Question about Propecia.

[vanitysucks]

From what I understand Propecia does not strengthen the hair against dht, but it decreases the amount of dht in the scalp thereby saving the hair. As we get older our bodies produce about the same amount of dht but our hairs become weaker against the effects of dht.

 

Sooooo......that being said. If I started taking propecia today and continued for the next 10 years have I saved my hair or is this just a masking effect. In other words, if in ten years I stoped taking propecia would my hair slowly fall out at a normal pace or would I loose all of what had been saved over the 10 years within a few months? Thanks

[Gish]

It seems to depend on genes, but I would certainly say not a few months. A few months would be the case if one took minoxidil, saw great growth, then stopped cold turkey.

 

I would venture to guess that if you stopped the hair loss would progress faster then it would have when you first noticed hair loss.

 

Some of the case studies I have read regarding 5AR deficient men showed that upon administration of DHT they started thinning "in the horse shoe pattern" on the top of the scalp at a rate faster then the average rate of loss. This wasn't quantified or anything, just a remark made by the observers. For all we know it could have been the case that those few men had very strong balding genes. I'll see if I can dig up the reports.

 

That being said, it is important to remember that by reducing the amount of 5AR type 2, lowering serum DHT by ~80-85% (It seems to be very difficult to measure levels in the DP), you will be significantly slowing, or possibly even halting, miniaturization of the hair follicles. So, its not a 'masking effect' since you are actually interfering with the balding process.