I started using Minoxidil about a month and a half ago, and noticed some hair growing in unwanted places (e.g. abdomen area) which suggests it has become systemic. Does anyone have experience in stopping the treatment for a week or so to get it out of the system so those body hairs don’t continue growing, then continuing without losing progress with my hair growth?
Unwanted hair on the body from minoxidil will go away once the minoxidil is stopped. It may take a few months for it to go away.
So I’ve tried finasteride and minoxidil the past years but both substances had side effects for me. I also want to clarify that I still fully recommend these products. I was just unlucky because they weren’t compatible with my body chemistry, but I recovered from the side effects as soon as I quit the drug. What this leaves as the only option to regain/maintain hair is having a hair transplant. I’m not held back by the financial costs or the social stigma. So I’ve been looking up information about hair transplants. One thing I see very common is that people who undergo hair transplants combine this treatment with finasteride to avoid further hair loss. But as a person who can’t use finasteride this poses a few questions to me. Will the transplant hairs thin and fall out again? Will the non transplanted hair keep thinning causing bald spots? will I have to undergo multiple transplants to maintain the hairline? Does anyone have the answers to these questions?
Also if you have any experience or knowledge about transplants without finasteride please share it.
Transplanted hairs are not impacted by balding and should last your lifetime without finasteride. A hair transplant can be done without finasteride successfully. The concern is that the miniaturized hairs may fall out (shock loss) if your don’t take finasteride with the transplant. Still, working with your surgeon, you can predict what you might lose after your hair transplant (the native miniaturized hairs).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6746394/
Fantastic restoration of your hair line. Good job!
This man used finasteride, minoxidil and a dermaroller for 6 months to get some mild regrowth. I suspect in time it will get better
“men over 40 often don’t need finasteride with a hair transplant” That is interesting. I had not heard that before. What is the reason for this?
Most men at 40, have lost their miniaturized hairs and are not actively losing hair, so shock loss is unusual in men over 40 unless they are actively losing hair later in life. Ask your surgeon to check out how much of your remaining hair is miniaturized to see if what I said is true in your case.
Dr. Robert Bernstein and I reported a condition called Age Related Thinning. We know with time, normal hair in many people, will thin with age.
Dr. Robert Bernstein wrote this up here: https://www.bernsteinmedical.com/answers/propecia-and-beard-growth/ The answer is that finasteride doesn’t impact beard growth.
Taking testosterone will accelerate genetic hair loss regardless of the medications you are on to stop that from happening
Diffuse Unpatterned Alopecia (DUPA) hits the donor area (back of the head) as it does everywhere else on the head. Men with DUPA should not have a hair transplant. The arrows point to only four normal terminal hairs in this patient’s donor area within the field of view. All of the other hairs are in some degree of miniaturization.
I’m reading on the package of finasteride accord and it says that it lowers the sperm quality and that infertility is a possibility. Would I be risking going infertile if I were to take finasteride for 10 years?
Infertility would be a very remote possibility. I looked into this when my son’s sperm count dropped on finasteride. I found the decreased sperm counts is not uncommon when on finasteride. After that research, my sons wife became pregnant. I have had the opportunity to do sperm counts on some of my younger patients, a lower than average sperm counts have been seen.
I have noticed gains in my moustache and under lip area when applying minoxidil on my head. Are these related?
When minoxidil is applied to the head, sometimes it gets absorbed by the body. I know one female patient of mine who used it on her corner hairline and found a mustache growing on her face. She stopped it immediately. So, I guess the answer is yes
I’m having some trouble cutting these 5 mg Aurobindo finasteride tablets that the pharmacy gave me. They’re film-coated. I think before I had a different brand which was easier to cut into 4 pieces, but the pharmacy says the non-coated tablets are not available anymore. Should I ask for a different brand? Or ask my doctor for a prescription of 1mg tablets, which are about 10 times more expensive, just to be safe? What do you guys use and how do you do it?
Because finasteride is stored in the hair follicle for up to 6 days, you can take one pill every 4 days if you want a quarter of a dose. That is as good as cutting the pills.
Is it the occurrence of shedding all over the top of the scalp? From what I understand there are two major camps of hair loss suffers, the diffusers and the miniaturizers… and sometimes both. But anyways what exactly is diffuse thinning? I get mixed answers all over the place
I have no preference. Only about 40% of men are minoxidil responders and when they do respond, they respond to both the topical and the oral. The topical keeps it local