Norwood 6/7 Do You Take Finasteride?

[Melvin- Admin]

There’s been some talk here lately, and some suggestions that Norwood 6/7s should use finasteride. To me, it’s like buying a car bra after the car’s already been wrecked. I’d love to see who takes fin as a Norwood 7 and why, or not.

[LonelyGraft]

I don’t understand your argument Melvin. Your car comparison doesn’t make sense either. In younger nw 7s, they are likely to have donor thinning which will affect their transplant result as well as possibly lead to a thinner looking donor with less viable grafts. Joe Tillman still takes finasteride as a nw6-7 as a way to preserve his donor and in turn recipient. It’s important for nw6-7s to prevent their lateral humps from dropping.now if you’re 60 and nw 7, it probably doesn’t matter much.

 

instead of your car bra example a better one would be a car that is experiencing rust/oxidation. The entire body can be rusted and if something is not done to prevent the spread, it can oxidize the frame as well which will lead to a total loss.

 

im not a medical professional and these r all my opinion 

[Pauls]

Doesn’t Finasteride improve donor hair transplanted to the recipient areas? I found after taking Finasteride for 6 months pre HT my donor was very full and thick. 

[Melvin- Admin]

7 minutes ago, LonelyGraft said:

I don’t understand your argument Melvin. Your car comparison doesn’t make sense either. In younger nw 7s, they are likely to have donor thinning which will affect their transplant result as well as possibly lead to a thinner looking donor with less viable grafts. Joe Tillman still takes finasteride as a nw6-7 as a way to preserve his donor and in turn recipient. It’s important for nw6-7s to prevent their lateral humps from dropping.now if you’re 60 and nw 7, it probably doesn’t matter much.

 

instead of your car bra example a better one would be a car that is experiencing rust/oxidation. The entire body can be rusted and if something is not done to prevent the spread, it can oxidize the frame as well which will lead to a total loss.

 

im not a medical professional and these r all my opinion 

I’m not talking about a Norwood 7 with hair, I’m talking a bald little to nor hair left Norwood 7.

[Melvin- Admin]

7 minutes ago, Pauls said:

Doesn’t Finasteride improve donor hair transplanted to the recipient areas? I found after taking Finasteride for 6 months pre HT my donor was very full and thick. 

You may have DUPA.

[Pauls]

Melvin what does DUPA mean?

[Curious25]

Probably the best idea to start a new topic Melvin as the other thread was taking away from an amazing BHT transition. 
 

I think regardless of anyone’s stance on the medication, we all have to agree that at present it is the single best preventative measures any hair loss sufferer can take, in terms of efficacy.
 

Without divulging too far into the science, the pros, the cons, the myths, the realities - I also think it’s fair to say that if any otherwise healthy male had a choice in the matter, they’d choose not to take a medication that tampered with the natural functioning of their body’s endocrine system. 

There are risk associated, and for that reason it essentially boils down to an individuals perception of risk vs reward. 
 

Reward in its largest extreme would be to re stimulate miniaturising follicles, and maintain without further loss for many years, let’s be generous and say 30 because that’s roughly how long it’s been in use. 
 

Risk in its largest extreme would be to permanently damage your androgen receptor sensitivity, and become an extremely difficult, if not untreatable urological medical case. I say that with the reluctance of being labelled a ‘fear mongerer’ but I was told this on solid authority during a recent urological consultation I was fortunate enough to pay for.
 

So for me personally, the way I look at judging any form of risk vs. reward decision, is ascertaining which pro’s and con’s mean the most to me, as opposed to x having 10 pro’s whereas y only has 3 . . . (The weighting you allocate to the pro’s and con’s supersedes the volume of each) 
 

Now this question, I think, is different . . and directed towards whether analysing how much actual reward is attainable here.
 

Simply put, referring back to our reward’s  largest extreme . .  If you are a bald NW 6/NW 7 patient  - you have no ‘recipient zone’ scalp miniaturised hairs to restore, and you have no ‘recipient zone’ native hairs to restore. 
 

