anonymous man

To the author lol You look freakin fantastic, I rarely if ever look at HT photos (I dont want to go under the knife .... yet) ..... but when I see results like yours, I am blown away Looking awesome man - congratulations, your back in the game with the rockstars Fantastic pics, jeebus!

This forum is awesome, has a wealth of info ... I think it would be GREAT to see a thread with a simple Yes/No questionnaire about various drugs, treatments, etc. and what has worked and not worked on others!!! It would be a excellent resource for someone to understand what works for some and doesn't work for others, especially someone new trying to wade through all the info available in these forums! Heaps of people explain there experiences here with drugs etc, but there aren't many reviews like 'Yes, its WORKING' or 'NO - waste of time'. My questions I think everyone should answer: 1. Where are you balding/thinning? a) Front b) Crown c) All over d) Other (Specify) = 2. Rate your baldness/thinning (personal opinion): a) Totally bald areas b) Extreme thinning c) Tolerable thinning d) Very slight notice - Im here so I can stop it early 3. What is your age? (Optional) = 4. At what age did you notice thinning / baldness? (Optional) = 5. Do you use Propecia (or equivalent Finasteride brand)? a) Yes - Propecia b) Yes - Proscar c) Yes - Other (Specify) = d) No pills for me 6. If YES to question 5, do you think it is working? a) DEFINITELY - I have more hair on my head b) I think so - it seems to have slowed my thinning c) No - I am still losing hair, it looks worse d) I dont know / too early to tell 7. How long have you been using Propecia/Fin.? = 8. Do you use Rogaine (or equivalent Minox)? a) Yes - Rogaine 5% b) Yes - Rogaine 2% c) Yes - Other Brand (Specify) = d) No topical treatment 9. If yes to q8, foam or liquid? = 10. If yes q8, do you think Rogaine / Minox is working? a) Yes it is working, my hair is thicker / denser / looking better b) I think so, I think it may have halted hair loss c) No, Im still shedding - its not working at all d) I dont know, its too early to say 11. If yes to q8, how long have you been using this product for (please specify daily application, once, twice, etc.)? = 12. Do you use any shampoo that may aid in reducing hairloss? a) Yes - I use Nizoral 'X' times a week (Please fill in X) b) Yes - I use Revita 'X' times a week c) Yes - I use 'OTHER' 'X' times a week (Please specify) = d) No, no shampoos or conditioners 13. Do you use any vitamins / tablets / herbal remedies? If yes, please specify = 14. Finally, lets look at the overall picture, and answer this one question. 'My hairloss prevention routine, so far, has been' = a) VERY Successful. I have more hair. b) Successful. It seems to me that I am keeping what I have. c) Somewhat successful. I am thinning, but it has slowed. d) Unsuccessful. Its not helping. e) I dont know / too early to tell. 15. My final comments / advice / speculation that may have been missed in the questions above: I like to think that this would be a great summary to understand whether people are experiencing SUCCESS with their treatments. Please note that these questions are probably catered to ME and what I would have liked to know. Please feel free to add a question to the end, if you think it will help others. I will kick this off with my own experience, to get the ball rolling. If you people dont support me by posting, I am going to look like a dill - so help out! I think this will be a great resource, your 'one-stop' for personal experience!

correction - Nobody should go through life STRESSED or depressed about balding ..... If you can handle it, and it doest bother you (there are many men who dont give a hoot) then yay to be you! Jupiter, no one is attacking you dude, chill.... I said I was exaggerating with the whole 100k comment - who knows how it all pans out? But anyway, I am losing hope ..... for a sure-fix treatment

ok hold on What if it is $100,000 a treatment? I am exageratting yes - but, whos to say you know how much it will cost? It might be peanuts - I have no doubt you are saving up for the treatment now - well done ..... but as Wylie said - you 'definitely' dont know a thing. Unless your surname is 'Gates' or something, then maybe - you cant say definitely, just as much as I cant assume your not loaded Good luck - crank on the Rogaine / Propecia non stop till then!

no way doctor is too hot couldnt get it done there would find all sorts of excuses to be calling back every week, just to chat haha

I am starting to think we will never see a true solution. Its just something that eludes science. We just keep being fed little bits of vague hope ... for the past 10 years a solution has been '3 or 4 years off' .... I keep thinking, they have found the cause of the problem, DHT or whatever - cant they come up with a sure fire pill, one pill that goes BLAM and kills that sh*t inside you? Or some form of freeze method - if someone said to me today 'I can freeze your hair as is, it will never grow again, never fall out again, it will just be welded into your scalp, your original hair, like a rock' I would do it straight away. When I think about it, that sounds something like a HT Some sort of magic potion, like that Looney Tunes episode where Bugs Bunny pours hair growth formula mixed with fertilizer on Elmer Fudds head - and he grows dandelions on his head. Or the Married with Children episode where Kelly makes Al Bundys hair grow really long due to some radioactive concoction she produces. It seems so simple really - you know the cause, now find the thing that kills that cause. Looks like the big shave is the only sure fire way to eliminate the problem. How depressing that this section of the forum is also the smallest

