xadiohead

Correct, the minimum dosage it comes in is 1mg.  You should just take half a pill every day.   I'm no doctor but it just seems to make way more sense.   

What is up with this notion of people switching to every other day on finasteride?   It only has a half life of 8 hours!  That means that every other day you will not have it in your system, including a good portion of the day you took it.  Why would you consider this?  Just reduce to 0.5mg daily instead of 1mg every other day.  

You are experienced here so I doubt I'm going to change your mind but it just doesn't make any sense to me to take finasteride every other day given its short half of roughly 8 hours.  If you want to take a low dose it seems like taking 0.5mg everyday would be much more beneficial.   

You could also just switch to dustasteride and take it like every three days since it has such a long half life. 

It's all a guess at this point in time, but far fetched.  I can see this type of solution or some type of hair cloning becoming a reality in like 30 years.  But then again 40 years ago some people thought we would have flying cars by now.  🤣

Sorry for delayed response.  I really hate posting hair pictures because like I said before, very self-conscious about it.  I've taken finasteride for about 15 years and decided I want to take dutasteride instead beginning in January but I didn't want to just switch all of a sudden, especially the same year I am doing hair transplant, so I decided I was going to take both for a year and then drop finasteride at the end of this year.  I haven't decided if I am going to take dutasteride every day at that point or not.

Here are some updated pictures. Some of them aren't the clearest but I dread taking these so don't want to redo ha.    This is at the 3.5 month mark.  Much better growth the past two weeks.  Still a very very long ways to go but hopefully the next 8 months goes well.  Still lots of redness but it has gone down some the past few weeks  (my forehead is red because I was wearing a hat).

Please let me know your thoughts.  Thanks

You need to get on a plane to Turkey and have a 5,000 graft mega-session immediately.

Obviously kidding but I'm guessing this is a one and done poster anyways.  You are young.  I'm no doctor but maybe start on a low dose 0.5mg of finasteride every day- but know that if your start taking it, you can NEVER stop.  

Wow, looking good from what I can tell.  You are way ahead of my growth (we were there the same day).   I think you are going to have a success in six months.   I hardly have ANY growth so far and it is still very red.    Does your hair normally grow fast?     I think we are on similar regimes (proscar, MSM, biotin, palmetto) except I'm still using minoxidil once per day.     Mine normally grows somewhat slow and I have pale skin so hoping that's all it is.    I'll update my thread in a few days.

FML    This is going to be me in 7 months

On 5/16/2019 at 8:47 AM, TempleRunner said:

Hey,

looks good so far.

The pics are low quality so I can't tell if there is any new growth. was the recipient area totally bald? if you don't have new growth it's completely normal for this stage.

 

The recipient was mostly bald, I have a "U" receding hairline.   I will try to take some better pictures at the three month mark.   Here are a couple of my pictures before the transplant.  

8 hours ago, Lennney said:

This is not helpful at all. It's not constructive nor informative. 

He is a patient. Concern turns to fear with toxic comments like these. I don't think you'd want people shitting on you when you're a week out from surgery.

Ask yourself why you're saying what you're saying. What do you gain with this? How could it possibly be construed as beneficial to the OP's question/ thread topic? 

You don't have to radiate positivity, but you definitely can not be an ass.

Get off your high horse.  The guy posted one picture which shows an extremely bizarre result.   If I was in that position I would want people telling me so I could immediately discuss with the doctor or post more pictures.   This isn’t a therapy website, people need to be more blunt sometimes.  And bizarre was me being nice. 

16 hours ago, Torip said:

Try using Toppik hair fibers with a spray applicator on your hair line. With hair fibers I don't think you would think of having another HT. 

Stop trying to reason with him, it is a waste of time.   

Wow that looks bizarre!   

Stop obsessing.    What happens in 5-10 years when you lose more hair?  You hardly have any grafts left.   40 year old you wants to smack you out of considering another transplant anytime remotely soon.     The whole "i want to look good in my 20's" is an immature attitude.  Looking good in your 30's will be equally important to you in a few years.

17 minutes ago, Raphael84 said:

Brother, you are 27. "Im hoping the worst of my baldness has already occurred". It kills me to say this, but that is absolute wishful thinking.

