Started losing hair 3 weeks into cycle, still losing it two months after?

Hi all, this is my first post on here so take it easy on me lmao.

I started a cycle of 250mg/weekly Test E injected once per week back in February. I got to week three when I noticed some elevated hair shedding, and decided that maybe PEDs weren’t for me, so I stopped my cycle then and there. I didn’t follow through with PCT as I’m fairly young (20) and figured my body would be able to regulate itself. Fast forward to now, I’m still facing hair shedding that feels like it’s gotten worse. The shed seems to be diffuse all over my scalp (front, back, sides). Pre-T I lost maybe one or two hairs per shower, not it’s gotten up to over a hundred. The hair shed has definitely picked up as I was only losing around 30-50 at the start of this shed.

To try and attempt to stop the hair loss, I’ve used Nizoral 1%, Nutrafol (saw palmetto, biotin, and some other supplements in there), and MK677 as a last ditch attempt to maybe get my body back to normal and it seems like nothings really working. I’m also starting to develop a lowered sex drive, loss in confidence, and a little bit of brain fog. I also have lab results that showed nothing irregular except for somewhat lower test, high DHEA (571), High albumin, and low Androstenedione.

Any advice/recommendations for stopping this shed would be 100% appreciated.

Do you have pre-cycle bloods to compare to?

Minoxidil and Finasteride both do well for keeping your hair. Topical is the best way to do this without having systemic Low T symptoms.

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Man, I’m sorry to hear that at what, 20yrs old? Damn. I wish I had some good news but I’ll just tell you what it [probably/most likely] is…You are genetically pre-disposed to male pattern baldness. Without taking AAS, it would probably have manifested several years later, but if at 20 running 1 cycle of test caused much increased shedding, you probably caused that timeframe to speed up and begin affecting you earlier. I know that’s not what you wanted to hear, but I’m just being honest with you. And not to add salt to that wound, but if this occurred at the VERY early age of 20, well, you sir unfortunately probably would have been one of those “early to go bald” guys…and probably already been bald well before your 30s, because 20 is young! hell, you might not even be done fully growing yet!

I competed in my mid to late 20’s and stopped in my early 30s, and for me, I didn’t use Trenbolone until my later cycles in my 30s but once I threw that particular drug into the mix, I began seeing crazy shedding and I began seeing a rapidly growing, thinning on the very top of my head. Well, I did nothing about it but curse my genetics, however for you, I would strongly recommend jumping on Rogaine[generic name minoxidil]. That, according to people I know, actually really does work to halt hair loss but you have to use it everyday…EVERYDAY and forever.
Yeah, the everyday AND forever part were what I personally wasn’t down with committing myself to and so I never used it and instead just buzzed my head and was done with it. So, you have to ask yourself…are you going to, without fail, apply that shit 2x a day[I believe that’s how often you have to apply it] and everyday, 7 days a week, week in and week out without fail??? If not, or if you know yourself and know that you’ll miss it here and there, which will not work, then you have to also ask yourself if you are ready to rock the buzzed haircut look? The choice is yours, but other than shelling out tens of thousands for hair transplants, there is no one and done fix bro…sorry. Thems the cards you’ve been dealt.

Your risk damaging your HPTA at this young age as your HPTA isn’t fully developed. For the fact that you haven’t recovered yet on what is a fairly mild cycle, tells me your HPTA is quite fragile.

Thank you for all the advice, I had a similar problem when I ran a cycle of RAD140 a year ago, but the shed halted after a couple of weeks. Would you recommend waiting a bit to see if this shed stops like my last one or go ahead and try minox/fin?

I’ve also been taking supplements like Saw Palmetto and other things of that nature to inhibit some DHT, which could be why my test levels are still low. I’ve stopped taking them now to see if my body recovers any more over the next few weeks. Would you recommend PCT even after 2+ months no cycle?

Your HPTA is already restarted, PCT’s don’t heal, fix damage caused by cycles. PCT’s ease the transition from exogenous testosterone to a functioning HPTA, it doesn’t undo the damage from cycles/AAS.

You wouldn’t be the first guy to ruin his HPTA on his very first cycle.

I hope that isn’t the case here!

Sure, wait and see if the shedding stops after you finish taking what you’re taking…although I’ve yet to ever meet another lifter who, after having taken anabolics & started experiencing hair loss/shedding, stopped taking AAS and their hair loss was arrested. From all I’ve seen and heard, once you set that ball in motion with your hair, it’s very rarely if ever stopped.

It’s not something you can give much time to “wait and see” either, as you’ll find that it doesn’t take that long after you’ve started losing hairs to see the visible thinness in your head of hair and as I stated above, once you are able to see it it’s probably too late since you cannot re-grow hair to fill back in those places. Put another way, once you can see the top of your scalp, or your front hairline has receded back or upward by several millimeters, there’s no going back as at that point, Rogaine or anything else cannot regrow hair already lost, it simply acts to preserve the hairs you still have on your head.

