Does treatment decrease the numbers of hairs shed?

[hairschmair]

Hi all,

Had a quick question for the experts. Only been on finasteride for 3 weeks now myself.

Assuming someone responds positively to finasteride and halts hair loss or even sees some regrowth: Will the numbers of hairs lost daily (shower, wherever) decrease? I'm just wondering if this is the case, or whether all the treatments do is to make the regrowing hair as healthy as the previous ones.

Just so I know what to expect. I'm currently at a 0-on-pillow-20-in-shower stage.

Thanks

Jay

 

[hairschmair]

This seems like quite a basic question. Someone must know!!!

 

[Greg1]

Hmmm...hairschmair, it might not be as simple as you thought since you haven't got any responses yet. It's a well thought out question though and one which I will be monitoring as per the answers.

 

[too bald too furious]

Hi all,

Had a quick question for the experts. Only been on finasteride for 3 weeks now myself.

Assuming someone responds positively to finasteride and halts hair loss or even sees some regrowth: Will the numbers of hairs lost daily (shower, wherever) decrease? I'm just wondering if this is the case, or whether all the treatments do is to make the regrowing hair as healthy as the previous ones.

Just so I know what to expect. I'm currently at a 0-on-pillow-20-in-shower stage.

Thanks

Jay

Hey,

When you are taking finasteride, the follicles are not under so much attack by DHT as they are before you took finasteride. That could mean that hair stays in the anagen(growing phase) longer.

Even people without male pattern baldness do shed hairs regularly. But the difference is that the rate of their hair growing back is quite fast as compared to ours since their follicles are not susceptible to DHT.

For minoxidil, the hair stays in anagen phase much longer but the DHT is still attacking the hair follicles.

So yes, if you do respond you should see a bit of less shed but an increase in the rate of growth of your hair.

 

[Trent]

The way I perceive the whole shedding issue, is that there are three kinds of shedding: male pattern baldness shedding that is just increase in hairloss, treatment induced cycle shedding (the kind that the article on hairlosssucks.com describes in this link ---> shed), and then just regular old seasonal/normal average shedding. People have all different types of reactions to these three sheds. Some never got much male pattern baldness shedding, some get noticeable sheds when starting treatments, some get dramatic season sheds, some get all three or different variations of the three, and some people just plain old aren't much of a shedders.

the bottom line, its impossible to know what type of person you are, and exactly what the shedding indicates. It could be any one of the three i mentioned happening at different levels. So all you can do is take pictures, and take note as to whether your hair is IMPROVING, that is the indicator, not sheds.

i know this doesn't help you "prepare" for your treatment process, but basically i'm saying: don't judge your response to finasteride based on how much/little you shed!

 

[Fallout Boy]

if you shed alot and see your shed slowing down i would take that as plus .. i hope it is anyways!

 

[Trent]

i would agree, but at the same time, if you see a decrease in shedding, then all of a sudden on month 6 you see a huge amount of shedding again, don't take that as "the treatments aren't working anymore!" all i was trying to say, is, if you see a gradual decrease in shedding over the course of a year on treatments (which i would deem "a generally positive sign") then you can safely say the shedding indicates something. If shedding, lack of shedding, etc. is all over the place, just don't pay attention to it, it doesn't really indicate anything, good or bad. I've shed the entire time on propecia, and i'm seeing good results.

 

[hairschmair]

ermm.. alright.

So conclusion is you should not expect the average numbers of 'falling hairs per day' to decrease.