8 months on dutasteride...

[noob]

Well I was reading this a lot last year, and got some advice. So I just wanted to come back with my results....

Anyway, I am 26 and have been slowly losing my hair since about 19 or 20. Before starting anything, I had gotten to the point where I was the butt of bald jokes from my friends, and it was readily noticeable that I was losing hair. It was mostly on top, with no hair line receeding. Anyway, I decided to start taking some stuff last summer. So here is what I've been on...

.5 mg Dutas (Dutasteride) daily
5% minoxidil / 2x day
Nizoral 2% every 3rd day
Hairgenesis shampoo the other days
(Used Tricomin for 6 months, but that was expensive and seemed excessive, so I recently stopped it)

Anyway, I've had pretty awesome results. My hair has come back quite a bit. The very thin spot at the vertex has filled in and things have really thickened up towards the front. The hair is no longer thin and whispy in a lot of spots, but looks like real hair again. The vertex isn't back to where it was when I was 16, but it has improved considerably.
The most telling sign that things were improving was the fact that I didn't tell anyone that I was on something. AFter two months, my girlfriend called me out and told me that I had definitely more hair. After about four months, some of my good friends from college (whom I handn't seen since starting) accused me of being on something, and told me how good it looked. That happened several more times. People at school that I don't know that well ask my girlfriend if I am taking something. So things are good. The best part is, I rarely think about it (or check this site). I don't dwell on hair loss and feel bad about it. So I look and feel better.
Anyway, as far as side effects go, for the first two weeks I had a decent headache each day. Then that went away. Since then I have had no issues what so ever. My sex drive is the same. My performance in school is the same. No problems. So I just posted this to maybe help some of you alleviate a little some of your fears about dutasteride. But again - remember that it is not FDA approved.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the post. As of today I took my last propecia pill ever, and tomorrow I take the plunge into dutasteride. I'm pretty freaked about it, but it sounds like we have similar hairloss. I hope it works for me. I'm not on minoxidil, though, so I don't know if it's even possible I could have as good results as you. I hope more dutasteride users start posting their responses to this very frightening drug.

 

[stax]

Great and good luck with that. Please keep everybody updated on any results and side effects.

 

[stabone1979]

Hey noob, how is your skin after 8 months on dutasteride

 

[noob]

No problems. Sin is the same as it was before - not overly dry and not overly oily.

 

[stax]

Now im thinking of using dutasteride instead of Propecia.Noob did you notice any change in body definition and muscle mass at all ? Im afraid if i take dutasteride it will make my muscle definition go away.

 

[Guest]

Also: has it hurt your hairline, as the scary rumors would have it?

 

[blockhead]

Cool. I've been on the dutasteride for 10 days now so you have given me some hope. Has dutasteride made you especially tired? It's made me really sleepy unless I get a full 8 hours sleep.

 

[noob]

Okay, here are the answers to some of those querstions -

Muscle mass - No changes at all. I work out a lot and lift and have had no definition changes at all. If anything I feel a bit stronger, which would make sense: less DHT means more testosterone, which is responsible for building muscle.

Front hair - I never had any problems on the hairline and I still don't now, so no change

Type of hair - Honestly I don't think the new hair was thin and fuzzy. With virtually no DHT, many of the hair follciles went back to healthy prioduction. So the new hairs I have are like normal healthy hairs.

It took several months to begin noticing things. And things were looking better even after 6 months. it was slow, but I would plan on giving it 6 months to really see if it works.

It has not made me any more tired or anything.

Keep in mind that my hair loss was quite gradual. Someone with a more sever case may not do as well. Also, I don't really know how well this will help with a hairline, because I never had problems there. So good luck, feel free to ask any more questions.

 

[noob]

Okay, here are the answers to some of those querstions -

Muscle mass - No changes at all. I work out a lot and lift and have had no definition changes at all. If anything I feel a bit stronger, which would make sense: less DHT means more testosterone, which is responsible for building muscle.

Front hair - I never had any problems on the hairline and I still don't now, so no change

Type of hair - Honestly I don't think the new hair was thin and fuzzy. With virtually no DHT, many of the hair follciles went back to healthy prioduction. So the new hairs I have are like normal healthy hairs.

It took several months to begin noticing things. And things were looking better even after 6 months. it was slow, but I would plan on giving it 6 months to really see if it works.

It has not made me any more tired or anything.

Keep in mind that my hair loss was quite gradual. Someone with a more sever case may not do as well. Also, I don't really know how well this will help with a hairline, because I never had problems there. So good luck, feel free to ask any more questions.

 

[oni]

Good to see your results. I too have now been on dutasteride for about 10mths now and I am very happy with the results. I do not have dry skin problems and because of dutasteride I have been able to put on a bit more muscle mass about 7 lbs.

