why oh why

HELLLLLS YEAHHH i'd shell out 25 bucks for a full head of hair too ;-) j/k i know you meant 25 grand... gotta love geographic differences with writing i don't know if i'd shell out 25 grand... but 10k. easily.

congratulations on the piano recital Dr Lindsey. that's awesome! As a musician, i hope she sticks with it. Piano, especially, is great therapy when the player is let to do it on his/her own terms.

Bill wasn't taking sides. since you demanded proof, he just asked that you provide proof of your own. lets call it "discovery". as a lawyer, you're supposed to know what that means. so, i won't explain. glad to know your urologist friend has been focusing on hair loss from the head which doesn't pertain to his specialty. how about i go ahead and set up the same "predictive attorney" presumable defensive assault: i'm sure you're going to call me ignorant, say that a doctor is a doctor, make a statement attempting to educate me to your awesome logic, and so on and so forth... however, the obvious root of your agenda against the original topic (propecia) is showing through your arguments. i guess we can add you to the 2% list of unhappy users who are crowding the internet. instead of the 1% that are sharing positive results here, or the 97% out living life as happy individuals. fyi, since lawyers usually typically can't do math, 97+1+2 equals the full 100% go ahead, call me whatever you will for "calling you to task" as an agenda driven, unhappy user. since I'M from a family of lawyers as well, i will use the retort that i use on them. "i don't care" i've said my peace, this forum is supposed to be a caring environment for others to share and deal with our affliction. your presence, to me, is not needed. therefore, i won't be saying anything to you again. hows that for setting up the "lets hear it, how am i wrong, i'm sure you'll belittle me because you're beneath me" catch 22? you know the one you blatantly tried to use against Bill? -why oh why a happy user, reporting no sides

haha man i hope that's how i end up, cause lookin at my dad and granddad... the cueball is comin

unfortunately... that's how these things go

great punchline with the 30% the aristocrats!!!

baldingboy - you'll be fine man, i've been on the real deal propecia for 2 years and haven't had ANY problem. just like pretty much everyone else who takes it you have to remember to consider the source on EVERYTHING, including this. people who don't experience side effects aren't gonna go around being vocal about it. they'll just kinda be quiet and reap the benefits of hair. those who HAVE had side effects, which is not that much at all when you consider EVERYONE who has taken it and not JUST the people on forums, are going to be WAY more vocal about their displeasure the reason for this is when something goes wrong, an agenda is created in the mind of the person experiencing it, thus giving them reason to be zealous in their efforts against the product. basic human psychology, you know how it is. it's the same thing as when you see signs saying "food poisoning from eating at wherever", sure maybe a couple of people had a bad reaction, but hundreds others felt just fine

i've been on propecia for 2 years now... while my crown has slightly gotten thinner, my hairline is pretty much exactly where it was when i started marvin is correct (from what i've read) about the reasons why they have to say just the crown

getting the meds online is risky, due to the unknown source. if you're going to get propecia, go to your normal family doctor that you go to when you have the flu or whatever. they can give you a script for it. if you don't have health insurance or whatever and that's too expensive, then i would recommend inhouse pharmacy if you HAVE to do the online route... that one and a few others have gotten good reviews on here, i'd recommend searching for a thread about that though... but once again, GO LEGIT, and go to a doc. it doesn't HAVE to be a derm (at least if you're in the states) your normal family doc (like Bill said) will do

i have not had a HT, so i can't necessarily comment on that, or the feelings towards disclosure of having had one. However, i know full well the anxiety that comes with thinning and new relationships. While it can be stressful dealing with the anxiety of "will they notice", it is definitely something that can ooze out and infect the aura of the relationship. My best advice is to just flat try and not worry about it. If the other person is going to be shallow enough to ditch you cause you're losing a little up top, then they probably aren't worth the anxiety. the best thing to do is to try and relax. the more confidence and fun you exude, the better. just relax, know that you're talking to your doc (if a second ht or whatever is the route you wish to go) and take things in stride.

propecia, from what i've read, works in some way for 85% of men who try it. you probably fall into the 15% that it does not work for at all.

probably to help share with others about personal situations. for example Originally posted by labrat69: Hairloss is the best thing that ever happened to me, and I truly mean this. Although I am not bald (NW3.5ish) at age 41, most all of the loss occured between ages 20-25. Before the hairloss I literally had to beat women off with a stick. I guess you could say my facial features and body type fit very well in the GQ model category. Anyway, once the hairline receded I became acutely aware of just how superficial our society is. Something as utterly meaningless as a few thousand strands of keratin actually caused 99.9% of all the women who had previously chased me to suddenly look right through me as if I didn't exist. I went from an egocentric narcissistic pretty boy to a reclusive hermit literally overnight. But guess what ? I actually became a much better person in the process. When I look back I wouldn't trade the hairloss for anything! It taught me to be more sensitive and less judgemental of others' appearence. Since that time I have met lifelong soulmate friends who are some of the most amazing, talented people and who have had tremendous impact on my life and identity. I know for sure I would never had met these people if I would have remained that narcisisstic superficial pretty boy. I also realized that my personality thrives in the "underdog" role. Since I now had a cosmetic deficiency I was amazingly free from all of the superficial trappings of the beautiful people. I became an artist (piano player, singer)and have never looked back since! The hairloss actually gave me the courage to face audiences because I could no longer hide behind good looks, and people had to take me seriously. I also realized that my former relationships with women were meaningless and shallow; they didn't even care who I was a person on the inside, and just saw me as a piece of meat out of a GQ magazine. I was objectified in the same way that gorgeous women complain men see them as sex objects. Now that I'm older i can see all of this so clearly. The only people that truly matter in this world are those who can accept you and love you for who you are inside. Everybody else will just be a waste of your time and energy, whether you have hair or not! ------------------- az- it's all about the confidence

