I'll just leave it at that.

The OP asked if anyone had had any experience using these treatmets and if they actually work. Most of the responses have completely skipped over his question by recommending he takes a mach 3 to his head and thereby criticised his vanity for even thinking about trying to do something about it.

LegacyUser

Have a look at these products available from most good hairdressers, used in conjunction with each other they are clinically proven to halt further hair loss (wont make it grow back tho )

1. Densitive - dietary supplement
2. Kerastase Bain Prevention - Shampoo
3. Aminexil GL - treatment you use twice a year for about 30 days at a time.

All are made by Kerastase and designed to be used together, Pricey but it does work

Good luck

Vyse

J.S. Pill wrote: »

And what are you basing this on Des? Proscar is relatively inexpensive and, while not a miricle cure, it works for a lot of people.

I think you just looked up proscar on wikipedia and decided to tell everyone about the horrible side effects that these drugs can have for people who vainly trying to stem their hairloss. You forget to mention that for hairloss treatment, these drugs are taken in a fraction of the dosage that are used to treat prostate conditions. We're steering dangerously close to giving medical advice here so I'll just leave it at that.

The OP asked if anyone had had any experience using these treatmets and if they actually work. Most of the responses have completely skipped over his question by recommending he takes a mach 3 to his head and thereby criticised his vanity for even thinking about trying to do something about it.

As far as I am aware Propecia/ Proscar is not available in Ireland for use as a hair loss treatment as it has not been deemed safe by the IMB. Could be wrong on this but if that has changed it has only been very recently.

For my own personal experience I found it did very little and I can tell you that it did have negative effects amongst which was an irregular, frequent, tight feeling down below. Not pleasant by any means.

I'm not trying to knock you trying it but you'lll probably need to buy online.

Why don't you try Rogaine (or possibly both for best results)? You can pick that up for relatively cheap on eBay (from the States) and it can produce good results too.

speaktofrank

Vyse wrote: »

As far as I am aware Propecia/ Proscar is not available in Ireland for use as a hair loss treatment as it has not been deemed safe by the IMB. Could be wrong on this but if that has changed it has only been very recently.

For my own personal experience I found it did very little and I can tell you that it did have negative effects amongst which was an irregular, frequent, tight feeling down below. Not pleasant by any means.

I'm not trying to knock you trying it but you'lll probably need to buy online.

Why don't you try Rogaine (or possibly both for best results)? You can pick that up for relatively cheap on eBay (from the States) and it can produce good results too.

Finasteride (the drug in both Proscar and Propecia) is FDA approved for the treatment of hair loss and has been scientificially proven to halt the loss. I started taking Proscar (1/4 a pill a day) 2 years ago, and I notice that my hair stopped thinning and grew back a lot thicker than before, still you will need to keep taking it or it will lose its effect, I will probably stop when I am older, but at this age I need all the help I can get with the wimmin ;-)

Go to your doctor ask for Proscar not Propecia, Propecia is the same drug just in 1mg while Proscar is 5mg divided into 1/4's it works out a hell of a lot cheaper.

For all those of you who say, get a blade 1, well thats crap, some people don't look good with a shaved head

J.S. Pill

Vyse wrote: »

As far as I am aware Propecia/ Proscar is not available in Ireland for use as a hair loss treatment as it has not been deemed safe by the IMB.

I guess I'll have to get my next batch from an online Mexican pharmacy so.

Vyse wrote: »

Why don't you try Rogaine (or possibly both for best results)? You can pick that up for relatively cheap on eBay (from the States) and it can produce good results too.

Or you can pick it up from your friendly local pharmacist

Do your homework mate.

sunzz wrote:

Plenty of women and i know this for a fact like men with shaved/bald heads Look at billy zane/jason stratham, look at callum best, they don't do to bad with women, if you don't show it bothers you people won't notice it.

Ok but...

speaktofrank wrote:

For all those of you who say, get a blade 1, well thats crap, some people don't look good with a shaved head

+1

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

A little trick, which I add for general useage as well as for the OP:

At the end of a shower, put the water on it's coldest sitting and highest pressure and let it massage your scalp for about 10-15 seconds. When the skin cools, the blood vessels dialate, allowing more blood into the area which streghtens the roots of the hair.

Vyse

J.S. Pill wrote: »

Or you can pick it up from your friendly local pharmacist

Do your homework mate.

+1

Yes I know you can get it from your local pharmacist. My point was it is about €30-40/ bottle in the pharmacist compared to about €8-10 online. I reckon that makes it worth shopping for online don't you?

