Could anyone please help me and my hair situation?

[ajsr8]

In a really bad place at the moment. My hair loss is horrific and its much worse than what I thought a few years back. I thought I had normal MPB but I have a feeling its also retrograde alopecia and DUPA (diffuse unpatterned alopecia), not sure if any experts on here can help based on the photos?

In January of 2019 I started finasteride due to some thin spots in my hair that were not very obvious but you could tell that they were there. I feel like it stabilized my hair loss. 

Then in August of 2020, I started using topical foam minoxidil to see if I could get growth on these thin spots. I used it for about a year and I don't think I got any results and I felt like my hair loss was still regressing. Starting minoxidil was a mistake as I got side effects from it (puffy eyes, dark circles, puffy face and fatigue but I still persisted using it for about a year). 

By 2022 I was just on finasteride and I was slowly losing ground throughout the year. By Christmas of 2022 I decided to go back on topical minoxidil for some thin spots near the front of my scalp (I know this was stupid as I had a bad experience last time). Since restarting it I have lost a significant amount of density and my front area of the scalp and the hairline is thinner than ever.

As of June 2023, I was prescribed dutasteride and told to take it every day 0.5mg and drop finasteride. I was also given a very low dose of oral 0.45mg sublingual minoxidil and I used it for 3 days but I had a shortness of breath (anyone else experience this)? So basically, I can only use dutasteride now unless I force myself to use minoxidil and deal with the side effects when I'm not sure if it is doing more harm than good for me. I really just want to stop using minoxidil but I know that by stopping it completely I will never ever get the shed hairs back.

Does anyone have any advice to offer? It seems I've lost the battle against hair loss and I probably would never be able to get a hair transplant because of how bad it is at age 22. I'm not sure if its even worth using dutasteride because of how bad it is, when I can't use a growth stimulant like minoxidil. I really don't want to give up but I feel like I have to just cut everything off now. 

I would appreciate any replies. The psychological torture of this is unreal and involves having a crying episode in the car every single day. 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2023 by ajsr8