Therefore, personally for me, it would be risk vs no reward. 
 

Now there’s a new phenomenon that has appeared, subscribing to safe zone donor hair also being susceptible to miniaturisation induced by DHT - which would, logically, change the way we have to view this question - however as far as I have always been aware, the very reason hair transplants exist is because 99.9% of hair loss sufferers have a safe region of scalp donor hair, that is resistant to the DHT induced miniaturisation process - which is somewhat categorically different to generalised thinning associated with  aging. 
 

Eager as ever, to here more input. 
 

 

Edited August 30, 2020 by Curious25

[Zoomster]

I'm a NW 6/7 who indeed uses 1.25mg Proscar MWF... I'm using it primarily to ring fence my HT by helping to ensure my lateral humps don't drop and try avoid any further dipping of my lower crown as I had evidence of a "coronet" in my crown area.. A coronet is basically a mini horseshoe beneath a bridge of miniaturised hair above which your main horseshoe resides.. The Coronet was not transplanted into and our hope and aim was for the Miniaturised lower horseshoe to re ignite with the help of Finasteride.. To my delight I'm able to confirm its worked its magic whereby now its all bridging up together and thickening up great.  

I remember someome asking Joe Tillman why he took Finasteride as a NW 6..

His answer was very simple and sums it up perfectly.. 

"because I dont want to end up  NW 7" 

Z

Edited August 30, 2020 by Zoomster
Update

[LonelyGraft]

2 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

I’m not talking about a Norwood 7 with hair, I’m talking a bald little to nor hair left Norwood 7.

What norwood 7 has hair on top to begin with? 🤷‍♂️ 

[Melvin- Admin]

5 minutes ago, LonelyGraft said:

What norwood 7 has hair on top to begin with? 🤷‍♂️ 

You can be a diffuse Norwood 7 with the pattern, but a lot of miniaturizing hair.

[LonelyGraft]

2 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

You can be a diffuse Norwood 7 with the pattern, but a lot of miniaturizing hair.

I’m not sure where in my post I mentioned a diffuse thinning Norwood 7? My point still stands however: finasteride in such individuals could be a useful tool for donor preservation 

[Fozzie]

1 hour ago, Zoomster said:

I remember someome asking Joe Tillman why he took Finasteride as a NW 6..

His answer was very simple and sums it up perfectly.. 

"because I dont want to end up  NW 7" 

Maybe it's just me and I've got it wrong, but going over his HT timeline, considering most if not all the hair on top of his hair is transplanted, it doesn't look as healthy as it was compared to his earlier post HT years despite his ongoing use of finasteride. Styles it really well though.

I don't know, maybe finasteride has prevented it from completely going but over a long period of use (say 10-20 years), not convinced finasteride ultimately has the ability to fend off what one is genetically pre-disposed to, especially those destined to be higher up the NW scale. Obviously everyone is different and sure they'll be older people who feel finasteride has done a great job for them over a longer period but think there are a number of question marks for me.  

[LonelyGraft]

1 hour ago, Fozzie said:

Maybe it's just me and I've got it wrong, but going over his HT timeline, considering most if not all the hair on top of his hair is transplanted, it doesn't look as healthy as it was compared to his earlier post HT years despite his ongoing use of finasteride. Styles it really well though.

I don't know, maybe finasteride has prevented it from completely going but over a long period of use (say 10-20 years), not convinced finasteride ultimately has the ability to fend off what one is genetically pre-disposed to, especially those destined to be higher up the NW scale. Obviously everyone is different and sure they'll be older people who feel finasteride has done a great job for them over a longer period but think there are a number of question marks for me.  

You also have to remember senile alopecia is also something that affects people even without mpb. Hair just thins out over time. I think joe is in his 50s now and has an acceptable head of hair for that age

[Blower]

hi pauls hi

wouldn't minoxidil what you was taking do that though

[Blower]

Just now, Blower said:

 

 

16 hours ago, Pauls said:

Doesn’t Finasteride improve donor hair transplanted to the recipient areas? I found after taking Finasteride for 6 months pre HT my donor was very full and thick. 

hi pauls hi

wouldn't minoxidil what you was taking do that though

[krx]

It would definitely help but as I am still suffering permanent sides from my first 18 months experience 10 years ago and will most likely have to live with them for the rest of my life I dont touch that shit again.

