Everyone recommends that you should take the drugs, I say stay away from them. Ask yourself this question, Am I prepared to use these drugs everyday for potentially the rest of my life? Thats a hard pill to swallow! Literally!
There are possible really nasty side effects. I experienced some really scary sides on propecis & minnox.
Your not ready for a HT yet IMO.
Stick with what you have for now, it looks fine @ your age.

"Everyone recommends that you should take the drugs, I say stay away from them. Ask yourself this question, Am I prepared to use these drugs everyday for potentially the rest of my life? Thats a hard pill to swallow! Literally!
There are possible really nasty side effects. I experienced some really scary sides on propecis & minnox.
Your not ready for a HT yet IMO.
Stick with what you have for now, it looks fine @ your age."

Atomic, I understand your where you come from when you say stay away from finasteride because you were one of the very unlucky people that did have sides from the drug. I am sorry to hear about your side effects!
but you oviously tried them at one point because you wanted to try and stop hair loss. also I'm assuming these sides went away when you stopped taking the drugs? It's too bad your body's sensitive to meds. but in my opinion you are a rare case, think about the thousands and thousands who are not even on this site who are doing fine on the drug. I wonder why tell others not to even try propecia and give it a shot? also I think most people who are on here are willing to swallow that for the rest of thier life to save thier hair....I know I am and think you would be too if you were not one of the unlucky people who get bad sides.

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My Hair Loss Website - Hair Transplant with Dr. Paul Shapiro

My hairline rapidly receded right around the age of 20. The rest of my hair was full and thick and no one ever knew unless I told them because I wore it long. In 1994 at the age of 26 I cut my hair short and could still manage some pretty cool styles in spite of my high hairline. I didn't love it but I could live with it. I got cocky at that point. I thought I'd dodged a bullet and wouldn't lose much more hair since it was virtually unchanged throughout my 20s and into my early thirties. Looking at my grandfather at the time, I figured I'd end up with his hair which still looked good at the age of 80. It was not to be. Between the ages of 32 and 38 I ended up with what you see in my pre-HT pics. It happened so fast I really didn't realize the extent until those pics were taken. It became painfully clear that I was on my way to looking like my father instead.

If I could go back, I would have begaun taking Propecia when it first became available. I believe that I would have saved a lot of hairs from vacating. As it is, I was 39 when I started taking it and most agree that that is pretty late in the game. However, I feel that I've seen some thickening in the crown over the past year.

Ultimately, you have to do what you are comfortable with. I'm not trying to influence you. I submit this experience only to add to the list of things for you to consider.

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David (TakingThePlunge)
Forum Co-Moderator and Editorial Assistant

I am not a medical professional. All opinions are my own and my advice should not constitute as medical advice.

View my Hair Loss Website