Losing hair on avodart and minoxidil after 8 months in medication.

[Danzig323]

Hi!, I am 24M and been taking oral dutasteride 0.5mg & oral minoxidil 2.5mg daily for the last 8 months. When I am showering or rubbing my hair I can still see a lot of miniature hairs that are falling out ( Probably about 50-100 a day). Could it be the hair cycle?, or weak hairs falling out so another can grow?. I have very booked dermatologist so it's hard to contact her, what should I do?

[HappyMan2021]

Dutasteride is the strongest anti-hairloss drug on the market. If you are only 24 and Dut is not enough to halt your hairloss, then your hairloss is pretty aggressive

34 minutes ago, Danzig323 said:

I have very booked dermatologist so it's hard to contact her, what should I do?

IMO dermatologists are useless when it comes to hair regrowth, hair restoration, etc. Sure, they can diagnose you with MPB, but you can do that yourself just looking in a mirror lol. 

Considering you are on this forum and hair transplants are on your mind, I would skip the dermatologist and start making consults with HT docs. FYI you can totally book a consult with a HT doc even if you arent looking to have surgery right away. Most consults are paid, so that is your time to go over anything you want, even if it is a casual 30 minute conversation on hairloss and medication, treatements to do that don't even have to involve surgery. 

The only reason I would go to the derm at this stage is if there are questions if your hairloss may be due to a condition other than MPB, or if you need a new prescription for Fin or Dut (but even in this case your primary doc could prescribe these)

[WhereIsMyMind]

Falling hairs are not a good metric to track MBP.

MBP is literally hairs becoming thinner and their anagen cycles shorter over time, until there is a shiny scalp. Its not so much related with chronic hair fall (thats Telogen Efflivium, which you can also have paired with MBP)

Try to track it in this way:

is my minituarized hair thickening after treatment? is my minituarized hair going even thinner? does it look fuller in before and after pictures? did I grow small vellus hairs where hairs didnt exist before?

Those are the best metrics to know if the treatment is working. Don't lose time counting shed hairs. A normal human head should shed 100 hairs per day in fact.

Edited December 17, 2022 by WhereIsMyMind

[TorontoMan]

You just need more time my friend 

[Danzig323]

I actually think that I have more hair now than i what i had 8 months ago, but I am scared of losing gains  , problem is that I had buzzcut for the last 7 months so I couldn't really see hair fall, that is why this scares me a lot.

[WhereIsMyMind]

That's all that matters. It is simple math. In a hair cycle, the telogen phase takes 4 months, and anagen 2-5 years. A human head has about 100k hairs, and 5-10% of them will always be in telogen because our hair cycle is asyncronous. It is inevitable that you will shed hairs every day, no matter what drugs you take.

I strongly advise to stop tracking how many hairs you shed unless its above 100 per day I wouldnt care about it. If its above that, you might have chronic TE

[Danzig323]

1 minute ago, WhereIsMyMind said:

That's all that matters. It is simple math. In a hair cycle, the telogen phase takes 4 months, and anagen 2-5 years. A human head has about 100k hairs, and 5-10% of them will always be in telogen because our hair cycle is asyncronous. It is inevitable that you will shed hairs every day, no matter what drugs you take.

I strongly advise to stop tracking how many hairs you shed unless its above 100 per day I wouldnt care about it. If its above that, you might have chronic TE

Thank you for support. I don't know how much hair precisely I am losing a day, but it's probably about that number. I had strong covid and problems with back in the last month, that maybe speed up or induce TE.

[WhereIsMyMind]

Anxiety, stress, sickness, new medications etc can induce a TE (or what we call "shed"). But that is hair that fell, and will grow again. Balding is hair thinning over time (not only falling). So you are good! Just ride it out and check after 1.5 years, many people have 1 or 2 sheds on oral minox before stabilizing.

Edited December 17, 2022 by WhereIsMyMind

[Danzig323]

Just now, WhereIsMyMind said:

Anxiety, stress, sickness, new medications etc can induce a TE (or what we call "shed"). But that is hair that fell, and will grow again. Balding is hair thinning over time (not only falling). So you are good! Just ride it out and check after 1.5 years, many people have 1 or 2 sheds on oral minox before stabilizing.

I will continue this medications that is for sure. Thank you once again.

[A Fue Good Men]

First of all, 5ari’s take a long time to work. I wouldn’t gauge your final progress until 1-2 years as that’s when peak results typically show. Secondly, these treatments don’t stop your shedding as that’s a normal part of the hair cycle.

 

there’s a lot of anecdotal reports from patients experiencing sheds especially early on in treatment. You’re on a very strong regimen and there’s pretty much nothing else you can do beyond dutasteride and minoxidil so just sit back and see where this takes you.