Seem to be responding quite well to Fin/Min after only 5.5/4.5 months respectively…. Do I book the HT now due to potential wait times or just wait 6+ more months before doing anything?

[Savemyhairline]

I’m 26 now, been religiously taking 1 mg/day of fin and min foam (rogaine) 2x a day. I don’t think it’s even a debate that it has helped me out, quite dramatically imo. I can actually go outside without a hat for the first time in years and feel somewhat comfortable. That’s pretty huge for me on a personal level. Honestly, I can pretty much live with my crown and mid scalp at this point so long as it holds and hopefully continues to improve over the next 6 + months with the meds. No side effects at all so I will continue indefinitely. To avoid a wall of text, I’ll try to break my case down in points:

 

-no men in family have gone full Norwood 7, highest (dads dad) was NW5/NW6 and the NW6 probably wasn’t until his 70s or 80s. He had a lot of hair loss pretty young (I only have pics of him in late 30s but he looked very similar to me before fin/min) I believe he is who I am taking after as my dad has basically no hair loss and moms dad hair loss wasn’t bad at all until later in life.

 

-I have dirty blonde hair which seems to be a good and bad thing; in brutal down lighting my hair looks more blonde so the contrast between the sides and top kinda sucks.

 

-like my dads dad I have had a lot of loss at a young age, however I am very thankful that fin and min seem to be really helping a lot, quite quickly.

 

-Dr. De Freitas actually told me I don’t have a strong enough donor area for a HT, which is surprising considering Dr. Konior and a handful of other top doctors said I appear to have a good one, all only going by pictures. The De Freitas team doesn’t seem to have the best English and it was several months after submitting my pics so I’ll take his opinion With a grain of salt, he also only saw my pre-medication pics 

 

-my goals: I’m not going for Brad Pitt hair here, I just want the illusion of a solid head of hair. Really it’s my frontal third that hurts my confidence the most at this point.

 

let me know what you think I should do at this point and thank you for reading. Some Before and after pics, not in order but I think you can tell which are which:

 

[Gatsby]

That is a spectacular response and you are not even six months on meds yet. I would definitely hold off any surgery for now. Give it a full year and keep taking photos along the way. Thanks for sharing!

[Savemyhairline]

5 minutes ago, Gatsby said:

That is a spectacular response and you are not even six months on meds yet. I would definitely hold off any surgery for now. Give it a full year and keep taking photos along the way. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you, that really means a lot. I think us guys who deal with MPB have the sharpest/most trained eye for this sort of stuff, so hearing that from someone else with MPB really is nice. My family/friends tell me it looks way better but it just feels more “true” hearing it from someone on this forum. I’m thankful I did my research, I held off on meds for YEARS due to fear mongering on Reddit and other forums.
 

If any guy is reading this and is afraid to try fin, please understand the overwhelming majority of men do not have any side effects and if they do, discontinuing the drug almost certainly remedies them. I consider myself lucky in that I seem to be responding well despite holding off on meds for many years, a lot of guys are not so lucky and have regrets. I know this is often preached on this forum but I want to add it one more time from my own personal experience.

[ciaus]

I agree with @Gatsby, give it the full year since you are responding so well. You don't want to be wasting hair in areas that may fill out more. Best to keep as much in the bank for down the road in case of worse case scenarios.