Hey there everyone. I am entirely new to this site and am looking for some insight from anyone who has experienced a situation similar to mine or knows anyone who has. Thank you for taking the time to read this
I started propecia, was on it for a month, then underwent a HT of 1,900 grafts mainly in the front hairline. I continued to use propecia for 2 more months and began to experience some serious sexual side effects. I stuck it out for another 3 weeks however the side effects continued so I stopped the propecia. The sad part is that the propecia began to halt my hairloss however I could not deal with the sexual side effects. After a bit of research on the net and an appointment with my urologist I decided to take Procerin, which contains Saw Palmetto...both my urologist, hair restoration doctor and I all concluded that Procerin is most likely not powerful enough to lower DHT levels to halt hairloss, however taking it would not hurt and could have a slight positive effect in slowing hair loss down a bit.
Sadly my hair is shedding. After another apt with my hair restoration doctor, (Dr. Ziering) he suggested I take Avodart 0.5mg twice/week. He had mentioned that some of his patients who were having side effects from Propecia took the Avodart bi-weekly, (due to the drugs long half life) and were able to halt hairloss but did not experience the side effects which I was experiencing from my daily 1mg Propecia regiment.
My issue at hand:
I know that when people start taking Avodart they experience a shedding phase which generally kicks in after the first month or two of starting the drug and can last a few months there after. My first question - If I am only taking the drug twice a week will I also experience a shedding phase? I am confident that the shedding phase is the transition to a greater good...as the weaker hairs fall out months later they are replaced by stronger, new hairs. My problem is that I am in the entertainment industry and will be starting a one month taping of a TV series from June 30th-July 30th. I would like to have as much hair as possible by that time so would I be better off waiting to take the Avodart after the taping is complete, or should I start now and hope that the avodart will not cause a drastic shedding phase and help me stabilize the hair that I have now?
It will be 5 months since my HT when the taping starts so I am hoping to have some of the transplanted hairs start to be poping up by that time.
Also, most of the hair that I am losing is from the front hairline and temples. The crown seems to be doing ok.
Thanks again for your time and any insight would be greatly appreciated.