New guy and I need help

[Abid]

Hi everyone. First of all, I want to say that this is my first post and Im not exactly sure where to post it. This forum is awsome and I'm really glad I joined. I've learned quite a bit from reading threads. I first encoutered my hairloss probably 5 years ago and I just turned 23. Being so young, hairloss is one thing that has affected my life negatively in many ways including lack of confidence to talk to girls. I think Im probly an NW-2 but not exactly sure. Hairloss is something that has ran totally on my dad's side. All my uncles are bald along with 1 on my mom's side. I didn't begin to do anything about it until half a year ago by taking propecia. My dad reffered it to me and wrote me a prescription and so I tried it. I was hoping that it would help me reqrow my hair but turns out that it didn't although not 100% sure. What I do know for sure though is that it halted m hairloss. I admit that I skipped out on a few dosses but mainly in between bottles when they ran out. Being a college student though I found it kinda expensive and I have stopped taking it for the last 2 months. I think I've lost hair though now that I stopped takin it so I do regret not continue taking the propecia. So basically I was askin to see maybe what I can do to help prevent my hairloss. I might go back on propecia but Im not sure. I was thinking about trying something else like rogain and trying some shampoos like nizoral or nioxin. Propecia is the only thing I ever took to help prevent hairloss. I never tried anything else like Avodart. Can anyone out there give me some advice as to what I should do. I also live in the Cary Raleigh area if anyone is familiar with a good place around here to go to in N.C. Sorry for the long post.

[JakeVig]

Propecia is definately the #1 treatment for hair loss. If you stopped it because it was too expensive I would get a prescription for Proscar which contains 5mg of the active ingredient Finasteride (Propecia contains 1mg - the recomended growth) and cut them in 1/4's, it works out much cheaper in the long run. I would also use Nizoral as well especially if you have dandruff.

[kamin]

Yes, get back on finasteride (Propecia/Proscar) if you want your best chance of halting your hair loss.

 

Rogaine would be an option if you're losing hair in the crown area. That is where it is best known to work.

 

Using Nizoral three times per week was actually a part of the initial testing of finasteride. It is recommended that you use it, especially if you take finasteride and/or have dandruff, as JakeVig mentioned. Using Nizoral will give your scalp the ideal conditions for finasteride to work its best!

[tkerr22]

Nizoral 1% or the prexription strength 2%??

[Abid]

Thanx Jake and Kamen. I got back on Propecia and I bought some Nizorall 1%. I figured I better do something about my hairloss before it gets much worse. I think after skipping out on propecia over the summer, I can tell I've lost a lot of hair. Are you allowed to take multiple hair loss drugs though at the same time like propecia and rogain? I figure wouldn't this double my chances of halting my hairloss and help me regrow my hair quicker? I was thinking about doing that. ALso Im thinking about doing what you said Jake and get proscar and cut the pills up since it's cheaper and was also advised by Dr.Hussain. He has also given me some helpfull information as well. He's one of the top HT surgeons in Pakistan. Since that's where Im originally from, I was thinking maybe I should do a HT one day from him instead since it's cheaper. I wanted to share with you guys as to what he had to say and what you guys think.

 

This is my e-mail to him and his response at the very bottom. $1=60 Rupees and 1 Euro= 1.28 dollars.

 

On 8/19/06, Abid Afridi <abid0729@yahoo.com > wrote:

Hi, my name is Abid. I currently live in America in North Carolina. Im originally from Pakistan however and visit back home to Peshawar every once in a while. I have seen some good reviews about you and was thinkin about maybe one day getting a Hair Transplant from your office location in Islamabad. I was curious as to how much you charge for a HT. I believe I might need 500 to a 1000 grafts. Im probably a Norwood-2. I know that the average price for a graft here in the states is around 4 dollars. Im sure it's much cheaper over seas in Pakistan which is also why I wanted to do it there besides your experteece. I was wondering how much you charge a graft in rupees or how much it normally costs in Pakistan for a HT. Also, Im 23 years old and wanted to ask you if whether or not maybe you think I might be too young for this procedure or if it's o.k for me to do a hair transplant. Currently Im just using Propecia and Nizoral shampoo to fight hairloss.

 

 

 

Dear Abid Afridi

 

You should postpone a HT for 5-8 years or as long as acceptable for you and use propecia and minoxidil in the meantime. Both are available from PK at a very reasonable price. If you can have your doctor prescrip Proscar 5 mg you could use 1/4 at a much more reasonable price.

 

The US graftprice of 4 USD is for strip-surgery. I do not do stripsurgery. I ONLY do FUE as I believe that stripsurgery (also called FUT) is obsolete. I would strongly advice against strip. Strip is available in PK from 30000 - 150000 PKR - but really pay to destroy your donorarea. Take my advice and stay away from it. FUE in the States is usually charged at around 8-10 USD/graft.

 

As far as I'm informed I'm the only FUE surgeon in Pakistan and I charge 3.5 euro/graft (around 2 hairs per graft) which comes 260 PKR/graft. I charge 5.5 euro (420 rupees) per graft in Norway. It's expected to increase to some 6-6.5 euro in a years time.

 

Best regards,

 

Dr. Mazhar Hussain

[kamin]

Originally posted by tkerr22:

Nizoral 1% or the prexription strength 2%??

 

Sorry for not responding right away, tkerr22. Just noticed your question. I've read that it was the 2% Nizoral that was used in the actual Propecia studies.

[JakeVig]

Hi Abid,

 

Your doctor's advice sounds ethical in that he is recommending for you to get on the only FDA approved meds for hairloss and to postpone your HT as you are still too young. I do not agree with his assessment on FUT (strip). It is true that you will not have a linear scar with FUE (you can still get moth bite scarring though), but with the tricho closure from an *excellent* doctor the scar will not be visible even under most buzz cuts. Also FUT has a better yield than FUE and if you need large numbers FUT is the only option.

 

Take his advice get on Propecia. If you can stand the regimen indefinately get on Minoxidil as well. I would still be on the search for an excellent doctor if I were you - I have never heard of any good doctors from Pakistan and have seen some horrible HT's with FUE's.

[Gorpy]

Strip surgery is "obsolete"? If that was the case, the best surgeons in the world like Hassson & Wong would no longer be performing it, don't you think?