I Am Actually Regrowing My Hair + Hairline Without Min Or finasteride (mechanical Stimulation)

[Haironnu]

just try it. if you get side effects just stop

considering how post finasteride syndrome is a thing, I'm too worried, so far all the doctors I've asked advice from considering my situation did not recommend me taking it.

 

[Capone]

Well it's a mostly subjective thing but I'm just using this as a basis since the burns were actually quite bad, at least the worst I've had yet and my body was able to recover from it just fine. It seems my skin heals exceptionally well and has zero issues with things like dyspigmentation. I think for me, trialing out this acid with different procedures makes a lot of sense since it appears from a personal level I'm able to withstand and heal from strong acids quite well.

I've actually been using this acid for a few months now, I've been using 40% undilluted on my temples for about 20 minutes at a time but I've never even had a faint tingle, so my new idea is to actually just damage the top layer of my skin or microneedle it so the acid can actually penetrate my scalp skin and do its job. What made it melt away in my story was that I massaged that part of my nose and lightly scratched it which damaged the top layer of my skin, this is why only 20% did so much damage in such a short period.

I'll have to find the study again sometime but glycolic acid is actually beneficial for a few reasons, it helps exfoliate the skin unclogging pores etc. But the more interesting part is that a study found concentrations of around 40-50% for AHAs thinned the top layer of the skin but this is only temporary and over a matter of many months it actually thickens the deeper layers of the skin. Depending what theory of hairloss you follow glycolic acid actually targets issues with a few of them. I'm using it on my face already so I'm not really going out of my way to trial it out.

Someone also informed me that someone else tried glycolic acid in the past at 20%, the thread was 10 pages long but from what I've seen they left 20% glycolic acid on their head most of the day and then massaged and got all the dead skin off later. I don't know if they added anything extra but their results seem solid. The first picture is supposedly after they saw some growth and the last one is the latest one I found in the thread. You also need to account for the fact that the hair is longer but that's some nice results. Not exactly a thick head of hair but any potential boost to regrowth is amazing considering how hard it can be to grow new hair.

I have some glycolic acid I use sparingly on my face.. stings for a bit then it goes away, I wash it off with cold water. Great for getting rid of uneven skin tone and pimples. Might give the scalp a try. Won’t dermaroll for a few weeks after though

 

[Moosey]

considering how post finasteride syndrome is a thing, I'm too worried, so far all the doctors I've asked advice from considering my situation did not recommend me taking it.

No, i dont believe it exists. I completely eradicated my libido for 10 months straight with dutasteride, and it came back the second i stopped taking it.
taking finasteride for a week wont kill your libido. dont buy into the fear mongering, save your hair dude

 

[Haironnu]

No, i dont believe it exists. I completely eradicated my libido for 10 months straight with dutasteride, and it came back the second i stopped taking it.
taking finasteride for a week wont kill your libido. dont buy into the fear mongering, save your hair dude

taking finasteride for a week may not kill my libido but it also won't change anything in my hair, as far as I know if sides happen they can occur months or even few years after starting the drug.

I get your take on this but you have to understand.. you don't have the problems I have, and I don't think ignoring these issues is 100% smart.
what if those small % of people who get sides/severe sides or those who claim they have post finasteride syndrome, all had hormonal imbalances prior to finasteride, just like me?
they may have been people with imbalanced hormones unaware of and taking finasteride threw there body off track because it was already on the edge to begin with.

finasteride may be safe for healthy individuals but for people who have imbalanced hormones, I don't know if it's worth it or not, should I ignore all the doctors who told me not to take it? I consulted an urologist and a dermatologist and both told me I should not take it

 

[Moosey]

taking finasteride for a week may not kill my libido but it also won't change anything in my hair, as far as I know if sides happen they can occur months or even few years after starting the drug.

