How Dutasteride utterly destroyed my hair and why you shouldn't take it

[whatintheworld]

too dark mate, go outside in proper sunlight and get use a phone with a decent camera like an iPhone

 

[Me Vs DiffuseThinning]

Update : my hair 3 weeks after dropping dutasteride

View attachment 163813

As suspected, you're pretty much a fullhead, with minor temple recession, just like all the other crybabies who whine "dutasteride/finasteride destroyed my hair"

 

[Caillou]

As suspected, you're pretty much a fullhead, with minor temple recession, just like all the other crybabies who whine "dutasteride/finasteride destroyed my hair"

.

 

[NoDiggity30]

It's sad how many people can't accept it lol. I guarantee every single person who denies it have recently started or plan to start dutasteride in the hopes it finally fixes their hair. Good luck...

 

[trialAcc]

I experienced this many, many times. Easiest way is to take something estrogenic. Equol did this for example.
The cortex of the hair shaft contains water, so an increase in the water content could cause the hair shaft to "swell" rather quickly despite the actual proteins that form the rigid core being unchanged.

Since you're one of the few people I know who have observed and believe in this effect, I propose an experiment: I can always reliably reproduce this by taking some good tribulus (for instance, VemoHerb brand). Just take 1 Tribulus pill per day and see if you get this kind of "puffy" hair effect. Always happens. I believe Tribulus have some SERM-like properties and it could be the ER-ß stimulation that is responsible for this.



With regards to the subject of the OP, I believe where there is smoke, there is fire. Derek from MPMD was on Dutasteride and he had experienced further loss just from the testosterone he was running. "But he was using supraphysiological amounts", you might say. Perhaps, but it is the amount of receptor density someone has that determines the overall effect of androgens, some people go bald with really low T & DHT levels, so that doesn't really matter so much in the absolute sense.

Can this not be attributed to the fact that dutasteride doesn't completely rid the scalp of DHT? I keep seeing people blame T, but Derek never once had his scalp androgen levels checked via biopsy. If you're scalp is still producing 20-40% of it's normal DHT on dutasteride and you introduce extra T to the level he described as "supraphysiologic", are you not just pushing the local synthesis of DHT back into the range where it would push you to lose hair?

I still think what OP was experiencing was the large increase in scalp T and the subsequent dutasteride shed that people get when they start a 5A. Then he panics, quits dutasteride after 2~ months, adds spironolactone(?) and his hormones are now all out of wack. You might have recovered and maintained but now we'll never know.

 

[dehoha]

Urm.. did you only take dutasteride for 2.5 months then stop? I didn't read full comments. It takes time for dutasteride to work. At least 6 months - 1 yr. I am sure people have been telling you this already? I tried finasteride for the first time when I was 25 and experienced something similar. I stopped right at the time you stopped (After 73 days of taking finasteride) because of extreme shedding. I thought finasteride was a poison. Fast forward 8 yrs, I regret that I did not stick to finasteride back then. I began taking finasteride for the second time since last July and things have been improving, but it doesn't seem like it will fully recover. You can only save hairs that already have. I know shedding sucks, especially when you are younger, but if you stick with it, you will likely be thankful that you did.

 

[Matt Rogers]

View attachment 164073


How am i a fullhead exactly? Also i hopped on finasteride yesterday even though i'm still suffering from the hormonal issues caused by dutasteride. I'm not against anti-androgen in general, only dutasteride since it's way more risky and unproven compared to finasteride

Same thing happened to me except with finasteride. I was a full head and stupidly started taking finasteride. After about a week I literally started shedding 500 hairs a day. I never stopped shedding the entire time I was on it. Finally quit after 6 months. I don't understand why these clowns think that shedding absurd amounts of healthy hairs is a good thing

 

[trialAcc]

Same thing happened to me except with finasteride. I was a full head and stupidly started taking finasteride. After about a week I literally started shedding 500 hairs a day. I never stopped shedding the entire time I was on it. Finally quit after 6 months. I don't understand why these clowns think that shedding absurd amounts of healthy hairs is a good thing

"Clowns" that hold their hair loss in place for a decade or more. I went from NW0 to NW2 within a year when I was 18/19. Got on finasteride, shed for literally 6-9 months, had the exact same NW2 hair at 27. I'd easily be NW4+ like my younger brother is right now if I didn't get on finasteride.

