ciaus

No one is saying you can't share it, too many guys do just blurt out their stories without doing any medical consultations to confirm whether drugs were actually causing their symptoms. And it creates unnecessary fear and anxiety that may cause some guys to not take a drug that would work great for them. Or cause them enough anxiety to generate nocebo side effects and stop taking the drug for no real reason. You know what I'm saying is right. And you said yourself that anyone with a scary symptom like you are experiencing in your chest should go see a doctor immediately. But then you don't apply that advice to yourself, waiting to see if it goes away. You are not thinking clearly, and contrary to being helpful, you're actually contributing to the internet being a place that causes more harm than good.

No you don't have certainty. Just because things are observed together doesn't mean one caused the other. Making symptoms appear and disappear doesn't mean they were actually being caused by a drug. There's a reason "correlation doesn't equal causation" is such an often-quoted and true saying. We pay and train doctors so well because that's a garbage way to conduct medical care. And doctors work by confirming you are baseline healthy with medical instrumentation/bloodwork/lifestyle survey/mental health evaluations and monitoring. The placebo and nocebo effects need to be ruled out as much as possible. There are drugs specifically designed to treat conditions, and work, but don't get approved because they don't work as well statistically as giving people sugar pills or telling them to do random superstitious acts. And the same goes for generating side effect symptoms. Just making people aware of the potential for side effects will cause some of them to create mental mechanisms that trigger their bodies to produce symptoms similar to the side effects. If you value your hair in the long term, work with your doctors to reach conclusions about your health and the safety for you specifically to take certain medications. Don't just rely on stories from the internet or your own amateur attempts at playing doctor.

Its not about convincing, its about noticing when you comment on side effect topics your 'opinions' amount to blaming the drug without recommending they consult with a medical professional to confirm.

Rarely does anybody on this forum with a drug side effect-like symptom experience provide any evidence that they have even seen a doctor, much less a diagnosis, confirming that their symptoms are actually being caused by hair loss medication. But for some reason that doesn't seem to factor much into Dr Mike10's doubt-o-meter.

The really responsible thing would have been to come on here AFTER you take your own advice about seeing a doctor immediately. Now you're just spreading fear based on a hunch. And if you get better without seeing a doc, you're going to feel compelled to share your story when it may actually have nothing to do with the drug, mudding the waters, and making it more difficult for guys to make informed decisions based on verified medical evidence. Medical staff being able to observe and monitor while these symptoms are occurring is critical for proper diagnosis, damage assessment, etc. Just because you've been taking medication that has the potential to cause a side effect doesn't mean that's what is happening. Burning sensations in the heart area can be caused by non-serious things like stomach acid reflux. Same goes for facial swelling, I had a weird cold about a year ago that caused more swelling on my face than is in your pictures. Kept taking finasteride and minoxidil throughout the cold. We've all got personal stories and experiences, and they are not a good basis for us or other people to be makeing medication decisions. Noticed you just commented yesterday on another topic about getting massive testicle pain from finasteride. Perhaps you are pretty unlucky getting legit side effects, but perhaps there could also be an over-active imagination at play triggering drug-like side effect symptoms. Some guys really fall down the rabbit hole trying to cope with hair loss, and coupling that with the lockdown environment of recent years, its nothing to be ashamed of. Ending with general advice for everyone, get your symptoms checked out and verified by medically and psychologically trained professionals ASAP. Sounding off about medical hunches on forums can be harmful too. Because we are all mostly guys here fighting against hair loss, there's a tendency to assume we are more alike than we actually are. We only see a small slice of each other on this forum. That's nothing compared to all the genetic, physiological, psychological differences and personal issues that we don't see. And its those areas of our lives that determine whether we experience side effects, real or imagined.

Dermmatch coats the whole hair shaft if you apply it properly. The hair fibers cling to the hair shafts. You run the risk of a messier, more muddled look sprinkling the hair fibers first and then coating the hairs with the dermmatch. Best method: 1)Let the hair dry first, and apply the dermmatch dry too. Seems intuitive to wet the applicator, but it actually applies better without any water. 2)Comb the dermmatch into your hair, and before you apply the hair fibers, rub a little hand towel or tissue over your hair to remove any excess dermmatch that may make your hair appear to be dull. 3) Apply the hair fibers and comb them in. If you use alot of hair fibers too, or think you may have sprinkled on too much, bend over and shake your head to get off any lose fibers. You don't want to embarrass yourself by moving around during the day and some of the fibers falling down on your shirt or some furniture. 4) Apply spray -hair styling spray that is, to hold everything in place until you are done for the day and wash it out. Its better not to risk using your hands or a comb during the day if you are out and about.

