abnormal drug side effect

[renzo]

(this is gonna be a long one, i apologize in advance)

hello everyone reading this, before i get onto the subject of the title i think its necessary for a little background on myself, im a 17 year old boy from venezuela, and ive been suffering for hair loss for quite some time. i can remember being 11 and taking showers and loosing many hairs, same as when i brushed my hair, seeing many hairs sticking out of it.

i had very thick hair to start off with so it took a while for it to start getting really bad, but that happened a couple years ago, ive styled my hair in a way to hide it but at this stage its getting incredible hard to hide. i probably have a little more than 1/2 of the hair i used to have on my top that i had before my balding began, and as you can imagine this is very traumatizing for me, being so young and having so little hair. its only been recently that ive actively been seeking remedies for my hair loss, but its hard because my dad is so skeptical about everything he wont take me to a doctor to consult to them about my hairloss, and he wont order any remedies online because he beleives its all garbage and a scam. but i suppose soon enough ill be 18 and wont need him for that kind of stuff.

but i think thats enough of a backstory, ill get on to the reason why i made this thread. a while ago, about 7 months, i started getting into a drug called mucinex, its a cough medicine in the shape of a pill and when you do enough of it, well lets say its effects are comparable to ecstasy. now after the first time doing it, i saw something that boggled my mind. my hair, appeared thicker and fuller, and i noticed when i took a shower, only 1 or 2 hairs fell out, and when i brushed it same thing, almost no hair fell out, and after taking it a couple days in a row i even noticed little hairs growing on my hairline. now those affects only lasted about the duration of my trip, the next day i was back to loosing hair like normal. and u can imagine, as i saw those kinds of effects, i started taking the drug heavily, extremely heavily, and as much as im ashamed to admit i resorted to stealing it. i can safely say i stole atleast 1000$ worth of that drug in 2 months. i was on it almost everyday, not even for the trip, but because i saw my hair growing back, and honestly what 16 year old boy(i was 16 at the time) who was balding, wouldnt do that. and i can assure you it wasnt just me who saw the results, friends always told me my hair seemed thicker and healthier, and even my dad told me it looked like it was growing back.(he was convinced it was the new kind of shampoo he bought) but one on occasion of me stealing it, i got caught, and had to run as fast as i could out of there, and that scared me straight. i wont be stealing it again, i still do it from time to time when i have the money for it. the reason why ive said all this, is hopefully for someone to explain to me why that might have happened when doing this drug, and it wasnt just mucinex, it was any drug containing the active ingredient dextromethorphan, the common ingredient among all cough medicines.

and i know, this sounds extremely farfetched and hard to beleive, but i assure you, the affects i was noticing wasnt just some affect of my trip, as other people were noticing it too.

im practically on my knees here begging for an answer, i feel like if i found out why this drug made my hair grow back, i could get to the reason as to why im loosing my hair as such a young age.

[renzo]

im sorry if this wasnt the right place for this kind of question, but i just really didnt know where else to ask it.

[Thehairupthere]

I do not know why mucinex would help you grow hair back it. There are other medications out there which are proven to work and can regrow hair as well as stop any further loss. You can use minoxidil (rogaine) or finasteride (propecia). Dont' use mucinex to regrow your hair I really doubt that it did, and it's probably not healthy to use that medication a lot and for an extended period of time.

[renzo]

i know its hard, almost impossible to believe that. but trust me, it really did, even my own dad said it looked like my hair was growing back when i was on that for extended periods of time, but i know its unhealthy and id rather be alive and balding then buried in the ground. i heard the success rate for rogaine foam is 85% and the rate for propecia is 90% so im gonna try going for propecia. do you know if the generic brand (fropecia) and propecia have the same results? because the generic is much less expensive and my family isnt very wealthy

[Thehairupthere]

There are many generic options for propecia, so make sure that it has finasteride 1mg in it. Or if it's 5mg make sure to cut it into 4 pieces and take one each day. The generic option I know of is called finpecia or the 5mg option called proscar.

[greatjob]

I doubt that the mucinex had any effect on your hair, but using it in such high dosage and for an extended period of time is defiantly not healthy. I would suggest going to your doctor or dermatologist and getting a full blood work up done. I started losing my hair around 16-17 which is very early but not unusual, but if you did indeed begin to lose your hair at 11 yrs. old there could possibly be an underlying medical issue to blame for your hair loss and not mpb. I'm sure there are people who see the onset of mpb at that age but I’ve never heard of them. It's worth determining the exact cause of your hair loss and if it is in fact male pattern baldness then you can give finasteride and minoxidil a try.

[Blake Bloxham]

Renzo,

 

Please remember that our forums are not a proper place to seek medical advice. If you are taking excessive amounts of a medication for a condition not treated by the drug, I strongly suggest discussing the situation with a personal physician - as soon as possible.

 

Having said that, as others have stated, I see no physiological reason why mucinex (which is likely a simple Beta agonist designed to open lung airways and suppress mucus production) would treat genetic hair loss. If you are interested in safe, proven hair restoration medications, I highly recommend researching minoxidil (Rogaine) and finasteride (Propecia).

 

If you need help convincing your father that these drugs are effective, please contact me and we will organize some scientific research to present him.

 

I hope this helps!