Feel lost and struggling

[Ab93]

Hi all.

Going to try and keep it short. Been on finasteride for 11 months now. Started initially at 0.25mg twice a week for a month then went on to 0.25mg 4 times a week and carried on for roughly another month. Then went on to 0.5mg 4 times a week for around another month, then went on to 0.5mg a day for for about 4 months and then stepped up to 1mg day for around 6 weeks now. I can honestly say it has made zero difference to my hair, I am so far under baseline. My crown has opened up, my temples feel like they’re thinner and my hair in general all over is weaker and thinner. My temple point seem to have receded a little too. Saying all this I do feel small spiky hairs all over my head. Could it be I could be a slower responder as I’ve only been taking 1mg a day for 6 weeks? Struggling to have any kind of optimism, took so much courage to take finasteride and it’s done absolutely nothing.

Thanks in advanced 

[HappyMan2021]

DHT medication is really used to prevent further hair loss. People who regrow hair from these meds - even in the crown, are the exception rather than the rule. 

The only pragmatic, sensible solution to regrow hair is a hair transplant. 

Are you hesitant to get a HT or is there some roadblock to that?

I haven't read much of your profile history, but looks like the last 1.5 yrs you've really put all your hopes into having meds magically regrow all your hair. 

My 2 cents is to just buckle down and begin the hair transplant journey (if you are a qualified candidate)

[Ab93]

26 minutes ago, HappyMan2021 said:

DHT medication is really used to prevent further hair loss. People who regrow hair from these meds - even in the crown, are the exception rather than the rule. 

The only pragmatic, sensible solution to regrow hair is a hair transplant. 

Are you hesitant to get a HT or is there some roadblock to that?

I haven't read much of your profile history, but looks like the last 1.5 yrs you've really put all your hopes into having meds magically regrow all your hair. 

My 2 cents is to just buckle down and begin the hair transplant journey (if you are a qualified candidate)

Thanks for the reply. I’m well aware regrowing hair from finasteride is not the norm and I was hopeful it would more than anything. But for my hair to feel the worse it’s ever done 11 months in to taking finasteride in some capacity is quite demoralising. I have been doing research on hair transplants and have narrowed it down and waiting for responses from surgeons. The reason for not getting a transplant just yet is I needed to see whether or not I was able to tolerate finasteride. 

[general-etwan]

You need 1 mg at least 4 days a week, so in reality I'm only looking at 6 weeks here, and you need to take it for at least a few months at that dose to see visible results (either stopping of loss, or regrowth). So I'd say keep it up and you can't chalk it up to useless until a few months in at that dose.

[pkipling]

I totally understand your frustration and disappointment. As mentioned above, just how effective Finasteride can be really does vary from person to person. It's rare that it will actually regrow hair, and most often it simply prevents (or even just "slows down") future hair loss. I say that to maybe ease your mind a bit about it not working as you had hoped, since it's easy for people to overstate just how effective it is to begin with. The good news is that not responding well to finasteride isn't a dealbreaker when it comes to hair restoration, so I wouldn't be too discouraged. 

Getting consultations with some hair transplant surgeons is a great next step, and they'll simply take into consideration that you haven't had great success with finasteride when giving you their input on your hair transplant candidacy and what's possible for you in regards to a hair transplant. Don't lose hope just yet. 

[mafpe]

do you have pictures to compare? it's hard to really say whether it helped you or not just based on approximation. it's advised to document it if you really want to know if it works for you, as our perception can be warped, especially since we look at it daily.

there's chance that it did not work for you though, which in that case if you want to still use meds, option is to either change dose, move to dutasteride. at least that 2 seems to be what most here did.

[Eugenix Hair Sciences]

13 hours ago, Ab93 said:

Hi all.

Going to try and keep it short. Been on finasteride for 11 months now. Started initially at 0.25mg twice a week for a month then went on to 0.25mg 4 times a week and carried on for roughly another month. Then went on to 0.5mg 4 times a week for around another month, then went on to 0.5mg a day for for about 4 months and then stepped up to 1mg day for around 6 weeks now. I can honestly say it has made zero difference to my hair, I am so far under baseline. My crown has opened up, my temples feel like they’re thinner and my hair in general all over is weaker and thinner. My temple point seem to have receded a little too. Saying all this I do feel small spiky hairs all over my head. Could it be I could be a slower responder as I’ve only been taking 1mg a day for 6 weeks? Struggling to have any kind of optimism, took so much courage to take finasteride and it’s done absolutely nothing.

Thanks in advanced 

To get the best results out of finasteride, one must take it at a dosage of 0.5 mg or 1 mg everyday for at least 8 to 12 months. That's when you start to see the results. Also, the main function of finasteride is to prevent any further progression of baldness. It does not necessarily bring new hair on the bald area. Sometimes there is a little growth of vellus hair. The miniaturizing hair that can be saved also grow back and become thicker leading to an increase in density.

[Rahal Hair Transplant]

Ab93,

There are several different schools of thought here in particular due to the half-life of finasteride. That said, the recommended dose is 1 mg of finasteride daily and it’s recommended to take it for a year before evaluating its efficacy.

To be honest, it’s difficult to tell if you are or will be a responder to the medication because you have essentially  progressively increased  your dose regularly and only six weeks ago worked your way up to the recommended 1 mg dose daily  

You may actually be a responder to finasteride but perhaps your hair loss is more aggressive and simply require the regular dose as opposed to a smaller one.

Now I imagine you probably worked your way up to 1 mg because you were either concerned about side effects or experienced them before… Not to mention the fact that maybe you were trying to see if a lesser dose would work for you.

My honest opinion at this point, assuming you’re not experiencing any side effects would be to continue using finasteride for another year at the rate of 1 mg per day to see if that actually helps you.  Alternatively, you could speak to your doctor about dutasteride which is stronger and blocks both type I and type II 5-alpha reductase enzymes, producing even less DHT.

So I wouldn’t get discouraged quite yet. I suggest considering the above and see if this works for you.

Note that you may also want to consider using topical Minoxidil to see if that also helps.

Best wishes,

Rahal Hair Transplant 

Edited May 20, 2022 by Rahal Hair Transplant