Regrowing Hair from Years Ago and the Power of Positive Thinking

Hi Dr and thanks for your time.

I am a 34 year old male and have been thinning for roughly 12-14 years. I feel I used to shed ridiculously bad- I would tug at the hair kind of obsessively and lose around, I dont know, 100-200 per day. This went on for 10+ years but I have since slowed the loss to tolerable levels, say 5-25 hairs per day with improved diet (which I swear had a lot to do with it) and minoxidil 5% 1X per day. My main thin spot is on the vertex, or top of the head, not bald, but somewhat thin, where I really want regrowth. For the past 6-8mos I have been applying minoxodil 2X per day, and recently I decided to take propecia at .5 mg every other day.

I know people say it is hard to regrow hair lost years ago, but I have read of people who do it using finasteride and minoxidil. Have you witnessed this and if so what is the oldest hair lost you have seen men regrow? I have heard of people in their 40s doing this from 5-10 yr old hair loss… I am aware that all meds work better on people who have lost hair recently, and are younger. Also, if the placebo effect worked in some finasteride trials, (even if slightly) what is the power of positive thought here? Thank you very much.

I believe in positive thinking, but I can not say that I have seen it grow hair lost years ago. I think that everything you did has worked for you a little here and a little there — and by that, I mean the medication you’re using and when you stopped the pulling on your hair.

As for the oldest regrowth from finasteride that I’ve seen, well, I have a 79 year old friend who went on Proscar for his prostate and had the great unexpected cosmetic benefit of hair growth when taking a medication for his health. Generally speaking, this is a rarity.