Quitting fin/adding min close to hair transplant?

[Hair-here]

I’m a NW 6/7 who’s now scheduled for my 2nd transplant after my first 3000 graft surgery 20 months ago didn’t yield great/didn’t cover enough with any substantial density.

I have a July date with Dr Pitella for 10k grafts, half of that is beard hair.

I’ve been slowly lowering my doses of fin since my last surgery 20 months ago to get rid of some sides but Im a point where I want to just quit it due to mild sexual sides. I’m down to .25mg every other day for past few months with no improvement on sides.

So being a NW6/7 I don’t even know how much fin has done for me. I just added it after my last surgery because it was suggested my sides and back could drop even lower.  So maybe it kept my back and sides from dropping but I can’t know that, I’m already pretty far gone. I may have just progressed as far as I was going to as I’m mid-40s.

Ideally I would have quit fin a few months ago, to shed any fin-supported hair in advance and gone into this surgery with an accurate picture of my loss for the doc to work with.  But I don’t think I’ll shed it all in 2 months.   So the other option is to continue fin but then when I eventually stop like in a year after surgery, there may be spots which lose hair and are less dense because no hair was put there because the fin-supported hair was still there at time of surgery.  Though he plans to approach my surgery as if I had no hair on top at all.

My other question is whether it really is beneficial to be on oral minoxidil prior to the surgery? The doc recommended that and I’m game to give it a try after surgery if I do it now or before surgery if I delay surgery.

I really don’t want to but I could delay the surgery a year if needed to wean myself off fin and also start oral minox.

Dr Pitella said while delaying could make some sense and perhaps feel slightly safer, he doubts there will be much difference in the outcome but it’s up to me. I really like him and trust his opinion but this is my final shot at this due to a weak donor so I want to put some thought into it.  I’m also feeling impatient to finally do something to improve my previous surgery and don’t want to wait an extra year unless it seems like it would be important to. 

I know there are lots of variables at play so there might be no clear answer but I figured I’d throw it out there to get some other opinions about quitting fin, adding oral min and if it’s worth delaying.

[Al - Moderator]

Finasteride was thinning out my chest hair. I'm not sure if it was thinning my beard because I am always shaved, but I knew I was going to use a lot of beard and chest hair as I was a NW 7 with no useable scalp donor, so I stopped using Finasteride and I did regrow some chest hair. So my advice on that is if you are going to be using a lot of beard or chest hair and you are still getting side effects on Finasteride even at small doses without knowing if it is even giving you any positive results, then I think you may be better off stopping it.

As far as starting oral Minoxidil, it could cause a shed at the beginning, but since he is using a lot of beard hair and you are already a NW 7 (how much can you possibly shed)  then it's probably not really going to make much difference if you start on it now or later. I would do which one you feel more comfortable with.

 

[Hair-here]

Yeah I figured it might not make too much difference.

Any idea how long it takes to lose any fin-supported hair?

And about the shed when stopping- is that just fin supported hair?