Minoxidil, when absorbed through the skin of the scalp, will produce body hair. Facial hair is a known side effect. Either reduce the dose or stop the medication to reverse the facial hair growth. With good results on your scalp, I understand how difficult this will be for you. You must make sure that the liquid does not get on your forehead or face when using it.
A young man, about 30, went to 5 different doctors, and each performed a hair transplant. He changed doctors because the surgery failed each time, so he thought he would find a better doctor. He has well over 7,000 grafts after six surgeries. The last and final surgery brought him to a doctor who performed 10,000 body hair grafts, and that too failed, bringing his total graft count to well over 17,000.
I became aware of this man’s plight. I can’t even imagine how much money he spent, and how much debt he must have built up to pay for these transplants. My first thought was that maybe this man has a disease in his scalp that causes the hair grafts to reject. There are many such diseases that fall into the field of autoimmunity, and a biopsy should be done to determine if he, indeed, has one of these diseases. His donor site is fully depleted, so more transplants are not an option. His scalp is scarred, so he now he needs to wear a hat – not a good option for his profession.
He was referred to me for Scalp Micropigmentation, which is an excellent option if he is willing to take on the shaved look. We have managed many such patients with a depleted donor area and scars on the scalp, and they end up looking normal. See here: https://scalpmicropigmentation.com/scar-covering/
I am not surprised about these numbers. Most men deny their balding, and I believe that almost all men care about it and would prefer to have hair. You can see the embarrassment of Donald Trump about the facts that he takes Finasteride, and this is not an unusual issue for being embarrassed. Men, unlike women, don’t like to recognize that they are vain. Accepting that they are going to treat their hair loss makes men uncomfortable. Assuming that these statistics are real (they seem too low to me, but may be correct), the number of men who seek hair transplants is probably 2% of the 5% who actually get proactive. There were ~160,000 hair transplants in the US in 2016. Considering that hair loss is present in 50% of men over 45, and probably 30-40% of men over 25, and considering that the number of men between 25-44 years of age are 49 million, 44-54 years of age are 30 million, and 54+ are about 32 million as of the 2010 census, there are a total of roughly 133 million men in these brackets in the US, half of which have male pattern balding at some level. Considering that there were only about 165,000 hair transplants in the US, that means that only about 0.00124 % of men has had a hair transplant in 2016.
Only 5% of balding men see a doctor about it and a minority of them (28% of the 5%) try to treat it. from tressless
The answer is a clear no. Finasteride works well when you are young, but less well as you get older. Sooner or later, your genetic hair loss will prevail over the drug Finasteride.
Hair follicles have been grown in Petri dishes in the past, and then transplanted into mice. All of the animals died from infection.
If you are seeing results, keep using it. The hair, once grown, may become dependent upon the Minoxidil, or it may be the original hair returning. It could be difficult to tell the difference. Hair pulled out often returns in the first 6 months after being pulled out.
A while ago, Men’s Fitness ran an article about men with hair. The article noted there is a perception that men without hair were not as trustworthy as men with hair. This article was written at the time of the primaries for a US presidential election. They noted that, since President Dwight D. Eisenhower, there has never been a bald president. A while ago, I had a radio program called ‘The Inner Man”, and one of the programs focused on hair loss. I remember a call from the Vice President of marketing for a multi-million dollar company. He called in and said, “I would never hire a bald man because balding men can’t be trusted”. He did tell me that he was the exception to that rule, as he was bald himself.
Looking at Elon Musk, I would then ask: Would you loan this man money to start a business (looking at his 1999 photo)? Of course, we all know that it is not the outside of a man that is important, but the inside of the man. Elon Musk has to be one of the greatest men in the US today and his new look reflects and matches the outer man with the inner man, a man with a brilliant mind and one of the few 20 and 21st-century geniuses and great visionaries.
If you continue to have pain, I would see your doctor. Otherwise, this could be a panic attack.
These two drugs work differently, and when properly managed, they can work together, complementing the value of each drug. Your response to Minoxidil sounds great, so it may be reasonable to expect that you may not get the same effect on Finasteride without going back on Minoxidil.
Yes, the injection could have caused the hair loss. In about 6 months, you will know if the hair loss will reverse.
Thank you for your insightful and informative posts on Reddit. You are a beacon of light in what is otherwise sometimes a hell hole of a subreddit, and I really think they should just give you the keys to the kingdom! I wondered if I could seek your advice. I am based in Europe, so I am unfortunately unable to visit your clinic. I do not know who else I can directly contact and trust, though. I was given bad advice 3 years ago, and was told there “wasn’t really much you could do”. Three years later, and six months of Finasteride later, I am left wishing I had started taking this stuff when I was a NW1, not a NW4. Now that I know there are options, I am considering a hair transplant. I think I should take the plunge and buzz it off first though, so I can learn to accept myself. I understand from your posts that hair transplants at an early age are ill-advised and not in a patient’s best interests. I am now 23. My hair loss has progressed very slowly but surely since I was 18. What should I consider before exploring a hair transplant? Do I need to stay on Fin long enough to be sure that it has stopped my hair loss? Thank you for your counsel. I hardly even know the questions I should ask here, and I am not sure my family doctor will have the answers.
Finasteride is a great drug to either stop or slow down the hair loss in someone of your age. If you have progressed to a NW Class 4 now, you need to develop a Master Plan for your future. Get your donor density analyzed to see what you have for future hair transplants, and then you can make the proper plans. I would, of course, love to see you, but there are good doctors in Europe.
In a few patients, raising the dose of Finasteride has helped maintain or better the results that they have, but it raises the risks of sexual side effects.
I am a 23 y.o male thinking about trying Fin. Actually, I am open to all options, be it Minoxidil or Keto shampoo or whatever. Currently, I think I should wait until the 14th to see the results of the Brotzu trial everyone is raving about. In the meantime, I want to speak with some doctors to see their perspective on the drug. So, is there any way of telling the likelihood of Fin side effects? I read by some other posters on this subreddit that there is a 1 in 100,000 chance of ED. I was just wondering what your perspective might be? What would the procedure be with ensuring the highest chance of keeping my dick if I chose to use Fin? What about peppermint oil, rosemary oil, coconut oil, and other herbal remedies? Do you have any insight on these? Also, I just wanted to thank you for all your contributions to this subreddit. I have learned a great deal reading your comments.
There is no way to determine if you will get side effects, but people who are primed mentally are the ones that mostly get it. In reality, the risks are about 3%, and if you happen to be the 3%, there are ways to reduce the dose to address side effects that work in half of the men on the drug. Remember, if you believe this will happen to you, it will happen to you. When my son went on it, he thought he was taking his daily vitamin P, he told me. His sex drive went down, so he called me and asked if that was a side effect. I told him it was for about 3% of people.
The issue of confidence is what it is all about. I have treated the rich and famous, and almost all of them have issues of confidence with their hair loss.