Break From Meds or Shave it Off?

[Rossybop]

I had 2,040 FUE with Saifi 2.5 years ago. Have been on 1.25mg fun daily and Regain foam daily the past few years.

The meds have lost their efficacy and the transplant doesn't look great any more.

Can't or style my hair the way I could any more.

It's been happening extremely fast lately. Like, I can brush out 100 hairs in the sink easily on any other day. If I sit at my desk in work and brush my hair, a few hairs fall like snowflakes.

Every time I step in the mirror I look at the hair and it looks cruddy, and if I run my fingers through it it falls it. It feels thin.

The crown is not experiencing hair loss (yet) but everywhere else on the top of my head seems to be suffering; hairline, mid scalp etc.

My questions are:

Should I come off all the meds for a year or 2, shave off the hair, and let a huge bald spot develop before trying for another transplant, then get on dut instead of Regaine next time around?

Or do I

Swap fin for dut right now and see if that thickens up my hair?

[HappyMan2021]

1) Have you actually had your scalp examined in-person by a qualified doctor yet? That should be your first step

In my opinion you really should definitively find out what this issue is. I really doubt you want to go through all the trouble of a 2nd HT if this is likely to occur again.

2) Do you have updated pictures you can share? I know you sent pics in your thread from a few months ago, but current ones would be good. It sounds like this issue is progressing/worsening for you? 

3) 

32 minutes ago, Rossybop said:

Should I come off all the meds for a year or 2, shave off the hair, and let a huge bald spot develop before trying for another transplant, then get on dut instead of Regaine next time around?

Lol cmon man, I know you are smarter than this. There is never a good reason to purposefully worsen your MPB

4) 

32 minutes ago, Rossybop said:

Swap fin for dut right now and see if that thickens up my hair?

In general I think most ppl should upgrade to Dut, if only for the reason that Dut is the stronger of the 2 meds. But for you specifically I dont think Dut will help with this specific issue. 

 

My own completely unsubstantiated and shot-in-the-dark but educated guess is that your god-given genetic MPB has naturally just decided to get more aggressive and Fin is no longer providing the protection that it used to. 

or

Maybe you unknowingly are dealing with a non-MPB medical issue - perhaps something that is messing with your hormones - that is causing your hair to shed at an unusual pace. All the more reason to decisively find out what the root cause of this issue is before proceeding with another HT. 

There are a hundreds of medical conditions out there that can cause hairloss/shedding, etc. 

Edited June 9, 2023 by HappyMan2021

[Rossybop]

2 minutes ago, HappyMan2021 said:

1) Have you actually had your scalp examined in-person by a qualified doctor yet? That should be your first step

In my opinion you really should definitively find out what this issue is. I really doubt you want to go through all the trouble of a 2nd HT if this is likely to occur again.

2) Do you have updated pictures you can share? I know you sent pics in your thread from a few months ago, but current ones would be good. It sounds like this issue is progressing/worsening for you? 

3) 

Lol cmon man, I know you are smarter than this. There is never a good reason to purposefully worsen your MPB

4) 

In general I think most ppl should upgrade to Dut, if only for the reason that Dut is the stronger of the 2 meds. But for you specifically I dont think Dut will help with this specific issue. 

I haven't had my scalp examined but what could that possibly uncover?

I either have a scalp disease or I don't. Say I have a scalp disease - is the solution; take more pills and get more surgery? Or is it forget about your hair your screwed?

Say I don't have a scalp disease - is the solution; take more pills and get more surgery? Or is forget about your hair your screwed?

[HappyMan2021]

5 minutes ago, Rossybop said:

I haven't had my scalp examined but what could that possibly uncover?

 

it will help definitively conclude what is causing the shedding. 

 

5 minutes ago, Rossybop said:

I either have a scalp disease or I don't. Say I have a scalp disease - is the solution; take more pills and get more surgery? Or is it forget about your hair your screwed?

 

if its determined you have a condition that makes HT ineffective or negligible, even if you were to go to an elite doctor, then sorry hair transplants are probably not for you

 

5 minutes ago, Rossybop said:

Say I don't have a scalp disease - is the solution; take more pills and get more surgery? Or is forget about your hair your screwed?

if you dont have a scalp disease then its likely Dr. Saifi screwed up. Maybe he took 95% of your transplant hair from outside your safe zone. If he did that, I can see how short-term your HT was fine but long-term not good at all. In this case you can absolutely get more HT's just go to a better doctor

 

Regardless of what you should do, I think you should upgrade to Dut. If anything, it will give you peace of mind that you are on the strongest preventative med out there. If you have not experienced sides on Fin, you will not experience any on Dut. 

Edited June 9, 2023 by HappyMan2021

[Rossybop]

I will go get my scalp examined but to be honest mate I've been going to HRBR for 13 years, they've looked at my scalp on many occasions and they said I was a good candidate for HT surgery.

Dr Saifi said my scalp was fine for HT surgery.

It does not see like Saifi took hairs from the unsafe zone.

Will DUT increase the density of the thinning hair that I have at the front/mid scalp of my head?

[Al - Moderator]

Is it transplanted hair falling out or is it native hair falling out? If the transplanted hair is still holding up, but you are losing a lot of native hair then Id try switching to Dutasteride. If it's transplanted hair falling out and you don't think they took grafts outside the safe zone then perhaps there's something else going on.

 

[HappyMan2021]

8 hours ago, Rossybop said:

I will go get my scalp examined but to be honest mate I've been going to HRBR for 13 years

interesting. hmm if you have already had your scalp examined by a local hair/scalp specialist, maybe another scalp exam by a prominent HT is un-needed. I totally share your sentiment that it feels ridiculous to have to travel - perhaps even travel internationally - solely so a good HT doctor can examine you for 20 minutes and let you know if you have any scalp condition or not. And you are right there probably will be nothing found. Not only that, but getting this type of exam will require a few months of waiting from one of the prominent docs. 

Idk what to say, this is a mystery to me. Maybe you should also go to a endocrinologist or something for a full body checkup. There are many diseases/disorders that you wouldn't think of that can cause hairloss. One example is diabetes.  

[Sasquatch]

Do HRBR offer Dut as an option??

 

[slartibartfast]

Can you submit some pictures of before transplant, post transplant and now?