Vyse

speaktofrank wrote: »

Finasteride (the drug in both Proscar and Propecia) is FDA approved for the treatment of hair loss and has been scientificially proven to halt the loss.

True, but if it is not approved by the IMB for use then you cannot purchase for hairloss usage in Ireland. There is always the online pharmacy route of course (which avoids the trip to the doctor).

moco

Viviscal gets very good reviews. Plus it's completely natural, no side effects.

the_syco

At first, I was very conscious of loosing the hair. Wore a cap to cover it. Tried the oil, and one of the pills for a while.

Ended up shaving it all off. The feeling of relief was quite amazing the first day I went around with a shaved head (Mach 3 for the win). Like a weight off the shoulders.

Shaved it every day for a while after that. Usually shave it twice a week now.

Johnny Utah

+1 to JS Pill and speaktofrank- they know what they are talking about.

OP: you could try hairlosstalk, or hairlosshelp forums- there's plenty of people on those forums who seem to know pretty much everything about hair loss, actually they probably know more than most GPs. Just try to avoid the pessimism of some posters.

Best of luck!




Slightly OT, but.......

JS Pill and speaktofrank

Both of ye seem to know a bit about hairloss, so I thought I'd ask ye this:
Do you think that there may be a possible cure in the next decade? The reason I ask is because a lot of people seem to be getting excited by the Follica experiments. In fact I remember recently seeing a picture of a poster named 'Baccy' who claimed to have regrown hair by using his own home experiment of the Follica procedure. It would be a pretty huge breakthrough if Follica actually worked..... what do ye think?

the_syco

Johnny Utah wrote: »

Do you think that there may be a possible cure in the next decade?

IMO, I doubt it, the stuff that ensures hair loss is ever present. I would say, though, that a better treatment may come along. If such a treatment that gave a full head of hair by taking some sort of pill once a day did come out, a lot or people would buy it.

speaktofrank

Johnny Utah wrote: »

+1 to JS Pill and speaktofrank- they know what they are talking about.

OP: you could try hairlosstalk, or hairlosshelp forums- there's plenty of people on those forums who seem to know pretty much everything about hair loss, actually they probably know more than most GPs. Just try to avoid the pessimism of some posters.

Best of luck!




Slightly OT, but.......

JS Pill and speaktofrank

Both of ye seem to know a bit about hairloss, so I thought I'd ask ye this:
Do you think that there may be a possible cure in the next decade? The reason I ask is because a lot of people seem to be getting excited by the Follica experiments. In fact I remember recently seeing a picture of a poster named 'Baccy' who claimed to have regrown hair by using his own home experiment of the Follica procedure. It would be a pretty huge breakthrough if Follica actually worked..... what do ye think?

Its hard to say, at the moment, Follica announced $11 million dollars funding in August so that is a good sign, For the moment I will just stay on my 1mg Finasteride a day, seems to do the job, have not lost anymore anyway since I started taking it.

LegacyUser

Hey guys this is where i'm at. Been on Propecia for about 12 months now. My crown was always fine but am receeding very bad at the temples and front. 1 doctor wouldn't prescribe it for me so I went to another. It costs over 100 Euros/Month which is pissin me off but still think it's better that having a bald head at 26. Well a shaved/bald head just doesn't suit my face!! It's fine for some guys who can pull it off. Have been using Nizoral once/week also. Results are quite good as the hair has def got a thicker, better appearance. The temples have not filled in yet (Hopefully they will, fingers crossed) but I deem to have maintained anyway. I tried rogaine before Propecia and seemed to get an alergic reaction and itchy skin so had to give that up. No side effects so far thank god and libido is goos as ever. If I go way travelling or even to UK you can get genuine Propecia much cheaper. Good luck and let me know what happens....

timber19

have any of you used proscar or finasteride 5mg for hair loss, and do you know a reputable online pharmacy store that will supply to Ireland, its too expensive to buy in an irish chemist

Wibbs

timber19 people can't recommend online pharmacies on this forum. Too close to medical advice and could be dangerous, hence the stance taken by the charter.

Adamisconfused

This might be a bit of grave digging as the last post was a month ago.
However, could someone tell me how much would one spend on proscar, annually. I’ve looked up prices outside the country, but we all know that there is a huge difference between normal US rates and inflated Irish prices.
Also, how often do you have to go to the doctor for a repeat prescription?

I was ready to travel the graceful balding route, but I like to weigh up my options.