I’ve Seen Significant Hairline Recession Since Starting Finasteride Last Week
Hi, I’d like to start by thanking you for your blog. I’ve been reading since for around 4 months since I first suspected I may be balding. I’m 20 years old and have long, thin hair. Because it is thin and I have always had a fringe I fear it is more noticable. My father is bald and my brother has also always had thin hair, but he doesn’t seem to be suffering any loss despite being 2 years older than me.
I have been on Finpecia for just over a week and have noticed significant thinning of my hairline above my forehead. I was wondering if it was normal for it to accelerate so quickly after starting to take the pills? Is it normal for my ‘shedding period’ to commence this quickly? Also, I know it probably varies from person to person but I was wondering if you could give me any idea as to how much hair I should expect to lose during this period? Do people actually lose ALL their hair during this period?
Thank you.
Let’s say you were visiting Los Angeles and when you arrived, it started raining and kept doing so for nearly a week straight. You might then conclude that L.A. is a rainy city. Of course, Los Angeles generally gets around 15 inches of rain per year, so you really can not tell anything by looking at just a week of weather. The same analogy applies for your hair loss experience.
Your issue is not normal and I highly doubt it is related to a medication, as you have been on it only ONE week! If anything, it’s possible that you’re just paying more attention to your frontal hairline and are noticing what was always there (or not there).
You didn’t answer the questions about the shedding period and how much hair loss should be expected because of it? I’d be interested to hear the answer too!
I thought it was answered. It isn’t normal to start shedding within a week. There’s really no magic number I can apply to what amount of shedding can be expected.
I must report the opposite experience. All shedding stopped after about a week on Finasteride. And I mean for the first time in a decade I felt pain when I tugged at the previously ‘loose’ (and severely miniaturized) hair on my crown. Previously I would feel such pain only if I were not tugging crown hair. Recently I started using Minoxidil also (after 6 months of taking 1.25mg/day Finasteride) and my crown hairs started shedding after about 3 weeks despite the ongoing Finasteride regimen. After one week of shedding it stopped. I feel pain once again if I tug my crown hair and nothing much comes out by itself.