M/29 Backstory I shaved my head at the end of December after about 5 years of thinning hair, I was somewhere around Norwood 4-5 although not actually bald anywhere but just thinning. I actually wasn’t that bothered about my hair thinning, I’d sort of come to terms with it and although I was noticeably balding it wasn’t quite combover territory. I guess I was having a bad day, in need of a haircut and feeling a bit down and then out came the clippers and suddenly I was sans hair.
I think the shock of being fully bald hit then and another thing I hadn’t thought about was the horseshoe pattern - I’m a diffuse/general balding thinner and have quite blonde hair, although I still have modest density on top it was noticeably a lot lighter in colour on top than on the sides and so the horseshoe pattern was super visible, making me look balder than I was?
Anyway, these together pushed me to look up hair loss treatments and I discovered that not only do they exist but they are clinically proven and effective.
I got on oral dut/min from manual in January but discontinued after about a month due to low libido, I’ve since been on topical fin0.1/min from manual also but similar sides so now I’ve stopped everything until the sides go away (currently 5 days since stopping, will see how it goes) and will continue with oral min and maybe a low dose (0.025%) topical fin once sides do go away.
Trouble is I have seen some gains (from the minoxidl most likely as it’s sort of too early for the dht blockers to have any effect on my hair), a lot of vellus hairs have grown into more terminal like hairs but my hair is now at that awkward in between length after about 2 months growth and it looks like shit, loads of random hairs poking out everywhere and noticeably still quite thin. I’ve told myself just to keep going and get it back to where it was before the shave, and with the min obviously working somewhat (and hopefully a low dose topical fin in the future) my hair will probably look better than before I buzzed it, but I’m struggling with how shit it looks right now.
I know people will probably ask for pics, I don’t really feel super comfortable sharing but have others felt like this and just trusted the process and lived with the shitty hair for a few more months until it has a bit more texture/weight to it, or should I just go back to shaving my head but having to commit to being fully bald to avoid the horseshoe rather than a buzz.
Any thoughts, wisdom and experiences welcome.