Can I get away with not using Finasteride?

[Mrsmith434]

Hi all

I'm 37 I just had a 3600 graft hair transplant. 1600 on front 2000 on crown. Attached are photos of my hair before the transplant.

The question is can I get away with not using Finasteride? Apparently I only have 700-1000 donor grafts left so that doesn't give me much room to have more transplants in the future unless new stem cell technology allows us to create new hair follicles.

I'm really not keen on Finasteride even though I know that I'm supposed to use it. Personally it seems a bit extreme to alter your bodies hormone levels daily just to save some hair.

Obviously I'd prefer not to go bald but I'm not terrified of it either. I think I would look ok bald I just prefer to have the option of hair. If my hair turned grey in the future I might say F*** it and just go bald.

[John1991]

There Is no possible way anyone can know how your loss will progress or how much fin would prevent it from progressing.  It will give you the best (outside of DUT, which Is even stronger) chance of keeping as much hair as possible for as long as possible, though.   You apparently have a pretty low donor graft availability at your disposal.  And you've already invested much time and money to try to make your hair as good as possible.  The choice is yours.  I wish these types of threads would be banned because there is no possible way any grown adult can actually expect the fundamental question you're asking to be able to be answered.  

[NARMAK]

What the user above said but just in response to your seeming a bit extreme to alter your hormone, i think it's fair to also say that it's successfully helped a lot of guys keep their hair for many years now and is it really anymore extreme than undergoing a surgical procedure for a hair transplant? 

I think with the fact you got told you only have another 700-1k grafts, you of most people should be concerned with ensuring the longevity of the existing hair. If you don't want to do it via Finasteride due to the reason mentioned, perhaps consider Oral Minoxodil as an alternative and perhaps even topical Finasteride. 

[Buck Naked]

No one can know if you can get away with not using finasteride. You might as well try it and see how your body reacts. It's better to be safe than sorry. 

[Rahal Hair Transplant]

MrSmith,

to clarify, finasteride is not needed for the transplant here to grow, thicken and mature. Transplanted hair will grow completely on his own and independent from finasteride. Where finasteride comes in handy is to slow down, stop or even reverse the effects of male pattern baldness.

Now, it sounds like you’ve already had your hair transplant which means whoever your physician was didn’t feel that you were not a candidate for surgery without taking finasteride.  My question for you is, are you still losing any hair? At 37 years of age, I would assume that your hair loss has at least slowed down if not has already stopped to some degree.  If that’s the case, finasteride may not be overly necessary like it would be for others.

That said, assuming that you would be a good responder to the medication, if there are still miniaturizing hairs on your head from male pattern baldness, taking the medication could traverse this and make your hair look thicker. On the flipside, if you do have miniaturizing hairs and you don’t take finasteride, trauma from hair transplant surgery could cause these miniaturizing hairs to fall out and experience permanent shock loss.

obviously there’s no real way to tell whether or not you have any miniaturizing hairs from your photos however, given that you still have most A lot of thick looking natural hair at 37 years old, I would venture to guess that you’re not going to lose a substantial amount of additional natural hair and as a result, you’ll benefit from your hair transplant without needing to take finasteride.  That said, I am not a doctor and I am just giving you my opinion based on what I see and my years of experience as a patient and advisor.

Best wishes,

Rahal Hair Transplant 

[Mrsmith434]

8 hours ago, John1991 said:

There Is no possible way anyone can know how your loss will progress or how much fin would prevent it from progressing.  It will give you the best (outside of DUT, which Is even stronger) chance of keeping as much hair as possible for as long as possible, though.   You apparently have a pretty low donor graft availability at your disposal.  And you've already invested much time and money to try to make your hair as good as possible.  The choice is yours.  I wish these types of threads would be banned because there is no possible way any grown adult can actually expect the fundamental question you're asking to be able to be answered.  

Thanks for your reply.   5 years ago I had a 1500 graft transplant in turkey but it was a bodge so that unfortunately wasted some of my donor area.

[Mrsmith434]

6 hours ago, NARMAK said:

What the user above said but just in response to your seeming a bit extreme to alter your hormone, i think it's fair to also say that it's successfully helped a lot of guys keep their hair for many years now and is it really anymore extreme than undergoing a surgical procedure for a hair transplant? 

