How long to give finasteride a chance?

[Eazy12]

I ordered some finasteride back in August 2014.
Since then, my dose has been something like:

0.25mg 3 days a week for a month
0.25mg every other day until 3 days ago.

I'm now on 0.25mg every day. I feel my hair hasnt changed in that time. How much longer should i give finasteride a chance?
I also use Kirkland minoxidil twice a day and nizoral twice a week.

Also. I get periods where my head itches all over, scratching it makes it worse. These waves of itchiness seem to occur when my hair looks the worst. Is there a specific cause of this? Could it be the minoxidil ingredients causing it? Would it help to quit minoxidil for a few weeks until the itching stops?
Thanks

 

[g.i joey]

Yeah that small dose of finasteride doesn't give u 24 hour coverage

 

[Wolf Pack]

0.2 mg inhibits 60% serum dht compared to 68% with the 1 mg with daily dosage. Over time, the difference will lessen.

Give finasteride a year, it mainly maintains although I'm growing at 5 months slowly but surely.

Increasing to 0.5 mg can help but I doubt it.

 

[Eazy12]

Ill keep going for a year then, if no results ill try dutasteride.

 

[Yoshi3Mario]

Regardless of how much .2 mg lowers dht, a japanese study on the comparison of .2 1 and placebo showed that 1 mg had significantly better hair results than .2 mg. Sometimes you got to go with results over logic and theories. The .2 mg did better than placebo.. Now with any study there is always verbage that isn't clear. The word significantly stands out to me. Does that mean 10 percent better. 5 percent better. 25 percent better. Who knows.

 

[Wolf Pack]

Regardless of how much .2 mg lowers dht, a japanese study on the comparison of .2 1 and placebo showed that 1 mg had significantly better hair results than .2 mg. Sometimes you got to go with results over logic and theories. The .2 mg did better than placebo.. Now with any study there is always verbage that isn't clear. The word significantly stands out to me. Does that mean 10 percent better. 5 percent better. 25 percent better. Who knows.

How long was the study for? 6 months? 2.5 mg dutasteride gives more hairs than 0.5 mg dutasteride despite same level of DHT inhibition. All to do with achieving a steady state better with a higher dose. I would expect lower doses to catch up on DHT inhibition and hair counts over time.

Personally I take 0.625 mg daily (Proscar 1/8), I used to take 1 mg EOD but didn't like thinking every morning whether it's on/off day. I don't see how this would be very different to 1 mg daily. I may up it though just to see if it helps before lowering it back some time near the year mark.

Plenty of people have grown loads without taking 1 mg daily or EOD, 3 X WEEK e.t.c. Includes for dutasteride too.

 

[Eazy12]

What can i do about scalp itch?

 

[CliffLee]

I believe the expected time for finasteride to 'max out' in terms of effectiveness is 2 years. I noticed very little improvement in the first year and then suddenly, over a period of a month or so, my hair thickened considerably. In terms of dosage, it’s fine to taper up to 1mg from 0.25 etc but unless your experiencing sides then no real incentive to take a quarter of the recommended dose imo.

I would say that dutasteride would be your next choice, assuming you had no sides on finasteride.

For the itchy scalp you could try using a lower dose or perhaps changing brands. I have read the Kirkland tends to be itchier since the ingredients are of lower quality – this is not from experience but have read this across the forums.

 

[xRedStaRx]

Regardless of how much .2 mg lowers dht, a japanese study on the comparison of .2 1 and placebo showed that 1 mg had significantly better hair results than .2 mg. Sometimes you got to go with results over logic and theories. The .2 mg did better than placebo.. Now with any study there is always verbage that isn't clear. The word significantly stands out to me. Does that mean 10 percent better. 5 percent better. 25 percent better. Who knows.

0.2mg ED was 80% as effective as 1mg ED in terms of hair counts after 6 months. DHT was reduced to almost castrate levels on all dose ranges.

I'd assume the difference would narrow even further with time. But that's just speculation on my part.

Safe to say, almost any dose of finasteride ED or EOD will do a great job, some will be better than others objectively, but the difference won't be observable to the layperson.

 

[TD500]

Wait a year on finasteride. I've read people say the scalp itch followed by hairloss correlates to the DHT attacking your hair unsure if this is accurate or not, but you should keep using nizoral.

 

[dekaz]

tbh dutasteride is simply a oral minoxidil, and it's still going through tests - do finasteride+min+nizoral for a year and a half, if that doesn't help then nothing will.

 

[mosd]

ive been on it for about a year and not much has happen, can it take longer?

 

[xRedStaRx]

It nothing happened, then it's working.

 

[dekaz]

mosd: you been on finasteride+min+nizoral for about a year? your regimen only shows minoxidil atm.

The best way to prevent scalp itch imo is to only use 1ml twice a day (i notice whenever i use more than 1ml at a time out of desperation hoping to get faster results, it starts to itch, but otherwise it doesn't) also nizoral twice a week definitely cleans it all up and makes me feel fresh. and when you use your nizoral be sure to really rub it in there and rinse it all out nice and clean. also USE CONDITIONER AFTER YOU USE NIZORAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Yoshi3Mario]

Like those propeciahelp people that took 10 pills at once to get faster results, couldn't get a hard on the next day and then cried Bloody Mary online for 2 years straight... Just kidding