Current regimen - 3 months finasteride and 5 months nizoral/piroctone olamine

[shyyguy123]

Current regimen - .25mg finasteride 18 month update!!!

28 year old here who just began to notice and take action against hair loss over the past year.

Currently I've been on finasteride .25mg EOD for 3 months and alternating nizoral and piroctone olamine shampoo every day for 5 months. Here's my progress thus far:

Baseline:

3 months finasteride:

As you can see I'm not in terrible shape yet but I have moderate thinning at the hairline (especially temples) and slight thinning at the crown. Also my hair is more forward and flat in the 2nd picture so it's not a perfect comparison but close enough.

No noticeable improvement that I can see, but I'm realistic and didn't expect any potential results until 6-8 months. Obviously I'm hoping for some improvement but I can live with my current situation if all it does it stop further loss. I still have enough hair that I can style it so it's not too noticeable to outside parties.

The only side thus far is a decrease in sex drive. And that has lessened over the 3 months. It was very noticeable the 1st couple weeks but only slightly now. Like most people I was very concerned with potential finasteride sides and I'm very pleased with how I'm tolerating (albeit a very small dose and knock on wood) thus far.

No real issues with either shampoo and I enjoy the clean feeling they give my scalp. They do dry my hair out but I use conditioner afterwards so it's not big deal.

 

[shyyguy123]

Wanted to give this a 6 month finasteride update. Especially since it's hard to find results for people on .25mg EOD. Pretty much maintenance thus far from what I can tell, which I'm content with.

4 and 1/2 months:




6 months:




I'm also still going strong on alternating Nizoral/Piroctone Olamine every day.

Sometimes I get the urge to increase finasteride to maybe .5 EOD but I want to give .25 EOD a little more time. I don't have any sides at this point so I'm afraid to mess with that.

 

[TD500]

If your doing the lowest dose possible you should try doing it at least ED. If it's anything your hair hasn't changed and your crown looks better.

edit

I doubt you'd get sides this far into it and if you do just bump it down at least you know you tolerate this dose.


Good luck and stay focused on the treatment!

 

[shyyguy123]

You're right moving to ED would be the next logical step since I'm already comfortable with .25 mg. I'll probably give .25 EOD another 2 months and then reconsider.

 

[shyyguy123]

Wanted to update this for 2 reasons.

1. I switched to .25mg ED.

But mainly:

2. I got my DHT tested.

The reference level for serum is 16-79 ng/dl and mine is 17.

The reference level for free is 1.00-6.20 pg/ml and mine is 1.25.

I'm assuming being at the bottom of both means finasteride is working great.

 

[shyyguy123]

1 year update:





Been on .25mg every day since mid July of 2015. Definite maintenance. Not a whole lot more. But that's win for such a small dose.

Still alternating Nizoral and Piroctone Olamine every day. Not sure how much they're helping but they're certainly not hurting so I'll keep it going.

 

[davesmith420]

Nice results man! I would say you def had regrowth in your crown and your hair looks overall healthier.

 

[audoyle]

Thanks for the update! Nice progress for sure. Have your temples improved at all or has just the density improved for the existing hair?

 

[abovedagame]

Hair looks healthy. Which piroctone olamine shampoo do you use?

 

[Digidako]

Up it to 1mg man, you're just wasting time.

 

[shyyguy123]

I use Ginger scalp care by The Body Shop. Unfortunately it doesn't say how much Piroctone Olamine it actually contains.

No regrowth on my temples, just very minor thickening if anything. But my temples haven't recessed very far beyond my mature hairline, my mature hairline always had noticeable peaks even when my hair wasn't thinning. The temple density had just gotten really bad.

 

[shyyguy123]

18 month update:






Still on .25 mg finasteride ED, Nizoral, and Piroctone Olamine.

EDIT: For whatever reason the title of the thread refuses to update.

 

[davesmith420]

Looking great man! Have you been noticing any periods of shedding?

 

[shyyguy123]

Negative, no noticeable shedding at any point. Not sure how much that has to do with the small dosage (and the first 6 months being EOD).

I wanted to be sure to keep updating this to show people that .25mg can be effective for maintaining and slight thickening. There's too many people on here that write off micro dosages as completely ineffective.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Hey. Nice progress on such a low dosage, but I'd heavily recommend going up to 1mg or even 1.25mg everyday. I did 1.25mg/day from the get-go. If you feel like your body really couldn't handle it, then stay the course (or maybe step your toe in the water with 0.5 every day). But I think your progress could be quite better with a boost in dosage. Still, it's looking good.

All the best,

Asher

 

[Screeech]

Still maintaining on it?