I’ll make this easy for you: if you really value your hair, you shouldn’t get very involved with taking AAS. If you can live with having a shaved head and be okay with that look, then by all means take what you want to take. But also remember to play the tape forward, as in…will you still be as into working out or getting huge muscles 10, 20 years down the road? Will you still be consistent with hitting the gym, watching your diet, and other similar behavior? Because if not, you have to ask yourself if you want to risk your appearance, your health, your hair…just to be big when you are young.

It sounds like genetically you are predisposed to male pattern baldness. It isn’t a you have it or you don’t thing, more of a sliding scale, and unfortunately it sounds like you are pretty far down the scale on the balding side.

I’d try to make sure you are correct in your assessment of losing hair, but if you are correct, your going to keep losing hair with or without steroids (since you seem to be really predisposed to balding, if you are at 20).

There are options that work really well though. First line treatment should be a 5 AR inhibitor (and not saw palmento). If you want results, you need finasteride or dutasteride. These are the best treatments, and even for a guy with poor hair genetics, will usually halt further balding for decades. You may even be able to use Testosterone if you go with dutasteride and keep your hair. Do your research, but beware there are a lot of people who fear monger on the internet. Look for big scientific studies, not case reports, or what some dude is claiming on the internet. I believe these are quite safe drugs based on the higher quality information available for them.

The second line of treatment, which should be thought of as an add on, not a stand alone treatment is minoxidil (rogain is a brand name). Minoxidil is a growth stimulant. It can cause new hair to grow, and it can reverse some hair that is starting to get thin to recover (part of the balding process involves the actual hair follicle getting thinner, then eventually falling out and not returning). The down side is that it is a topical that isn’t the easiest to apply (you have to put it on your scalp daily). Oral minoxidil is available with an off label Rx or over the internet. It typically works a little bit better than the topical too, but it is systemic (you may get thicker body and facial hair). There is a whole list of potential side effects with oral minoxidil. The drug started out as a blood pressure medication, so it can lower BP. I believe most of the side effects are dose related, but the dose necessary for hair growth is low, so I believe low dose is a pretty safe treatment. Low dose being around 2.5 mg/day. Do your research if you go down this road. You have to continue with minoxidil (both forms) as long as you want to keep the results from it. If you stop, you will lose the results in a few months (same goes for 5 AR inhibitors, you take them as long as you want hair, stopping will cause rapid shedding after a few months off).

Other than those two drugs, everything else is snake oil, or is a research chem with unknown sided effect (stuff like RU58841 fits in this category, it likely works, just there isn’t very much data on it).

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Thank you for all the advice. I think i’ll wait another couple of weeks, after another visit with my derm, they believe I may have triggered something called Telogen Effluvium due to my rapid change in hormones, how the hairs shedding all over, and how quickly the shed started (within 2 weeks of injections). Timeline for TE is usually around 3 months, and I’ve noticed the shed slowing down, but if it continues longer definitely will be hopping on Fin+Min. I also had a talk with a couple friends of mine that experienced a similar shed, they said theirs stopped after a couple months. I’ve also discontinued all PED usage and don’t really plan on taking them again in the future.

Any update? Similar problem. Thx bro.

You guys wanna know something really interesting about me/hair loss and gear?

I ran a few really mild cycles when I was VERY young. Think a sprinkle of anavar on top of trt

Trt dose test + primo at the dose my trt was (or slightly higher)

Once tried 100mg test 150mg mast etc

I ran one proper cycle for 6-8 weeks at a total weekly dose of 350-400mg/wk and it was actually fucking awesome but I was very young at the time (on trt)… still had a blast and I think I can say I’m one of the only young people who tried this stuff and didn’t regret it afterwards (know for a fact my heart is healthy etc)

That’s not devils advocate for young people taking shit… I guess I just got lucky (and knew a LOOOOOT about what I was taking)

But I lost zero hair on this stuff… no joke not an ounce of shedding! Then I stopped taking anything but trt after the age of 21

And from 21-23 lost no hair

I had a very hard time at age 23 (legal disputes… I didn’t do anything illegal but some very, very bad things happened to me though and it was extremely stressful and I have to become a witness and whatnot relatively soon, family members getting sick/dying… diagnosed with genetic disease etc… just very hard year)

And within 6 months I legit lost like half of my hair in the pattern reminiscent of male pattern hair loss!

Fucking crazy, I have photos/video from the previous years showing a completely full head of hair

I had a transplant but now the crown is going quite aggressively. I shaved it all off and actually pull off the bald look very well due to my facial structure so I’m thinking scalp micropigmentation over another transplant at the moment

On fin, minoxidil, ru58841 etc, dermarolling… but if I can get the scalp micropigmentation and just rock the buzzed look I don’t care that much for now

If I’m losing it so aggressively maybe another transplant is the way?? But if it’s a stress mediated response this upcoming year is potentially looking to be even worse than the last year so…. Perhaps I should wait it out and see?

Can stress make androgenetic slope is worse? My father didn’t start thinking til his mid 30s but my 1st cousin went fully bald at 16.