Yeah it’s not that bad but there’s definitely less room in the space between my lower lip and chin now. It’s slightly noticeable in old pictures but you have to be looking out for it to really see a difference. I suppose when I eventually shave my head I’ll look more manlier/uglier though lol.
When did you start noticing bone loss/facial structure changes after stopping fin?
I don’t know about the chin, that was hard to spot, but I remember my adam’s apple being small pretty quick. I didn’t keep a timeline of that. I do remember getting gyno 5 months in though cause I felt pain in my chest.
What about your jaw? What changes do you notice about it? Hopefully these changes will revert like some other posters have reported. I wonder what could safely be done though to help bones to settle back to how they should be. At least the worst is behind you now.
Hi there lbv,
I understand what you’re saying about how you feel you’ll look bald. I just wanted to add my own experience regarding this. Whilst i was taking propecia, I held on to a lot of my hair, although it was still slowly receding/thinning. I don’t know whether this was because of the occasional gaps when I ran out or not. Anyway, when I had reached the point of not bothering to renew my prescription due to both the fact that my hair was diminishing anyway and my major concerns over side effects the hair loss kicked in and what I thought was bad got a lot worse in a relatively short space of time. I still went to the hairdressers and my hair would be styled to cover up the hair loss and then sprayed in place. Over time I got sick of what was in effect a big hairy wig, a Trumpian creation of my own making, and I took to wearing skip caps pretty much all the time. Only this year I ended up buying clippers and rather than go to the hairdressers would trim the back and sides myself and just tidy up the top. The longer term goal was to man up and face the bathroom mirror, which I did in the wee small hours about a month ago. I didn’t like how I looked when I brushed away the various flapping lengths of hair from my pretty much bald head, but this ostensible comb-over, which had to be held in place, was yet another barrier to me moving forward in my life, and I felt that it made me less attractive, as I couldn’t imagine going to bed with someone with this swishing about in all directions, or even going swimming for that matter with my hair trailing behind me. So, I did the deed and lanced the rogue hair from my bonce and I now have a close crop. And the thing is, I am much happier, and it suits me a lot better than I thought it would when my head was silhouetted by these long strands. I think having a very little diffuse hair on top helps, but the change for me had to be a psychological shift in that I had to get to that point where I liberated myself from my failing hair. I don’t know how much hair you have yourself just now, but I just wanted to say that you could try with a shorter cut and if you’re unhappy with it you can always grow it back. You will never be as ugly to others as how you perceive yourself to be, and what to you may make you feel ugly may to others make you look even more attractive. I don’t know whether the hat thing is practical at all for you in day to day life if you were to try a close cut and you weren’t happy with it, but it is a way of controlling how the world perceives you and managing this difficult time. Losing your hair sucks, but it is never as absolutely awful as how we convince ourselves.
And it isn’t just me that’s happier with my hair, friends and family like it and say that it suits me and also clearly prefer it to what I had before. I was maintaining what to others was less attractive but I had to get to that psychological point myself first before letting go.
2 Likes
When my hairloss became too obvious to ignore over 15 long years ago I thought it was the worst thing in the world. I was already rather irrationally insecure with regard to my looks and girls, and I thought going bald would kill my last chances to ever find a girlfriend again. I hated to look in the mirror and actually cried a lot. Today, I cannot believe that I was such a whiny little bitch. Other young men accepted their hairloss and just went with it. I was so insecure and vain, and that’s how I got into this mess in the first place. I was desperately looking for a cure and found Propecia, while my parents were desperate to help me to get out of my self pity. So they helped me to buy this poison when I could not afford it.
Today, I am as bald as they come and I have never been so confident in myself. I improved my looks in other ways, bulked up a bit, grew a beard and improved my clothing. But most importantly, I largely dropped the self pity, become more confident and outgoing. I now have a beautiful girlfriend and plenty of attention from other girls. But unfortunately, I still pay for my insecurity from 15 years ago with PFS that has unfortunately become much worse suddenly this year. I so wish I could go back in time and kick myself in the behind. I now have the life that back then I irrationally thought I would never have, but my enjoyment of that life is impaired. The irony…
Hairloss is a negative. Some girls will reject you because of it and some people will make fun of you. But what really matters is how you deal with it. My bald head has become somewhat of a trademark. I am tall, athletic and confident, I have a bit of a beard and my shaved head. I actually come across quite manly that way. I do not loose a single negative thought about my lack of hair anymore. It’s just not that important. I wish I had seen that more clearly back in the day. People tried to reassure me as well, but I did not listen, unfortunately.
lbv, you are fortunat to be close to recovery. Make the most out of it, enjoy your life and don’t let something trivial like hairloss get in the way! Get in shape, invest in clothes, experiment with facial hair and few will care about your bald head. Good luck!
