New to Hair Loss

[Jester]

I am 36 years old and recently noticed my hair is thinning and I have a few questions.

 

1. My hair loss is frontal thinning with very little receeding of my hairline. There seems to be very fast hairloss over the past 3 months. Is it typical to thin this fast or should I look for other causes?

 

2. I have used rogaine twice a day religeously for 4-5 weeks now with no change. Is this long enough? Should I continue to use it or am I just wasting money?

 

3. I am considering early HT to thick'in up my frontal hair. Will I need to take any time off work to recover from the procedure?

[Jester]

I am 36 years old and recently noticed my hair is thinning and I have a few questions.

 

1. My hair loss is frontal thinning with very little receeding of my hairline. There seems to be very fast hairloss over the past 3 months. Is it typical to thin this fast or should I look for other causes?

 

2. I have used rogaine twice a day religeously for 4-5 weeks now with no change. Is this long enough? Should I continue to use it or am I just wasting money?

 

3. I am considering early HT to thick'in up my frontal hair. Will I need to take any time off work to recover from the procedure?

[baldcasanova]

Originally posted by Jester:

I am 36 years old and recently noticed my hair is thinning and I have a few questions.

 

Jester see my comments below in bold

 

1. My hair loss is frontal thinning with very little receeding of my hairline. There seems to be very fast hairloss over the past 3 months. Is it typical to thin this fast or should I look for other causes? In some cases hair loss can occur suddenly but for most people its a gradual process. I would go see a dermatologist to see what may be causing it.

 

2. I have used rogaine twice a day religeously for 4-5 weeks now with no change. Is this long enough? Should I continue to use it or am I just wasting money? Rogaine is a topical solution that must be applied for so as long as the user wants to see the affects that it produces. Ceasing use of Rogaine will over time eliminate any hair regrowth that one would have achieved, and in some cases, stimulate additional hair loss.

 

3. I am considering early HT to thick'in up my frontal hair. Will I need to take any time off work to recover from the procedure? If you have the type of job that you can wear a hat, you can go back after a couple of days. best practices are you take a vacation from work to heal your donor area and recipient site, recover from any post op swelling, and grow back a little hair that you may have lost from the procedure due to the doctor shaving the recipient area, etc.

[Guest]

2. I have used rogaine twice a day religeously for 4-5 weeks now with no change. Is this long enough? Should I continue to use it or am I just wasting money?

 

 

I don't know how Rogaine is advertised in your country, but here (Finland) there are quite strict regulations about how medicines are advertised and drug companies can only advertise what has actually been scientifically proven. Here Rogaine is advertised primarily as a hair loss prevention medication that works in 4 out of 5 cases. A small percentage of the 4 that it actually works for (ie. prevents or slows down further hair loss) may see some moderate re-growth but this is more of a bonus if anything. Rogaine works by stimulating growth and keeping hairs in the anagen (growth) phase for longer but when you first start using it, it can put hairs into the telogen (resting) phase so you can actually experience more hair loss during the first few weeks/months of use. I'm certain 4 ??“ 5 weeks isn't long enough to see any results and as advertised in this country, it takes at least 8 months of use to see any results - in some cases more than a year.

 

The worrying thing about Rogaine, as Baldcasanova pointed out, is that if you decide to stop using Rogaine after months of use, you can end up with more severe hair loss than you would have experienced had you never used the stuff in the first place. This is where I am at now ??“ I stopped using it more than a month ago and I'm now anxiously waiting to see if the rest of my hair is going to drop out or not.

 

Additionally, Rogaine isn't as effective on frontal areas as it is further back... so I wouldn't expect any miracles from Rogaine.

 

PB

[Jester]

Thanks for the input guys. I will see a dermatologist and see what they think.

 

And unfortunately I do not have a job that lets me wear a hat.

 

Keep growing.