MissMyLongHair

As much as I despise topicals, I will add this to my regimen. Dut + Pyri = hopefully never going bald even with my NW 6-7 family history.

If a reliable compounding pharmacy is manufacturing them, I don't see why they wouldn't be. I think there is a Loniten shortage in Spain so many people have to get it compounded anyway.

Why is Lorenzo doing 4 patients a day, sounds like a borderline hair mill.

OP, you should consult with Dr. Bloxham too, he is more open to transplanting guys younger than 25, so if he says no you know it is inadvisable. I'd talk to Zarev as well. I'm 21 too, so I feel your pain to some extent despite not being as far gone.

I would say probably, yes. Maybe get a trichoscopy done to assess for miniaturisation. You could probably do it yourself with a cheap USB microscope off amazon. If you are, consider Finasteride.

2 hours ago, Westview said:

It didnt work for this guy

https://ashleyandmartin.com.au/why-low-dose-oral-minoxidil-treatments-for-baldness-should-be-avoided/

 

Lol ashley and martin, don't they rob people blind for basic fin and min? The Australian version of the Belgravia centre.

I made a thread on this about my experience. I've taken it for over 7 months now, around 4 months on 2.5mg and then 3 months on 5mg. Seen minor improvement in density on my only bald patch, however hair all over my scalp feels healthier and thicker. I experienced low blood pressure and high heart rate on 5mg so am now splitting it into two doses, 2.5mg twice a day. 2.5-5mg is the optimal dose for men, according to most doctors.

I can't say I agree with Kevin here, when I took 2.5mg I had no noticeable issues. Oscar Munoz and Sergio Vano are more convincing. Dr Rassman used to work in the cardiac field prior to entering this one and I'm pretty sure even he says up to 2.5mg is fine as a second-line therapy.

I think you should take 0.5mg dut daily rather than once a week, you need maximum firepower.

Thanks for the responses folks. I spoke to an NHS GP about this today, he didn't seem too thrilled about an otherwise healthy 21 year old taking oral min for cosmetic reasons.

That being said, he thought a private clinic must have prescribed it to me (I bought it from a grey market online pharmacy) and was thus hesitant to provide any explicit advice, however he suggested lowering the dose to 2.5mg as I had told him I handled that fine. I also asked him to organise an ECG test for me for this week hopefully.

Here are some readings I took today (I took my oral minoxidil 5mg at 20:00 - oral minoxidil's maximal effect on blood pressure occurs at the 2-3 hour mark):

24/08/2022 at 21:30 - 103 60 84/ 90 58 84/ 94 51 88

24/08/2022 at 22:36 - 92 59 85/ 93 59 89

I took a walk today to the corner shop and my heart rate was 100+, however I think that's normal?

My resting heart rate went from being in the 50s and 60s to now being in the 80s and 90s. I'm wearing a fitbit watch right now, sitting in my chair typing this on my laptop and my heart rate is not going below 80. This can't be healthy long-term as I've read some info online stating that a higher resting heart rate in middle aged men was associated with premature death.

I am very strongly considering cutting the dose back down to 2.5mg, and I've ordered some from Manual (Quartering tablets is too troublesome).

And yes, everyone should take weight and blood pressure readings before starting oral min. Also, Dr Donovan has some informative articles on oral minoxidil, worth checking those out before you take it.

That looks great.

Oh, I should mention that despite the tachycardia level heart rate I ostensibly measured today, I don't feel any cardiac side effects.

(Slashes indicate consecutive readings I took within the same session, third number is heart rate).

08/01/2022 at 00:34 - 109 65 60/ 113 72 58/ 114 65 56

08/01/2022 at 09:45 - 116 65 63/ 108 71 58/ 112 63 56

09/01/2022 at 06:59 - 111 70 65/ 105 69 62/ 111 68 64

After starting 2.5mg Oral Minoxidil (wish I had taken more readings):

05/02/2022 at 06:53 - 108 66 51/ 104 62 51/ 107 62 52

After starting 5mg Oral Minoxidil:

29/06/2022 at 19:12 - 105 65 76

23/07/2022 at 15:14 - 97 70 81

23/08/2022 at 18:22 - 91 62 106/ 84 66 105

I experience lightheadedness and fatigue sometimes, a few hours after taking it. I plan to take it at night now to avoid experiencing the side effects.

I do not want to lower the dose to 2.5mg so as not to lose any hair gained.

Also, I'm 21, 5'10, 65kg (143lbs).