5 Likes
@Mercked my jaw is the same as my chin, just a little bit smaller, it’s hard to notice before and after pics, it’s not really a big deal but it is a side effect that hasn’t healed.
I’m not sure I agree with what you guys are saying. I have diffuse thinning and pretty much no recession so I still have all of my hair now but it’s so damn thin and I have to keep it long or it’ll show that I’m balding. I definitely look ugly with a shaved head lol, there’s no getting around it. I’ve shaved it before and it adds years to my face.
I really don’t care what others think that much, it just sucks from a personal standpoint as one of my best features was my hair and I liked being able to style it. I’ve had so many different hairstyles over the years, it made things like buying clothes, sunglasses and going out a lot more fun. I don’t need reassurance, I already know that a lot of my hobbies will become less fun without hair. You can compare hair loss to braces/teeth, people get braces so they’ll look better. Men and women, so I don’t think about hair loss as something I’ve got man up to. It’s dumb that I’m losing it, it’s my damn parent’s fault for having kids with baldness in the family. I’m not okay with it and I’m never gonna be okay with it.
I know you don’t need reassurance but @Northern_Star does strike a really good point, you’d be surprised how you might look if you bulked up and shaved your head and grew a beard. You might actually like what you see in the mirror, and I know many girls (at least where I live in SoCal) are into that type of masculine look.
Dont forget that PFS basically makes it impossible to “bulk up” or even gain decent amount of muscles. I even lost beard density. Its actually very hard to look manly when you got a bad PFS case
1 Like
I don’t think I have any major muscle problems from PFS so I could work out but I don’t want a beard or significant muscles. That whole look isn’t for me. Plus I don’t like spending time in the gym, I play sports but that doesn’t build much muscle. Thanks for the suggestions but I’m just screwed so whatever. Fuck everything.
Try to stay positive man… I know easier said then done. This shit really sucks
2 Likes
Think my immune system is making a comeback.
I’ve caught a cold for the first time since I got PFS. I slept with only one cover two nights ago with the AC at 68 degrees and had a stuffed nose and minor aches/fever the next day and it’s still persisting now.
I’ve mentioned in another thread that not being able to get sick is a PFS symptom. Something is wrong the immune system cause it’s not working properly. I used to sleep in 45 degree weather with hardly any clothes on and with a door open in my room and never got sick. A lot of people have had the same symptoms in the SolvePFS forums. But now I’m actually sick, which is a good thing.
1 Like
Can you elaborate a little more on that? How is not getting sick indicitive of a poorly functioning immune system? Im genuinly curious, because I started taking l-carnitine and tartrate friday and I feel like it has been working really good for me. However, I went to a concert over the weekend and now I have a cold.
Well when you get sick your body knows to start building up a fever to kill the virus. When it can’t create a fever then something’s wrong. That’s how I think of it. Feel free to start another topic or visit the SolvePFS forums and read the sick topic on there and you’ll see a lot of people stating they can’t get sick. You may not have that side effect, but I do/did.
Coming off my 2nd fever in a month. It was horrible, I felt like total shit for 3 days. I got sick again sleeping too cold because the weather keeps fluctuating now that it’s winter and I can’t just control it with the AC unless I turn it down to like 40-50 degrees and even then it will get colder than that some nights.
I felt myself getting sick the whole month too, I go to sleep and it’s not that cold then hours later I wake up freezing because the temperature drops during the night. I can’t put on more clothes beforehand because then I won’t fall asleep and I can’t use the heat because I can’t sleep with hot air blowing either.
This is a problem. I can’t keep just getting sick every few weeks especially now I’m going to start working. I need to move to a place where it’s warm year round so I can control the house temperature. But Florida always has hurricanes and California’s expensive. The only way I can avoid getting sick is if I choose to lose out on sleep and just stay awake which also blows.
Have you tried a smart theomstat? I have a nest and I will set it really cold for the first few hours and then I have it heat up slowly
No but that wouldn’t help, if there’s heat blowing I would just wake up cause it would clog up my nose and throat.
1 Like
Makes sense. Mine doesn’t actually kick on the heat- it slowly turns off the air conditioning
Have you tried the tryptophan by itself yet? That knocked me right out. I actually had to stop taking it becuase it was so strong. It might work well for you though.
Edit: my point being you could use that to aid your sleep without having to blast the ac.
Don’t wanna resort to drugs.
I just gotta wait this out and hope my body temperature keeps improving or move to a warmer place.