Yes, there is a difference in what you see. Both thinning and shedding of hair are manifestations of hair loss. Sometimes one will shed hair, other times one does not shed and just recedes in the hairline. Sometimes, you see thinning from shedding. All of these are ways to identify that you have a hair loss problem which should be evaluated by a good doctor.
Balding Via Sheeding Vs Via Hair Thinning? Is There A Difference? from tressless
I have heard and read much about such problems over various hair forums. However, I have never had any patient complain about this to me, nor do I see this reported in the Finasteride literature.
There is no reason to switch from Finasteride to Dutasteride in your situation. Remember, Dutasteride is not FDA cleared, and it may cause sterility.
There are treatments today that can freeze your hair loss and possibly reverse it. If you just standby, the loss you get while you are waiting for a cure, may be irreversible.
How many of you are in that stage where your hair loss isn’t noticeable to others yet and you’re holding off for a better treatment? from tressless
See this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setipiprant
Phase two clinical trials for drugs are kept a secret, so we will not know the results of this until this drug completes its cycle.
Usually, the grafts can’t be moved at 6 days. I know because I tried to do it, and they come apart as they are pulled out. Now, you should wait until the hair has grown, then fix what you don’t like after the hair has grown in.
The DHT blockers like Finasteride are what we call competitive inhibitors, and only block the action of DHT on the hair follicle. Significant amounts of the production of DHT will still continue.
People with autoimmune diseases like Lupus, LPP, FFA, alopecia areata, and alopecia totalis can’t be treated with hair transplants while the disease is active. For all of the diseases mentioned (except alopecia totalis, which is not transplantable), the disease must be inactive for 3 years. There is always a risk of recurrence even after 3 years, in which case, if it should happen, all of the transplanted grafts would then be lost.
Patients on a biologic like Embrel or Humira can have a hair transplant as long as they are healthy and have no problems associated with the drug.
Oral minoxidil can cause: (1) a dry cough, (2) sharp stabbing chest pain, (3) chest pain spreading to the arm or shoulder, (4) nausea, (5) sweating, (6) general ill feeling, (7) trouble breathing (especially while lying down), (8) swelling in your legs, ankles, or feet, (9) rapid weight gain of 5 pounds or more, (10) light-headed feeling with occasional fainting, (11) low blood pressure. Every medication has its side effects. These are not frequent.
The photo below shows a man with an advanced balding pattern (Norwood Class 7 pattern). This is the pattern that is a risk for every man having a hair transplant. Everyone runs this risk. They could lose all of their hair except for this 2½ inch rim of hair around the back and sides of the head. The white line shows where the neck hair begins and the arrow is 2½ inches long. The neck hair below the white line is not permanent hair. So if your surgeon takes hair above this rim area (where it is bald) or below the white line (neck hair) in any FUE surgery, you run the risk of eventually showing scars all over your head where the hair used to be before the balding happened. Not good!
This is why strip surgery is a better surgery for people with advanced balding patterns. If the density of this rim hair is good, then the area immediately above the white line can be harvested over and over again, decreasing the density of this rim with each successive harvest. I have harvested as many as 10,000 grafts from this rim in Class 7 patients and still left enough hair to keep the rim area covered when the density was very good. I have also been able to harvest routinely 6000-7000 grafts in people with average donor hair densities. If this area is harvested with FUE, the surgeon must stay away from the upper border or the FUE scars would show as balding progressed (https://newhair.com/donor-area/). The depletion of the donor area with FUE is not uniform so the number of grafts taken from this area is more limited than with the strip which is always harvested and re-harvested just above the white line if the surgeon does it correctly. The density of the residual hair after a strip surgery is always uniform. Of course, the scarring risk from repeated strip surgeries is real, but because there is always hair above the scar and Scalp Micropigmentation can address the scar so this is a manageable problem if it should happen (https://scalpmicropigmentation.com/scar-covering/).
The other important issue is the size of the bald area, which in this man is 80% of the original hairy scalp. So, this rim must supply hair to cover the entire bald area. The math is a real challenge and that is why your surgeon must be both an artist and a mathematician. Your surgeon must calculate what you need now and what you might need later as your balding progresses. This donor area is limited to about 50% of the original donor density. EVERY balding man will develop more hair loss over time, so a great surgeon understands this and should always be able to give you a status report of your reserves for future hair loss. Maybe you will not progress to a Class 7 pattern but rather a Class 6 pattern as only 7% of the population ever progresses to a Class 7 balding pattern. Poor planning by the doctor or patients who are in a rush to satisfy their immediate goals (particularly when they are early in the hair loss process) at the expense of your future needs, is not good. You and your surgeon must always develop a Master Plan for your future hair loss. Always think long term so that your decisions will be calculated to address the problem you have now and the problem that you will almost certainly have in the future.