Since last year I've noticed some very early signs of crown thinning, and after confirming the presence of miniaturization, I got a prescription and started microdosing on finasteride in August 2017 (0.25mg twice a week). Right away I started shedding about 30-40 terminal hairs in the shower, something that had never happened before. I never used to shed before, maybe at most 10 hairs a in the shower.
Anyway, I chalked it up to the "shedding phase" and continued on that dosage for about 9 months, and the shed continued. I also noticed that my scalp felt much more healthy, with less itching/burning sensation in the crown, so I thought this was a positive sign.
At 9 months, I tried increasing the dosage to .25mg daily, but saw no change in shed.
In the past 2 weeks, I bumped the dosage up to 1mg a day, and I thought I noticed a reduction in shed the first 2 days, but now it's back to ~40 hairs in the shower.
However, I noticed that the itch is pretty much 100% gone with 1mg/day. This should be a sign that finasteride is working better, but the shed says it's harming my hair. Right now, I'm definitely way below baseline in terms of crown density, although my hairloss isn't noticeable at all with my hair styled. I feel like this is due to the constant shed caused by finasteride rather than the natural progression, which was extremely slow to begin with.
Should I take a break from finasteride and see if the shed stops, or continue in the hope that I'll get regrowth? It's been about 10 months since starting finasteride, and the shed has been almost constant. What I'm so confused about is that finasteride made the itch go away, but hasn't improved my hair.
Regarding sides: I had pretty bad ED for the first few months but it suddenly went away.
Anyway, I chalked it up to the "shedding phase" and continued on that dosage for about 9 months, and the shed continued. I also noticed that my scalp felt much more healthy, with less itching/burning sensation in the crown, so I thought this was a positive sign.
At 9 months, I tried increasing the dosage to .25mg daily, but saw no change in shed.
In the past 2 weeks, I bumped the dosage up to 1mg a day, and I thought I noticed a reduction in shed the first 2 days, but now it's back to ~40 hairs in the shower.
However, I noticed that the itch is pretty much 100% gone with 1mg/day. This should be a sign that finasteride is working better, but the shed says it's harming my hair. Right now, I'm definitely way below baseline in terms of crown density, although my hairloss isn't noticeable at all with my hair styled. I feel like this is due to the constant shed caused by finasteride rather than the natural progression, which was extremely slow to begin with.
Should I take a break from finasteride and see if the shed stops, or continue in the hope that I'll get regrowth? It's been about 10 months since starting finasteride, and the shed has been almost constant. What I'm so confused about is that finasteride made the itch go away, but hasn't improved my hair.
Regarding sides: I had pretty bad ED for the first few months but it suddenly went away.