Tiger2050

The staff recommended Comfort Suites and the Hilton in Oakbrook. I stayed at the Hilton, it was pretty nice and a 4-5 minute Uber to the office. Comfort Suites is the more affordable option and a 10 min walk to the office although you might not want to walk since it’s probably going to be very cold.

Bisanga and Mwamba, regardless of price even though they are in your range. 2 of the very best docs and also happen to have the most experience with body hair.

What Melvin said, you’ll likely see a significant improvement on dut/oral min and probably won’t need surgery. Check out @DrBevinBhoyrul on Twitter, he’s a dermatologist in Australia that has a lot of dut/fin and oral min results.

Here’s one example:

43 minutes ago, Axel said:

The Irwig doctor was only involved in the first study I posted? The other three links were unaffiliated. I don't have any bias, just posting what I read. I'd also like to say I don't think the FDA can be viewed in a positive light after decades of controversy. The U.S regulatory agencies are notoriously poor compared to other countries, particularly vs Europe. However, I'll definitely check out your link. I'd hate to be quoting someone that has an agenda. Were there issues with the methodology or study designs in the other links? The last link in particular was from this year and established a link between altered epinephrine levels from finasteride, leading to ED.

I suggest chatting with Dr. Hasson and asking him about side effects with finasteride he sees in his practice. Most PFS studies are funded by the pfsfoundation and are very flawed, check out the video I linked and other videos on that channel about the pfsfoundation for reasons why. Finasteride is approved for hair loss by most regulatory agencies worldwide including the EMA. I didn’t get to the last link because the third study also cites several Irwig and pfsfoundation studies.

13 minutes ago, Axel said:

You think the article is non-factual? All the links listed are peer-reviewed studies by doctors. I don't claim to know anything personally, but I like to base my ideas around evidence. Obviously these studies can only list results from the population in said study. So numbers can be higher or lower in reality, but the studies themselves are solid overall.

 

Regardless, I don't want to turn this into a finasteride debate. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I'll post some more pics in a couple weeks. 😄

Lol those are pfsfoundation funded studies by Dr. Irwig who is a complete hack. OP I understood not wanting to use finasteride but you need to do a bit more research about Irwig and the pfsfoundation. Finasteride would never have been approved by the FDA if 92% of men were getting erectile dysfunction.

Here is some context about Irwig and the pfsfoundation:

https://youtu.be/ykk3UVyeCiA

4 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Took 2.5 mg today, absolutely zero issues. For what it’s worth. Still considering using topical 15% at night. 

You have to slowly ween off topical if you want to avoid a big shed. Check out this article:

https://donovanmedical.com/hair-blog/switching-topical-to-oral-minoxidil

There was also a recent study that concluded oral alone is just as effective as topical and oral combined.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35642572/

I used a t-shirt, put my wrists through the arm holes and wrapped up my hands. 

It’s really not that hard to get an oral min prescription in the US. I called up a few local dermatologists and easily found several who have experience prescribing oral min. Oral min is free through my insurance but also dirt cheap without insurance.

Wow, amazing result. Looks like you also had a really good response to fin in the mid scalp and crown area. 

On 8/11/2022 at 10:30 PM, Bragento said:

 

As much as I'd like to go with Dr Konior, his quote had me at over $30k which is unfortunately out of my range.

Sheesh! How many grafts did he quote you?

Wow, looks incredible for 5 months. Did Bisanga put you on oral min?

When did you start the minoxidil? Did you have any periods where you stopped and restarted minoxdil? Starting and stopping min causes long shedding periods. I shed for over 3-4 months when I started minoxdil and when I quit the shed was horrible and lasted over 9 months. I am certain it was the minox causing my shedding because I was very stable on fin for 4 years before I started experimenting with min.

You’ve gotta give one medication time to work and see if you’re responding before adding another medication. Constantly changing or adding new medications will induce shedding. I also had a bunch of shedding when I switched from fin to dut as well but it stabilized after some time. Don’t add any more medications or switch from topical min to oral min, you’re gonna introduce another big shed and think fin/dut isn’t working.

