Those who have lost ground on Medication - how sudden was it?

[HelpfulFriend]

Hey all,

I've been on Finasteride and Minoxidil for about 6 years, and it held my baseline very well.

This was up until recently. About 6 months ago, I started noticing thinning in my frontal region, just on the exterior of my frontal lock.

It's thinned considerably over this time, whereas there was no visible thinning prior to this.

I go to a dermatologist every 6 months to get my photos taken, and there was never any visible instance of loss prior to this.

I find it odd that the meds would all of the sudden lose their potency, or that the DHT inhibition has suddenly grown too weak for my hair - but I've made no real lifestyle changes that could account for the lost ground.

I've added a photo that shows the temple regions, but it's occurring at the front now too.

I'm wondering if anyone has experience similar loss despite being on Fin and Minox, and if it was all down hill from here. Feeling pretty despondent about visible loss despite the meds.

Thanks all.

[Vann]

2 minutes ago, HelpfulFriend said:

Hey all,

I've been on Finasteride and Minoxidil for about 6 years, and it held my baseline very well.

This was up until recently. About 6 months ago, I started noticing thinning in my frontal region, just on the exterior of my frontal lock.

It's thinned considerably over this time, whereas there was no visible thinning prior to this.

I go to a dermatologist every 6 months to get my photos taken, and there was never any visible instance of loss prior to this.

I find it odd that the meds would all of the sudden lose their potency, or that the DHT inhibition has suddenly grown too weak for my hair - but I've made no real lifestyle changes that could account for the lost ground.

I've added a photo that shows the temple regions, but it's occurring at the front now too.

I'm wondering if anyone has experience similar loss despite being on Fin and Minox, and if it was all down hill from here. Feeling pretty despondent about visible loss despite the meds.

Thanks all.

It does happen, the medications are not 100% going to block all areas of hair loss. There could be cycles in your hair where its shedding and there could be other factors that we cannot determine.

Then again you have been taking the drug for 6 years so there might be some level of build up, not usually the case, but try looking into Dutasteride and seeing if you are capable of making the switch to something a little bit stronger.

Just remember, the medications help to stabilize hair loss, not prevent it. As you age your hair loss is either slowing down in aggressive male type balding, or beginning in different cycles. I would suggest seeing another derm who can possible do some tests? Then rule out some results and look into some alternatives that they could offer?

[Vann]

Here is a youtube video of someone explaining some factors that is much more qualified than me. 

 

[HappyMan2021]

If the hairloss is super sudden I get an overall physical and look for other causes. 

I'm not sure people build a tolerance to DHT meds. I think its more the hair gets more sensitive to DHT with age.

[NARMAK]

Personally i think hair loss that's really slow is the hardest kind to deal with in terms of knowing when you're losing ground. That's why i think in my case i chose to try and be more pre-emptive about it and hopped onto Dutasteride rather than Finasteride. 

They say by the time most guys notice, they have already lost around 50% of the hair, which is why you should definitely in my eyes stick to the maximum dosage possible of Finasteride etc. if you can tolerate it. It could potentially even save some flagging hairs that may not have been saved by a lower dose. 

[mr_peanutbutter]

you could switch to dut

[Rahal Hair Transplant]

Helpfulfriend,

Out of curiosity, you didn’t happen to switch brands of nostride did you? For instance, there has been discussion on and off over the years on this and other forums related to how some generic brands of a asteroid are less potent than others. I don’t know how true it is or why that would be true if it is. However, even hair transplant clinics have cautioned against switching to generic Proscar from regular Proscar (a medication for BPH containing 5mg of finasteride that can be cut into quarters and taken daily to save money).

it’s also possible that your pharmacy switched the brand on you without even noticing so in my opinion, contact your pharmacy to make sure there has not been any switch that they are aware of. If there was a switch, I would switch back ASAP. As others have stated you can always try dutasteride if finasteride has suddenly started to decrease in potency and efficacy.

Best wishes,

Rahal Hair Transplant