I get your take on this but you have to understand.. you don't have the problems I have, and I don't think ignoring these issues is 100% smart.
what if those small % of people who get sides/severe sides or those who claim they have post finasteride syndrome, all had hormonal imbalances prior to finasteride, just like me?
they may have been people with imbalanced hormones unaware of and taking finasteride threw there body off track because it was already on the edge to begin with.

finasteride may be safe for healthy individuals but for people who have imbalanced hormones, I don't know if it's worth it or not, should I ignore all the doctors who told me not to take it? I consulted an urologist and a dermatologist and both told me I should not take it

The point of taking it for a week is not to restore your hair, but to see if it gives you sexual side effects.
I believe if "post finasteride syndrome" exists at all (it doesnt), it happens to people who had problems with their libido before taking finasteride, and im sure it didnt happen to people who took the drug for a week.
So you what you shouldnt do is look at a random hormone profile of yours and somehow connect that to androgens and finasteride, but take a look at your libido. If you think you have normal libido i wouldnt be scared. Hint: Its okay if you are not horny 24/7, doesnt mean theres anything wrong with you.
But then again you are so deep down into the fear mongering, im not really trying to convince you

 

[MyThinningConfidence]

@MyThinningConfidence Do you not recommend scalp massaging anymore due to risk of wrinkles?

Also, did you get any side effects from finasteride? I kinda have similar hormonal profile as you described, I have gyno, I got high estrogen (it's at the high end of the 'normal' range) and fairly low testosterone, I'm also very hairy. I want to try finasteride but I'm afraid I'm prone to side effects because of all these stuff.

I don't think wrinkles is a big issue with scalp massage so if that's your main concern I wouldn't be worried, the biggest downside to the massages is the effort and time commitment that could be spent doing other things but you can always multitask.

If you have a similar hormonal profile to mine you should be fine, the only side effect I got was that I ejaculate less sometimes and occasionally it is slightly watery but aside from that no issues. I think you being very hairy means you might see a better result with finasteride as your balding issues is likely more to do with large DHT amounts as opposed to a sensitivity to it.

Contrary to popular belief finasteride is actually an extremely safe drug relative to other drugs out there, you're far more likely to get side effects taking something as simple as an antidepressants and worse sides at that. As long as you don't have a prior existing extreme hormonal imbalance you should be able to safely trial out finasteride. Realistically you should just expect some minor-moderate sexual side effects which personally I find very tolerable and worthwhile considering the benefit it gives me. For me the side effects are very minor.

 

[MyThinningConfidence]

Just tried out microneedling with 40% glycolic acid. I prepared the scalp with a towel drenched in hot water to get rid of excess grease as glycolic is unable to penetrate it being an AHA. I rolled with a 0.5mm roller before applying the acid. It immediately burned after putting it on so I quickly washed it off with water and dilluted the rest to use, I was probably safe to keeping it on despite the burning since it didn't seem to do much damage but regardless it's best to take things slow. A few hours later though and my scalp is literally drenched in a thick coat of oil and my scalp is incredibly oily. I wiped the grease off as best I could with a tissue but this seems like a potentially good sign as I'm getting some of the grease and sebum out my scalp which was potentially trapped?

Anyways I'm probably going to order salicylic acid in, around 20-30%. It's a BHA and is thus oil-soluble so it should be able to penetrate my scalp much better and get rid of the excess sebum and clear out my pores. The issue with glycolic acid is that it doesn't get past the sebum and is in turn very surface level.

I've regrown hair everyone else fairly easy but the temples have always been particulary hard, it's the easiest place to see regrowth and I have grown a few CMs into the bald zone and filled in the perimeter a ton but it's been a very slow process. I'm thinking if I'm able to improve the conditions of my scalp I'm far more likely to see regrowth there. Based on previous regrowth it should take a couple of week to a couple of months to see if it's working. If not I might go ahead and trial out dutasteride and see if I'm able to handle it.

 

[Haironnu]

I don't think wrinkles is a big issue with scalp massage so if that's your main concern I wouldn't be worried, the biggest downside to the massages is the effort and time commitment that could be spent doing other things but you can always multitask.

If you have a similar hormonal profile to mine you should be fine, the only side effect I got was that I ejaculate less sometimes and occasionally it is slightly watery but aside from that no issues. I think you being very hairy means you might see a better result with finasteride as your balding issues is likely more to do with large DHT amounts as opposed to a sensitivity to it.

Contrary to popular belief finasteride is actually an extremely safe drug relative to other drugs out there, you're far more likely to get side effects taking something as simple as an antidepressants and worse sides at that. As long as you don't have a prior existing extreme hormonal imbalance you should be able to safely trial out finasteride. Realistically you should just expect some minor-moderate sexual side effects which personally I find very tolerable and worthwhile considering the benefit it gives me. For me the side effects are very minor.

