success regrowing hair on temples?

zorah · 09-06-2006, 10:04 PM

Has anyone had any success regrowing hair from a receding hairline, as on the temples?

With Nizoral, Head & Shoulders, Nioxin, TSal, essential oils, cayenne, Rogaine/minoxidil, saw palmetto, NAC, metformin, spironolactone, flutamide, finasteride/Propecia/Proscar, thyroid medication, iron, dietary changes, more exercise, less exercise, weight loss, weight gain, ANYTHING?

My hair looks worse every day now. It's so upsetting! I don't know what to try. I'm afraid it's hopeless.

locagirl · 09-07-2006, 12:13 PM

Mine started to fill in again after I lost about 10 pounds, though recently even though those hairs appear to be staying around, it started receding in other areas

I did a minor stress about this in another posting, and someone advised me that sometimes when you lose weight while your hormones are out of balance, there's a chance your hair may regrow/fall out in the temple area a bit more than usual, but once the hormones even out properly, it will usually grow back and stay there...Here's hoping!!

ScaredSally · 09-07-2006, 12:19 PM

Zorah I have EXACTLY the same pattern as you my temples are now covered in minustarised hairs which are becoming smaller and smaller and is now affecting the top of my head ..

Frontal loss (or so I have read through my extensive reading) is the hardest thing to re-gain.. I have tried ALL medical treatments and NOTHING has worked for me .. I have resigned myself to a life in wigs .

Allison. · 09-07-2006, 03:45 PM

I started Flutamide this past June. I have noticed new little hairs growing at my temple! I know that they are brand new 'cause they are gray. I haven't had any hair loss cycles since starting it. I have tried everything. I have been on Spironolactone for three years. It didn't help with the hair loss, but cleared the acne. I have to get liver function test every four weeks while on flutamide, so far everything is normal. I hope that you can find something that works for you. I know how awful it feels to lose handfuls of hair. Good luck.

KatCarney · 09-07-2006, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Allison.

I started Flutamide this past June. I have noticed new little hairs growing at my temple! I know that they are brand new 'cause they are gray.

Flutamide worked best for me, too (along with weight loss and Nizoral).

One temple is still a bit more sparse than the other but I can deal with it.

Low carb diets always make my hairloss start up again - even when I lose weight. Apparently hair loss is a common thing on very low carb diets (not sure why.)

zorah · 09-10-2006, 06:37 AM

Thanks for the responses. Those of you who took/take flutamide, what dose? And the regrown hair stuck around after you stopped taking it, Kat?

Once the patches of hair at my temples that are currently 3-4 inches long are gone (which will probably be next week at the rate this is going), I'll have major bald spots to cover. My hair is also thinning all over, but that aspect isn't terribly visible yet, at least when my hair is dry.

I started met about a month and a half ago -- no idea if it's making my hair loss worse. I'm slowly losing weight (more slowly since I started the met) -- I wish I believed that would eventually help the hair situation.

At least with the obesity and the horrible acne and the hirsutism, I believe those things are in theory reversible, even though I haven't been able to fix them. The stretch marks aren't, and I don't know about the acne scars. I desperately need the hair loss to be reversible, but both Rogaine and Propecia say they don't really work at the hairline, so it just seems so unlikely anything will.

guineapig · 09-10-2006, 08:16 AM

I've heard of acne scars being able to get removed with laser resurfacing.

I haven't found anything to regrow hair yet but I have not yet tried Flutamide, Propecia, or Dutasteride either. They're all extremely damaging to fetuses and we were ttc & pg now, b-feed to follow. So it may be a long time before I try any of them.

Nizoral, Thymuskin, Nioxin I all tried (shampoo & such). None helped and none hurt.

