Finasteride Drug Dose Revisited And Rethought

First of all thank you for what you do with this site it is a tremendous resource. I am twenty and began to recede at the hairline about a year ago. I started taking one fourth of a proscar daily in April without a prescription and got a prescription for it in June after seeing a dermatologist. I have since been taking the generic version daily. The medication does not seem to be working as I have continued to lose much hair from my crown to the point where my scalp is visible in harsh lighting.

I have long hair but i have noticed in the last week that I am losing the very short (terminal?) hairs again after not noticing them for the past few months. Could this be due to the switch to the generic version? The proscar pills were individually sealed while the generic are together in a pill bottle could this air contact affect their potency? As it has been seven months and I have lost noticeably more hair should I discontinue the medication?

Thank you, my dermatologist is pretty clueless when it comes to hair loss, so I appreciate your knowledge.

Generic finasteride 5mg is the same drug as Propecia, which is just finasteride in 1mg strength, so there should be no difference in efficacy. I don’t think bottle vs individually sealed has any bearing on the potency.

Finasteride does not work that well for frontal hairline, so what you may be experiencing is just your normal course of hair loss that the drug cannot address, particular in a man of your age who might have an aggressive pattern of hair loss in the family line. Many men like you report that their father or fathers father or mothers father had an extreme balding pattern at an early age. These men will not see the same effects as men who are not heading to an advanced hair loss pattern. I would ask if any of those balding men in your family had advanced balding and at what age did they lose their hair? That may shed light on your problem. Lighting will make the hair appear thinner. Do you have comparison photos to look at from before you started? You’ll need to discuss changes to your medication with your prescribing doctor but if you have your father’s pattern (of advanced balding) nothing may help. The best way to know this is to see a doctor who offers hair bulk assessment with the HAIRCHECK system. If you are heading for advanced balding, then this test will tell you that. If it were me, I would want to know!