After overcoming my initial fears about fin and now being on it, my worries have shifted to the possibility of it not working. Just asking about stopping loss not about regaining ground.
Finasteride takes time in some men. Give it a full year before drawing conclusions. I have found that in close to 100% of men, the drug will slow, stop or reverse the hair loss. Slowing it down is common, stopping it is less common, and reversing it is even less common (more common in men under the age of 23).
Specifically, is the spike in testosterone levels just an effect from the body adjusting to the finasteride?
Yes, it is the body’s feedback loop. Some men actually get an increased libido from the increase in testosterone. one of my friend’s son had that happen to him and he called me worried. His girlfriend loved it, so I told him to enjoy the experience.
From the longest time, I had been taking 0.5 mg of Finasteride daily yet was still losing ground. People said that the differences between the two doses were negligible, so I assumed that increasing the dose wouldn’t help. After seeing little progress over a year, I decided to bite the bullet and increased my dosage to 1 mg daily. The differences were noticeable within a few weeks. I had less shedding both in the shower and on the floor. In addition, my libido was slightly lower than before, but I took that as a sign of efficacy. And hey, I would personally rather have a full head of hair and have sex a little less often than the opposite. Fast forward to a few months later, and I’ve already noticed regrowth. Take my anecdotal testimony with a grain of salt, if you must, but let this be a warning, or perhaps a beacon of hope, to those who are unaware: there is a difference in dosage for some people. If your hair loss is aggressive, don’t be afraid to increase your dosage. Those few percentages can be the break point between losing and gaining.
In Mercks original study on Propecia, the 1mg dose was the recommended best dose. Thank you for sharing your experience. I hope you become a model for others who take shortcuts and don’t get the full benefits of the drug.
[If you have any questions, you can reach me at williamrassman33@gmail.com]
I am now 3 months after the surgery. The grafts have started to grow. This photo was taken one day after the surgery. What do you think?
This is a nice job. I hope that readers who go to Turkey note that you received 2000 grafts, not 5000 grafts. This means that your surgeon respected your donor reserves while covering the areas that were needed. I like your work and wish I would see more conservative use of grafts on those of you who go to turkey. Hair transplantation is not a race to see who can get more grafts in a single session.
[If you have any questions, you can reach me at williamrassman33@gmail.com]
I went to Turkey to get a hair transplant and the results were amazing. My confidence did a 180 and life really did get better. However, now I am noticing thinning in my hair transplant area and its starting to look pretty bad. Is this normal? I wonder if there is something I have done to damage the hair? My hairloss in general has been stable for the past 5 years and the only noticable area is the hair transplant.
That is a lot of grafts for the frontal area. What happens if you lose the back as your hair loss progresses? Is there enough donor hair left to follow your balding? What is your Master Plan? Actually, I think what you did was overkill, using too many grafts. Let’s assume that you continue to bald as you get older. The donor supply is often around 6000-8000 grafts, and with a higher number, it is almost certain that you will have a see-through donor area unless your hair is coarse.
[If you have any questions, you can reach me at williamrassman33@gmail.com]
Over and over again I see photos of very bald men who reverse the process (partially or completely) with microneeding augmented by minoxidil and finasteride. I am sure that the key to this outcome is the microneeding. I am increasingly convinced that many of these very bald men have active sleeping stem cells left over from their hair days. The results will improve if he keeps up the microneeding for a year.
[If you have any questions, you can reach me at williamrassman33@gmail.com]
I’m going to is talking about using a robot to harvest grafts I’m just wondering if I can trust it I’m worried about losing my donor area. The surgeon said it’s better but I would rather have a surgeon do it themselves. Do you have experience with this?
Focus on the quality and experience of the surgeon and his/her team. I am the inventor of the hair transplant robot (https://patents.google.com/patent/US20080033455A1/en?q=(Hair+Transplant+Harvesting+Device+Rassman)&oq=Hair+Transplant+Harvesting+Device+Rassman), so I can tell you that the skill is not in the robot but in the surgeon’s hands, artistic skills (so he knows where to place the grafts, create a hairline, and direct the hairs that are placed), and knowledge of the field. Check to meet some of his patients to be sure you have the right place.
[If you have any questions, you can reach me at williamrassman33@gmail.com]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1386573/pdf/brjclinpharm00094-0143.pdf
The article suggests that minoxidil may have long-term cardiac effects. It was written in 1988, suggesting that more recent updates are available. I haven’s had the time to delve into further research on this subject.
