Anxious about the future, is my regime enough?

[alopie]

I had to lower the dose on both fin and minoxidil due to side effects (testicular discomfort/pain, and a bit of dizziness). I took a 5 day break from minoxidil and finasteride that should not affect my overall progress. Now this is where I am:
 

- Oral finasteride 0.5mg daily
- Oral minoxidil 2mg daily
- Topical minoxidil 5% - only a few drops on some spots once daily

- Shampoo Ketoconazol 2% 2-3 times a week, occasional dermarolling

I had a transplant 2 years ago and everything is still looking good. I just want to maintain and not lose ground, hoping to thicken my existing hair if possible.
Is this regimen enough? Would vitamin supplements and LLLT provide any additional measurable benefit? Or should I try and increase minox to 2.5mg daily?
Please let me know your thoughts. 

[Dragonsphere]

Finasteride has a very flat dose response curve in respect to serum DHT. 

Of course it is follicular levels of DHT we are interested in but serum DHT levels should be a good proxy to estimate this. 

Looking at the graph below, you can see than the dose response curve begins to plateau around 0.2mg. 

So if 1mg of finasteride would be enough to stop your hair loss then it is incredibly likely that 0.5mg will suffice.  

There are other things that you can do to tackle your hairloss such as LLT. 

It's not especially effective, but it does work and its action is entirely different to that of DHT inhibitors. 

Another thing you can do which never gets talked about is to wash your hair daily. There are three major components in regards to male pattern baldness, androgens, scalp microbiome and inflammation.  

Washing your hair daily will reduce scalp erythema and sebum levels which helps both with inflammation and maintaining a healthy scalp microbiome. I would only use Nizoral 1-2 times a week as a deep cleansing shampoo and use a regular shampoo for the other days. 

There are several supplements I would recommend 

Marine Collagen - Helps to maintain WNT pathway and general hair health

Turmeric - Anti oxidant properties

Perilla leaf extract - TNF downregulation 

I personally don't recommend microneedling. People always say don't microneedle more than 1-1.5mm as you will damage hair. However with MPB, the scalp begins to thin and the miniaturised hairs come closer to the surface resulting in an average depth of 0.65mm.  Could weekly or even bi weekly sessions cause long term damage to these hairs? Possibly. 

 

Edited April 19 by Dragonsphere

[Jamos1982]

On 4/9/2024 at 8:13 AM, alopie said:

I had to lower the dose on both fin and minoxidil due to side effects (testicular discomfort/pain, and a bit of dizziness). I took a 5 day break from minoxidil and finasteride that should not affect my overall progress. Now this is where I am:
 

- Oral finasteride 0.5mg daily
- Oral minoxidil 2mg daily
- Topical minoxidil 5% - only a few drops on some spots once daily

- Shampoo Ketoconazol 2% 2-3 times a week, occasional dermarolling

I had a transplant 2 years ago and everything is still looking good. I just want to maintain and not lose ground, hoping to thicken my existing hair if possible.
Is this regimen enough? Would vitamin supplements and LLLT provide any additional measurable benefit? Or should I try and increase minox to 2.5mg daily?
Please let me know your thoughts. 

Do you get any sides on 0.5 oral fin daily? I’m also looking to maintain the hair I have and not grow as I had a great successful HT I did have sides on 7mg per week so I stopped 

[alopie]

No side effects on 0.5mg daily. Trying to do 5mg/week now to see how it goes.