I used Minox for 9 Months now, didn’t see much of difference in my diffuse hairloss as I always cut it short. However 4 months ago, I started taking Finasteride 1mg, microneedling 1.5mm every week or 2 weeks. I saw huge improvement in my hair in the last 4 months (Pictures of improvement after 4 months Microneedling+ finasteride are attached to the mail). I used a german brand Finasteride called “Finaristo”. Now since a month I switched to another generic Finasteride 1mg from “Relonchem” shipped from a registered NHS UK pharmacy, because it’s much cheaper than here in Germany. I am now shedding like crazy and this is the first time I notice a shedding in my whole treatment regimen. would you recommend me rebuying the expensive generic german brand so I don’t lose my results? or is it a normal shed at 4th month of finasteride that should go away? And if goes away, how long until it does?

Maybe the new medication is not what you are thinking you are buying and if it is a counterfeit, then that would explain the shed

There is too much crusting present making it easy to lose grafts.  I make it a point to get all of the crusts off on the day of the surgery as well as the day after the surgery to avoid this problem. Our article shows when grafts can be lost safely: https://newhair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/mp-2006-graft-anchoring.pdf. Here is a video that shows how to wash your hair:  https://baldingblog.com/what-is-the-washing-technique-that-you-use-for-after-a-hair-transplant/

Read this article and then you will understand what is happening to you and the timing issue.  You should go back and see your surgeon.

How would a haircheck distinguish between balding, and simply aging. Won’t the hair check just confirm that there is a loss of hair or density either way?

If all of the hairs on the head are thinning as a result of aging, the HAIRCHECK test will show no differences between one area of the scalp and another. In a balding person, there will be distinct differences in the various parts of the scalp that show reduced hair bulk. See here: https://baldingblog.com/haircheck-test-how-it-is-done-video/

I want to keep my hair short right now from side and back but the scarring from the first fue is still noticeable. Do you think scalp micropigmentation will help with this? Second FUE would make this even worse potentially.  This is what it looks like right now. First FUE was years ago.

It looks like you are over-harvested. The instrument the doctor used appears to have been relatively larger than what I would expect. Scalp micropigmentation will hide the abnormal look in the back of your head. Send me photos of your entire head to info@newhair.com so I can give you a sort-of a Master Plan for what to do going forward. It would have been good to have a metric for the original donor area density.

I’m 18 and I’ve been secretly taking fin for 1.5 years (23m, losing hair since 18m mostly temples), I mainly kept what I had and regrew a bit.. Now I want to take a break for a few months, thoughts?

Taking a 2 months break will cause you to get “Catch-up Hair Loss” which means not only will you lose the benefits but you will also lose the hair you might have lost that the drug stopped from falling out. Think twice about it!

I noticed that something like this takes only 800 grafts and my hair is not even close to as bad as this persons so reasonably speaking is 500 grafts not a reasonable guess and there is a lot of hair present, so these drugs are the best option. That area would take more like 1500-2000 grafts depending upon the thickness (fine, medium or coarse) of the hair

There is a lot of hair present, so drugs are the best option. If you are compelled to do something, then get Scalp Micropigmentation (SMP) rather than a hair transplant and you will not have a visible balding crown. Our website shows the results we get from SMP: https://scalpmicropigmentation.com/gallery/thinning-hair/

Does this “tug of war” refer to the idea that your body responds to fin by increasing 5AR enzymes and therefore DHT in response to finasteride? Or does this refer to the idea that even if you inhibit 70% DHT with fin, or 90% with dut, it simply may not be enough to stop genetic balding?

The later. Also it assumes that you can stop the Apoptosis (programmed cell death) that hit hair follicles after they go through a specific number of hair cycles that are programmed in our genetics. Generally, finasteride prolongs the growth cycle and reverses the miniaturization of those hairs that are miniaturized. Given time, if the genes are strongly influencing the hair follicles, these drugs may fail over time.