[Melvin- Admin]

2 hours ago, krx said:

It would definitely help but as I am still suffering permanent sides from my first 18 months experience 10 years ago and will most likely have to live with them for the rest of my life I dont touch that shit again.

What was your hair loss when you started?

[Melvin- Admin]

21 hours ago, Zoomster said:

I'm a NW 6/7 who indeed uses 1.25mg Proscar MWF... I'm using it primarily to ring fence my HT by helping to ensure my lateral humps don't drop and try avoid any further dipping of my lower crown as I had evidence of a "coronet" in my crown area.. A coronet is basically a mini horseshoe beneath a bridge of miniaturised hair above which your main horseshoe resides.. The Coronet was not transplanted into and our hope and aim was for the Miniaturised lower horseshoe to re ignite with the help of Finasteride.. To my delight I'm able to confirm its worked its magic whereby now its all bridging up together and thickening up great.  

I remember someome asking Joe Tillman why he took Finasteride as a NW 6..

His answer was very simple and sums it up perfectly.. 

"because I dont want to end up  NW 7" 

Z

Interesting, but I don’t believe that everyone will become a Norwood 7. I recall Dr. Rassman saying that the Norwood scale was not a progression scale, but rather a category to list your hair loss. My personal belief is that an established Norwood 6 will remain a Norwood 6. Norwood 7s generally see this level at a young age, like Dr. Phil, Danny Devito etc.

[TorontoMan]

21 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Interesting, but I don’t believe that everyone will become a Norwood 7. I recall Dr. Rassman saying that the Norwood scale was not a progression scale, but rather a category to list your hair loss. My personal belief is that an established Norwood 6 will remain a Norwood 6. Norwood 7s generally see this level at a young age, like Dr. Phil, Danny Devito etc.

Are we getting better at predicting this?

[Melvin- Admin]

1 hour ago, TorontoMan said:

Are we getting better at predicting this?

It’s hard to say, you know hair loss itself is unpredictable. That said, many hair transplant surgeons agree that Norwood 7 level of hair loss is aggressive, and rare. Most men progress to Norwood 5 and 6 levels through their lifetime. Though involutional hair loss does happen with age to everyone, including women. 

[Zoomster]

I just wanted to show how finasteride has helped my very lower horseshoe (coronet ) which wasn’t transplanted into ..I’d almost argue my donor is more robust now post 5600 scalp grafts than pre op...hairs are darker and visibly thicker 

what’s more ..Dr Sethi needs to now be mentioned in the same breath as Konior and Wong for crowns ...very very few Doctors In my humble opinion could have achieved what he has managed to do with regard to my extreme one pass case .

Z

Edited August 31, 2020 by Zoomster
Update

[Melvin- Admin]

You’re definitely a superstar on this forum. Incredible to see such a result on a slick bald Norwood 6. 

[TorontoMan]

@Melvin-Moderator could you do a poll to see how many users feel they are getting benefits from finasteride? How many have seen maintenance 

 

[krx]

18 hours ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

What was your hair loss when you started?

NW 1 to NW 1.5

Edited September 1, 2020 by krx

[ljpcarrera]

This is an interesting topic about donor thinning. If you look at older men some do have general donor thinning, probably age related.

I have been taking avodart since it was released I believe in late 2001, I switched to that after being on proscar in 1996. I am 49 had 2 transplants back in the 90s basically for my hairline. I have been able to keep most of my hair on the crown and midsection since starting the drugs. 

I was thinking of switching to topical avodart but wondered how that would effect my donor region. It is very thick still along with my temple points. Since the topical would only be applied to the top of the scalp what would happen to the donor region once the pill form is stopped.

I have noticed some thinning the last five years maybe it's just genetics taking over.

 

Thanks

Edited September 1, 2020 by ljpcarrera