That may be, but side effects from finasteride may occur at any given point, months or even years after use. so it's not like if you didn't get them now then you won't ever, there's always a chance.

and the thing is, what if the huge amounts of dht I have (if I have) in my body are there to keep my body functioning in terms of libido and erections? since my testosterone is low and estradiol is high, perhaps DHT is there to balance things out, if I reduce my DHT down, how do I know it won't mess me up big time?

I have a theory that those people who get severe side effects from finasteride or even post finasteride sydnrome probably had imbalanced hormones prior to finasteride and the DHT in their body was the only thing keeping them going in that 'chaos', and blocking that completely threw their body off tracks.
in normal people testosterone should be higher than estradiol,not vice versa, so blocking some dht probably doesn't cause any harm.

but when their hormones are imbalanced and dht is high, it might be that way for a reason. it's a big gamble blocking DHT with all honesty.

 

[Haironnu]

The point of taking it for a week is not to restore your hair, but to see if it gives you sexual side effects.
I believe if "post finasteride syndrome" exists at all (it doesnt), it happens to people who had problems with their libido before taking finasteride, and im sure it didnt happen to people who took the drug for a week.
So you what you shouldnt do is look at a random hormone profile of yours and somehow connect that to androgens and finasteride, but take a look at your libido. If you think you have normal libido i wouldnt be scared. Hint: Its okay if you are not horny 24/7, doesnt mean theres anything wrong with you.
But then again you are so deep down into the fear mongering, im not really trying to convince you

I have somewhat erectile issues.

and the thing about finasteride it might give you sides months or years after use. not necessiarly in the first few weeks.

 

[Moosey]

I have somewhat erectile issues.

and the thing about finasteride it might give you sides months or years after use. not necessiarly in the first few weeks.

You believe a drug with a halph life of 20 hours is going to have effects years after its use. dont really see the point of this dicussion. Dont take finasteride, no ones pointing a gun to your head. There are so many effective alternatives to combat hairloss you dont have to take stuff like that. Just dont try overthink everything

 

[MyThinningConfidence]

That may be, but side effects from finasteride may occur at any given point, months or even years after use. so it's not like if you didn't get them now then you won't ever, there's always a chance.

and the thing is, what if the huge amounts of dht I have (if I have) in my body are there to keep my body functioning in terms of libido and erections? since my testosterone is low and estradiol is high, perhaps DHT is there to balance things out, if I reduce my DHT down, how do I know it won't mess me up big time?

I have a theory that those people who get severe side effects from finasteride or even post finasteride sydnrome probably had imbalanced hormones prior to finasteride and the DHT in their body was the only thing keeping them going in that 'chaos', and blocking that completely threw their body off tracks.
in normal people testosterone should be higher than estradiol,not vice versa, so blocking some dht probably doesn't cause any harm.

but when their hormones are imbalanced and dht is high, it might be that way for a reason. it's a big gamble blocking DHT with all honesty.

The only way I'd see myself getting sides in the future is if my body has a hormonal shift naturally due to age where I'm unable to tolerate finasteride so well. Aside from that all the studies I've looked at show that incidence of sides decreases with the length of time you use finasteride for.

DHT is almost definitely not the last thing keeping you on your legs, you need to remember that finasteride is an incredibly popular drug with millions of prescriptions in America alone. These hormonal imbalances are on the extreme side and are quite rare, we're talking less than than even 1% of the population. In reality you'd need to hit the lottery of side effects but even if you did your body would likely be presenting with other issues pre-finasteride anyways. Besides DHT isn't there to mediate estradiol and testosterone, they are all separate things and finasteride actually increases testosterone overall slightly.

I wouldn't call it a big gamble at all, it's a calculated risk but the risks are quite low and the benefits heavily outweigh the risk for me personally.

If you're interested in reading about the plausibility of permanent side effects please check out this study -

"A literature review of adverse side effects associated with 5αRIs shows that persistent sexual side effects were only documented in low-quality studies with strong bias selection as participants were part of an Internet blog. The only high-quality study documenting persistent sexual side effects showed that these were more frequent in the placebo than in the treatment group, implying that the effects were not necessarily related to the treatment."

 

[Moosey]

The only way I'd see myself getting sides in the future is if my body has a hormonal shift naturally due to age where I'm unable to tolerate finasteride so well. Aside from that all the studies I've looked at show that incidence of sides decreases with the length of time you use finasteride for.

