Absurd 1000+ Hair/day Shed, Hairs Falling Out At Record Rate

[SausageDawg]

Yeah, I mean all I can do is wait and see. I'm still on the finasteride. The drug has completely prevented my receding hairline; it hasnt moved over the 10 or so months I've been using it. It's just this damn shedding.

Are you certain there's no evidence of density loss? I think I've read cases of guys shedding non-stop for years and ruining their hair irreparably. Or am I wrong? My MD personally told me that in his practice less than 5% of men experience this sort of thing, but they do indeed experience it. I know that's not a study or proper research, but take it for what it is.

This is an extremely stressful experience. Imagine taking a drug that's supposed to prevent hair loss and you start losing hair even more rapidly? It's some cruel joke. I was scared of sexual sides and all that crap before taking Finasteride. None of those sides ever happened but I got hit with this instead.

But like you said, who's to know what it all means anyway? I guess I'll find out.

If you're hairline has remained intact and your density still remains.. it's a success, theres no two ways about it my man! I too have read many online anecdotes about the constant shedding but have only seen maybe 1/2 with pictures for evidence.. if this really did happen we wouldve seen a hell of a lot more!! And like I said before you cannot just assume every story you read on here is accurate.. we have to assume a great deal of them were just having a regular shed and they panicked. @pegasus2 is actually right.. I shed maybe 60/70 hairs in the shower and that's not even counting the ones on my pillow and that fall out throughout the day, so I'd feel happy with 20/30 imo.

 

[kafka12]

If you're hairline has remained intact and your density still remains.. it's a success, theres no two ways about it my man! I too have read many online anecdotes about the constant shedding but have only seen maybe 1/2 with pictures for evidence.. if this really did happen we wouldve seen a hell of a lot more!! And like I said before you cannot just assume every story you read on here is accurate.. we have to assume a great deal of them were just having a regular shed and they panicked. @pegasus2 is actually right.. I shed maybe 60/70 hairs in the shower and that's not even counting the ones on my pillow and that fall out throughout the day, so I'd feel happy with 20/30 imo.

Wow really? That's interesting. Something to think about for sure. My density is a little bit worse at the front since I started finasteride 10 months ago, but not really noticable when hair gets longer.

 

[SausageDawg]

Wow really? That's interesting. Something to think about for sure. My density is a little bit worse at the front since I started finasteride 10 months ago, but not really noticable when hair gets longer.

Who knows maybe your density hasnt even been affected.. I'm on no treatment whatsoever and I wake up some days thinking my hair looks absolutely fine and then other days I think it looks horrendously thin and sparse.. my point being that your mindset definitely affects your opinion. Good, solid photo evidence that's peer reviewed is your best bet as strangers have no reason to lie.

 

[doflamingo]

yeah...you dont wanna shed until you're head is rotten like this

 

[kafka12]

Brutal.

Anyway, still experiencing significant shedding. Lowering finasteride dose to 1mg 3x a week instead of daily. Seeing if that makes any difference.

 

[jumptr]

I had a similar experience on finasteride, though I only used to microdose 0.25mg twice a week:

A day or two after taking the first dose, I started shedding lots of thick terminal hairs. Before being on finasteride, I would only shed around 10-20 thin hairs in the shower, so it was definitely an obvious change. I remember noticing a pattern that I would shed more hairs the day after taking finasteride, and the shed would slowly reduce until my next dose. But after about 6 months of taking it this "pattern" disappeared, I would just have a constant shed of 60-70 hairs every day. I quit after 12 months of no improvement and persistent shed.

As a side note, I experienced pretty significant sides (low libido + gyno) while taking finasteride too, so it was definitely lowering DHT even at that low of a dosage.

If your hair starts to noticeably get worse and there's no sign of the shed stopping over the span of a few months, maybe take a break for a week or two and see what happens. I'd also recommend starting minoxidil and microneedling as soon as you can-- it was way more effective for me than finasteride, and the earlier you start the more hair you'll keep/regrow.

I believe understanding why finasteride causes a massive shed for some, yet fully regrows other people's hairlines to NW1 is crucial to solving this disease. There needs to be a better way of classifying male pattern baldness into different variants, so we can find the best treatment plan for ourselves instead of having to use trial and error.

 

[bluecyclone]

First post, bit of background: 5 months ago I noticed the first signs of male pattern baldness so I thought it would be smart to do something about it early on. Went to the Doctor, got a prescription for Finasteride 1.25mg/daily. Decided there was no need for minoxidil or anything else, so skipped that, hoping finasteride alone would keep balding at bay. First 3 months everything was perfectly fine, no lost ground, no lost hair. But then month 4 during a shower I noticed that there were 20-30 hairs in the tub when before there were none. Next day there were 60-70 hairs. Day after that there were a good 200.

Soon enough I was losing 700-1000 hairs a day, easily. It's just falling out at an insane rate, all over my bed, chair, keyboard, desk, floor, sink -- I have to be careful when I eat so I don't end up with hair in my teeth. It falls out from every area of my head, including the back and sides, where it shouldn't be possible to bald. I have extremely thick hair so it hasn't been too bad of a visual hit, but if it continues at this rate without stopping, I'll be slick bald in less than a year. Plenty of big, perfectly healthy hairs are falling out, so it's not just like it's sick dying strands being replaced or whatever -- and each one tapers and has a little white bulb at the end.

Called up my Doctor today and he told me he's had quite a few instances of this in his practice, but in his opinion it's "less than 10%". He said that half the men in his experience are beyond hope, while half recover. He said to keep taking the drug for another 2 months and report back then. If the massive shed continues, he says to stop taking finasteride for a month and see what happens, then maybe start up again.

The situation is so insane it's almost comical. I'm like a cat; hairs just fall out at random; I saw 3 drift down in front of my face as I typed this out. Today I switched from generic to brand Propecia in some vain hope it'll make a difference. Unlike so many other people to whom this happens, I promise to actually report back here in however many months and share my results, although I have very little hope it will get better for some reason, it's just too insane, pure madness.

Anyone else experience THIS HARDCORE of a shed for this long and live to tell the tale?

This happened to me as well. I had insane density and now I’m noticeably thin in the entire NW7 region. It is a f*****g nightmare that has driven me f*****g crazy.

 

[kafka12]

Still shedding at a decent pace, nothing like the initial 1000 daily, but definitely a couple hundred--and yet my hair seems perfectly fine. I notice no density issues and my hairline has not receded a millimeter since getting on Finasteride a year ago. Mysterious, but I'll take it?

 

[kafka12]

This happened to me as well. I had insane density and now I’m noticeably thin in the entire NW7 region. It is a f*****g nightmare that has driven me f*****g crazy.

That f*****g sucks. I'm shedding a lot but density remains the same it seems to me. I don't get it. I don't get anything anymore. Nothing makes sense to me. The world is unknowable. I've accepted the mystery, as that character says in that Coen brothers movie. =/