When Propecia Works in the Hairline, Are People Taking it Specifically for That Area?

Dr. Rassman, First of all, I really appreicate your great site. I learned a great deal from your answers. One of the most comforting answers was that some of your patients on propecia have retained their hair more than a decade. However, in other posts you mentioned that propecia does not work well in the front, especially for hairline. I am just curious that if patients seeing great result originally had loss limited to their crown or if Propecia actually maintained their front as well. If it has, did it completely prevent their hairline from receding also?

Another question is that do you see any particular trait in the ones with excellent result from propecia such as their lifestyle, diet or even their general personality(pessimistic, optismistic so on..)? Lastly, by rough estimate, talking about great result over a long-term, is it like only few of the total patients or is it actually some significant percent(like 30-50%)?

I apologize for these repetitive questions but just wanted to clear up if there’s any chance. Thank you very much in advance for your time and care for people from all over the world!

I don’t know that there have been specific studies, but (if I had to guess) less than 10% of patients who are on Propecia show benefit to their front hairline area, but even more rarely will they see regrowth there.

I’m not sure if I follow your question. If someone is just losing crown hair and takes Propecia, I wouldn’t consider the medication to necessarily be the cause of their hairline staying put. It could just be that their genetics limited their hair loss to the crown. There is no trait or lifestyle that predisposes someone for responding to the drug, though. It is just how their body reacts to it.

Propecia slows down the hair loss process and can reverse (in the first few years) hair loss in the crown, and it can also make enough of a significant visible difference by filling in behind the frontal hairline and in the top areas. But just keep in mind that Propecia does not COMPLETELY maintain or prevent hair loss. This is impossible.