Finasteride Yes or NO

[Jay]

Hi 

I am planning to to have a HT in Jan ..i just read that we need to take finasteride after HT. I tried finasteride few years back and i had bad side effects. Is finasteride a must after HT. Anyone here who didnt take finasteride after HT , i would like to know your thoughts and how its going so far - thank you 

[GoliGoliGoli]

Well, I think it goes without saying that it's better for the end result of the HT to be on Fin. 

As to whether it's worth it for you to get a HT without being on it, there are way too many context dependent questions that will determine whether it makes sense for you. 

 

1. Have you tried topical or only oral. Some people say topical lessens chance of side effects, but TBH I'm not convinced of that over the long term due to the nature of how Fin works and it's non-dose dependent response once it's in your body.

2. Where on the Norwood scale are you. Are you planning on getting crown work or only hairline?

3. What is your family history of baldness. How aggressive is your baldness. Do you have NW5/NW6/NW7 in your future?

4. Do you use Minox, Nizoral, Dermaroll, Laser Therapy? 

5. Do you have enough donor (Including beard hair) to get multiple surgeries as your baldness progresses?

6. Do you have enough money in the bank to get multiple surgeries as your baldness progresses?

7. Do you have enough time to get multiple surgeries throughout the years as your baldness progresses? 

8. Are your expectations of coverage realistic? HT's are the illusion of density, you will never get natural density back. 

 

There's probably more questions I'm not even thinking of. For your information, I am getting my first HT in November and am not on Fin and do not plan on getting on it. 

[rob7331]

This is definitely a question for a medical professional, especially if your side effects were severe.

Finasteride is generally always recommended because without it you're essentially swimming against a strong current - a HT may regain some hair temporarily, but if your hair loss is strong you can potentially end up in a complicated situation where the native hair is quickly receding leaving exposed transplanted hairs. The going advice of this forum and others like it is to stabilize your hair loss as much as possible on medication and non-surgical means, before turning to surgery.

One thing with Fin I see often (I'm not suggesting this is the case for you) is people read and hear about the side effects and develop this sense of placebo. They've built it up in their mind their genitals will fall off or something, and when they start taking the drug they think they're developing symptoms despite evidence Finasteride has an extremely low chance of sexual side effects.

Again though, these are questions for a doctor. Depending on the aggressiveness of your hair loss however, I would potentially advise against a HT without being on any kind of medication.

[Ryan Daniel]

Hi Jay,

You need to take Finasteride to stop follicle miniaturization and slow down male pattern baldness. Simple as that. There is nothing more to it 

If you have side affects, it's another story..

From my own experience, I didn't take Finasteride after my first hair transplant procedure and ending up paying the consequences... 5 years later.. I found myself needing another procedure because I lost a lot of hair in the crown and even the transplanted hairs became weaker. This only shows the importance of this medication

[Jay]

1 hour ago, GoliGoliGoli said:

Well, I think it goes without saying that it's better for the end result of the HT to be on Fin. 

As to whether it's worth it for you to get a HT without being on it, there are way too many context dependent questions that will determine whether it makes sense for you. 

 

1. Have you tried topical or only oral. Some people say topical lessens chance of side effects, but TBH I'm not convinced of that over the long term due to the nature of how Fin works and it's non-dose dependent response once it's in your body.

yes - not much change

2. Where on the Norwood scale are you. Are you planning on getting crown work or only hairline?

Norwood 4 - so ill be getting crown and hairline

3. What is your family history of baldness. How aggressive is your baldness. Do you have NW5/NW6/NW7 in your future?

weirdly i dont have male pattern baldness in family !!

4. Do you use Minox, Nizoral, Dermaroll, Laser Therapy? 

No. 

 

There's probably more questions I'm not even thinking of. For your information, I am getting my first HT in November and am not on Fin and do not plan on getting on it. 

 

[Jay]

34 minutes ago, Ryan Daniel said:

Hi Jay,

You need to take Finasteride to stop follicle miniaturization and slow down male pattern baldness. Simple as that. There is nothing more to it 

If you have side affects, it's another story..

From my own experience, I didn't take Finasteride after my first hair transplant procedure and ending up paying the consequences... 5 years later.. I found myself needing another procedure because I lost a lot of hair in the crown and even the transplanted hairs became weaker. This only shows the importance of this medication

What norwood scale were you then ?

[Melvin- Admin]

Do yourself want to stop hair loss? If yes, then take finasteride. 

[mrmane85]

Have you tried oral Minoxidil? @Dr. Felipe Pittella recommends only oral + topical Minoxidil for his patient's and he himself follows the same protocol.

 

[Jay]

30 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Do yourself want to stop hair loss? If yes, then take finasteride. 

Hello melvin - have you continued taking finasteride after your HT?

[TorontoMan]

Yes, you need to try it before you consider a hair transplant

[Mike10]

In most cases it is yes. However, there are cases like myself where it is not necessary

[NARMAK]

You don't have to take Finasteride but it will improve your results for sure depending on where you're starting off if you can save existing hair for longer or regain ground. 

