For how long should a guy under 25 expect fin to work?
Finasteride will work as long as your take it; however, by work I mean slowing the loss down, stopping it or reversing it (usually temporary for months or years).
Thank you for your answer. I’ve heard it’s 80% as effective as the regular dose, would you say that estimate is correct? I’ve been taking that dose for a year because I was concerned about sides and my doctor prescribed it that way, however I feel like my hair is not improving. I also take minoxidil once a day and I think the loss has stopped or almost, but nothing more than that. I just turned 25
What is the dose you are discussing? Look at this curve: https://baldingblog.com/finasteride-competes-with-dht-at-the-receptor-graphic/ You can see that half the dose is almost as effective as the full dose and 1/4 of the dose is about 50% as effective as the full dose
Do you know if having Pseudogynecomastia will make you predisposed to developing gynecomastia as a side effect from finasteride?
Pseudogynecomastia means that there is extra fat in the breast area of a man. It should not increase the risk with finasteride bringing on Gynecomastia
Just one pill a day should reverse this very deforming disease. It is coming out of clinical trials now, see here: https://www.biospace.com/article/pfizer-announces-positive-top-line-results-from-phase-2b-3-trial-of-ritlecitinib-in-alopecia-areata/
Often, men achieve their genetic inherited pattern of hair loss and then stop losing hair. To judge if this is the end point, go back and see if your hair loss pattern has been stable for the past 5 years and if so, this means that you might have reached your inherited hair loss pattern by now
Nice progress! Some of the real change seemed to occur quickly in the first four months. I suspect that microneedling had something to do with the quick initial response.
I drew in the juvenile hairline (see fine dots on the right side of the picture) that would have been his hairline when he was 5 years old. Note that the hairline moves upward as maturing occur. This man has a widow’s peak which shows the lowest position of the juvenile hairline. Young children of both sexes have a concave hairline and as they get older, most men lose it while some women keep it. Read this for more details: https://newhair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/phenotype-article-published.pdf
This is a terrible example of someone performing and FUE and not understanding the basics of moving only permanent hair from the donor zone. I have marked the donor area which is a 3 inch high area starting at the based of the skull between the arrows I drew. Not only will a good 50% of the hairs eventually fall out that were transplanted leaving the patient to experience balding again, but when they fall out, white FUE donor scars will appear all over the non-permanent zone. This procedure was done in Turkey by technicians or a doctor who didn’t understand the FUE process.
I don’t believe that this man who thought he had good work done will be happy with these results. His hairline is straight (no hairline is straight) and the donor area has a large number of patchy areas reflective of a surgeon who used a large punch to perform the FUE. This is a post-operative photo (possibly 1-2 weeks after the surgery) with a lot of scabs sill on the recipient area. The man posted this photo on a forum, but he was proud of it. Detectable hair transplants are never good and this man shows the transplant with an abnormal perfectly straight frontal hairline with straight temple peaks and a see-through donor area from possibly too many FUEs taken for harvesting his donor area. It would have been nice if this man posted a better photo.
What in your opinion would be the ideal needle depth and frequency? Every two weeks?
I am not an expert on microneedling; however, it makes sense that needle depth should be 1-1.5 mm to reach through the epidermis and impact the stem cells which are found high in the dermis. The frequency is purely an intellectual guess. I am seeing that many of the Reddit posters are doing it weekly which sounds ok to me. I am certain that once a hair cycle has passed, the growth from microneedling will be undone unless more microneedling is performed.
The World Health Organization’s Adverse Drug Reaction Database contained 508 reports of serious muscle-related side effects suspected of being linked to the use of finasteride, mostly atrophy, weakness, myalgia and sudden, strong muscle tightening (spasms).
Results newly reported in JAMA show that the muscle mass of men is not affected by inhibition of 5 alpha-reductase, the enzyme that produces the androgen 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) from testosterone
It’s hard for me to imagine that anyone would intentionally or unintentionally do this to any human being. Immoral and terrible!
The picture shows heavy donor site depletion suggesting that the 2,500 grafts you had were too many for your donor area density. This suggests that you had a lower original donor density prior to your original FUE and any more FUEs taken from your donor area will make you look balder in the back of the head. A strip surgery is an option but this is something that you and your doctor need to discuss. You might consider a strip surgery for more grafting.
See here for the limits for FUE surgery defined in one of my previous post in the Hair Transplant Forum: https://baldingblog.com/2017/07/21/many-fue-grafts-many-fues-grafts-one-know-safe-limits/
Drug side effects — Hair loss can be a side effect of certain medications, including lithium, beta-blockers, warfarin, heparin, amphetamines and levodopa (Atamet, Larodopa, Sinemet). In addition, many medications used in cancer chemotherapy — such as doxorubicin (Adriamycin) — commonly cause sudden hair loss affecting the entire head and some of these medications can actually trigger the genes for hair loss in men and women.
Symptom of a medical illness — Hair loss can be one of the symptoms of a medical illness, such as systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus), syphilis, a thyroid disorder (such as hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism), a sex-hormone imbalance or a serious nutritional problem, especially a deficiency of protein, iron, zinc or biotin. These deficiencies are most common in people on restrictive diets and women who have very heavy menstrual flow.
I can’t write a book on it, and I am sure that there are MANY drugs that I have not mentioned in this group.
I’ve read that many doctors prescribe finasteride to patients as young as 16, so my question is how do doctors safely establish that suppressing DHT in patients so young won’t be a problem?
I don’t believe that depressing DHT impacts the body significantly in men over 17 who are well past puberty. By this, I mean, growing your height has plateaued, facial hair may have started to grow. Most boys will stop growing taller by age 16 and will usually have developed fully by 18.
We see more testosterone production with finasteride. I have had many patients over 17 on finasteride and most are fully grown. You do raise important issues that should be discussed with your doctor