ohhhhh ps... as for ID photos ... my goal is to keep the one from when i'm 18 as LONG as i can. i wanna be 40/bald and have the same picture that was taken on that 18th bday haha in texas (as i'm sure is the same for most states) they let you renew your DL online so hopefully i can keep getting it with that pic on it.

i've been coming to realize that it's my main problem with all this as well. at least the aspect of my age. It's always been more of a "why so early?" rather than a "why me?" question for myself. I knew long ago it would happen. i dealt with that. however, now that it's full steam ahead my main thought is "why can't this amount of loss happen when i'm 35 and married... not 25 and still lookin around?????" but the crux of it is, i knew i would be pretty good and bald by the time i was 35, so the fact that i'm "slightly thin lookin" up top is more just what i guess is the natural progression for me towards 35 and bald hahaha. it takes time for nature to gradually tear your heart out, you know? here however is how i've come to cope with it: like i said, and you acknowledged, we project the worst extremes into situations like this (balding, getting fat, whatever...). if it's not what it used to be, it's never going to be good enough, or so we think. The bright side is that you STILL have time with what you do have left. on top of that, we live in an age where there's a pill/foam for that (literally and figuratively). you're doing what you can. that's all you need to know. i know it's hard, but try not to let it wreck your confidence, if i could i'd punch my two/three year ago self in the mouth for thinkin that my life was over cause I could tell i was thinning, nobody else could when i was out(or in... EVEN with my head buzzed). even now that they probably CAN tell, i'm 25 almost 26... that's nature, i'm still as badass as i was 5/6 years ago. i'd much rather be balding me then some of the dumb, out of work, morons who i went to HS with. or better yet our cheerleader who turned stripper, fat, and now has 2 kids from she doesn't know who. I would love to go back in time and say "knock it the F off! you're still the badass, quick talker that you ALWAYS were" but i can't. i can just tell YOU, and others like us, that confidence makes the man, not the hair. we DO make things worse than they are, and it snowballs and turns into horrible quicksand all at once. what you might think is damaging, might just make that SMOKIN hot 22 year old chick think you look like just what she's lookin for (a little older, a little wiser), not some dumb 22 year old KID that "wants to rage" and usually hits on her. if you do feel someone "judging" you cause of your receding, power through with confidence that you ARE the same badass dude you always were, just now... you're older and know what you're doing. lastly, there IS life when it's gone, and i would definitely be ok with being jason statham or MANY other good lookin bald dudes that are out there.

i know exactly how you feel, i'm 25, i'll be 26 in august. Like you i found this forum when i was 23 (june 2007)... actually i think i was trollin for a long time before that (i got on propecia that january, i'm not sure if it was cause of here or not... the rogaine was though haha). Bill is the best at giving the advice, he knows his facts, that's for sure. as far as the depressing angles of the loss, the bit of advice i can give is this: humans by nature project the extreme of what they feel on themselves (hence skinny girls always thinking they're fat). This happens in huge amounts with all of us balding guys. What we think is the end of the world is usually not THAT much. for example in 2006 i decided to shave my head and be done with it (i was just turned 22, actually i did it cause shamrock lost to rich franklin, i bet myself if franklin won, i'd shave it, cause i hate rich franklin... such a tool... but i digress). about a year ago (late 2008) i decided to give my hair one last shot (i've still been losing a slightly good amount on prop/rogaine... but i do feel it's helped). while my hair is slightly thin in the back while grown out, it's not near as noticeable to others as i had always feared it would be a few years ago. (i just make sure not to get it wet in the rain hahaha) now while the front has receded a bit and the back is thin, i still look like i have a long ways to go till i look "old and bald", all i can do is kick myself for shaving it when i did and not enjoying what i had left. haha i should have waited to do that until about a year or two from now when it's actually noticable with the close crop cut hahahaha moral of the story: what you may be taking as horrible (and i don't doubt you are, i feel the same way about my hairloss, i've just had a few more years of getting wiser about my outlook) others probably don't even care, or better yet, even notice. sure one or two might say something, but it's just cause they're insecure about themselves. for example, the ONLY person ever to mention my loss up top was this douche "friend" of mine (really we just traveled in the same circles and he was always annoying and jealous that i got WAYYYY better looking girls than him, and was better at sports) and the only reason he could notice was cause we were in the pool playing volleyball, and my hair of course was wet. but for you, your loss is up front, i wouldn't even worry about it. thana would be a good one to talk to as well about frontal loss.