if you have male pattern baldness and finasteride doesn't work then....

[rogber]

this is something i don't understand: most people here have male pattern baldness, which presumably has the same root cause, many are on a similar regime (finasteride+minoxidil etc), but the results are very different: it works wonders for some (the lucky few), has middling effects on others, and for yet others seems to only make things worse.
how can this be? if you have this problem, and it has the same cause for everyone, why do the treatments work so differently?
i don't even think it can be explained by saying your male pattern baldness is more or less aggressive: there are guys here heavily balding in their early 20s who get great results, others who don't start to their mid thirties and slowly, but nothing seems to work for them.
what is the explanation behind this?

 

[TheGrayMan2001]

It's pretty obvious: everyone balds at different rates.

Some guys go NW6 by the time they're 25. Some are Nw3 at 25, and some are Nw2.

Some have diffuse thinning slowly, some have it really fast.

Everyone's rate of baldness is totally different. Some people don't start balding until they're over 50!

The general idea seems to be that the more prone to loss your follicles are, the less effective the treatments will be (USUALLY).

If you're destined to be a NW6 at age 23, then even if you get on Propecia and rogaine at age 19-20 it might not help you one single bit.

However, if you're going to slowly bald to an Nw4-5 by the time you're 55-60, chances are jumping on propecia alone will stave off a lot of your hairloss.

 

[nickypoos]

Very true, but very depressing for the early balders like me

 

[rogber]

hey grayman, thanks for your reply but it seems to me your answer begs the qurestion:

there are some guys here who have significant hair loss at 23 or 24, suggesting they have aggressive male pattern baldness, but they go on the meds and get great regrowth within about six months (just look at the success threads).

then you have guys who start with mild hairloss at about 30, suggesting they have a far less aggressive form of male pattern baldness, but then finasteride does nothing for them and their male pattern baldness gets steadily worse.

isn't there a contradiction? how is it possible that finasteride can conquer male pattern baldness in someone who supposedly has very aggressive male pattern baldness, but have no effect on someone who starts balding much later and at a slower rate?

are we supposed to accept that some people suffer from a 'smash and grab' male pattern baldness that will ruin their hair if untreated but can be knocked out in one go with finasteride, while someone else has a slow, creeping male pattern baldness that at first look seems less severe, but which is actually invincible?

i'm not trying to undermine finasteride, just saying it's strange how some people with aggressive male pattern baldness are the best reactors to finasteride, while others with what seems a milder form get little or no results

 

[TEDDYRUXPIN]

Too many factors influence if a drug works or not.

Unfortunately, male pattern baldness is not fully understood. Some are associated with DHT and some not. People assume and even doctors assume that male pattern baldness may be linked to DHT levels. But it might not be.

At the end of the day, male pattern baldness is no difference to any disease which attacks their own body. Look at the state of treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. All drugs on the market reflect how little we know about the body.

Stress and diet is a major indicator of increased hairloss as well. Hormonal levels etc.

If finasteride does not work or even any male pattern baldness drug. It is not the end of the world. Hard to accept at any age but it is the truth. I find it very hard now but acceptance is the key. Easier to say than some though.

At least we all know hair transplant works.

Just something to cheer you up. My friend is fully bald at the age of 24. All his male family have hair. Unfortunately, he followed the route of his mother's side. All bald. However, did this harm him in anyway? Nope. He shaves it with a gillette blade and the amount of woman he attracts is amazing.

He is a quiet chap too. Never chats people up. Just attracts them. So at the end of the world. No one is a loser.

 

[rogber]

Hey, that's a great post which I think answers my original question: even if DHT is one of the main causes of male pattern baldness, there's a bunch of other factors and it's the way they all interact together that counts. I guess that explains why finasteride also has such varying success rates.
As I posted elsewhere, I have got mixed results from finasteride, better than some people here, but also much less than other.

The hair transplant route is something I definitely don't want to go down, it's too blatant and too high a risk it'll look awful. I trust that either HM or better meds will come on the market in the future, and if I'm still around and still care, maybe they'll be an option.
Good luck to your friend. Unfortunately, like many people here, I am one of those who has 'the wrong skull shape' for shaving my head. Otherwise I would have done it already and not spend time and money on all this sh*t. Still, he is a good example for the rest of us of just getting on with things...