Will Propecia Thicken the Hairline?, Follow-Up

I sent you the question which you titled “Will Propecia Thicken the Hairline“.

I don’t have a good digital camera so I’m unable to take reliable pictures for you but I think I can help color the situation with more detail. As I mentioned earlier I’m 25 years old and have a Norwood 1.5 – 2 hairline with thinning in the area around the hairline of 2 -3 cm. The worst area is due north of my temples and isn’t a usually area to lose if your hairline is just maturing. My father is a Norwood 5 and has been since his mid 30’s. The thinning the crown area and diffuse thinning in the hairline indicate to me that I will progress like my father considering my age. I’ve been on propecia for 7 months and it has stopped my hairloss in the vertex and possible slowed the thinning in the front, although as you know it’s difficult to assess even if you are going to a doctor regularly. Taken that propecia is effective in me is it reasonable to think that I will keep the hair behind my hairline given that it hasn’t been significantly effected my MPB? I don’t expect propecia will help thicken the hair in the hairline as it hasn’t done so yet but would it be acceptable to expect I will keep most of the hair that hasn’t been effected my MPB yet? I hope there is more clarity here.

There are no guarantees that Propecia will stop the progression of hair loss. In fact, the studies on the medication show that the loss continues, starting possibly at a higher level of growth on the curves accounting for hair gains seen. Please refer to this graph (click it to see full size), which was made available by Propecia’s manufacturer, Merck. Note that the green curve (those on Propecia) has a less significant downward slope than the gray curve (the control group). This suggests to me that beyond the 5th year that the hair counts will not be droping as fast in the treated group (I wish the actual data had been made available to me).