I’ve seen a lot of your messages on reddit being very helpful for people combating baldness. If you have a moment I hope you could help me with a small question. In my mid 20’s I noticed my hairline begin to recede and went on Finastride. It seemed to work great. My hair recession slowed down significantly. However, when I turned 34. I began to notice my hair line was receding again. I’m aware that drugs like Finasride, more or less, just slow the process down. But I was alarmed at how quickly my hair seemed to be receding all of a sudden. It was like the drug simply stopped working. I panicked and with some research I found that Dutasteride was an alternative that’s been shown to be slightly more affective. So I switched, from 5MG of Fin(quartered) to 0.5 of Dutasteride. That was approximately 10 months ago and my hair continues to recede and thin, at what feels like an alarming pace. So here is my question. Have I made a huge mistake in switching? Will I lose all the hair that I kept on Finastride even though I’ve switched to Dutasteride? I thought that if Dutasteride worked it would keep the hair that Fin was holding back. Or perhaps there was no slowing these effects any longer, whether it was Dut or Fin? I don’t know what to do. Thank you for your time.

A hair transplant is a better option. Dutasteride will probably not reverse this problem at your age and with your history with finasteride.

I’ve seen a lot of your messages on reddit being very helpful for people combating baldness. If you have a moment I hope you could help me with a small question. In my mid 20’s I noticed my hairline begin to recede and went on Finastride. It seemed to work great. My hair recession slowed down significantly. However, when I turned 34. I began to notice my hair line was receding again. I’m aware that drugs like Finasride, more or less, just slow the process down. But I was alarmed at how quickly my hair seemed to be receding all of a sudden. It was like the drug simply stopped working. I panicked and with some research I found that Dutasteride was an alternative that’s been shown to be slightly more affective. So I switched, from 5MG of Fin(quartered) to 0.5 of Dutasteride. That was approximately 10 months ago and my hair continues to recede and thin, at what feels like an alarming pace.

So here is my question. Have I made a huge mistake in switching? Will I lose all the hair that I kept on Finastride even though I’ve switched to Dutasteride? I thought that if Dutasteride worked it would keep the hair that Fin was holding back. Or perhaps there was no slowing these effects any longer, whether it was Dut or Fin? I don’t know what to do.

Dutasteride and finasteride can be interchanged without negative effects. What you are describing is the inevitable changes in progressive hair loss and I doubt with the history you gave, that any medication will help you at this stage. If your hairline bothers you, a hair transplants is the only option.

I’m planning to get scalp micropigmentation SMP on my FUE scars soon. I currently use minoxidil foam which is essentially just minoxidil dissolved in pure ethanol. Does ethanol applied to the skin longterm cause significant fading or blurring of the SMP dots?

The use of alcohol based lotions should be avoided for only the first 3 days after the SMP is done. After that the wounds heal so that the alcohol can’t get to the pigment to have an impact on it. The skin is an effective barrier to protect the SMP from everything except direct long-term sun exposure

There is never a substitute for persistence.  This 24 y/o man made a plan and kept to the plan so that he got the results he wanted.

This is a good example of what you might expect by using finasteride and minoxidil in combination

Is there scientific research behind this? I searched pubmed but couldn’t find anything

I have years of experience where patients developed stress and precipitated the balding process that they inherited. I have also seen acceleration of genetic hair loss with stress. I remember a man who lost a child and he went completely bald to his Class 7 pattern in a matter of months. He was 29 years old.