I'm copying these posts I've made previously in some other topics about dermmatch. I've used this stuff with toppik, its pretty good. Maybe this is covered in the video, here's my 2cents. I started applying it when my hair was wet because more of the scalp is exposed when your hair is wet and clumped together, but its actually better to apply it when your hair/scalp are dry. Don''t even wet the applicator, everything being dry is best. Do some experimentation/evaluation before going out into the world with it. One thing to be very aware of is the effect of LIGHTING -indoor/outdoor/sunlight on how it looks -don't just apply it in your bathroom and assume because it looks great in the mirror that its going to look great in the other lighting conditions you are going to be in. Brighter indoor lighting and outdoor/sunlight require more finesse. Take some pictures, a mirror with you outside, etc the other lighting situations you are normally in, and then compare them with how you looked in the bathroom mirror. That will help you find the best application method. Shorter hair makes it easier to comb through so that it applies more evenly across your hair shafts to give a more consistent look, but then there's how close of a match your natural hair is with the dermatch. I consider my hair color to be light brown, but medium brown was the best match. Even the dark brown looks alright on the top but then I would have to apply it to the sides of my hair too for a consistent look. Anyway, the darker your hair the more consistent your results will look in my opinion, seems to be in terms of how light reflects off everything -darker colors absorb light while lighter colors reflect it, more color variations in reflections. I would apply it mostly for the scalp coverage and to thicken up the hairs, then have a little dry towel to rub over the top of my hair to clear off the excess that can also give your hair a dull look if you apply too much. And then I would sprinkle on the toppik fibers - a slightly better match for my hair color as well, and then comb that through, then style and hairspray. It can be a great way to strategically plan and delay HTs, but the more you continue to loose the more difficult it gets to effectively apply.

1. Some vids are saying apply to the hair, while others are saying just apply to the scalp. Which is it ? Depends on how much you loss you have, but generally speaking if you are buying this stuff you have enough loss to apply it to BOTH for optimal effect. You just have to be careful that you don't apply too much. Because too much will make those hairs appear 'dull', maybe even a bit of a different color depending on how well the dermmatch matches your original color. 2. Do I need to add anything further to make this work ? IE, hairspray. Depends how long do you want to maintain your hair length. If its long enough that moving around, or air moving through your hair, will mess up your hair style, then its probably better to apply hair spray to hold it in place. Its better to not touch your hair at all while you have concealer on it, in case you end up in an awkward situation where some of it comes off on your hand, etc., while you are around others. This is especially true if you also use hair fibers with the dermmatch, which is generally a good idea, they work well together. 3. Will it really be smudge/water proof on it's own ? (see #2) Smudging depends on how much you apply, the thicker you put it on and the more physically active you are the chance increases. There will be some degree of waterproof. I'm not the pool/swimming type, so the only time I'm getting my head wet with this stuff is to wash it off. And for what its worth I don't see it come off on my hands until I put shampoo in my hair. 4. I found a demo video (below) in which the 'after' photos looked very fake to me. What did they do wrong to cause this result ? And what should I do to avoid this ? Get a good color match, don't overapply it, and practice applying it to see how it looks in different lighting situations that you are going to be in. Indoor darker room conditions are the easiest for it to look good, to get away with mistakes. But if you will be changing locations to brighter indoor areas or outdoors during the day those mistakes will become more noticeable. You don't want people staring at your head or even commenting.

PG always has the potential to irritate skin. If your skin is already dry and prone to itching address that first. Otherwise waiting 2 weeks post op is plenty of time, go ahead and start back up if you are healing normally.