21 minutes ago, mister_25 said:

Thanks for the input, Bit worried there. My doctor wants me to stop minoxidil all together or at the very least 6 weeks before and thinks that minoxidil is not worth the effort. Saying that continued usage of minoxidil can make hair transplantation difficult in the long run with collagen damage, destabilization of the tissue and other things like premature facial aging and excess bleeding. Are those factors eliminated within two weeks of discontinuing?

I will say that I got pretty good results with Minoxidil and generally don't want to discontinue it if I don't have too.

Dr. Victor Hasson?

Dr. Gabel is a very good surgeon and will tell you that you don’t need surgery. Get on medication if you think you’re losing your hair and reconsider a hair transplant closer to 30 if you’ve lost significantly more hair. I suggest consulting with Dr. Gabel anyways, he will steer you in the right direction.

3 hours ago, PelazoVenAMi said:

The doctor told me that both lotions contain Biotin, panthenol and other natural growth factors that are exclusive to Dr Mwamba and a proven formula that generates a synergistic effect on alopecia superior to using Dutasteride alone.

Best,

Hmmm…interesting I have heard a couple doctors now say that topical dutasteride/finasteride seem to work better for the hairline than oral. I am using oral dutasteride right now and thinking of stacking topical for the hair line.

2 hours ago, PelazoVenAMi said:

Hi friends!

I currently use topical, oral dutasteride, and oral minoxidil and have had no side effects.  The first few days of Minoxidil I did have somewhat low blood pressure, but after a few days everything returned to normal.  Watery semen is normal for this type of treatment.

A hug!

Why do you use both oral and topical dutasteride?

Looks really good. What dose of oral minoxidil are you using? People on oral minoxidil tend to see early growth.

15 hours ago, RTC said:

question, where did you source the minoxidil from?

This is an important question. The oral minoxidil from sketchy sites like alldaychemist is not manufactured by FDA approved companies because they don’t meet quality control standards. A lot of people seem to be self medicating with low quality questionable generics because getting an oral minoxidil prescription is hard.

There are some lunatics on r/tressless that drink topical minoxidil.

Can you ask him about his protocol for prescribing oral minoxidil? Does he start patients at a lower dose and move up to 5mg? What sort of side affects does he commonly see in his practice with oral minoxidil?

Coming along nicely. What dosage of oral minoxidil did Dr. Shapiro recommend?

You can get a dutasteride prescription from medicalwellnesscenter (google it). I wouldn’t bother with STRUT. I got an oral minoxidil prescription from my hair transplant surgeon. I think you can get an oral min prescription from McGrath Medical if you do a consultation with them otherwise just reach out to different  clinics and dermatologists. 

.

He has a YouTube channel and lots of user submitted patient reviews on the Spanish forums.

https://youtube.com/channel/UC5yNTsOPK7Z6V_00wTjiXnA

15 hours ago, GaryStruthers said:

How did you switch to Dut? With a slight Fin taper, or straight switch? I’m thinking of moving over from Oral Fin and topical Min to oral Dut and oral Min. 

Started off once a week Dut and Fin on the other days for a few weeks and then alternated every other day before eventually switching to Dut every day. FWIW I experimented with 2 different generics (manufactured by Teva and Epic Pharma) and name brand Avodart. The Teva brand Dut gave me side affects (weaker erections and no morning erections). I switched back and forth between Teva/Epic Pharma for a few months and noticed my morning erections would always go away on Teva. I am currently on name brand Avodart and it works great with no side affects. 

On 6/25/2022 at 1:11 AM, sukh123 said:

What dosage do you take of dut, I'm thinking of switching too because I don't have any side effects on fin and have been on it for a year and I think I need a more aggressive dht blocker. What happened to your skin also on minoxidil, I've seen a few odd people mention on reddit but the general consensus and research says its doesn't age you.  And alot of people use it for beard growth and have not noticed those effects.

Minoxidil gave me dark circles around my eyes, wrinkles and people around me kept saying I looked tired/haggard. Thankfully the dark circles went away and my skin improved a lot about 6 months after stopping minoxidil. I use 0.5mg dut/day.