How Does Finasteride Work?
I am a medical student and was wondering how finasteride works to give people a fuller appearance of hair.
In the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology July 2006, Volume 55, Dr. Vera Price summarized the action of finasteride as follows:
“Long-term finasteride treatment led to sustained improvement in hair weight compared with placebo. Hair weight increased to a larger extent than hair count, implying that factors other than the number of hairs, such as increased growth rate (length) and thickness of hairs, contribute to the beneficial effects of finasteride in treated men.”
This is important, because what she implies is that the miniaturized hairs reverse. That is why it is so important to map out the scalp for miniaturization. The degree of miniaturization prior to starting finasteride (Propecia) gives us a baseline metric to determine the value of the treatment. I have seen people with miniaturization in the 80% range, reduce substantially to almost normal levels (under 20% means that you can not tell miniaturized hairs from vellus hairs). This is why everyone taking finasteride should be evaluated prior to starting the treatment.
Hi there,
Firstly let me say it’s great to have a reliable doctor to look to for information, this site is the only one of it’s kind not trying to sell something.
A few details first. I’m 26 with some recession on both temples about 1-1+1/2 inches. Very little to no movement in the centre where i’ve always had a widows peak.
Today i had a consultation with a “hair specialist” in Toronto who performed a microscopic analysis. As i had expected he advised i had some miniturization on my temples but he also advised i had same on my crown.
He went on to try to sell me a laser comb on the spot, for $500. At this stage i began to feel something was a little off.
My hair loss is minimal (so far !) and from what i understand if there is any use from the LaserComb it’s to thicken existing hair rather than prevent further loss.
I’m a little doubful about crown recession as my dad, brothers and uncles either suffer at the temples or escape altogether. It certainly looks ok to the naked eye.
Anyways, in your opinion should i begin using a Finasteride based drug given the frontal loss or should i look for a second opinion? I’ve heard the drug only really works on the crown is this true?
Cheers
D