[If you have any questions, you can reach me at williamrassman33@gmail.com]
So I’m 34 and had a fue hair transplant 7 years ago (1000 grafts ) it was probably to young for me to do.. but you live and learn. I know I’ll eventually have to get another transplant & I’m tempted to soon .. but I’m trying to hold off getting another one soon as I know the donor area has around 6000 grafts to be used over your lifetime ,with medication I’ve only stuck to natural remedies(should of jumped on fin/min earlier.. ) but here we are . I know I need to make a decision, what are your experiences with topical solutions ?
Try three things: 1) finasteride, 2) oral minoxidil, and 3) microneedling. If within 8 months you don’t get results from this combination of things, then a hair transplant by a good, competent doctor is the next thing to do. If you can’t tolerate oral finasteride, then topical liposomal finasteride is an excellent option as it mostly stays in the scalp. After having had one hair transplant and being 34 years old, I doubt the medications will regrow your hair. If you don’t want medications, then you can go for another hair transplant, and considering this would be your second, I suspect it will work well. Depending upon your donor hair thickness, a good hair transplant surgeon can determine how many grafts you need and predict your probable outcome. I do this, and I have been doing it for 33 years, all with follicular unit grafts before anyone was on to it.
[If you have any questions, you can reach me at williamrassman33@gmail.com]
I can’t see the front and top areas from the photo you supplied. Do you have any hair there now? First, you’ll need the doctor to evaluate your donor area to rule out any disease that may be there. Good doctors routinely perform trichoscopy to rule out diseases of the donor area and the metrics that I am about to discuss. You need metrics for your lifetime donor supply, which will include (1) donor density and (2) hair shaft thickness of the donor hairs. This will tell the surgeon what you will look like after the hair transplant, which will be shared with you. Then, a good surgeon will complete the examination by judging where your balding pattern will end up. Good planning is critical so you don’t expend all of your donor hair on a limited vision of where you are now. Balding is progressive, and you want to be sure that in the long term, you will always look normal and have enough hair left to follow the progressive nature of YOUR balding.
[If you have any questions, you can reach me at williamrassman33@gmail.com]
When i pinch that area and just slightly pull hairs just fall out? Mpb on my moms side don’t even lose their temple peaks this bad, they stop around a NW5-6 with Their peaks intact, they were never perfectly squared off anyways but why is this area so thin? I’m about a NW2.5 in the hairline with thick hair other than that & this area. it’s on both sides of my head. anything i can do to fix it or?
The temple peaks have considerable variation in thickness. Comparison photos from your younger days might help determine whether this is a variation or something else. I have done extensive writing on this and found that the temple peaks are independent of the general balding process, carrying their genetic code. Time will tell you where you are going; that is why earlier photos of you for comparison will tell you a great deal. You might consider being examined by an expert like me. If the pull test is positive, I would be more alarmed than just observing what you show. I have performed hair transplants on many men who were Class 7 pattern balding, and as you know, that is really advanced balding; however, in these men, they retain a normal temple peak despite the loss of all of the hair in the front, top, and crown of their head.
[If you have any questions, you can reach me at williamrassman33@gmail.com]
I’m 20 and have started to get some pretty crazy shed over the past year. I used to have very thick curly hair but my hairline has receded and scalp is visible on top of my head. I’m planning on starting treatment. I am thinking about doing so orally because of the convenience, would it be smart/safe to take both min and fin? Or one or the other?
These are two good drugs with different mechanisms of action. As long as you don’t get side effects, these drugs have a good chance of reversing your hair loss at 20 years old.
[If you have any questions, you can reach me at williamrassman33@gmail.com]
Started with oral finasteride and switched to topical after years of use once low libido and ED side effects started. Topical had been working well for a few years, but now once again suffering from low libido and ED. I understand Duasteride is stronger, but does anyone know or have anecdotal experience with switching medications and not having the same adverse side effects? Is there a chance Duasteride won’t cause the same issues or am I just going to have to give up on my battle with hair loss?
If finasteride causes low libido, the dutasteride will also do the same however, the dutasteride, with its long half-life of 4-6 weeks, will take many months to get out of your system, unlike finasteride, which has a half-life of 4-6 hours.
[If you have any questions, you can reach me at williamrassman33@gmail.com]
I would give the baby on the left a hair transplant. The baby on the right has a terrific head of hair. All kidding aside, babies come in all sizes, shapes, and hair distribution. Nothing predicts balding at this age until we develop genetic testing for balding. I have seen baby girls with what would be classified as a Class 8 pattern of balding (almost no hair present), and they looked adorable, even hairless. We are spending too much of our time on hair projections.
[If you have any questions, you can reach me at williamrassman33@gmail.com]
