If Propecia Just Slows Hair Loss, Do Men Still Lose Hair While Taking It?

Dr. Rassman,

First of all, thank you for sharing your expertise through this site. It’s pretty darn nice of you to take the time to do it.

I’m a 46 year old male and I’ve been experiencing slow hair loss since my late twenties or early thirties. Like a lot of uninformed men who experience MPB, I started slathering on Rogaine, starting and stopping a few times along the way depending on my frustration with the greasy regimen or my concern over my continuing hair loss. About a year ago, I finally decided to start Propecia since I wasn’t seeing great results from the Rogaine.

I discovered this site after starting Propecia, and I now understand the value of a miniaturization study and master plan. That being said, I live in a small city and the Dermatologist I saw never mentioned either of these things to me and I’m sure it’s not part of his treatment approach, so I’m sort of flying blind here.

My question is this – in your experience, what is the approximate percentage of patients that do not respond at all to Propecia? After nine months taking the drug I’ve noticed that I’ve lost more hair. I’ve learned on this site that Propecia may take a year or more to work, but I’ve also learned that since Propecia only slows hair loss it is still possible to continue losing hair while on it. Is it possible that I’m merely a slow responder, or is it likely that I won’t respond given the amount of time I’ve been on it? Given my age and the time I’ve been on the drug, can I assume that I won’t see any regrowth/reversal at this point?

Thank you.

There is no magic cure. Propecia works, but for some men it means “slowing” the hair loss process. It generally works better on men under 30 years old in my experience, but some men under 30 don’t get benefits that are easy to see. This is sometime very difficult to follow or take a good scientific assessment since we cannot count every single hair on your scalp. That is why I stress at the least a miniaturization study, so you can see some progression (even if you are losing hair) or regression. So to answer you question, you may not see regrowth, but you may notice slowing of hair loss over time. I think that has to be taken on blind faith without a beginning measuring point with regard to miniaturization analysis.