There's also a common report that the donor hair whist largely DHT resistant aren't immune so that being on Finasteride had helped people thicken the hair up and helped visually. 

Personally i believe if you can tolerate Finasteride then it's good to be on it to preserve your hair for as long as possible. I sincerely wish i was on it sooner from like 18-21 rather than getting on it at 31 and i genuinely believe i would have saved much more hair and also got a significantly better hair transplant result. I say that as a person who got classed as a Norwood 2. 

If you cannot tolerate Finasteride orally, then i do think you should get a full blood test done to see if there's perhaps underlying issues there to address but not everyone can tolerate Finasteride and a small minority of people will experience persistent side affects that mean they cannot use it. 

That's why in those instances, people have been asked to try out Oral Minoxodil because it has been shown to be quite effective as not a full on replacement but to some extent helping those unable to tolerate Finasteride. There's also the topical version. 

[Curious25]

Start off small, and see how you get on from there. 
 

Even with a moderately aggressive balding pattern, I genuinely believe 0.5mg 3-4 times weekly will more times than not visually improve the state of play. 

[NARMAK]

24 minutes ago, The comeback king said:

Just had a look at your progress and you say finasteride would of got you a better hair transplant result, are you referring to finasteride maintaining native hair or helping the transplant because theyre mutually exclusive given the transplanted hair should grow normally irrespective of taking finasteride and is more down to the graft survival  and the persons biology of it being successful not fin. Also I think your approaching 5 months which is still early to judge it overall yet 

I'll clarify for you. 

I'm only now approaching Month 5 so you are correct, that's too early to judge a hair transplant result. However, i wasn't referring to Finasteride helping me with the hair transplant results per se. As long as i maintain what i had native hair wise via Dutasteride which is what i'm using, then the result should still be solid. 

I was more exclusively referring to the native hair i could have saved that i lose from say 18-21 till i was 31 and not using any medication. My hair loss was slow and i was fortune but had i been on the medication a decade earlier, i would still have been in a stronger position than now i believe. So just on an Apples to Apples basis, the sooner you start Finasteride when you begin to lose hair, the more hair you're likely to save. 

However, in terms of OPs question and context, Finasteride can still help. To what extent depends on how much native hair you had and your response to the medication. 

The only reason i say i would have got a better hair transplant result is that if i had hopped on Finasteride at 18-21, saved more native hair, the hairline wouldn't have needed as much grafts and i could have fully focused more on just a complete temple point restoration and it would probably have been even more impactful than i got. Maybe that's just being hair greedy lol, but it's true. The more hair you can keep on your head and not need a hair transplant for, the better. 

[Jay]

5 hours ago, Mike10 said:

In most cases it is yes. However, there are cases like myself where it is not necessary

@Mike10 can i know why you didnt go with finasteride ?

[DHT]

3 hours ago, NARMAK said:

I'll clarify for you. 

I'm only now approaching Month 5 so you are correct, that's too early to judge a hair transplant result. However, i wasn't referring to Finasteride helping me with the hair transplant results per se. As long as i maintain what i had native hair wise via Dutasteride which is what i'm using, then the result should still be solid. 

I was more exclusively referring to the native hair i could have saved that i lose from say 18-21 till i was 31 and not using any medication. My hair loss was slow and i was fortune but had i been on the medication a decade earlier, i would still have been in a stronger position than now i believe. So just on an Apples to Apples basis, the sooner you start Finasteride when you begin to lose hair, the more hair you're likely to save. 

However, in terms of OPs question and context, Finasteride can still help. To what extent depends on how much native hair you had and your response to the medication. 

The only reason i say i would have got a better hair transplant result is that if i had hopped on Finasteride at 18-21, saved more native hair, the hairline wouldn't have needed as much grafts and i could have fully focused more on just a complete temple point restoration and it would probably have been even more impactful than i got. Maybe that's just being hair greedy lol, but it's true. The more hair you can keep on your head and not need a hair transplant for, the better. 

This*

 

19 hours ago, GoliGoliGoli said:

Well, I think it goes without saying that it's better for the end result of the HT to be on Fin. 

As to whether it's worth it for you to get a HT without being on it, there are way too many context dependent questions that will determine whether it makes sense for you. 

 

1. Have you tried topical or only oral. Some people say topical lessens chance of side effects, but TBH I'm not convinced of that over the long term due to the nature of how Fin works and it's non-dose dependent response once it's in your body.

2. Where on the Norwood scale are you. Are you planning on getting crown work or only hairline?

3. What is your family history of baldness. How aggressive is your baldness. Do you have NW5/NW6/NW7 in your future?

4. Do you use Minox, Nizoral, Dermaroll, Laser Therapy? 

5. Do you have enough donor (Including beard hair) to get multiple surgeries as your baldness progresses?

6. Do you have enough money in the bank to get multiple surgeries as your baldness progresses?

7. Do you have enough time to get multiple surgeries throughout the years as your baldness progresses? 

8. Are your expectations of coverage realistic? HT's are the illusion of density, you will never get natural density back. 