For better overall coverage with minimal product of every kind. -Starting with the dermmatch, or products like it that work just as well if there are some, you not only coat existing thinning hairs with product to make them appear thicker and more visible, you also rub the applicator on the more exposed scalp skin itself. This will reduce the contrast in color between the more exposed scalp skin areas and the areas with thicker more visible hairs you still have. Very important for achieving the 'illusion' of having no thinning. While you can accomplish this to some degree with just hair fibers, there's always a risk you apply extra hair fibers that are not effectively 'stuck' as well to the scalp skin and hairs. Which means there's a better chance for them to fall off during the day during your casual movements. And maybe nobody notices that excess product falling off onto your clothing or furniture, but if it does fall off even undetectably, that means your thinning areas will be more exposed and more likely to draw unwanted attention. In the final analysis, hair fibers don't adhere to the head as well as products like dermmatch that are effectively 'painted' on with an applicator, instead of just 'sprinkled' on. But the hair fibers are still useful because they give you an additional layer of 'coverage' to create the illusion of density.

To the OP, light brown looks alright, and you may want to consider dying your hair lighter as well. Xfusion hair fibers are cheaper than Toppik brand and work just as good in my experience. Dermmatch seems to be having stocking issues currently, at least in terms of getting it through amazon.com. Seems you can still get them directly from dermmatch below: https://www.dermmatch.com/order/ And here's to those hair fibers https://www.amazon.com/XFusion-Regular-Keratin-Fibers-Brown/dp/B005FTH3W4/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1P76HUEADKELP&keywords=xfusion%2Bfibers&qid=1657413709&sprefix=xfusion%2Bfibers%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-1-spons&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzNDhOODVIUjZPVFpWJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUExMDQxMjMwMjQ5QldCVFo5R0NHQSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNTAxMDY3R0VaMzJYS05DMlgmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl&th=1

Dermmatch coats the whole hair shaft if you apply it properly. The hair fibers cling to the hair shafts. You run the risk of a messier, more muddled look sprinkling the hair fibers first and then coating the hairs with the dermmatch. Best method: 1)Let the hair dry first, and apply the dermmatch dry too. Seems intuitive to wet the applicator, but it actually applies better without any water. 2)Comb the dermmatch into your hair, and before you apply the hair fibers, rub a little hand towel or tissue over your hair to remove any excess dermmatch that may make your hair appear to be dull. 3) Apply the hair fibers and comb them in. If you use alot of hair fibers too, or think you may have sprinkled on too much, bend over and shake your head to get off any lose fibers. You don't want to embarrass yourself by moving around during the day and some of the fibers falling down on your shirt or some furniture. 4) Apply spray -hair styling spray that is, to hold everything in place until you are done for the day and wash it out. Its better not to risk using your hands or a comb during the day if you are out and about.

I see what you mean. My last points for now: the rate of growth and cycles for the hairs above the skin are managed by the hair follicles under the skin that they grow out from. The hair shafts themselves that we see and cherish are not 'alive' in the sense you are thinking. Though they do need to be groomed and kept moisturized to look nice and healthy. But unless the topical ingredients are really toxic to human tissue in general, they'll have no contact or effect on the growth rate activity the follicles are doing below the skin. The other main consideration are those hair shaft characteristics, which makes more sense to be concerned about like you are saying. Their texture, caliber/thickness that can take up to 12-18 months to fully mature. As long as you keep the hairs moisturized with products like hair conditioners and don't overdue it with styling products, you should be able to avoid a frizzy or frayed look. Maybe even look at blondish hair fibers and/or dermmatch to help bulk up those hairs so look like they are already fully matured.

Follicles are anchored into new blood supplies by 10 days and normal surface skin healing is done within the first few weeks. Depending on how fair skinned you are, there will be some general pink/redness that can take months to completely fade, but that's not the kind of redness indicating irritation or a proneness to irritation. Just a normal part of the long term healing process. There's no medical justification to wait more than a month.

