Question for you. I am 41 years old. Been on Finasteride for four months. From the tip of my hairline to about 3 inches back has miniaturized slightly. I have noticed that it no longer grows in length. Is this common? I have to buzz cut the rest of my head to match that front part every few weeks. What could be the reason for this? Why don’t those follicles grow anymore…it is like they have paused the growth cycle at the front?!

Great question. When hairs are going to die, sometimes they just stop growing or the growing slows down almost to a crawl.  These hairs will eventually fall out and contribute to patterned balding. Drugs like minoxidil (topically) or finasteride can reverse this process.

At 16 with a Norwood Class 3 pattern of balding evident, I would want to know more about your family history. Is there advanced balding in the family (father, brothers, grandfathers, uncles) and if so, how young were these relatives when the balding finalized their pattern?  Drugs like oral Minoxidil might work.  Even drugs like finasteride have been found safe for boys 14 and up, based upon a recent polling I did with about 60 experts in the field.  If you are fully grown, then finasteride ss  a reasonable option, but you need to have a conversation with a knowledgeable doctor and have your parents present during that conslutation.

I was starving myself for a year+ barely eating and it ruined my hair it’s a lot better then it was a few years ago but it never recovered fully

I have seen that particularly in those men with genetic balding, starvation pushes the Apoptosis of hair follicles.

This includes hospitalization and deaths. See this video!

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239799.s001

African American took finasteride orally and minoxidil topically for 18 months with this nice reversal of thinning.  Lighting in the after picture on the right could be better

I’ve been taking .25mg every other day for 7 weeks now and my hairloss – especially around the crown – has only accelerated. Is it safe to keep going with this dose?

Safety is not an issue, effectiveness for low dosage as you are doing is the issue. This dose, based upon the Merck studies, is about 50% as effective as the full 1mg dose.

We need to talk about good medical practices. Many surgeons believe that FUE works well provided that in a person with an medium hair thickness and an average donor density, has no more than 3500 FUE grafts removed to avoide a see-through donor area. 3500 grafts for such a person will cover Class 3, 3a, 4a, 5a patterns of balding relatively easily.  Once you get into class 4, 5, 6 and 7 patterns, then an FUT may be a better answer either as a sole harvesting technique or combined with FUE.  As the hair thickness gets finer (less and less hair bulk/mass), the maximum number of FUE grafts drops because by maintaining the same harvesting number in a person with fine hair, the see-through donor area may become a problem. With coarser hair (more hair bulk/mass) and an average donor density, more FUE grafts can be safely harvested.  As the original donor density drops, the see-through donor area risk rises so FUT might be a better choice as a see-through donor area is a real risk for low density donor areas in many men.  High original donor densities with medium-coarse or coarser hair are good candidates for FUE in the more advanced Norwood Patterns.  If you combined higher than normal donor density with a coarser hair, this  person can easily have most of his head transplanted with FUE alone.  I have never seen an FUE result in a Class 7 patient with fine hair or one with significantly reduced original donor density and not have a depleted donor area (see-through donor area).  I believe that there is a role today for surgeons to be skilled in both FUE and FUT and based upon the above factors and the surgeons preferences, the right harvesting method for the right reasons will be selected.