My Story, with pics and some questions

dudewheresmyhair · June 4, 2010

Hello Gentlemen,

I'm a 27 y/o male. I never thought I'd get hair loss since there isn't a single male in my family on either side who has even receding or thinning hair. But, here I am

I first noticed it falling out 3 years ago. Initially, it was slow. I tried some generic Rogaine 5% and that did help slow it down, but the propylene glycol used to make my skin itch like crazy so I jut plain stopped using it.

By last year, it was clear as day that my hair wanted to desert me so I started 1mg generic finasteraide daily, with 1% nizoral 2-3 times a week.

Attached are my pics from 7 months ago, and some current pics. I think I've lost more hair in the last 7 months that I did in all the other months put together.

I had a few questions, if you can give me some advice, it will me most appreciated:

1) So far I've been on fin for 7 months, and it doesn't look like it has done a thing. If i grab my hair from the top and pull lightly, at least 4-5 strands are guaranteed to detach everytime. Should I stick with FIN, or is it time to throw in the towel?

2) Looks like I went from a NW-2 to a NW4A-5 in just 7 months. I was hoping to heck that FIN would stop the shedding, but it hasn't...so I'm going to go for HT. Seeing my pics and age, is it a good idea? And is it even possible to get HT for thinning hair, or do you have to be bald in the area before you can get HT?

3) Any idea how many grafts we're looking at if I were to go for HT with my current hair (or lack of it :rolleyes:)?

4) I've been cutting my hair short since the pics from last year, because there was quite a contrast between my side/back hair (which was thick) and my top hair (which stood out as thinner). Today, I tried dermmatch for the first time and it looks pretty good. You can see the result in the pics. Do you think going back to long (i.e. normal size) hair would conceal my thinning better if used with dermmatch? Or is it just going to contrast?

Thank you all, and good luck!