Dutasteride has a long tissue fixation period lasting a good month, so missing a dose for 5 days is not an issue. Also note that the blood half life for dutasteride is 6 days, which means that half of it was in your blood when you stopped taking it. For the few men when I prescribed dutasteride, I advise taking it just twice a week because the half life is so long.
As long as you take it, it has value to maintain your hair, not necessarily restoring it, but slowing down the progressive nature of genetic hair loss. One patient comes to mind, he was 62 and has been on finasteride for 20+ years. He thought it was time to stop it and when he did, he lost hair and quickly went back on it. The few long term studies on it seem to reflect benefits on hair for long term use.
I’ve been wondering about this for some time. I’d be inclined to think that they take fin, but they also have the cash to just hop into a doctors office if they notice any thinning. I wish Steve Carrell would do an AMA. I wanna know if his progression is the result of fin or multiple transplants.
Many of the celebrities I have worked on (movies, CEOs, politicians) will keep working their hair with additional hair transplants until they achieve their expectations. Many use the drug finasteride as well. A good doctor sets expectations with his patient prior to the first surgery.
Clearly some value has been achieved. I would add finasteride to the routine as that would add a different mechanism for reversing the hair loss. A boarder approach is often more effective.
Get a good doctor who will do a HAIR CHECK test (https://baldingblog.com/haircheck-test-how-it-is-done-video/ ) to see how much hair you lost. After, consider going on minoxidil and finasteride and repeat the test in a year to see your benefit, if any. It gives you numbers to use like measuring your height when you were 6 years old, and your mom put a line on the wall and watched you grow.
The (1) higher the contrast between hair and skin, the (2) finer the hair, the (3) less wave in the hair itself and (4) the larger the balding pattern combined to be negative elements for the person who is balding and wants a hair transplant. The use of Scalp Micropigmentation often allows more fullness when used as an adjunct to the hair transplant in people with these attributes.
I was thinking about 50 grafts just to see how they would look on the right corner of my hairline. What do you think?
Ask yourself if is there something called ‘A Little Bit Pregnant’. Clearly the answer is no. The same applies to just trying a few hair transplant grafts. Once you start the hair transplant process you are committing a lifetime of hair transplants to follow the balding as it occur. Imagine that you put a few hair grafts on the Right frontal hairline, then lost hair is lost behind it; these transplanted hair would stick out so everyone could see them as they became more and more isolated from a receding hairline because these hairs last forever, but not the hair behind them.. Don’t do it unless you have a Master Plan which includes hair transplants with a good doctor to fix a real problem.
Self image is important giving us confidence if our image of ourselves is positive. A positive attitude with evident confidence is what women generally like best. We all format an image of ourselves and for some men it has to do with hair, others with body musculature and others cultivate the brain. Good women see it all as a package deal but you don’t have to look like Mr. Universe or a Gorilla head of hair as many men who have charisma attract women even without hair.
Scalp Micropigmentation is a better solution: https://scalpmicropigmentation.com/
Minoxidil has made this bald spot bigger and made my natural healthy hairs thinner it’s been six months and the hairs in the bald spot that minox grew don’t look good and my healthy hairs have not thickened, should I stay on and give it longer or come off now ?
Minoxidil doesn’t reverse the hair loss you have, but it grows new hairs. Additionally, many of them are very small hairs and are not enough to build bulk. Observations show that it peaks its value at about a year with continuous use.
I’ve seen balding since I was 20, now 33M, NW V. I took intermittently min/fin for periods of no longer than 6 months, with noticeable results. Then skipped the treatments due to laziness. I now decided to go all-in for the very last time before I decide to get a hair transplant. I am doing religiously min, fin, biotin, zinc, saw palmetto and vitamin D daily; ketoconazole twice/three times a week; dermarolling 1.5 mm once a week. Do you think it will reverse?
At 33, the drugs rarely reverse a Class 5 pattern of balding.
just wanted to share my hair transplant experience. I planend to do it at the hair line clinic Ankara as it has a pretty good reputation in german hair loss forums. Since I was pretty young (22y), I decided to go to a consulation they offered and talked to them personally about the situation. I have been a NW4 on Finasteride and Minoxidil 5% twice a day. They figured out the size and density of my donor area and we planned the hairline together. I decided to go for it and “booked” my hair transplant. When I arrived in Turkey, they had a driver who picked me up and I slept in a nice building next to the clinic. The next day, we planned the final hairline, did some medical tests before and then shaved my head. Afterwards, and for the next 3 days, as 4000 grafts were transplanted, it was always the same procedure: One doctor pulled the grafts out of my head, then they were “prepared” 10-15 minutes, then another doctor set them in. During the day, we had to take some medications and put some creme on the donor area. After the 3 days, post op instructions were given to us which I followed completely (maybe too much haha). Anyways, the price of this clinic ranges from 2.50 to 3 Euros per graft (depends on whether they can propose you a date or not, if you shave your head or not and if they are allowed to take pictures or not) and I can definetely recommend the clinic as I am very happy with the results. As I am very young and my crown is thinning, might be the case that I have to go again.
I generally believe that a 22 year old shouldn’t get a hair transplant, see here: https://baldingblog.com/22-year-old-received-a-hair-transplant-of-2800-grafts-from-reddit/. From what you described, it sounds like you had a good experience but the issue really is balding pattern and using up your donor supply. With 4000 grafts, you used up at least half of your donor bank, possibly more. I always discuss the concept of a Master Plan as balding is a progressive process and the hair in the donor bank only allows withdrawals, never deposits. A 22 year old with a Class 4A pattern might still develop a Class 7 pattern in the future so the remaining hairs in the donor bank is critical for that eventuality.
Looking for a genuine answer since I’m just on the fence about taking and so just won’t to fully understand it before I put it in my body. Want to make sure that the alterations it will make to my bodies chemistry won’t be harmful and if it potentially is I’d like to know also obviously so yah basically my main questions are in the title. Also if anyone could speak on the people who claim it can fry your endocrine system and also diminish the neurosteroids in your brain causing brain damage.
If anyone could offer any kind of responses that would be amazing, thank you so much I’m advance.
Men with genetic hair loss are impacted by DHT which triggers ‘apoptosis’ which is essentially killing selective hairs in a pattern of hair loss that you inherited according to an internal clock in each hair follicle stem cell. Since it is the DHT that triggers the hair loss, drugs like finasteride blocks the site where the DHT attacks the hair follicle stem cells. This block is not 100%, but rather about 70% for finasteride. In the original Merck study, the side effects were low (sexual side effects under 3%, even less when compared to the placebo) and it is clear from their 5 year study that those taking finasteride maintained a much higher hair count than those who did not take it (see here: https://baldingblog.com/finasteride-will-i-keep-more-hair-staying-on-it/ ).
DHT is a powerful male hormone and impacts every organ system in the human body but the recommended dose of 1mg was so low, that Merck believed that it was safe even for other organ systems. Since the drug came out (about 20 years ago), millions of men have taken it (the original study was much smaller) so it is not surprising to see reports of other side effects that were not seen 20 years ago.
Finasteride usually prevents shock loss which is a loss of native hair that is in the process of miniaturizing. The older you are, the less the risk. Men in their 20s are at the greatest risk, less in their 30s and so on. The decision to take finasteride is a decision to protect native hair.