I was going to post something similar to his comment about hoping the worst of his baldness already occurred at age 27.  I'm going back with my statement that you are unstable in regards to your hair.  You are also in denial.  Unless your dad and your granddad have extremely full heads of hair and your hairloss to date was an anomaly , you are going to lose a lot more.   People on here are going to be nice to you but wake up man, you have very few grafts left.  You need to just let it play out, enjoy the next few years, and then make a decision then.  Under no circumstance should you be doing another hair transplant next year at the age of 28.  

I'm starting to think you are a bit unstable in regards to hair transplants:  

You are only six months into your ASMED hair transplant, this is at least your second transplant, you have used 7000 grafts, and you are only 27.   After six months you are already implying your ASMED was a failure and are searching hard for your next surgeon.   Come on man, you need to wait a couple years before you make any more decisions on a surgery.

I'm impressed by how many hairs you have on the recipient area.   I hardly have any.    You had asked somewhere else that I provide pictures of my status because were at ASMED on the same day.   Here is a link to my thread (it's not as well documented as yours):  https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/forum/15-hair-restoration-results-posted-by-patients/

I'm at the exact 2 month mark of ASMED.   The redness has gone down slightly over the past couple weeks when it was really bad.  It is still very obvious as I have super pale skin. 

Regimen:

minoxidil foam once per day

Finasteride

Dutasteride (every other day)

7500 biotin

MSM

Saw Palmetto

I also just started using the iRestore hair laser three times per week.  (I'm sure this is a scam but o'well).  

 I think the hairline is a bit more aggressive than I wanted but it's hard to select your hairline in the 15 minutes during your exam with Dr Erdogan.   I just hope it all grows in!

 I'm pretty insecure when it comes to taking these ugly duckling pics....

I'm hoping you all turn out well because I am only at the 2 months post asmed mark.  I certainly agree this isn't a good result behind the hairline, it's just hard to really grasp it with those pictures of the hair in weird directions.  

It's not just about the money, this is a major life issue for most of us trying to deal with this through work.  The lengthy travel, shaving of the head, months of redness, constantly wearing hats, constantly looking in the mirror for growth etc.   Right now I have no reason to complain as it is too early, but have a feeling I am going to be in the same position in 6 months as you all.  

It obviously looks very gappy in these pictures but the way you have your hair styled in these pictures is weird.  Do you really wear your hair like that in public?  The picture you posted on Saturday "getting out of bed" post looks better than the way you have it styled in these.  

Thanks for providing all the pictures.  There is definitely lots of room for improvement but you still have about 5 months (13 month mark) left before you can ultimately decide on the result.  I don't think you are going to drastically improve in that amount of time, but hopefully enough to where it doesn't look so sparse in those areas behind the hairline.    I still think it is already a drastic improvement from your pre-op pics.

7 hours ago, munich said:

Sorry it sounds very hard but in my opinion there isn't a huge difference to your pre op status. 4500 grafts should definitely looks like a full head of hair.   I hope that your hair get thicker and leave you in a better position.

 I agree 4500 grafts should yield much better results and this is not a top result by any means. However I disagree regarding him not having a huge difference to his pre op status.   I would say his hair looks MUCH better now than pre-op.  You can tell when comparing the wet before/after pics.     

Finasteride is extremely cheap in the US.  If you get a 5mg tablet and cut it in 4, you can get a year supply (generic) for under $100 without insurance.

I started fin at your age and I recommend you do too.  

On 5/2/2019 at 5:24 PM, jjsrader said:

F*nk all this noise.  UP your game to Dut! (asteride)~~

Why not, right?  Sometimes a daily beer drinker needs to switch to the hard stuff, eh?

 

I actually would suggest this.  Why not try dutasteride for a few months? Just take it every other day.  Even though it is stronger, some people have different side affects between the two.  If it doesn't work, then you know you have tried everything in regards to DHT blockers. 

1 hour ago, bobbleboy said:

but taking 1.25mg of finasteride 3 times week. 

 

Why are you only taking it 3 times a week?   It only has about an 8 hour half life.  Did a doctor recommend this?    I would suggest taking 1mg everyday over taking 1.25 just three times a week.    If you only want to take something 3 times a week then switch to dutasteride.  It's half life is 5 weeks.  

Still lacking density but don’t be discouraged yet, far too soon.  Keep posting your monthly updates.  If they don’t improve steadily the next 4 months then you have cause for concern.