I was on spiro 100 for almost 2 years and it did great things for other PCOS symptoms but did not regrow hair. It did slow shedding and made my existing hair grow REALLY fast. But it can make AF wild (I had IUD, no bcp hate em). Unfortunately I added met to try and stop bleeding and the spiro quit working forever, even after stopping met. I gained all the weight back and then some and had my acne return and my hair shed bigtime again. HATE MET!!! I quit the spiro later b/c it wasn't working & we wanted to ttc. Later found DCI, which halted the shedding and got my bfp and helped stop the weight gain too--I'm actually about 10 pounds "behind" right now so IMO I've "lost" 13 pounds on it in 8 months...not too shabby. No head hair improvement though--although mustache is gone finally.

emma40 · 09-12-2006, 07:15 AM

what works for me is ,biotin and b-50
its takes about 3 months to work , but its great ,
i take biotin 300 mg 2xa day and a b-50 2xaday.
hope it helps . it also stops the sheding

zorah · 09-12-2006, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emma40

what works for me is ,biotin and b-50
its takes about 3 months to work , but its great ,
i take biotin 300 mg 2xa day and a b-50 2xaday.
hope it helps . it also stops the sheding

I assume you mean 300 micrograms of biotin? And what is B-50? A particular B-complex vitamin?

Sadly, biotin and B vitamins don't stop my shedding or regrow any of my hair.

I'm glad something works for you though!

StarMaiden · 09-13-2006, 01:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zorah

Has anyone had any success regrowing hair from a receding hairline, as on the temples?

With Nizoral, Head & Shoulders, Nioxin, TSal, essential oils, cayenne, Rogaine/minoxidil, saw palmetto, NAC, metformin, spironolactone, flutamide, finasteride/Propecia/Proscar, thyroid medication, iron, dietary changes, more exercise, less exercise, weight loss, weight gain, ANYTHING?

My hair looks worse every day now. It's so upsetting! I don't know what to try. I'm afraid it's hopeless.

If you've tried all that stuff, you've tried everything there is to try. Hair loss is women due to PCOS, especially hair loss from the hairline and temples that is pretty much the same thing as male pattern hair loss, is INCREDIBLY difficult to stop.

Some of those solutions work for some people. But it is hit or miss, and there is NO one proven solution that works dependibly and consistently for anyone. The best you can do is maximize your health and your hormonal balance, and try some of the medical and topical treatments and cross your fingers. I know, you don't want to hear that. I know how awful it is.

StarMaiden · 09-13-2006, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zorah

I desperately need the hair loss to be reversible...

So do I, but if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. All I can say is this hairloss sucks.

I was talking about this with my doc yesterday. He is unusually concerned about the issue with me. I was complimenting him that he has even taken it seriously, since I hear of so many women whose doctors are dismissive or totally unhelpful. My doc, after I first raised the issue, was positive that taking iron supplements would help me. I DO have incredibly low iron, and I AM taking a supplement, but I'm not placing any hope that it will help my hair. I took the time to tell him how devastating this problem is for us women, and how docs need to listen and understand that even though there is next to nothing effective that they can offer us, at least they can take the psychogical distress very seriously!

I often think the same thing that you do, that some of the other symptoms are reversible, and this one is not, and it's just horrifying.

zorah · 09-14-2006, 03:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StarMaiden

If you've tried all that stuff, you've tried everything there is to try. Hair loss is women due to PCOS, especially hair loss from the hairline and temples that is pretty much the same thing as male pattern hair loss, is INCREDIBLY difficult to stop.

Some of those solutions work for some people. But it is hit or miss, and there is NO one proven solution that works dependibly and consistently for anyone. The best you can do is maximize your health and your hormonal balance, and try some of the medical and topical treatments and cross your fingers. I know, you don't want to hear that. I know how awful it is.

Actually, I haven't tried all that stuff (yet!). My hair has been falling out for years, but I had no idea why. (I wasn't diagnosed with PCOS until July, and though I had suspected for a while, I had never heard that balding was a symptom of PCOS.) I never tried to do anything about my hair loss or even asked a doctor about it because I couldn't even tell it was getting thinner. And now its sparsity is suddenly apparent, and since I've started metformin my hairline has receded at the temples. I don't know whether the acceleration of my hairloss is related to the metformin or merely a coincidence (my symptoms were already getting worse, which is why I finally went to see a reproductive endrocrinologist).

So far I'm only using Nizoral and Head & Shoulders (pyrithione zinc shampoo doesn't seem to be much discussed here, but there are a couple of studies showing benefit in MPB), and I started taking saw palmetto a week ago.

