My Journey - Meds Only

[Ian1970]

Hi All,

I thought I would share my hair loss/restoration journey so far having joined the community a few years back and read lots of interesting posts. I am not one for big long posts so I will keep it fairly simple.

I noticed my hair loss was more significant about 10 years ago. My widows peak never really bothered me but in recent years I started to notice much more thinning on the top. I had always kept my thoughts, despair and mental health status to myself and started to look into hair restoration solutions.

About 4 years ago I started to look into finasteride and started using Alpecin Caffeine shampoo. The shampoo never did anything to stop my hair loss. I was seeing adverts on TV for hair loss treatments and always thought they must be a scam and I will have to go down the hair transplant route and talk to professional hair loss clinics. I made a few clinic enquiries but never really felt comfortable having surgery at this stage. I began to understand and learned more about hair loss and concluded that even after a hair transplant I would probably still need long term medication like finasteride and/or minoxidil.

So, last year (August 2023) I decided to take a leap of faith with one of the hair loss medication supply companies called 'Manual'. There was no real reason for choosing this company other than my gut instinct said that they seemed genuine and they offered a 6 month refund guarantee if I did not see satisfactory results. So, I thought for the sake of £200 I will give it a go and if after 6 months I wasn't happy I could get my money back and seek further advice from a hair surgeon.

I am now 7 months into the treatment plan and have taken the Finasteride pill and used the minoxidil spray every day without fail.

I have attached my photos I have taken every month. I would appreciate any comments and will try and answer honestly any questions you guys may have.

Thanks for reading my story
Ian

 

[Bigmac]

Hi Ian.

The pictures are too dark to see much. The last picture does appear to have more hair in the mid-section. Try taking some outside in natural light.

Manual is a legitimate Supplier. The money back offer is very generous of them, providing they honour it. Alpecin shampoo will do little to nothing for hair loss.

With your level of loss it`s wise imo to be on the meds for at least a year before considering a hair transplant. As well as hair on top, it strengthens the donor area too.

 

[Im new here]

Just as Big Mac says the photo lighting is bad but the initial photo and the last photo show the meds are working for you. Keep using them

 

[Bobbins]

The medication seems to be having a significant impact; If you put your first and last pictures side by side I believe you'd see a change across the the crown and midscalp and strengthening (if not regrowth) in the hairline.

I'd reassess at 18 months and decide whether you want to consider surgery or not.

 

[Ian1970]

Thanks for the constructive comments. I will try and take some better photos in the future. I was expecting to be on the meds for at least 2 years and see if they would provide more density without the need for surgery.

I never considered the benefit the meds would have on my donor area.

7 months in now and and I have started using toppik fibres to give an immediate look of a fuller top. I for sure have more hair now for the fibres to cling to.

 

[Bigmac]

Keep up with the regimen. Hopefully, it’ll keep improving. I know sone people have had an excellent response using oral minoxidil.

 

[gabrielle_fidenza]

This progress looks really promising and congrats. I also have been facing receeding hairline problem for quite sometime, Initally i ignored but i had been looking up other people experiences and concluded to start as soon as possible.I started to look for online platform like you did and came across this survey from dense hair experts, which looked really good. so i gave it a try. i have been using its products since Jan 2023 and am quite satisfied. so in conclusion i would say like every other pal who experienced it .. to start early, to preserve more hair.