win200

I'm restarting topical dut after being off for around a year (I think). Has anyone else had an initial shed when they started? I used this medication prior, but don't recall if I had a shed at the outset. I'm having a small one now--I think--and am not seeing much discussion about whether topical can cause this (as opposed to oral, which definitely can.) Thanks! I'm using 0.1% from FUE Clinic, BTW.

Yes, once a week.

Yes, I definitely feel like it's work. I don't think I'm getting any sides; I was having intermittent sexual sides from oral, so this seems like an improvement for sure.

I'm using the FUEClinic 0.1% dutasteride formulation.

Looking good for me; I dropped Avodart about 4-6 weeks ago and haven't seen an uptick in shedding yet. I'd imagine the Avodart is still working through its half-life, though.

Hey! Thanks for mentioning me. So far, so good--I've been using it for a few months and I'm really not losing any hair at all. I am still on Avodart 3x/week, though. I'm keeping the Avodart for now because my doctor prescribed testosterone supplementation and I don't want that to nuke my hair, but worth noting that on Avodart with no testosterone supplementation, my DHT levels are unmeasurable. They're now at 45 on testosterone even with Avodart, and I'm not losing any hair--that means that the topical is probably doing a lot of loss prevention right now.

Oral dut reduces serum DHT by 90%. The person I was quoting said that topical dut going systemic would only result in 15% or less reduction in serum DHT. My point was that the 75% difference--that is, the difference between the reduction in serum DHT from oral dut versus topical dut--is massive, and would probably mean the difference between having side effects and not having them. You're unlikely to get any sides from a 15% reduction of serum DHT.

And if you have sides from oral dut, a 75% reduction in serum DHT is going to translate into significant reduction in sides. I get minor sexual sides from oral dut; reduced erection strength, primarily. I would have to think that transitioning to topical would revive that to a meaningful degree.

Exactly this. The biggest blessing of a successful HT is that you can stop thinking about your hair, which usually means you stop wanting to spend time on the forums. Some folks are kind enough to keep coming back with updates, but others tend to enjoy their new heads of hair and just forget about hair loss.

Thanks! You too! Also, are people applying this whole head? Is it easy to spread out? I've used Rogaine foam in loss areas before, but covering the whole hair area with a solution seems tough. And the instructions said to refrigerate the bottle, but I assume there's no harm from it being shipped unrefrigerated?

Yup, got my tracking! I'm excited.

I'd like to cycle off it in order to not have dut go systemic. I plan on overlapping the two medications for a few months and then cycling off the oral dut.

I feel like someone associated with the forum should reach out to Dr. Mwamba and let him know this is going on. He's probably busy with surgeries and doesn't realize that this facet of his business is being so badly mismanaged. I know they mean well but it seems like they're overwhelmed and being sloppy with orders and customer payments. The issue I'm worried about now is that even if I got a bottle, it's clear we can't rely on them to process refills in a timely way, so if we start on their formula there's a good likelihood that we'd run out before they got it together to ship a refill. That's very risky.

Just to be clear, I first contacted Josh two months ago but only paid on February 18th. But no tracking information yet.

Thanks! The density is really nuts; you truly can't tell where the transplant ends and my natural hair begins. There's no "illusion of density"--just actual density.

Thank you! Yeah, I was always a little worried that I'd lose hair behind the transplants, but now that I'm 38 I really don't see significant loss happening at this point. With oral dutasteride I don't seem to be losing any hair at all.

Thanks! Just a testament to picking good surgeons and being patient to see the process through over several years. And being consistent with the meds.

Just gradually lowering the hairline; one was 1,450 grafts in 2012 with Robert Niedbalski, and one was 2,100 grafts with Dr. Rahal in 2015. That procedure is discussed in the thread below.

I don't; but it's at LEAST 60cm2. Could be as high as 80. It's really dense. Probably the densest transplant I've ever seen--definitely a product of the patience required to complete three passes over several years.

Hey all, Here are 28-month pics taken during my visit with Dr. Gabel late last month. These are in a brightly lit room with a high resolution camera and no touch-ups whatsoever. I don't think it's bragging to say--because this isn't my work--that this is one of the best transplants I've ever seen. It's incredibly dense with tough characteristics--very dark hair against extremely fair skin--and the hairline is completely natural. No one would ever guess that this isn't natural, and even is broad daylight, the work doesn't look thin or artificial. It's a complete knockout. I'm on oral dutasteride and not losing any hair, so I'm expecting to keep my head of hair intact indefinitely. It's been nine years now since my first transplant in 2012, and one of the awesome benefits is that as I get older (I'm 38 now), the hairline looks better and better as people my age progressively recede. I now have a lower hairline than any of my friends, and a better hairline than I did even at 15. I'm beyond thrilled. The scar isn't an A+, but that's due to my natural healing and not to Dr. Gabel; I've had three transplants with three different surgeons, and each one yielded a just-OK scar, so that's simply how I heal. Dr. G. and I talked about doing some FUE into the scar this year to camouflage that a bit, but I'm not in any rush. I honestly don't care about the scar.

Sure--took a look: https://strutyours.com/p/45/dutasteride-custom-formulas

Has anyone looked at the topical dutasteride formulas available through Strut?

Yeah, I agree. I'm understanding and I'm sure they're good folks, but mismanagement like this really degrades customer trust. I wonder if Dr. Mwamba is even personally aware that this is going on within his clinic...?

I paid on February 18th and still haven't gotten tracking info. I don't want a refund--I just want the product. It's just frustrating dealing with the chaos on their end, and it's pretty poor form to take customer payment but not ship. Feels like a lack of urgency.

Totally understood, but I've been emailing them since mid-January and haven't gotten a tracking number (and frequently don't get responses). I get that they're overwhelmed, but it seems like they're so overwhelmed that they can't effectively manage orders. I've sent over ten emails to little effect.