 

[Chipper]

To Oni

How old are you oni?

 

[ropcat]

Hey everyone. I have a question about making the transition from finasteride to dutasteride. I have about eight months' worth of Proscar pills left, and I'm mulling the switch to dutasteride. Is the half-life of dutasteride long enough that I could alternate finasteride and dutasteride doses each day until my finasteride is gone? (In other words, does the dutasteride stay active in the system long enough that alternating dutasteride and finasteride won't produce wildly oscillating levels of DHT in my system?)

Also, you guys on dutasteride: where do you get it, and which generic (if any) did you pick?

 

[ropcat]

Incidentally, I also wanted to ask: what are the dutasteride side effects that have been reported anecdotally around here? In other words, the ones that people have mentioned that aren't listed in the drug's "official" side effects? Does anyone know?

 

[mattam]

noob,

did u try finasteride before dutasteride and just didn't work? Or u just went straight to dutasteride?

Anyone here has try switching from finasteride to dutasteride b/c finasteride didn't work or stopped working? If so, how much more effective it dutasteride compared to finasteride?

thanks....

 

[dylan00]

dutasteride

How does someone get the drug dutasteride? I would like to try it, but I have no idea how to get it. I am using finasteride and it has helped on the vertex, but nothing for the front. So I would like to try dutasteride to see if that will do anything for the front.

Thanks

 

[oni]

I am 29 Chipper, how old are you?

 

[Slartibartfast]

Hi ropcat. Now I know that you've been on Finasteride for many a year, but for the benefit of our viewers I'd just like to reiterate the importance of giving finasteride an absolute minimum of a year before assessing its efficacy and altering your regimen.

After 20 months on finasteride I realized that it was incapable of preventing further frontal thinning so I switched to Dutasteride. Thinking that its long half-life would enable less frequent dosing I took one capsule every other day. For a time this appeared to be working, I endured a heavy shed confident that this was a necessary evil and that I'd soon see a healthy burst of regrowth. Unfortunately this didn't happen, my hair count simply stagnated at its new, lower level.

I persevered with this regimen for 15 months before accepting defeat and upping it to a daily dose of dutasteride. About six and a half months have passed since then and I'm already seeing a decent number of new hairs on and behind my hairline. Which, even though I didn't alternate between dutasteride and finasteride as you propose to do, leads me to suggest that a daily dose of dutasteride would be more beneficial.

As I found out after a year of taking dutasteride every other day, less frequent dosing lowers the maximum level of dutasteride in your blood in spite of the long half-life, as this chart shows:
http://www.hairsite2.com/images/dutas_analysis.jpg

Slarti

 

[ropcat]

Slarti-

Thanks for this really helpful post. I checked out the chart you linked; that's great. So, looking at the levels of scalp inhibition, it seems like moving up from inhibiting 50% scalp DHT (with every-other-day doses) to 55% scalp DHT (with daily doses) made all the difference for you.

I'm surprised, though, that your condition slipped when you switched from finasteride to every-other-day dutasteride. I would have imagined that moving from the 38% scalp inhibition from finasteride to the 50% scalp inhibition of every-other-day dutasteride would have netted you some positive (rather than negative) results, even if the every-day dose would produce better results. I guess it's never easy to predict with these drugs.

How close are you to getting back to: A.) your baseline at the moment when you switched from finasteride to dutasteride; and B.) your baseline when you started Finasteride treatment three-and-a-half years ago?

Again, I much appreciate your help!

 

[Slartibartfast]

Glad I could help you out. About the scalp inhibition figures on that graph; I should have said that, according to an earlier post by Bryan, two studies into this area produced conflicting results. Apparently one of these concluded that scalp DHT is reduced by a level comparable to that seen in serum, whilst another gave the (much lower) figures reproduced on the aforementioned graph.

But your observation is just as valid either way. For whatever reason the every other-day-dose lowered my DHT sufficiently to induce a shed but failed to stimulate any subsequent regrowth. Thankfully the daily dose appears to be achieving the latter without me having to once again endure the former. Perhaps the severity of my male pattern baldness changed whilst I was on the less frequent dose. The increase in follicular sensitivity to DHT, or whatever it is that causes the balding process to accelerate as we age, might have simply kicked in.

As for your questions:

A) In terms of overall density; I'd say that the front middle is marginally ahead, front left is about equal, and the front right is still slightly behind. The rest of my hair I would put in the significantly thicker category - no doubt thanks to it not having had the same heavy dutasteride shed as the front.

B) Well, everywhere bar the front has pretty much returned to this level of density. The front middle is now not far off this baseline - though this was easily the worst affected area at that time - and the front left and right are both still thinner, but improving.

Slarti