Wow I have no idea what is going on. Sounds like an excellent soap opera. I just skimmed this thread, seems like some heavy stuff has gone down. I will be first to admit that being a small community, I feel a bit upset to hear that the ultimate resource here, users with experience and stories, are going missing. It makes me feel like I wont get a fully well rounded opinion .... but anyway. Just to keep us informed, is it possible to get a link to the whole drama, and what happened? I am extremely intrigued

people people people its a simple process do what I am going to do - if my MPB gets toooo bad, I will simply get laser hair removal then you will have a super shiny plucked smooth head ALL THE TIME - you will look sharp forever and ever none of this fuzz mixed in with shine stuff

When I watched the film Hitman the other month, I started a thread - I thought shaving your head would be fantastic - he looked awesome in that film (the main actor, whoever it was). Im definitely in for the shaved head - I just need to move out of home first - theres no way my father will accept a 'junky, criminal looking neo nazi shaved head hooligan' in his house If it gets real bad, laser treatment for me - full shiny head, no stubble nothing - and just claim to people that I was so tough, hair got scared to come out of my head ahhh the ramblings of an insecure boy

Sorry, a bit off topic

I personally think its crazy for us to gauge drug effectiveness by 'how much fallout you can see'. Even if you have no hairloss problems, you will still have hair falling out. Thats normal. I find it almost funny when people say 'oh it stopped falling out etc' - I think thats crap. The drugs wotn stop it falling out, they will just ensure it GROWS BACK from where it fell out. No drug will prevent the normal cycle of hair falling out - we can only hope that it helps follicles push out new hair, instead of dieing off and not producing anything. So my advice is to not stress over how much you see in the brush, or on your pillow, or in the shower - normal procedure. Just hope its coming back

Hey dont knock it - grow that armpit hair and you will have moer 'doner' hair for your head

i actually stumbled across it by accident, searching for the foam in Australia (which I have made a seperate topic on haha) glad to hear it helped

lol ngtgb I thought its an orally administered drug / fluid etc that makes you run to the can? If it means poking things up there *down below), then eww no thanks!!! Its a one way tunnel .... your right!

I dont know if there are many Aussies on board here ... But if there are, I am sure they know that Regaine (Rogaine everywhere else in the world) retails at about $125 for a 3 month supply. With the Aussie dollar almost equal to the US these days, I have seen quite a few very cheap Rogaine sellers online ... for example, a website called dermadoctor That was the first link I clicked, and they are doing the triple pack at 49 bucks US .... thats like say 55 of our Aussie dollars ..... Thats peanuts compared to what we have to pay for the stuff here. Has anyone ordered from these online Chemists before into Australia? Is Rogaine allowed to be imported (i.e. not seized in customs or something)? Does anyone have any favouerd, recommended suppliers? I hate the feeling of paying out of my nose for a product that might not even work, to help increase my f*cking confidence Advice please!

I dont know if there are many Aussies on board here ... But if there are, I am sure they know that Regaine (Rogaine everywhere else in the world) retails at about $125 for a 3 month supply. With the Aussie dollar almost equal to the US these days, I have seen quite a few very cheap Rogaine sellers online ... for example, a website called dermadoctor That was the first link I clicked, and they are doing the triple pack at 49 bucks US .... thats like say 55 of our Aussie dollars ..... Thats peanuts compared to what we have to pay for the stuff here. Has anyone ordered from these online Chemists before into Australia? Is Rogaine allowed to be imported (i.e. not seized in customs or something)? Does anyone have any favouerd, recommended suppliers? I hate the feeling of paying out of my nose for a product that might not even work, to help increase my f*cking confidence Advice please!

Heres a quick article I found in an Australian newspaper website that provides some interesting info: Foaming Rogaine has advantages: expert November 5, 2007 - 11:39AM Advertisement A foam formulation of the popular hair re-growth aid Rogaine is an effective treatment for hair loss in men and may be safer and easier to apply than the original liquid formulation, a researcher told Reuters Health. Unlike Rogaine solution, "the foam formulation does not have propylene glycol, an agent that commonly causes irritation and occasionally causes an allergic contact dermatitis," said Dr Elise A Olsen, professor of medicine in the divisions of dermatology and oncology at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina. "Many patients prefer a foam versus a solution that may drip on application to the scalp. The foam is not greasy or drying," she added. In the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Olsen and a multicentre team of researchers report results of a clinical trial in which 315 men with hair loss were randomly assigned to foam versions of 5 per cent minoxidil, the active ingredient in Rogaine, or placebo. After 16 weeks, hair counts in the target area were significantly greater in the 164 men applying Rogaine foam compared with the 151 men applying the placebo foam, the investigators report. With Rogaine foam, there was an average increase in hair counts of 13.4 per cent over initial counts, compared with an average increase of only 3.4 per cent with placebo. Moreover, men using Rogaine foam noted an average 70.6 per cent increase in hair growth versus 42.2 per cent of men on placebo. Rogaine foam was well tolerated in 143 men who continued using it for up to 52 weeks. There were no significant differences in side effects between the two groups. The incidence of chronic itching was 1.1 per cent versus 6.6 per cent seen in a separate study using Rogaine solution. In "consumer use" studies, Olsen and colleagues note, foam Rogaine was rated significantly higher on several aesthetic attributes compared with Rogaine solution, including "ease of application, lack of dripping, quick absorption and drying, and ability to fit easily into a daily routine." The current study was supported by Rogaine maker Pfizer Inc. SOURCE: Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, November 2007.