I think with the fact you got told you only have another 700-1k grafts, you of most people should be concerned with ensuring the longevity of the existing hair. If you don't want to do it via Finasteride due to the reason mentioned, perhaps consider Oral Minoxodil as an alternative and perhaps even topical Finasteride. 

Thanks for your reply unfortunately I can't take anything topical on my scalp due to sebehorric dermatitis.

Oral minoxidil is an interesting idea.   Anyone know where I can get it cheap and is it a suitable alternative to Finasteride?

[Mrsmith434]

6 hours ago, Rahal Hair Transplant said:

MrSmith,

to clarify, finasteride is not needed for the transplant here to grow, thicken and mature. Transplanted hair will grow completely on his own and independent from finasteride. Where finasteride comes in handy is to slow down, stop or even reverse the effects of male pattern baldness.

Now, it sounds like you’ve already had your hair transplant which means whoever your physician was didn’t feel that you were not a candidate for surgery without taking finasteride.  My question for you is, are you still losing any hair? At 37 years of age, I would assume that your hair loss has at least slowed down if not has already stopped to some degree.  If that’s the case, finasteride may not be overly necessary like it would be for others.

That said, assuming that you would be a good responder to the medication, if there are still miniaturizing hairs on your head from male pattern baldness, taking the medication could traverse this and make your hair look thicker. On the flipside, if you do have miniaturizing hairs and you don’t take finasteride, trauma from hair transplant surgery could cause these miniaturizing hairs to fall out and experience permanent shock loss.my 

obviously there’s no real way to tell whether or not you have any miniaturizing hairs from your photos however, given that you still have most A lot of thick looking natural hair at 37 years old, I would venture to guess that you’re not going to lose a substantial amount of additional natural hair and as a result, you’ll benefit from your hair transplant without needing to take finasteride.  That said, I am not a doctor and I am just giving you my opinion based on what I see and my years of experience as a patient and advisor.

Best wishes,

Rahal Hair Transplant 

Thanks for your reply the clinic did recommend I take Finasteride but this is a standard recommendation they make to all clients regardless of how much and how fast their hair loss is.   

Yes I think I am still losing hair not sure how fast though.

Attached are photos from 5 years ago so you can get an idea of how fast the hairloss is progressing.

[NARMAK]

4 hours ago, Mrsmith434 said:

Thanks for your reply unfortunately I can't take anything topical on my scalp due to sebehorric dermatitis.

Oral minoxidil is an interesting idea.   Anyone know where I can get it cheap and is it a suitable alternative to Finasteride?

You should get a dermatologist to check you out and preferably before the HT happened to get things more ship shape for the HT but whilst i personally wouldn't call oral Minoxidil a substitute in any way, shape or form, i do know those that cannot use Finasteride swear by it as being as effective for them to keep hair longer. In terms of studies, we really can't say there's many modern studies to really use but it is now gaining more popularity as a hair loss treatment in oral form at up to maybe 2.5mg pills per day. 

Whether you can get it cheap i guess depends on your country. The US seems to have an easy enough method. Recently the UK had more companies start offering it whereas before it was very pricey. 

[Mrsmith434]

Thanks Narmak for  your reply I did get checked out by a dermatologist and followed their plan exactly before the hair transplant happened I didn't just jump in blind.

[NARMAK]

2 minutes ago, Mrsmith434 said:

Thanks Narmak for  your reply I did get checked out by a dermatologist and followed their plan exactly before the hair transplant happened I didn't just jump in blind.

Thanks for the reply and good to see you went down that route. Hopefully that will help immensely with your HT being a success. I personally have an issue with quite dry skin resulting in a lot of flakes and dandruff. I've tried to keep it under control, but it's a tough old game. 

Good luck OP and hopefully you enjoy the fruits of your HT for a long time. 

[Mrsmith434]

Yes keeping mine under control seems to be an almost full time job.

I spoke with a dermatologist who was also a hair transplant surgeon and she recommended I use certain steroids / shampoos to get my scalp in the best condition possible before hair transplant which I did.  I didn't use her for the procedure in the end but the doctor I did use was fully briefed about my condition and my surgery wasn't scheduled until she was happy it cleared up enough to go ahead.

[Mrsmith434]

The worry I had was they might be under pressure to meet targets and go ahead before it's optimal but I guess that's a risk you take.

[Mrsmith434]

As a middle ground option between fin and nothing I could take saw palmetto and pumpkin seed oil.  I know the evidence for these is limited but there is some evidence and it might help me.