Matt_

Hey, I thought I'd share my hair loss story with you guys. I don't really plan on being a regular poster. But this forum helped me out a lot when I first started treatment 4 months ago, and I'd like to give back to anyone who was in the same boat I was. I'm 22 now, and probably started losing my hair about 2 years ago. I did a pretty good job of remaining in denial throughout that time though, even as my temples moved further and further up. Going bald just isn't something a 20 year old should have to worry about. But eventually I was no longer able to hide the fact, no matter what goofy hairstyle I used to try and cover it up. The greatest shock came about 5 months ago when I lost an insane amount of hair in a single week. I was left with a 3 finger wide strip of hair in the front, a tangle of thin brittle hairs on top, and a prominent bald spot in the back. This was devastating for me. I became obsessed with my hair loss, spending most of my free time taking pictures from different angles around my head, with different lighting, and a variety of different hairstyles. I completely withdrew myself from everyone for about a month, faking an illness. Looking back on it it all seems a bit pathetic and overdramatic, but I'm sure I'm not alone in this. Hair loss is a pretty traumatizing for a young guy. A month later (when I became convinced it wasn't some kind of bodily fluke, and it wasn't going to grow back on its own) I went and saw a hair specialist who prescribed me propecia. I also started using rogaine foam for the front of my hair. 3 months into it and I saw little improvement, but stuck with it after reading posts from here. There was definitely a shedding phase, where my hair ended up looking a bit worse, but it's already begun to grow back, and is about an inch long. I've also noticed little tufts of hair growing at my temples which grow thicker every day. Hopefully with time I can change that goofy 'T' shape I've got going on in the front into a solid 'V'. I also added some Nizoral into my regiment and that seems to be speeding things up as well, but more importantly its leaving my scalp feeling much healthier and my hair looking thicker. As far as side effects go, I've had very little. For the first two or three weeks of using rogaine my heart rate would increase soon after applying it, which sometimes made it difficult to sleep. But that's gone away entirely. A few splotches of acne popped up on my forehead, but that too is gone after I made more of an effort to wash my face after applying the stuff. I had a bit of a scare last week when I had an intense headache lasting over 3 days, which I assumed was the result of me rubbing all these chemicals into my scalp. But after consulting with a doctor I found out it was all just a sinus infection, and I'm back to my regiment. Overall I'm very pleased with the growth, and I think there will be greater results to come. The important thing is that I've stopped the hair loss. Knowing I'm not going to wake up to another surprise like I had 5 months ago is a huge burden that's been lifted from my shoulders. Though I still don't 'like' my hair, I'm over the shock of it and now I'm 'used' to my hair. To the younger guys losing their hair, start doing something about it now. Don't wait for it to get bad, like I did. I was too embarrassed to say anything about it to anyone. If you can afford it I highly recommend propecia, rogain, and/or nizoral. And once you've gotten a handle on that, you just need to learn to be comfortable with yourself. There's this weird trigger that goes off in your brain once you start losing your hair. You start inspecting the hairline of everyone you meet and anyone you see on TV and compare it to your own. I now notice people losing their hair that I never would have picked up on until I started losing my own. And that's the whole thing, your hair looks much worse to you than it does to anyone else.