"Catch up" hairloss

BitchBoy · Jan 26, 2010

Regarding finasteride.

I know this may have been shown in studies and that it's real but I just don't understand why it happens. If DHT is lowered the balding process slows so why should returning DHT levels to normal cause a sudden acceleration above the normal rate to the exact point of hairloss as if the drug had never been taken?
I just don't understand the logic.

Lux · Jan 26, 2010

Some seem to think that when the body is deprived of DHT, it actually makes more androgen receptors to compensate.
This could be why side effects seem to dissspear for some people when they keep taking the pill.

by that logic it doesn't matter what testosterone level u have, the matter is that u can be very strong even if u r a girl with sensitive muscles to a low dosage of testo. )))

i think compensation is about raising testosterone levels as well as 5alpha type-1, so u get more dht, but not in hair follicles(it's only 5alpha type-2 in hairs)

i don't think u'll lose all u got on finasteride if u stop it for a month after taking it for 10 years. )) but the older u r, the more more sensitive hair follicles u have. so that's why u'll will lose it faster when u stop taking the drug.

BitchBoy · Jan 27, 2010

So you mean it's just a clinically obsereved phenomenon that no one understands?

BitchBoy · Feb 4, 2010

I've just been reading that there is evidence androgen receptors "adapt" over time to low levels of androgens, becoming more sensitive. So I guess this would make sense of the catch up hair loss as before the receptors get a chance to adapt to the new high level of DHT they'll go into hyperdrive for a while.

Given this though, in theory, this could be minimised if you used a really heavy regime of anti-androgen topicals(or fluridil to actually destroy the recpetors) and came off the drug gradually.

I know that being on finasteride still retards to follicle miniaturisation process to some degree but doesn't this show that the idea of losing all your gains when you come off finasteride is, at least in theory, avoidable?