On the mild end scalp eczema/seborrheic dermatitis/scalp psoriasis. Generally you'll know if you have one of these, they'll produce symptoms like itchy dry red skin, flaky skin aka dandruff. They are pretty common in the general population and having them doesn't mean you shouldn't or can't get a hair transplant, but you do want to have them well under control before the surgery and to optimize healing in the important days after. Often guys can manage them with over-the-counter medicated shampoos for dandruff you can get at stores. But if its more severe you may need have a dermatologist help you manage it with more powerful medication/shampoo prescriptions. There are some more serious and lesser known conditions where hair follicles are actually attacked and destroyed. Estimates are about 3% of population have one of these. And if you are one of the unlucky ones, you'll want to have the condition in a 'remission' state for at least a few years before considering a transplant. And even then since they have no cures and the potential to flare back up at any time, its always going to be a gamble transplanting hair. They are harder to diagnose and treat. Some can present with symptoms that are similar to the scalp eczema and seborrheic dermatitis described above, and eventually cause random 'patchy' spots of baldness if not managed properly. Sometimes referred to as 'scarring alopecias,' lichen planopilaris (LPP), Alopecia areata, pseudopelade of Brocq are some examples.

Yea he had great hair. As much as actors and people like that in the limelight need to obsess about their looks, I think hair transplants still had too bad of a reputation back in the 80s and 90s for him to do anything. He was probably already well into the routine of hair systems/pieces, which work best in the earlier years of your loss. He was probably crossing his fingers his loss wouldn't ever get that bad, or not worrying enough about it because the fake hair was doing a good enough job at the time, to seriously consider finasteride. And looking at some of his later pictures its pretty clear that if he ever did take finasteride, it was a temporary thing he gave up on out of laziness or he didn't respond well. But I would lean more towards he never bothered with finasteride. There's a long history of hair pieces in hollywood and he went down that road thinking he'd be another example of it. Man he fell far.

Its important to keep a photographic record, same lighting/angle etc, maybe every 6 months to a year to give the most objective evaluation for how well he's maintaining. Anxiety about hair loss can play tricks on the mind and not just when it comes to remembering how much hair you've had, but also in terms of giving yourself side-effect like symptoms from worrying too much about the potential for side effects. The placebo and nocebo effects are profound aspects of human physiology that are not fully understood, don't underestimate them. Having an open relaxed mindset when starting finasteride is very important for those reasons. Tell him to just communicate with his doctor and go about his regular routine after starting finasteride for at least the initial months. There's too much scare mongering and bs stories from frustrated guys online from a vocal minority. A small percentage to actually get side effects, but more often its frustrated guys with other underlying undiagnosed medical conditions and malicious guys that are bitter they can't take the medication and want to spread their misery. Most of us are taking finasteride without issues, over 15 yrs for me personally.

I understand your pain, can't speak to any competitors. Their site is legit and still seems to be stocked. Same price but you pay $5 for shipping, so a few dollars more if you've been using amazon prime. https://www.dermmatch.com/order/

This is from his video the other day.

Didn't realize this topic was still going. You got to think on a whole other level, the HOLLYWOOD celebrity level!

Yea even some of the hair in the donor can eventually succumb to DHT, I've personally seen it in some elderly guys in their 60s and 70s. If you care enough to get hair transplants, and don't get side effects, you should be taking finasteride to help protect your entire head as much as possible.

I was just referring to getting older in general, because the older we get the more likely we are to have health issues and performance decline with our bodies. Regarding those lists of tests, its broken down into three 'packages' of tests and there is some overlap. I wouldn't worry about getting tested for everything on that list, just maybe print that post out on a sheet of paper and go over it with your doctor about the best ones. -And I wouldn't go to a dermatologist for recommendations on those tests, you want to go to a doctor that has training and experience with hormones (like an endocrinologist) and general health, not just skin and hair that dermatology covers.

