Understanding Catch-up Hair Loss After Stopping Finateride

My question is to do with ‘catch-up hairloss’ after quitting finasteride.

If DHT gradually destroys the hair follicle and finasteride protects the follicle by reducing DHT, then why would there be such a fast ‘catch-up’ hairloss after quitting finasteride?

My thinking is, say your follicles have 3 yrs left before DHT finally destroys them. Then you go on finasteride for 5 yrs before quitting, surely your follicles would then still have 3yrs left, much like weather proofing a wooden fence?

Good thought, but finasteride does not block 100% of DHT… and DHT may not be the only factor here. More importantly, as much as your logic may seem true or make sense, in the real world catch-up hair loss from cessation of finasteride does not work that way based on many patients we have observed. We all have an internal clock, and your follicles are still on that clock (call it the apoptosis clock) so that the clock’s time advances regardless of whether you are on finasteride.

We’re just observers to a body process we barely understand.