My experience at a trichologist. (No pics/long read)

[TommyLucchese]

My mum's 2 brothers and her father were all bald, at 14 my mum said to me I may go bald in the future. She said this again at 16 just before I sat my main school exams.

 

This summer was possibly the best point in my life. Young, thin, amazing head of hair. I also discovered the under-age friendly pubs and clubs and my social and sexual life was thriving. Oh summer 2005 was a good one

 

Then 1 month later my mum said she thought I had VERY slightly started receding. My parents looked up hair loss and found a local trichologist. We went and had a ?70 consultation that entailed the woman who owned the place looking at my scalp through a microscope, where she said she could see miniaturisation and that I was indeed losing my hair. She said I may not go completely bald, but that my hair was going.

 

For a small fee of around ?250 per 2-4 months I was given 2% minoxidil. I was also encouraged to visit weekly for the first month, then once a month for a series of treatments. This would entail sitting under a big bright bulb for 10 minutes to warm my scalp up (I think, can't remember the exact reason stated) then being sat in basically a barbers chair infront of a mirror. Some girls who were beauty technicians would take a test tube of god knows what and apply that to my scalp, then I'd be under a big heater for 10 minutes, and the same would be repeated with another test tube of something. This would all take about 40 minutes. I believe I was told one of them was a 'strengthener', I think this is the one that absolutely reeked - I smelt like a bon fire after it. I went in a music shop after one of the sessions and the man in the said "can you smell fire?" haha.

 

I did this from October 2005 until March 2010. At some point I switched to 4% as the initial improvements subsided. My hair style concealed much of the loss and I genuinely thought I was cured for life, then in November 2007 I discovered a mole on my head that I hadn't been able to see before, I realised I could see much more scalp. So from this point on I continued with the 'treatment' more out of denial and hope than actual reason. In 2009 I began using concealer. By the start of 2010 my hair was just terrible and, after weird looks up to my hair from friends at a party, I gave up even trying to hide it.

 

I found Belgravia in London in March 2010 and started their propecia and their (alleged) 12.5%. It made a huge difference and when I went for a follow up 6 months later and took some photos, there was a big change from the photos they had taken 6 months previously. It's a bit expensive (250 every 3 months) but it's cheaper than the local place that charged me that for just minoxidil. I do plan on using the services provided on this site for the cheaper minox/propecia when my current batch runs out.

 

I'm grateful to Belgravia, as they provided me with the platform to go and see Dr. Feller in July. If propecia and minoxidil continues to keep the loss at bay, and the work by Dr. Feller comes through as great as it should, then I hope I will have finally overcome these hair loss demons. Despite the loss and treatment since I was 16, it was 2 years later when I noticed it wasn't helping. from 18 to 23 life hasn't been too fun, no amount of nostalgia in the future will make me want to come back to this time! Let's hope I can make up for this with a better head of hair in my mid/late 20s

 

The point of this was actually just to talk about my early days and bright up the subject of trichology. When double checking the spelling on google, I found that you don't even need to be qualified to be a trichologist? I do wonder why propecia was not even mentioned to me, I didn't even know about it until I saw Belgravia 5 years later. The glorified beauty parlour was always full of balding men (some completely bald, NW7s) getting these treatments. There would also be women having nail treatments done there. Was it a con? ?250 for 2% minoxidil, these mysterious liquids in the test tubes put on my head? The ?70 consultation with a microscope? What were the qualifications of the main lady there? I wonder.