Sounds like you've been on a stress rollercoaster in recent years, probably in the lead up to getting the hair transplant as well like alot of us. And you're turning 30, which is still relatively young, but you're no longer the indestructible teenager/20something so you need to start paying closer attention to that as well. Its good that you are focusing on exercise and other activities that help to focus and calm your mind. Don't forget about having a good diet and getting good sleep, very important as well. And I wouldn't put much worry or effort into morning wood, as long as it works good for the main events is what matters. Assuming you have no lifestyle issues or side effect-like symptoms because you are afraid of getting the actual side effects, there is blood work that you can do to make sure your overall health is optimized in terms of being able to take DHT blocker medication like finasteride. There's a company in the USA called Marek Health that offers testing services for stuff like this. I can't post the direct link here on the forum, but you can google their name. I'm pasting the test packages below for general reference, even if you don't go to them your doctor can order them for you. Perhaps something will be identified in the testing that can be addressed so that you'll be able to handle finasteride. Finasteride is the foundation for non-hair transplant ways of addressing hair loss. If you can't take it, there's not much benefit to the other treatments. Keto shampoo doesn't hurt but also doesn't help much. Same with vitamins, better to just eat nutritious food. Minoxidil long term without finasteride is going to be less valuable, it will just make your vulnerable hair look better until the DHT completely finishes it off. BASIC HAIR PANEL $450.00 Basic Pre-Finasteride Panel Includes: Total & Free Testosterone (LC/MS-MS) (Equilibrium Ultrafiltration) Estradiol, Total and Free (MS) DHT (High-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) with tandem mass spectrometry) & Free DHT (Equilibrium dialysis, high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS-MS) Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin (SHBG) COMPREHENSIVE MALE HAIR PANEL $700.00 Total & Free Testosterone (LC/MS-MS)(Equilibrium Ultrafiltration) Estradiol Sensitive (LC/MS-MS) Total & Free DHT (Equilibrium dialysis, high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS-MS) Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin (SHBG) Progesterone Prolactin Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) Luteinizing hormone (LH) Thyroid Peroxidase (TPO) Ab Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate (DHEA-S) Pregnenolone Cortisol Lipid Panel – LDL, HDL, Triglycerides, Total Cholesterol, Ratio hdl/ldl Apolipoprotein B IGF-1 CBC with differential Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (14) Vit D, 25 Hydroxy Iron serum + TIBC Ferritin HBa1c TSH, Free T4 Free T3 Reverse T3 Lipoprotein (a) Insulin Magnesium C-Reactive Protein, Cardiac γ-Glutamyl Transferase (GGT) Urinalysis, Routine COMPREHENSIVE THYROID PANEL $300.00 TSH + FT4 Thiiodothyronine (T3), Free T3 Uptake Thyroid Peroxidase (TPO) Ab TgAb + Thyroglobulin, IMA or LCMS Reverse T3 Iron and TIBC Ferritin Vitamin B12 Vitamin D
, 25-Hydroxy Cortisol Magnesium γ-Glutamyl Transferase (GGT) Thyroxine Binding Globulin (TBG) Venipuncture

Unless you were continuing to lose ground, there's no reason to jump on or add dutasteride. And I mean losing ground in the mid scalp and back around the crown areas. Even with meds, alot of us still eventually lose a good bit of the frontal area unless you started finasteride super early, and depending on your genetics, even then expect a decent chance you'll still need some hair transplant work to keep your frontal area looking strong at some point down the road. There's too many unique mental/physical/genetic/lifestyle variables for standardized advice, which is why doctors make so much money. Anecdotally some people report temporary side effects when they start a DHT blocker the first few months. That may be due to actual adjustments in the body, or just a mental adjustment where they finally get over the anxiety-induced symptoms caused by worrying about getting actual symptoms from the drug. But at a minimum, even us amateurs here on the forum can correctly advise: If your loss was already stable with just finasteride, and you were trying to give yourself some 'extra protection' by adding dutasteride, then drop the dutasteride. Maybe if you stick with it the symptoms will subside in a few months, but its not worth taking a more powerful drug when you can't even effectively evaluate that you're getting any worthwhile benefit from it.

High blood pressure is pretty common, the cdc estimates are about half of US adults have it to some degree. The topical minoxidil box panel below for a popular brand, kirkland, doesn't mention hypertension specifically, just to consult your doctor if you have heart disease. While minoxidil was original developed to treat high blood pressure, there's alot better and safer stuff out for doing that now. I wouldn't consider the oral minoxidil if you already have some cardiovascular issues, like high blood pressure, especially if you already taking medication for that. Back to the topical minoxidil, high blood pressure is just a risk factor for eventually developing heart disease. The important questions are whether your high blood pressure is being effectively managed now with doctor supervision, and whether you have been diagnosed with heart disease. If you do get the green light from your doctor to take the minoxidil, I'd still recommend getting one of those little home blood pressure monitors and keep a log of your readings for a few weeks to see if it effects your blood pressure to any significant degree. https://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/facts.htm