DHT is almost definitely not the last thing keeping you on your legs, you need to remember that finasteride is an incredibly popular drug with millions of prescriptions in America alone. These hormonal imbalances are on the extreme side and are quite rare, we're talking less than than even 1% of the population. In reality you'd need to hit the lottery of side effects but even if you did your body would likely be presenting with other issues pre-finasteride anyways. Besides DHT isn't there to mediate estradiol and testosterone, they are all separate things and finasteride actually increases testosterone overall slightly.

I wouldn't call it a big gamble at all, it's a calculated risk but the risks are quite low and the benefits heavily outweigh the risk for me personally.

If you're interested in reading about the plausibility of permanent side effects please check out this study -

"A literature review of adverse side effects associated with 5αRIs shows that persistent sexual side effects were only documented in low-quality studies with strong bias selection as participants were part of an Internet blog. The only high-quality study documenting persistent sexual side effects showed that these were more frequent in the placebo than in the treatment group, implying that the effects were not necessarily related to the treatment."

"showed that these were more frequent in the placebo than in the treatment group, implying that the effects were not necessarily related to the treatment"
Thats precisely the reason of my disbelief about this myth

 

[Haironnu]

The only way I'd see myself getting sides in the future is if my body has a hormonal shift naturally due to age where I'm unable to tolerate finasteride so well. Aside from that all the studies I've looked at show that incidence of sides decreases with the length of time you use finasteride for.

DHT is almost definitely not the last thing keeping you on your legs, you need to remember that finasteride is an incredibly popular drug with millions of prescriptions in America alone. These hormonal imbalances are on the extreme side and are quite rare, we're talking less than than even 1% of the population. In reality you'd need to hit the lottery of side effects but even if you did your body would likely be presenting with other issues pre-finasteride anyways. Besides DHT isn't there to mediate estradiol and testosterone, they are all separate things and finasteride actually increases testosterone overall slightly.

I wouldn't call it a big gamble at all, it's a calculated risk but the risks are quite low and the benefits heavily outweigh the risk for me personally.

If you're interested in reading about the plausibility of permanent side effects please check out this study -

"A literature review of adverse side effects associated with 5αRIs shows that persistent sexual side effects were only documented in low-quality studies with strong bias selection as participants were part of an Internet blog. The only high-quality study documenting persistent sexual side effects showed that these were more frequent in the placebo than in the treatment group, implying that the effects were not necessarily related to the treatment."

but what if I'm at that 1%?
I can tell you this much, my libido and erectile strength is not optimal. I've had some sort of ED for years now. not able to get 100% erection.
whether it is related to my low testosterone and high estradiol I do not know.
but if you were in my position would you still take finasteride?

 

[Jonny Craig]

Alright so I went back to my doctor and it turns out I don't actually have anemia, the positive was actually indicating only two things that got picked up as out of normal ranges and that was slightly lower than normal blood platelets which are what allow blood clotting, I'm assuming the reason for the reduced amount is from my microneedling if they work that way and my liver enzyme was slightly high, Aside from that everything was normal so I basically got scammed into paying for another doctors trip. He didn't actually test my B12 levels although he said it was unlikely I had a deficiency and I'm not wanting to pay for another bloodtest and doctors visit so I think I'll just leave that. I'm somewhat disappointing to hear I'm perfectly healthy which is a funny way of looking at it.

With hypothyroidism and anemia out of the way, that opens the door to me trialing out my Avodart I got forever ago now., although the reduction in allopregnanolone is worrisome compared to finasteride which I think is a very safe drug (if you can tolerate some minor to moderate sexual side effects.) I've actually grown quite fond of finasteride over the last year but I do desire even more hair. Primarily along my hairline, I'm definitely pleased and happier but not satisfied. But realistically I can expect some thickening of my current hair and some additional support on my hairline but nothing major unless I get lucky with my genetics greatly favouring dutasteride.

This leads me to the next phase of my hairloss journey and I have a ridiculous idea I want to try out. I'm planning to burn my scalp with acid along my hairline, this is already something I've been doing with 40% glycolic acid directly on the scalp although my scalp is too thick and tough for it to have much effect, This is where my next idea comes from.

