How Many Months Does it Usually Take for Regrowth from Propecia to Occur?

Dear Dr. William Rassman,

First I want to thank you for your updated and truthful blog. It has surely helped me and obviously many others understand the many things about balding. I am a 25 year old male with what I would perceive as a Norwood III. I have significant loss in the hairline but no baling spot in the back or top the head. I’m not going crazy about the loss of hair but surely want to do whatever it takes to try and stop it from becoming worse.

After reading your blog I know that I have pretty much three current options that I am comfortable with: finasteride, minoxidil, and of course surgery. I don’t feel as though its bad enough to go for surgery right now and find that topical solutions just don’t outweigh the effort (id rather shave my head instead of having to apply the stuff daily), so i started finasteride about three months ago. I have very little if any side effects from the finasteride and have no problem taking it daily. As you know, three months isnt a long time to be on finasteride and its hard to tell if it is actually working for me. however, I plan on taking it for at least a year before I come to a conclusion.

I know that finasteride’s focus is to prevent further hairloss and any regrowth should be looked at as only a positive benefit but my question is that if I were to see any regrowth, how long do you think it would take? Again, I am not taking finasteride with the assumption that it will result in regrowth, I am just wondering when it would be noticeable it regrowth were to occur.

To give you a little background of my family history, there are a few people on both sides of my family that have receding hairlines and thinning on the top of the head. However, there is no one (and i even asked some elders) in anyone’s recollection in my family to have a completely shiny “chrome dome” scalp.

I realize that thing email is particularly long for such a small question but I wanted to give you as much information without pictures as possible. Thanks for any reply you might give and thanks again for having such an informative blog!

Graciously,
Anonymous

I am sorry, but you will likely not see regrowth on your front hairline (or front corners) if you are Norwood Class 3. It’s very rare for those areas to improve from medication. If regrowth happens it is mostly on the top crown areas where there is miniaturization. The best outcome for you on Propecia is slowing or cessation of hair loss in the front. If this happens it would take about 6 to 12 months for you to appreciate.