Finasteride and Pigmentation

Hello Dr Rassman, Im a 28 year old male that has been taking Proscar split into 1.25mg for about 1.5 years. During this period I have made two very interesting observations regarding my hair which i want to ask you about.

1. Does Finasteride effect the pigmentation of the hair? Over he past 1.5 years ive noticed that my hair has turned a bizarre color, it almost looks grey but it isn’t, it almost looks clear. (I have blonde/brown hair).

2. Does Finasteride decrease the diameter of the hair shaft? (Even on hairs that aren’t miniaturized). Ive noticed despite retaining the bulk of my hair, that the overall feel of my hair is thinner, it lacks body and luster, but there hair is still very much abundant as it was before and it still continues to grow long and strong. The hair itself is just finer, but this has occurred all over my head, it was never like this before! I can physically see the hair diameter is thinner. (But its definitely not suffering from miniaturization).

There is no report on finasteride being associated with a change of pigmentation of hair/color. Miniaturized hairs usually look lighter, as they have less pigment in them. If anything, finasteride increases the thickness of hair shaft and may make the hair look darker that way. There are some other causes for hair color change. Most of them are either genetic factors, or systemic factors like nutritional and hormonal disorders. Talk about this issue with your primary doctor.

It is hard for patients to judge the thickness of their hair after starting on Propecia. Although the medication is supposed to increase the thickness of individual hair shafts, the growth changes from finasteride probably occur over at least 3 months and even then it may not be easy for the patient to see the difference. By any means, Propecia should not decrease hair thickness. If you see such changes it might have to do with the progression of your miniaturization (and the hair loss) and the medication may not be as effective as you may have hoped.