Shaving the Head — Does it Make Propecia or Rogaine Less Effective?

ive been lossing my hair since about the age of 17 and I gave up and shaved all my hair off and have continued to do so til today ( im 29) i still get very thin hairs that cover a good portion of my head, my question is will propecia and/or rogaine work at this point since ive been shaving it for so long. All the males in my family are bald.

Another question is I have a 17 years old brother and he has started to show some slight signs of hair lost is it safe to start him on propecia at such a young age.

First, shaving your head should not impact the way either drug works. One may make an argument that minoxidil is easier to apply with a shaved head and as the drug really works below the skin, the hair does not get in the way of the application of the medication when it is shaved. It certainly will not produce a negative effect.

What you did was ignore your balding over the past 12 years and the process has progressed. If there are many miniaturized hairs, Propecia may bring some of them back, so it might be worth a try, but go a full year on the medication. Rogaine Foam also seems somewhat effective and in combination, the two might help.

For your younger brother, do it the right way, get his hair mapped out for miniaturization to get a basic metric (measurement) and then put him on Propecia (ask your doctor). Maybe he will not go through what you did.