I’m on finasteride and topical minoxidil for 10 weeks, thoughts?
Nice early growth; however, you must give it more time. These new hairs are short, and if they grow out as expected, it will grow out at a rate of 1/2 inch per month.
But why doesn’t DHT attack our hair when we’re younger – what changes as you get older?
I don’t know why boys at puberty don’t lose hair, but I think that genetic hair for AGA has a number of hair cycles when it will not be impacted by DHT. For most young men, this age is around 17-19. We see, at times, significant balding in 19-25-year-old men. Most balding occurs in the 20s, but progression occurs for many in their 30s.
The female hairline is concave, while the male hairline is convex. Note a few problems with this hairline. 1- it is concave and rounded so that there are no temple peaks, something that 95% of men do not have, 2- the hair grafts at the hairline can be seen because there are many hairs in these leading-edge hairline grafts, and there is no transition layer producing a gradual evolution from the forehead to a thick hairline, 3- the hair density was low-balled for the frontal hairline. There are not enough grafts placed for adequate density (this is lucky for him if he wants them removed in a good repair process), and 4- single hair should have been placed on the leading edge of the frontal hairline. Fixing this can be a problem as the female-placed hairs would have to be removed with FUE, and the entire hairline would have to be reshaped into a normal convex male hairline. This is certainly not a bargain!
Too many young men go to Turkey to get a bargain. They get the hairlines that they want, not what is normal. They want a lot of grafts because they think it is a bargain, then find out that they have lost their donor reserves and possibly they don’t understand that hair loss is progressive, which happens in almost 100% of young men who have transplants. Here is such an example. I feel sorry for him.
I have been treating for 8 months (a little more) with oral propecia and topical minoxidil. I called my doctor today, and told him I wanted a prescription for oral minoxidil 2.5 and he told me the following sentence: “No matter how good the drugs are, they only slow down the process, in the end gene
Some doctors are just ignorant. You can follow his/her advice and keep losing your hair, or do what many others have done and probably keep your hair. Take your doctor’s logic a step further. If you are going to have a heart attack, just let it happen as you are going to die “in the end game.”— this is a stupid comment as well because we all have end games in our daily lives, and our health and hair should be managed as well as it can be, not as an “end game”.
Do we have a fixed number of cycles before the hair stops growing?
Hair cycles between the anagen (growth) and telogen (sleep) phases varies with age and sex. Young women have longer cycles than men. The older a man gets, the shorter the cycle is. The same may be true for women, but some women maintain long hair cycles for their entire lives. There is a group of women in China, where the women can grow hair to 8 feet or possibly longer (that is a hell of a long growth cycle). For genetic balding purposes, it is important to note that the number of hair cycles for hairs in different parts of the head vary in AGA. For example, a man who develops a Class 7 pattern by the age of 26 tells me that the number of hair cycles programmed into most of his hair in the front, top, and crown of the head is limited. Let’s say that his hair cycle averaged 3 years since this man was born. That means that he probably had programmed apoptosis (hair death) for close to 9 hair cycles. Of course, we see balding progress in most men, which means that the number of cycles are shorter for the hairs that have fallen out, and longer for those about to fall out. Drugs like finasteride prolong the hair cycle and often stop apoptosis. Get it?
This man will likely lose his forelock, which will make him look balding as he lose the frame to his face. The forelock may respond to medications like finasteride or Minoxidil.
Although this man did not show us comparable photos, the gains were still evident. I show these photos to encourage those of you who are balding and are afraid to try these medications. They work. The photo on the left is after treatment.
Great response to this combination. I suspect the microneedling was largely responsible
This is an amazing result. I tell all of my patients to try to work through medications before diving into a hair transplant. If he stays on this, he will likely keep his hair for a long time.
This man might have gone to Turkey, but the simple use of minoxidil and finasteride at less than the ideal dose, but he solved most of his problem in 8 months. The lesson here is to see a good doctor, get the proper treatment, and maybe you can get your hair back as this man did. If I were your doctor, I would have you on the full dose of finasteride and the 2.5mg dose of oral minoxidil. You will likely fill out the rest of your hairline and crown area on the drugs alone based on what you are now taking (0.25mg finasteride and 2% topical minoxidil) and what I see here.
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I started derma rolling for 3 months and stopped maybe two months ago. The needles are 0.5mm long. My hair has just got much worse and thinner and i don’t necessarily attribute that to derma rolling but i have done research and seen people saying it can cause scarring. I used a 0.5mm derma roller once every two weeks maybe once a week a few times, is there any chance from this i have caused scarring or damaged hair follicles and would I know if I had caused an infection because that’s another fear of mine, thanks
The scalp has two layers; the top layer is the epidermis, and it is mostly avascular. It measures 0.5mm thick. The next layer down is the dermis. The dermis contains the stem cells and hair follicles you must reach with the microneedlng. With 0.5mm length, you are doing little to help yourself. Set up a routine, use something like the Dr. Pen device, and go down to 1.25mm. Cover each area you want hair to grow for 10 seconds. Then, move it to the next place. Most people seem to do it once a week, which works. If you keep everything clean, wash your hair before you start the microneedling and then later wash it off with another good shower, the infection risk is low. Good luck
I am 45 years old, I’m unsure what exactly my hairless type is! I assume I’m diffuse thinning? About 4-5 years ago, I was (or looked) totally bald on top, I had a consultation, and the doctor said that when checking under a microscope he said my hair was miniaturized and recommended finasteride and minoxidil (Regaine). Unbelievably, I responded brilliantly, and the turnaround was phenomenal! I responded so well that I forgot all about my hairless, with some fibres chucked in I looked like a bloody full head lol.
I changed my medication and lost ground. I have now changed to oral min 2.5 mg and dutasteride daily (dropped the fin) as my hairloss suddenly returned about a year ago. I’m only 5 weeks into oral min and duta so hope that I respond again! If not is a transplant possible with my hair type?
You are unbelievably lucky. This is not the usual 47-year-old male. A transplant without hair loss is not indicated. Maybe sometime in the future, if the medications failed to work, a hair transplant would be considered if you had significant hair loss.
[If you have any questions, you can reach me at williamrassman33@gmail.com]
This 50-year-old male presented with a Norwood Class 3A pattern of balding, which is easily transplanted with excellent results. This man would most likely undergo a hair transplant in the hands of too many hair transplant doctors. He had a diagnosis made by an experienced surgeon with trichoscopy that showed perifollicular erythema and hyperkeratosis, both observations diagnostic for Frontal Fibrosing Alopecia. He had a scalp biopsy to confirm the diagnosis. This is an autoimmune disease of the scalp, and if he had a hair transplant, the surgery would most likely fail and cost him a lot of money and an unnecessary surgery. He was placed on appropriate medication to control the disease. Still, even with this disease under control, it often comes back, and if he had a hair transplant during the remission when it came back, the hair would again be lost. A hair transplant done during remission would likely exacerbate the disease and cause a loss of most of the transplants. Conclusion: Always find a good doctor who knows how to diagnose your balding problem appropriately.
[If you have any questions, you can reach me at williamrassman33@gmail.com]
When a man’s forelock hangs in while everything around it has hair loss, you should recognize its value for properly styling a good hairline. These forelocks, if they remain after the age of 35, will usually stay for life if they are strong at 35. His balding pattern relates to the area of balding, ignoring his forelock, making it a Class 3A pattern with a persistent forelock. The arrows show the balding around the forelock. If this man is young (18-25), he has a good chance of reversing this with appropriate medications like oral finasteride and oral minoxidil.
[If you have any questions, you can reach me at williamrassman33@gmail.com]
