Finasteride/Dutasteride not working for you?

[nachos]

I have not but I see people who post fairly often saying that they think that finasteride actually causes hair loss. What probably is happening in those cases is that a rampant male pattern baldness gene is being expressed and even though finasteride keeps chugging along, it simply can't keep up with the massive hair loss. Stopping finasteride or min might stop temporary shedding but it will also mean that male pattern baldness has nothing in opposition to even try to curtail it.

This is a life-long commitment and even thought it doesn't take much time daily, you have to stay focused on treatment and many people don't want some sort of life-long condition or treatment that makes them think too much and which causes constant outflows monetarily. I think this aspect is what freaks out so many young guys on Tressless. The younger generation is used to science providing quick fixes and male pattern baldness is simply not amenable to quick fixes save castration.

Janey

I’d argue that finasteride or dutasteride can even exacerbate hair loss. I’ve noticed it with my own hair, and others have as well. My hair had a little slight receding hairline, still about a 0 on the Norwood scale. I’ve noticed it years ago, give it take, and it has been exactly that “bad” since. Stabilized. So I finally tried to take the plunge on dutasteride. A month or so after I started, I noticed both crummy and thick hairs falling out, and now my receding hairline is very visible. Probably a Norwood 1.5-2 ish, thereabouts, after just a little over a month. It’s night and day. Yes it could be shedding, but the majority of people I see say their hair never got better, after years, and was just worse than when they started dutasteride. Not just “continued loss”, but substantial loss, meaning dutasteride. Not to mention this all happened within a month or so of me taking dutasteride, it was absolutely the cause. So you really have to be careful.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

I’d argue that finasteride or dutasteride can even exacerbate hair loss. I’ve noticed it with my own hair, and others have as well. My hair had a little slight receding hairline, still about a 0 on the Norwood scale. I’ve noticed it years ago, give it take, and it has been exactly that “bad” since. Stabilized. So I finally tried to take the plunge on dutasteride. A month or so after I started, I noticed both crummy and thick hairs falling out, and now my receding hairline is very visible. Probably a Norwood 1.5-2 ish, thereabouts, after just a little over a month. It’s night and day. Yes it could be shedding, but the majority of people I see say their hair never got better, after years, and was just worse than when they started dutasteride. Not just “continued loss”, but substantial loss, meaning dutasteride. Not to mention this all happened within a month or so of me taking dutasteride, it was absolutely the cause. So you really have to be careful.

I am getting a lot of reports related to this. It's hard to know because there is all but certainly a silent majority like me for years, who took finasteride/Duta and had great maintenance and no sides. Here, by definition, the folks without results tend to "testify" so it can obscure the actuality of the situation for 90 percent perhaps. I have no way except to note that the placebo effect can be quite strong and to point to statistics to discredit anything you say and that's not my goal except that we all have a duty to others perhaps to moderate any frustration that any of us have related to any particular med. I have a lot of mail from people on HRT who have not gotten results after years. Others seem to get great hair improvement and probably assume everyone else is also.

Best,
Janey

 

[BigBadBaldie]

I’d argue that finasteride or dutasteride can even exacerbate hair loss. I’ve noticed it with my own hair, and others have as well. My hair had a little slight receding hairline, still about a 0 on the Norwood scale. I’ve noticed it years ago, give it take, and it has been exactly that “bad” since. Stabilized. So I finally tried to take the plunge on dutasteride. A month or so after I started, I noticed both crummy and thick hairs falling out, and now my receding hairline is very visible. Probably a Norwood 1.5-2 ish, thereabouts, after just a little over a month. It’s night and day. Yes it could be shedding, but the majority of people I see say their hair never got better, after years, and was just worse than when they started dutasteride. Not just “continued loss”, but substantial loss, meaning dutasteride. Not to mention this all happened within a month or so of me taking dutasteride, it was absolutely the cause. So you really have to be careful.

Yeah I’ve had a similar experience

 

[frosty99]

I’d argue that finasteride or dutasteride can even exacerbate hair loss. I’ve noticed it with my own hair, and others have as well. My hair had a little slight receding hairline, still about a 0 on the Norwood scale. I’ve noticed it years ago, give it take, and it has been exactly that “bad” since. Stabilized. So I finally tried to take the plunge on dutasteride. A month or so after I started, I noticed both crummy and thick hairs falling out, and now my receding hairline is very visible. Probably a Norwood 1.5-2 ish, thereabouts, after just a little over a month. It’s night and day. Yes it could be shedding, but the majority of people I see say their hair never got better, after years, and was just worse than when they started dutasteride. Not just “continued loss”, but substantial loss, meaning dutasteride. Not to mention this all happened within a month or so of me taking dutasteride, it was absolutely the cause. So you really have to be careful.