 

There's probably more questions I'm not even thinking of. For your information, I am getting my first HT in November and am not on Fin and do not plan on getting on it. 

This*

[Mike10]

1 hour ago, Jay said:

@Mike10 can i know why you didnt go with finasteride ?

1. Because of the the sides and 2.Because some proven HT Drs thought it was not necessary in my case

[New_Barnet_Please]

It’s importance depends on the projected future hair loss. But no myself and many others don’t take it after a ht. If you had bad side effects then sounds like it’s not an option anyway. Take a look into oral minoxidil.

[sunsurfhair]

On 10/14/2022 at 3:29 PM, Ryan Daniel said:

Hi Jay,

You need to take Finasteride to stop follicle miniaturization and slow down male pattern baldness. Simple as that. There is nothing more to it 

If you have side affects, it's another story..

From my own experience, I didn't take Finasteride after my first hair transplant procedure and ending up paying the consequences... 5 years later.. I found myself needing another procedure because I lost a lot of hair in the crown and even the transplanted hairs became weaker. This only shows the importance of this medication

Silly post because you have no idea if this would’ve happened with or without Fin. Many men progress with there genetic pattern regardless of Fin usage. That’s well known and documented. Point is you can’t say for sure being on Fin would’ve stopped it. I can bet you still would’ve needed that additional work regardless. 

[sunsurfhair]

I am not on finasteride anymore and you well ever ever see me go near an oral pill again. *Toying* w the idea of using topical ultra low meso dut sporadically and ultra carefully. 
 
Since my HT (non fin) it only continues to improve. What do I do?

- Lasercap (Capillus) 6x a wk

- 5mg oral minox love this 

- 2% keto 1-2x a wk and let it sit for 5 mins on scalp

- DS Labs shampoo (unknown if helping but good shampoo)

- Detangling comb and brush to improve blood flow at the scalp. Heat protection oil if I blow dry or use a flat iron  

- several pro hair vitamins (and excellent for the body period)

what I didn’t like -

microneedling not a fan

Ciclopirox shampoo 

 

Im also on TRT + HCG (thank you PFS / Fin) but I do both a lower dosing and spread out in order to not spike E2 and need an aromatase inhibitor. classic replacement levels not supraphysiologcal body builder levels the meat heads use.  with this protocol I have not advanced and in fact everything looks considerably better  

 

 

 

Edited October 16, 2022 by sunsurfhair

[Fego]

On 10/14/2022 at 10:49 PM, Melvin- Moderator said:

Do yourself want to stop hair loss? If yes, then take finasteride. 

Melvin

I know you do not take Fin. Because you experienced side effects before so what is your current routine/medication you do to stabilize your hair loss. 

[BaldReaper]

1 hour ago, Fego said:

Melvin

I know you do not take Fin. Because you experienced side effects before so what is your current routine/medication you do to stabilize your hair loss. 

He doesnt need to stabilize his hairloss, he has filled all of his recipient area

[BaldReaper]

14 minutes ago, The comeback king said:

You do if you have miniaturisation in your donor and also retrograde alopecia . 

he doesnt

[Mike10]

5 hours ago, sunsurfhair said:

I am not on finasteride anymore and you well ever ever see me go near an oral pill again. *Toying* w the idea of using topical ultra low meso dut sporadically and ultra carefully. 
 
Since my HT (non fin) it only continues to improve. What do I do?

- Lasercap (Capillus) 6x a wk

- 5mg oral minox love this 

- 2% keto 1-2x a wk and let it sit for 5 mins on scalp

- DS Labs shampoo (unknown if helping but good shampoo)

- Detangling comb and brush to improve blood flow at the scalp. Heat protection oil if I blow dry or use a flat iron  

- several pro hair vitamins (and excellent for the body period)

what I didn’t like -

microneedling not a fan

Ciclopirox shampoo 

 

Im also on TRT + HCG (thank you PFS / Fin) but I do both a lower dosing and spread out in order to not spike E2 and need an aromatase inhibitor. classic replacement levels not supraphysiologcal body builder levels the meat heads use.  with this protocol I have not advanced and in fact everything looks considerably better  

 

 

 

to me that is not a big accomplishment replacing  Fin by oral Minox. 

[NARMAK]

2 hours ago, Mike10 said:

to me that is not a big accomplishment replacing  Fin by oral Minox. 

A lot of people that don't tolerate Finasteride are saying Oral Minoxodil has acted as somewhat of a substitute for them and as effective. Given we don't know the true Minoxodil mechanism of action, i guess if that's all the person can take, then fair enough. 

However, i find it interesting though the person said:

2 hours ago, Mike10 said:

I am not on finasteride anymore and you well ever ever see me go near an oral pill again.

*PS, i know this is the original post you quoted but it's saying it as tours because of the way i quoted the selection*

Then says i'm on 5mg Oral Minoxodil lol. Also being on TRT is known to generally spike DHT in a person too. How much depends on exactly what dosage i guess the person is using and why. If its acting like a PED, then more than likely its spiking DHT higher than normal too.