I have heard how difficult it is to help a receding hairline, and I was wondering whether anyone has had any success with it. I'm trying to figure out what else to try, and it gives me more hope for a particular treatment if it's actually worked for someone (even though I fully realize that doesn't mean it would necessarily work for me).

I'm now quite interested in trying flutamide. I certainly don't want to damage my liver, but I haven't seen a single report of liver problems in anyone taking less than 500mg/day (from Micromedex listings), which is a higher dose than I would want to try. The risk appears pretty minimal with frequent liver enzyme testing, and it seems the drug has the potential to help regrow hair, decrease hirsutism, decrease acne, lower LDL cholesterol (and improve other lipid parameters), and reduce visceral fat (reducing waist-to-hip ratio). I don't know. I guess my main uncertainly is to whether I should try less risky treatments first (like acupuncture, and/or giving the saw palmetto a chance to kick in). Minimizing risk is good, but it's also my understanding that it's far easier to keep hair than regrow hair, which argues for trying the most effective drug right away. (Of course I don't even know for sure that I could get a prescription, but I would think I could by asking enough doctors. Or maybe just showing the studies to my prescription-happy dermatologist if she's not already comfortable prescribing it.)

I really appreciate your input, and that of everyone posting here. It helps to know we're all in this together, even though it can be very sad to read how distressed people are.

ScaredSally · 09-14-2006, 12:22 PM

Hair loss at the hairline is virtually impossible to treat with any of these treatments beleive me I know I have tried them all including Flutmaide and my hair is in a right old mess now ... I decided a year ago to quit all treatments because it was makign me broke and my hair was looking worse and worse .... cosmetic hair replacement is really the only way forward I am a member of many hair loss sites and on these sites i know of maybe a couple of people who have had positive results the rest have all ended up in wigs or hair peices and I am currently in extensions which cover my temple loss.

PCOS hairloss is a real hit and miss trial and error thing.

As for doctors oh my GOD dont get me started on the stupid comments from doctors ... when I was diagnosed my consultant told me to "wear a hat" !! I said FOREVER !! I was severely depressed considered suicide at one point I didnt cope at all well for a good two years ... I was begging to speak to a professional and six months later got a therapist who said my hair loss was not the issue that caused me depression but something that happened in my past ... well I stopped seeing her from my experience of the medical community in England for hair loss has made me loss all faith in them.. they truly dont see hair loss as anything other than cosmetic and fail to give the support and comfort so badly needed

boovampire · 09-20-2006, 08:28 AM

After a intense study and research about hair loss and regrowth Ive come to the conclusion that like starmaiden its all about the individual. But consider this for one moment. When we start to loose hair its generally because our female bodies are not doing as designed..rather the male hormone is becoming dominate and we begin to see whats commonly called "male pattern baldness" or the clinical name is Androgenic Alopecia. Now one might consider that if we reverse this condition with more estrogen by means of soy isoflavones which are Phytoestrogens and are plant based we could in fact within 4-6 month reverse it and see noticable results..but many dont wait it out and choose synthetic drugs which over a long period can cause damage to organs like the liver or kidneys. You see one thing Ive learned about soy is that it fools the female body into thinking that estrogen levels are too low which causes the release of FSH and LH which in turn stimulates follicle productions. So in conclusion this could be for many a way to gain regrowth and stop testosterone from dominating us. Many doctors dont want this theroy to be played out because they cant make a dime off of it and neither can drug manufactors so they use scare tactic to turn you away and focus on what "they" provide. But as I tell everyone..research it yourself with an open mind and you might find yourself surprised.

guineapig · 09-21-2006, 01:37 PM

I agree follicle stimulation that results in ovulation might help to stop shedding, but I don't know about just dumping extra estrogen on hairloss...read my sig for details. Don't forget that estrogen can convert to testosterone (and vice versa) and my guess is that in PCOS this is not regulated correctly. For me, the key to stopping shedding was getting estrogen under control (ovulation balanced by real progesterone OR low estrogen alltogether when I was on spiro and not O), not the testosterone.