(This is hypothetical as I'm 21 and so too young for a transplant).

First of all I believe I am thinning in a Norwood 6 pattern, however Dutasteride has halted it. Been on Fin/Dut cumulatively for 4 years. Now let's say I turn 25 or 30, haven't lost more hair and want to get my right temple and temporal point rebuilt. I will probably need less than 1000 grafts I am guessing. Now I have read that in the long run, you will maximise your potential grafts by getting stripped out and then doing FUE.

However, in the video I have timestamped and linked, Dr Muresanu of Hattingen hair mentions that your scalp's elasticity is best in the first session, so it is best to do an FUT if you need a large number of grafts. Doing a small FUT is a bad decision in this regard. This leaves me in a bind. Would it be more harmful to do a 1000 graft FUT and then continue doing FUTs and then FUE. Or if I start with FUE, could I still do FUT later? What would maximise my lifetime grafts?

https://youtu.be/cbA2X5btQ64?t=376

1 hour ago, sunsurfhair said:

You’re absolutely right. Do us all a favor and pop 2-3 pills of dutasteride a day. You seem the perfect type.  

No joke, I'd happily do this if I had the money. 5 pills daily to stave off the reaper.

I'm so glad this exists, no way would I ever be able to apply any topical on my head daily. Seems to be working too.

Thanks for the help everyone.

.

I try to take any pills (dutasteride, oral min, multivitamin) with breakfast because otherwise they make my stomach hurt slightly for a few minutes. The bigger the size of the pill(s) and the hungrier I am, the worse it hurts.

1 minute ago, Kevin Brend said:

Smile Hair Clinic in Turkey seems great! Will research on those guys. Any comments? 

I think that is a hair mill.

Are any Turkish docs actually skilled with repair cases? You should probably go to someone like Bisanga.

Are you going to Konior?

On 3/14/2021 at 8:38 PM, aaron1234 said:

I've been on Fin for 14 years, and while I still continued to lose hair I believe Fin has prevented the worst case scenario for me; i.e. lateral humps and crown dropping.   

@Phab You definitely lost native hair, you might have transplanted hair (impossible to say).  Either way, you due for round 2.  Be prepared for more surgeries as you are a high NW. 

 

How well did Fin maintain your hair over those years? As in, did you only go up one Norwood class as opposed to potentially several?

1 hour ago, NARMAK said:

I'm going to be perfectly honest. I cannot wrap my head around HOW you are losing hair still. 

This stack, IF i am reading it correctly says you are on 0.5mg Dutasteride daily. Just that alone reduces your scalp DHT by like 51%. Adding Finasteride into the mix, which at 1.25mg for 5x a week is almost the same as 1mg everyday, that reduces scalp DHT by 41%. Now, i'm not say the maths is always 1:1 here, but you're blocking at a guess around 80% or more scalp DHT as well as Ketoconazole in the mix which inhibits marginal amounts of DHT but still helps. 

Dude, you need to go get some blood tests done ASAP to figure out if there's some underlying causes elsewhere and i think you may want to consider switching to Oral Minoxodil for a more effective treatment if possible. 

I'm sending my best to you to get through this and find a way but damn, i wouldn't have been able to convince myself to take that much medication together. 

I don't think the scalp DHT math checks out there based on what I have read. Finasteride is weak compared to Dut. If you are truly losing hair still, it is time to consider increasing the Dutasteride dose OP. 2.5mg a day would be ideal, or whatever the highest you can afford if not 2.5mg. Oral Min 2.5-5mg will help too.

https://www.bernsteinmedical.com/research/dutasteride-vs-finasteride/

"The 2.5-mg dutasteride dose was consistently superior to 0.5-mg dutasteride in promoting scalp hair growth. The 2.5-mg dose was also better than the 0.5-mg dose at suppressing scalp DHT (79% vs. 51%), whereas it was only marginally better at suppressing serum DHT (96% vs. 92%). This difference in the dose-response of serum and scalp DHT to inhibition with dutasteride is likely to be due to the greater contribution of type 1 5α-reductase to scalp DHT concentrations."

40 minutes ago, SoSoz said:

This is bad example, this guy was balding since 14 because of medical condition. And yeah OP you're too young for HT, it doesn't even look like you need one.

Did you watch the video? The man himself said that doctors told him it was just genetics. I started losing mine at 13-14 too, we exist. The whole point of the video was that his hair was ruined due to stopping Finasteride and losing the native hair due to male pattern baldness.