Where I got the idea -
I actually have some acne scars on my face which is the original reason I got the glycolic acid to smooth them out, I've burnt my face a couple of times using too high of a percentage without dilluting it enough but nothing that scarred or left anything permanent. Now I actually had this rather large scar on my nose that became rather depressed like a massive dint. Now what I actually did one day when I got insecure was that I massaged and scratched it lightly hoping it'd help. What this actually meant though was it weakened the top layer of my skin so when I came around to using the glycolic acid I figured I should use a lesser amount since I had active acne at the time and my nose was weakened so I only used 20% it burned a bit but nothing abnormal. I hop in the shower and rubbed my face followed by my nose and my skin scratches off, figured it was just the top layer and fine and a bit sore. Now when I hopped out of the shower it was a bit of a shock, I had burnt a massive hole fairly deep into my skin which quickly pooled with blood. I could literally see the sebaceous filaments with all the pores melted away as the blood started the seep out of my skin, the top layer was literally burnt off, I could see the roots of the little white hairs on my nose etc. Now what ended up happening afterwards was that the hole scabbed up and took about two weeks to heal, I was anxious it'd scar my face and I was constantly moisturizing it. now about two and a half weeks later things healed up pretty well and the massive dent from the acne is heaps better, still a slight dent but far less drastic and there was no scarring at all. So basically I achieved something people told me only fillers every year could fix. I'd show pictures of my burnt skin but it might be a bit too graphic for here.

So this leads me to my idea of burning my scalp with acid to try and promote regrowth, it could be like microneedling and mechanical stimulation on steroids. It seems risky and crazy but that's the kind of innovation we need here. I don't think I've ever seen anyone else do this, closest thing was some guy who gave his scalp sunburns which reportedly helped regrow. Besides as long as I don't excessively melt my scalp away I think I can minimize the risk and glycolic acid actually has a lot of benefits for the skin which include changes to the deeper layers over months. Worst case scenario is that I create scar tissue which will inhibit my ability to grow any hair but I think that's avoidable if I take things at a reasonable pace.

Wait... what is your TSH level though? and what are your average body temps?

Docs said I wasn't hypo @ 4.23 TSH.. lol

 

[INT]

You believe a drug with a halph life of 20 hours is going to have effects years after its use. dont really see the point of this dicussion. Dont take finasteride, no ones pointing a gun to your head. There are so many effective alternatives to combat hairloss you dont have to take stuff like that. Just dont try overthink everything

I would not see the point of a discussion with someone who thinks that the half life of finasteride is somehow relevant.

 

[Haironnu]

"showed that these were more frequent in the placebo than in the treatment group, implying that the effects were not necessarily related to the treatment"
Thats precisely the reason of my disbelief about this myth

By the way, not trying to argue with you about this subject, to each his own, but just wanted to let you know about this case I saw in the "dealing with side effects" section of the forum, a guy there claimed to have suffered from persistent post finasteride syndrome libido and erectile issues.
he tried to help his issues without any success until he checked his DHT levels via blood work, results came as low, he said that basically his body couldn't restore his normal dht production levels after many years of finasteride use.
he started taking DHT externally and said that all his problems went away.

if that's true, it just proves DHT still plays a pivotal role in the sexual functions of adult men.

 

[Moosey]

By the way, not trying to argue with you about this subject, to each his own, but just wanted to let you know about this case I saw in the "dealing with side effects" section of the forum, a guy there claimed to have suffered from persistent post finasteride syndrome libido and erectile issues.
he tried to help his issues without any success until he checked his DHT levels via blood work, results came as low, he said that basically his body couldn't restore his normal dht production levels after many years of finasteride use.
he started taking DHT externally and said that all his problems went away.

if that's true, it just proves DHT still plays a pivotal role in the sexual functions of adult men.

I dont claim the opposite is true. It definetely does. As i said earlier, dutasteride completely obliterated my libido. I just dont believe post-finasteride syndrome is as common as people think. Thanks for sharing the story though.

 

[Haironnu]

I dont claim the opposite is true. It definetely does. As i said earlier, dutasteride completely obliterated my libido. I just dont believe post-finasteride syndrome is as common as people think. Thanks for sharing the story though.

are you on oral finasteride? for how long? and without any side effects?

 

[Moosey]

are you on oral finasteride? for how long? and without any side effects?

You are confusing me man....
I was on dutasteride from january 1st until october 1st. It completely eradicated, obliterated, decimated, annihilated my libido. And its coming back as soon as i stopped it, despite the 5 week halph life

 

[Derelict]

You are confusing me man....
I was on dutasteride from january 1st until october 1st. It completely eradicated, obliterated, decimated, annihilated my libido. And its coming back as soon as i stopped it, despite the 5 week halph life

Did you have any libido issues while on finasteride?