Minoxidil

Ive being using it morning and night along with with Proscar 1.25mg daily over the past while. Ive being using the Regaine for about 9 months and the Proscar for about 8 months.

I had receeded badly at the temples and thinned out at the front of my hairline and also at the crown. Nine months on have I noticed an improvement?

No real regrowth at the temples, where I had started gradually receeding years back if I'm honest. At the frontal hairline I may have had some regrowth but very very marginal if I did. Really and truly if there is any difference its probably because the hairs I hadn't lost in that area have thickened up somewhat. At the crown though there is a definate improvement. Hair is thick there pretty much like I was a teeneager again;)

I think its worth noting that you need patience with these treatments as you certainly wont see results overnight. When I started using the Regaine I seriously shed hair for the first few weeks. Although that was not easy to deal with it was in fact was a good sign. Without getting too scientific about it the weak fragile hair thats on the verge of falling out is forced to fall out as a thicker stronger hair takes root in the folicule underneath.

Overall I think it very much depends on how much hair youv'e lost already and how long for. Probably depends on the guy using it too as much as anything else as some will show better results than other. You might be lucky and regrow some hair but generally speaking I'd say not. Main thing is that it probably slows down the rate you loose your hair at immensly if used correctly.

However, I think using Regaine alone is just buying you time. If you are suspectable to male pattern baldness then you'd probably end up at the same place eventually if using regaine, just that place will be further on down the line if you know what I mean.

If you are suspectable to male pattern baldness I believe that you really need to take medication that will supress the dht that causes it over the longer term. Not a decision that should be entered into lightly either. There are many men who report side effects such as poor labedo, difficulty in getting and maintianing erections, sore testicles, and even depression in extreme situations. Also worth noting that you should not use the medication if your girlfriend/ wife/ partner is pregnant or if getting pregnant is a possibility as it is very harmful to the male fetus.

I wont go into too much information as I'm not a doctor or otherwise suitably qualified to dish such advice. All I'll say is that taking the drug has not caused me any problems worth noting so far. On and off over over the first couple of months of taking it I got a very very faint dull pain in my groin area that would last a few seconds, maybe a minute absolute max. It was very very bearable, a sensation more than a pain and may not even have being related to the medication for that matter and all I know. Thats not to say the next guy wont have any of the afore mentioned symptoms and maybe more as were all different. I just would advise doing some intense research before deciding if the drug is right for you and going on it.

Just one more thing and on a side note to the OP. I think this forum is completely the wrong place for these kind of threads. The almost default answer seems to be do yourself a favour and get a razor, man up and shave it all off, there are no cures available etc etc etc....which is quite sad really

Esel wrote: »

Is it funny? or is it sad? that this particular thread was on the top of Page 1 of this forum (and over a week old) when I came here to get a link while making this post?

Maybe just per chance really more than anything else...lets face it the forum is hardly a very busy one

Esel wrote: »

My own take on the appearance of my head: I can't see it from here - unless I use a mirror.

And get a Wahl - I presume you already have a razor. Although shaving your head is a lot quicker, and longer lasting. Time is a marketable commodity, apparently.

Maturity happens. Hair appears on the lower part of the face (and elsewhere). Hair disappears from the top of the head. In general, obviously. Some races do not display these characteristics. You can't thwart your genes (at the current state of knowledge).

Thats your own personal point of view and while I don't personally agree with it I do respect your opinion...every man to himself and all that. I am assuming on the basis of your post that you are bald or have at least balded somewhat. You would seem to be pretty confident in and have totally accepted the appearance of your hair. For that I say more power to you...I very much admire a guy, in particular a young guy who is able to so freely accept what is, lets face it often a dramatic change in their appearance.

However, for some guys, myself included, its not always so easy to accept such a change. Since my early teens I've considered my hair and the way I style it a big part of me and my identity. As I believe I mentioned in my previous post my hair receeded and thinned somewhat in recent years. It didn't bother me too much at first until it got to a certain point at which I decided to take action. As I believe I also previously mentioned even the best products available on the market can only do so much for you...very little if anything worth in terms of regrowing lost hair but they certainly at least buy you time in terms of retaining the hair you have.

As for the reason I just mentioned I decided to go on these products. If they help me maintain my remaining hair thats fantastic, I'll be happy I done something about it. If not, well thats not the end of the world either, I'll just get on with things...its not like its a life threatening disease or illness either. As you mention its purely genetics at work.

The products are by no means cheap, especially if you are buying them in the branded form. But the way I see it is that I would rather spend a few quid on them rather than on the likes of a new golf tdi which is worth €5 -7k less a year later. They do take some committment too. For myself who never took tablets before apart from a course of anti-biotics a few years back when I got bad bronchi influenza it was a bit of a culture shock getting into the routine of taking the tablet each morning and applying the minoxidil morning and evening, but you do get into it eventually.

For some guys the wahl or mach 3 is just the ticket if they are experiencing hair loss and thats fantastic. It wasn't my intention to insult or be slighting to anyone in particular when I wrote the last paragraph in my previous post. Just to recap: -

"Just one more thing and on a side note to the OP. I think this forum is completely the wrong place for these kind of threads. The almost default answer seems to be do yourself a favour and get a razor, man up and shave it all off, there are no cures available etc etc etc....which is quite sad really"

It does somewhat annoy me though when somebody starts a thread asking for advice on a particular product used to treat male pattern baldness or asking specific questions about male pattern baldness and they get such responses. I'm sure they know full well that wahls and mach 3's are available and an option for them but I just don't see how such response ad any value or are indeed appropriate for such threads.