jupiter for some weird reason, every chemist in australia only stocks the liquid, i have not come across the foam, ever I want to try it, I dont mind the liquid, but hey everyone raves on about the foam ..... your right, time to search for it online

colon cleanse curing baldness? haha awesome I would be very scared to take something that flushed me out like that

Also being a new user, I have to agree (minus the joint bit lol - I'll take a beer though, thanks!). Thumbs up to all the members whos hard work makes it so much easier for the rest of us to find what we need quickly.

For me personally, I am in my second month of Minox, and although my hair feels a little rough, and a little greasy-ish (sometimes), its nothing dramatic. Most of the time, my hair just feels as it normally would without minox. I am very fair, and have experienced absolutely no irritation. And I use Nizoral too, and no side effects whatsoever. I guess I may mention that I take propecia too, and I still have the sex drive of a rabbit on heat (unrelated, I thought I would just boast a tad). As for Minox, its almost like putting water in your hair (for me anyway). Thats the liquid version I am using. I havent found foam in any stores near me. Try it, what have you got to lose? Its not budget busting, try it for 3 months, if its no good, bail on it ... thats it

Exactly my point - I feel dirty for my depression I punish myself for being depressed when I am perfectly healthy, while others suffer physically throughout their life, yet feel better than I do I hate myself for it, and it just fuels my distaste towards myself Its good to hear from others though, that there is a way past it. I hope I can pull through Thank you gents for your kind words.

Nice responses by both of you, thanks I am a bit ashamed to speak of my feelings about losing hair to others, and to get someone to understand here is really good. I guess I didnt intend to start a thread to help 'ME', rather somewhere just for open discussion. But I realise now that yes, my whole post was about me me me. thanatopsis, you probably hit it spot on - baldness is simply fuelling a deeper depression. But anyway, do other people feel the same? Deeply depressed? Anxiety? Panic attacks? Suicidal? Im starting to think I am going insane

I did a topic search for topics dealing with depression, but I could not find one dedicated to the topic. Basically, I just want to know how people feel about hair loss, and just give someone the opportunity to let out their story - I have been really affected by this, and am hoping that writing it down and letting someone read it will help. I just feel silly telling someone in person that my hair loss is depressing me - whenever we get on the topic, i laugh it off, try and act like a big man - but this solves nothing. Its not how I feel. I hate pretending it has no effect on me, when its killing me inside. My problem is, I was always the 'cool' guy. Quite tall, built well, handsome, witty, etc. I dont mean to toot my own horn, but I am making a reasonable judgement of my social status, and well, boys always wanted to be my mates, and I had my fair share of opportunities with the ladies. I just feel that by losing my hair, I am losing so much more. I am losing this respected social status, and becoming 'that bald creepy guy'. How shallow, hey? At the end of the day, I am fairly certain that the need to maintain my head full of hair, and the look that makes me confident, is simply to still be desired by the women around me. There is no better confidence booster than this, and I feel I am losing it. I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful, beautiful girl by my side who loves me (dont get me wrong, I am not bald nor do I have patches yet, its just overall thinning that only I can see now, as well as the hairdresser), but I have some big relationship problems with her (nothing appearance related - totally different unrelated issues). I honestly think that ending our relationship is the right thing to do - but then I sit and think, I will end it, take a year to get back on my feet, take a year to find someone just as great - and be bald by then. So essentially, I am doing a terrible thing by hanging on to her, leading her on when I am really not happy. Its one very viscious cycle. I have come to start hating myself, hating the people around me. Paranoia. Distaste in my appearance. Hate of mirrors. I feel well and truly depressed, and I see no way out. My problems with my girl are very deep. I find myself constantly thinking about suicide. I honestly feel that love is the meaning of life - to find that special someone. I have somehow twisted the thoughts in my head into some sort of doomed fate, which I dont want to be part of. What I am trying to say is, the hair loss is just one small factor in a big mess I have created for myself. I find myself 'coming down' from the highs of popularity of my early 20's, and I fear this rejection, lack of respect. Ultimately, if the girl I was with did not have these problems with me, I wouldnt give a damn in the world - go bald, yay, who cares - I love someone who loves me. I think I digressed bigtime off topic. I just wanted to talk about hair loss and how it affects someone. For me, it is intertwined into several other issues I have in life. I am slowly killing myself inside and I cant hack it, for the life of me I cant hack it. I am miserable, and making those around me miserable too. Is it just me, or do other people feel so depressed about their hair loss as well? I find it eerie to think that seeing other people sad will somehow help me. Heres to hoping this topic will be somewhat of a good release for the men on this forum (and ladies too). I just typically associate almost all users on here as men, many who, I assume have difficulty expressing their true feelings on the issue, to the people in their life that really matter. Hoping that the second best option, talking to strangers on the net, may help.