You're conflating loss & miniaturization with shedding. Who cares if you shed 500 hairs a day if you aren't miniaturizing any further and those hairs are growing back the same density. Finasteride triggers sheds, it's well known and spoken about by most people who take it. 9/10 people who come on here complaining about finasteride/dutasteride ruined their hair had a freakout over shedding and quit prior to the exact time that everyone says you need to stay on it past to see if it starts working, 6~ months. Then you don't recover and your hormones go for a ride and you blame a drug that you didn't listen to the starter manual for.

For the OP, his hair buzzed looks almost identical to his starting hair with some additional minor thinning that was triggered by the sheds and random dosing of spironolactone. He now blames dutasteride for ruining his hair when he quit at the worst time and tried an even more crazy drug for a shorter period to recover.

 

[NoDiggity30]

Urm.. did you only take dutasteride for 2.5 months then stop? I didn't read full comments. It takes time for dutasteride to work. At least 6 months - 1 yr. I am sure people have been telling you this already? I tried finasteride for the first time when I was 25 and experienced something similar. I stopped right at the time you stopped (After 73 days of taking finasteride) because of extreme shedding. I thought finasteride was a poison. Fast forward 8 yrs, I regret that I did not stick to finasteride back then. I began taking finasteride for the second time since last July and things have been improving, but it doesn't seem like it will fully recover. You can only save hairs that already have. I know shedding sucks, especially when you are younger, but if you stick with it, you will likely be thankful that you did.

Maybe the case with OP but I took it for 18 months and lost so much progress. It's been 2 months without it and I'm regrowing some vellus hairs which have been smack bald for months.

 

[dehoha]

Maybe the case with OP but I took it for 18 months and lost so much progress. It's been 2 months without it and I'm regrowing some vellus hairs which have been smack bald for months.

Which drug? dutasteride or finasteride?

 

[NoDiggity30]

dutasteride, finasteride works well

 

[Einstein]

Same thing happened to me except with finasteride. I was a full head and stupidly started taking finasteride. After about a week I literally started shedding 500 hairs a day. I never stopped shedding the entire time I was on it. Finally quit after 6 months. I don't understand why these clowns think that shedding absurd amounts of healthy hairs is a good thing

My troll alert went off when I read this.

You were a full head and you started finasteride? Sounds like the poster boy of a f*****g idiot. And I have never come across any single individual that was the victim of finasteride causing or accelerated their hair loss. In fact if that were true finasteride would be sued off the shelves. If you had an ounce of a dog’s intellect you would know that a shed from finasteride is actually a good sign. If you can’t handle the shed from a treatment then stay the fukc off treatments. Gotta love how dudes like you exaggerate in plea of gaining belief. You weren’t shedding 500 hairs a day for 6 months, gtfo, that’s about 85,000 hairs. You’re telling me that you went from a full head of hair and finasteride caused you to bald to the point of 4500 grafts-equivalent? Tired of little boys pissing on treatments known to work because of their own lack of basic knowledge

 

[Matt Rogers]

My troll alert went off when I read this.

You were a full head and you started finasteride? Sounds like the poster boy of a f*****g idiot. And I have never come across any single individual that was the victim of finasteride causing or accelerated their hair loss. In fact if that were true finasteride would be sued off the shelves. If you had an ounce of a dog’s intellect you would know that a shed from finasteride is actually a good sign. If you can’t handle the shed from a treatment then stay the fukc off treatments. Gotta love how dudes like you exaggerate in plea of gaining belief. You weren’t shedding 500 hairs a day for 6 months, gtfo, that’s about 85,000 hairs. You’re telling me that you went from a full head of hair and finasteride caused you to bald to the point of 4500 grafts-equivalent? Tired of little boys pissing on treatments known to work because of their own lack of basic knowledge

No I did not shed 500 hairs the entire 6 months. I shed 500 the first couple of weeks and then maybe 250 for the remainder. I'm quite certain almost every hair on top of my head shed away and replaced itself to an extent over the 6 months. I dropped a Norwood on the 6 months of finasteride. Crown got a nice bald spot that wasn't there prior to finasteride and hairline got all tattered. Why would I continue to take a drug that is making my hair worse every month. I was going to quit after the first month because the shedding was so bad but stuck it out for 6 months from the advice of this forum. Everybody responds to drugs differently.