I feel like I can relate to this so much. I was on dutasteride for 3 months because I noticed slight hairline recession, but I stopped due to pretty bad sides. It's literally been 5 - 6 months and I notice hairs everywhere now..desk, pillow, bathroom, clothing. I never had that problem prior to dutasteride. My hairline is now worse and my crown and vertex are also very noticeably thinning. I'm shitting myself I don't know whether to start Finasteride or to wait it out hoping it's not permanent. I have always had very thick hair and it's completely gone to sh*t, even the texture is different. Scalp is red and I have sores all over. Tingling itchy scalp

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

I feel like I can relate to this so much. I was on dutasteride for 3 months because I noticed slight hairline recession, but I stopped due to pretty bad sides. It's literally been 5 - 6 months and I notice hairs everywhere now..desk, pillow, bathroom, clothing. I never had that problem prior to dutasteride. My hairline is now worse and my crown and vertex are also very noticeably thinning. I'm shitting myself I don't know whether to start Finasteride or to wait it out hoping it's not permanent. I have always had very thick hair and it's completely gone to sh*t, even the texture is different. Scalp is red and I have sores all over. Tingling itchy scalp

People who are balding often use meds. Meds don't work for everyone and their balding progresses and now they blame the med when they were balding. If one reads on wiki about correlation vs. causation, it might make more sense. Of course, you used to have thick hair; we all did in terms of counts. If you were on your way to cueball-dom, then you have aggressive hair loss and it get stronger and stronger and overpowers the med. Then when you stop the med, you go into free fall.

I had sores all over my head when I used finasteride too. That's either dermatitis or another related DHT artifact. Mine used to ooze and then they would scab over. Nothing worked really and they weren't all of the time but yes horrible. Now maybe there are some tolerance effects to finasteride and maybe T itself can cause hairloss and some conjecture it might at the hairline but except for Minoxidil, what's your plan for the future?

 

[frosty99]

People who are balding often use meds. Meds don't work for everyone and their balding progresses and now they blame the med when they were balding. If one reads on wiki about correlation vs. causation, it might make more sense. Of course, you used to have thick hair; we all did in terms of counts. If you were on your way to cueball-dom, then you have aggressive hair loss and it get stronger and stronger and overpowers the med. Then when you stop the med, you go into free fall.

I had sores all over my head when I used finasteride too. That's either dermatitis or another related DHT artifact. Mine used to ooze and then they would scab over. Nothing worked really and they weren't all of the time but yes horrible. Now maybe there are some tolerance effects to finasteride and maybe T itself can cause hairloss and some conjecture it might at the hairline but except for Minoxidil, what's your plan for the future?

People who are balding often use meds. Meds don't work for everyone and their balding progresses and now they blame the med when they were balding. If one reads on wiki about correlation vs. causation, it might make more sense. Of course, you used to have thick hair; we all did in terms of counts. If you were on your way to cueball-dom, then you have aggressive hair loss and it get stronger and stronger and overpowers the med. Then when you stop the med, you go into free fall.

I had sores all over my head when I used finasteride too. That's either dermatitis or another related DHT artifact. Mine used to ooze and then they would scab over. Nothing worked really and they weren't all of the time but yes horrible. Now maybe there are some tolerance effects to finasteride and maybe T itself can cause hairloss and some conjecture it might at the hairline but except for Minoxidil, what's your plan for the future?

My GP seems to think it’s medication that’s causing it. It’s so rapid as well every time I run hand through hair there’s multiple hairs in my hand. I also had a pretty traumatic injury to my lungs 11 months ago which was quite stressful, not sure if there’s correlation or not. I don’t really have a plan other than eating well and stress less, what more can one do.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

My GP seems to think it’s medication that’s causing it. It’s so rapid as well every time I run hand through hair there’s multiple hairs in my hand. I also had a pretty traumatic injury to my lungs 11 months ago which was quite stressful, not sure if there’s correlation or not. I don’t really have a plan other than eating well and stress less, what more can one do.

Good ole GP's, fonts of incredible knowledge about hair loss. If, it is stress related, you might recover but ask how many on here thought that their initial hair loss was stress related, more so hoped that it was and you will see a lot of hands go up. Hair is touchy and it seems that the older we get, the touchier that hair gets and even women past 50 often see diffuse hair loss. I am sorry my friend and I hope it improves but in 99 percent of cases, if other people can note your hair loss, then without treatment all that you can hope is that it stabilizes. In general, hair loss in the front might stabilize but diffuse thinning just gets worse. Paradoxically, diffuse thinning is apparently more treatable than hair loss in only the front. For transplants, it switches again and diffuse thinning is rarely suitable for a transplant while people with hair like Sting's can get quite successful transplants.