Hi everyone, 24 years old. I’ve been reading posts here for years and finally decided to post lol. I’m not in a terrible situation, I still have good hair, but I do have some recession at the temples. I’ve been using 5% minoxidil for about 1.5 years and honestly I haven’t seen any real effect.
Everything seems either stable or slightly worse, but it could also be very slightly better, I’m not sure.
I had a dermatology visit that confirmed miniaturization at the temples and that the hair there is much less dense, and the doctor suggested I do a proper trichology visit. Since that costs a lot, I asked to just prescribe me topical finasteride directly, 2.275 for the frontal area. I bought it 3 days ago and started using it. Today I’m particularly tired and my anxiety about side effects kicked in. I started reading Reddit and now I’m worried it might not be worth it.
I know that probably right now it’s just in my head and nothing is actually happening, but I really started wondering if it’s worth starting something I might have to take for life just to save a few hairs. I do have some recession, but I think in my family we all have higher temples but still quite a lot of hair elsewhere… there aren’t really bald people.
I honestly don’t know what to do. I wouldn’t want to get some side effect and make things worse when maybe there’s not much to do anyway, because maybe we just have naturally high hairlines genetically and it might just worsen a little over time but stay overall stable.
I’m thinking about doing the specialist visit even though it’s about €200, but I might spend the money because otherwise I won’t get peace of mind. I already spent €70 on the finasteride that I kind of stupidly started without really thinking it through first.
I really don’t know what to do, any advice? Thanks.