 

[Matt Rogers]

"Clowns" that hold their hair loss in place for a decade or more. I went from NW0 to NW2 within a year when I was 18/19. Got on finasteride, shed for literally 6-9 months, had the exact same NW2 hair at 27. I'd easily be NW4+ like my younger brother is right now if I didn't get on finasteride.

You're conflating loss & miniaturization with shedding. Who cares if you shed 500 hairs a day if you aren't miniaturizing any further and those hairs are growing back the same density. Finasteride triggers sheds, it's well known and spoken about by most people who take it. 9/10 people who come on here complaining about finasteride/dutasteride ruined their hair had a freakout over shedding and quit prior to the exact time that everyone says you need to stay on it past to see if it starts working, 6~ months. Then you don't recover and your hormones go for a ride and you blame a drug that you didn't listen to the starter manual for.

For the OP, his hair buzzed looks almost identical to his starting hair with some additional minor thinning that was triggered by the sheds and random dosing of spironolactone. He now blames dutasteride for ruining his hair when he quit at the worst time and tried an even more crazy drug for a shorter period to recover.

I did miniaturize on finasteride though. Obviously not all the hairs I shed were gone forever, a lot came back. I had never seen a miniaturized hair before taking finasteride. But after the 6 months I had miniaturization in my hairline, crown, and scalp was diffused. I'm not really knocking finasteride, its a wonder drug for tons of people. I'm just sharing my experience that indeed finasteride made my hair worse.

 

[Diffused_confidence]

I did miniaturize on finasteride though. Obviously not all the hairs I shed were gone forever, a lot came back. I had never seen a miniaturized hair before taking finasteride. But after the 6 months I had miniaturization in my hairline, crown, and scalp was diffused. I'm not really knocking finasteride, its a wonder drug for tons of people. I'm just sharing my experience that indeed finasteride made my hair worse.

Or it just didn't do anything.

 

[trialAcc]

I did miniaturize on finasteride though. Obviously not all the hairs I shed were gone forever, a lot came back. I had never seen a miniaturized hair before taking finasteride. But after the 6 months I had miniaturization in my hairline, crown, and scalp was diffused. I'm not really knocking finasteride, its a wonder drug for tons of people. I'm just sharing my experience that indeed finasteride made my hair worse.

Why did you take finasteride if you had never seen a miniaturized hair before though?

 

[Matt Rogers]

Why did you take finasteride if you had never seen a miniaturized hair before though?

I had never shed a single hair to my knowledge prior to the year I took finasteride. I had horrible stomach problems that year and could have been shedding some hair because of that. May have had minor temple recession too. Anyways, freaked out and got a finasteride script.

 

[trialAcc]

I had never shed a single hair to my knowledge prior to the year I took finasteride. I had horrible stomach problems that year and could have been shedding some hair because of that. May have had minor temple recession too. Anyways, freaked out and got a finasteride script.

But if you had temple recession then by definition you had miniaturization, right?

 

[Matt Rogers]

But if you had temple recession then by definition you had miniaturization, right?

Ya probably, could've happened extremely slowly over the years without me noticing. Or it was a maturing hairline im not sure

 

[neddy2016]

When i tried finasteride i received for the first time the male pattern baldness itch. i was so confused about it as i didn't think that was meant to happen. and it just made my hair worse. so i stupidly decided to step up and try Dutasteride and it got worse. and i think its messed my body up abit as I'm more prone to the Male pattern baldness itch.

I tried spironolactone, and topical strong DHT blockers and i had the same response.

Its so weird and i wish i understood what was going on. i wish i understood why my body doesn't work with these products.