I found this graph on the blog site. I am not sure of the source nor the accuracy, but it does somewhat address your question and explains much of what I know about the drug fnasteride.  When Merck did the initial clinical trials, they were trying to determine what the best and most effective dose of finastride (Porpecia) would be and then, of course, what they would recommend. They found that doses greater than 1 mg, on average, did not increase the value of the drug on hair loss. They also found that when half the dose was used, that the value was 80% as good as the full dose. Going down in dose as well to 0.25 mgs would have half of the value, so I think that this curve is somewhat correct. At least it does explain why some people can get an impact on a lower dose.  But Merck recommended 1 mg because it produced the best effect on MOST people.

Two patients one day after surgery. Neither patient has crusting and are clean as can be. They will not be detectable within a few days after the hair transplant. The first patient had 1800 grafts (FUE) in a completely bald area and the second patient has 2800 grafts (strip surgery) which is easily hidden by his residual hair.  I will continue to show post operative patients so that you, our readers who are afraid what they will look like, will see that they won’t look freaky.

Body hair transplants don’t have the staying power as you get older and drop your DHT levels as body hair is dependent upon DHT for growth. This also applies to beard hair as well. That is why some men who take DHT blockers like finasteride or dustasteride lose their body hair over time and some of them find that their beards are thinner as well.

Loss of body hair occurs in patients on Propecia (finasteride) but not always. I suspect that the DHT block from the drug finaseride is not very effective on body hair in everyone and that is why different people see varying degrees of body hair loss.  It is not unusual to get a decrease in body hair and if you take it long enough, maybe you will see complete loss of your body body hair.

When a man with genetic hair loss develops hair loss due to stress, they often find that it does not come back after the stress reverses. For men on the drug finasteride, the stress effects on the hair loss can be offset by the drug. For women, it is another story as their hair loss cycles in most women with stress related hair loss.

Many such dietary supplements have steroids in them and these steroids can cause or accelerate the hair loss when a man has genetic propensity for balding.

I have been asked lately to show more pictures after the surgery so that prospective patients can understand what they may look like.  Each patient is different because of hair and skin color.  The lower the contrast, the less detectable it is, the grater the contrast the more detectable the ‘beard look’ of new hair is. The redness you see will be gone in a day or two. The tape was put there to prevent swelling from creeping down in the forehead into the eyes. Note there is no crusting and the recipient area looks clean because we wash it very carefully.  We don’t usually see the patients after the first day post-op to get daily pictures, but as the patients come in, I will try to update these photos.