Is it time to start minoxidil or Dutasteride?

centurie

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I have been on Propecia for 10 months now, for the first 7 months i was taking 0.5mg EOD and for the past 3 months i have been taking 1mg ED. I have been shedding throughout my whole time on Propecia and although my hair is not noticeably different, i have had no results and my hair feels thinner than before. Surely my crown would thicken up however it is no better if not worse. Surely i would have noticed results by now? Or a decrease in shedding? Luckily my balding is still hard to notice.

My question now is should i switch to Dutasteride? Or should i start applying minoxidil? My fear with minoxidil is that if i do take it for a set period of time and stop using it my hair will end up worse than it is currently.

Thanks for all your help
 

hmm

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Not sure if serious. You've only been taking finasteride 1 mg daily for 3 months (forget the pointless 7 months 0.5mg EOD) and you expect a miracle and now want to jump on dutasteride? Keep taking 1mg finasteride daily and report back in a minimum of another 9 months.

I didn't notice my hair getting better on finasteride until the 1-2 year mark. It takes time, this has been posted endlessly yet people still seem to freak out and make these kinds of posts.
 

bilboswaggins

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Not sure if serious. You've only been taking finasteride 1 mg daily for 3 months (forget the pointless 7 months 0.5mg EOD) and you expect a miracle and now want to jump on dutasteride? Keep taking 1mg finasteride daily and report back in a minimum of another 9 months.

I didn't notice my hair getting better on finasteride until the 1-2 year mark. It takes time, this has been posted endlessly yet people still seem to freak out and make these kinds of posts.

7 months 0.5 mg EOD is not pointless. from what i can remember studies showed than even 0.1 mg inhibited almost as much as 1 mg
 

shookwun

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Do .5MG week dutasteride

1mg finasteride ED
 

Wolf Pack

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I reckon I might be asking the same question at the 12 month mark, although I am getting "genuine benefit" from finasteride at almost 7 months in. Just need to try everything for regrowth before I give in to a hair transplant. If I had got on finasteride as a solid Norwood 2 I would have been good for years.

Shookwun, what you mentioned is my plan at the 1-2 year mark. Everyone has seen that case study of dutasteride once a week added to finasteride and the effect it had on that one patient. Plus psychologically you don't feel bad adding it in once a week and neither does it burn a hole in your wallet.

finasteride ON AVERAGE grows like like 140 hairs in a 1 inch diameter, dutasteride like 200 plus, Minoxidil is 300-400 maybe more (over 1 year).

Currently been doing 5 mg of finasteride daily as 5 mg grows a little more than 1 mg, it's giving the "push" and I will go back to 1 mg soon enough.
 

g.i joey

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Currently been doing 5 mg of finasteride daily as 5 mg grows a little more than 1 mg, it's giving the "push" and I will go back to 1 mg soon enough.

Eeshh be careful man.. this is anecdotal but I don't think you should up your dose just to lower it.. that extra dht u get when u go back to 1mg may effect you negatively. Good luck though!
 

hmm

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7 months 0.5 mg EOD is not pointless. from what i can remember studies showed than even 0.1 mg inhibited almost as much as 1 mg

No sorry that is wrong. Look at the finasteride dosage curve. If you are taking .5mg every other day, essentially .25mg a day you are short changing yourself. You should be taking at least .5mg daily for best chance of finasteride working. How the OP can be upset at 10 months when the majority of it was on such a low dose and suggest jumping to dutasteride is beyond me.

Give 1mg of finasteride daily a chance, try if for a year before before coming out guns blazing with dutasteride. Like I said it took me about 1-2 years before I notice my hair thickening. I've jumped on dutasteride now for the last 6 months after 10 years on finasteride as I was creeping back to baseline. dutasteride is a last resort IMO.
 

Wolf Pack

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Eeshh be careful man.. this is anecdotal but I don't think you should up your dose just to lower it.. that extra dht u get when u go back to 1mg may effect you negatively. Good luck though!

Thanks gi.joey I appreciate your concern. Remember though, I am a medic and looked into this. It could back fire of course as far as hair is concerned once I lower it.

In terms of DHT inhibition the difference is slight between 1 mg and 5 mg - like 1%! Even then in some clinical trials 1 mg managed to get up to 71% after 40 odd days of dosing if my memory serves me well.

Main reason is 5 mg grows a bit more than 1 mg. Like 90 odd hairs to 70 odd as more finasteride is in your blood. For BPH 5 mg is prescribed despite no extra DHT inhibition than 1 mg so the amount in your system can make a difference.

In the clinical trials people were taking 80 mg of finasteride per day, if you tolerate it well it's all good.

There is eventually a point where there are diminishing returns and it's probably around the 5 mg mark. 1 mg is indeed best long term/0.625.

Spencer Kobren was on 7.5 mg daily for a while.

Definitely my right temple is going from Norwood 3 to 2.5 like the one on the left. Forelock growing too. Nothing massively changing yet though as expected.

- - - Updated - - -

No sorry that is wrong. Look at the finasteride dosage curve. If you are taking .5mg every other day, essentially .25mg a day you are short changing yourself. You should be taking at least .5mg daily for best chance of finasteride working. How the OP can be upset at 10 months when the majority of it was on such a low dose and suggest jumping to dutasteride is beyond me.

Give 1mg of finasteride daily a chance, try if for a year before before coming out guns blazing with dutasteride. Like I said it took me about 1-2 years before I notice my hair thickening. I've jumped on dutasteride now for the last 6 months after 10 years on finasteride as I was creeping back to baseline. dutasteride is a last resort IMO.

0.2 daily is 80% effective as 1 mg. OP wants growth so definitely worth trying a higher dose. In terms of "halting powers" of finasteride I believe 0.2 daily and above will be enough for people at least for a while. Anything above 0.2 mg reduces DHT to castrate levels and we all know how effective that is from the study population of pseduohermaphrodites.

I was on 1/8 proscar daily (0.625 mg) for the first 6 months, stuff was working real well.
 

centurie

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Guys let me just rephrase things:

I'm not looking for regrowth, I think my hair looks acceptable at the moment. I've attached some pictures below so you guys can judge for yourself.

My my main issue is that I believe I am not maintaining as I think my hair has gotten worse throughout my time on propecia which is why I am considering other treatments. I am apprehensive about it as maybe I might be taking longer to stabilise and eventually my shedding will cease. But from my photos it looks like my hair has slightly thinned out more but I can't really tell.

So should I add dutasteride into the mix or minoxidil? My aim is just to keep my hair the way it is.

Thanks image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg
 

shookwun

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All I see is a full head of hair, and strong temple points o_O
 

g.i joey

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Definately missing some density... stick it out on finasteride you'll be golden.. you caught your hairloss at a perfect time

Give the 1mg a day a better chance to kick in.. I agree .25 isn't close to as strong
 

centurie

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The haircut masks it, if you want to see proper photos you can look at my older thread "19 and balding". But I'm just wondering have I given finasteride enough of a chance? Because in all honesty I have had 0 results And my hair might be thinning more. I keep telling myself my shedding is a positive sign but there is no end to it.

My hair in general is very brittle which makes me think maybe I have some sort of a deficiency, but I highly doubt this is the case.

Also so if I was having a hyperandrogenic effect would I be able to tell by now? I say this because my chest continues to get hairier my skin is very oily as well as my hair gets greasy wishing 1 day. I also get scalp spots from time to time, usually around my hairline which is unusual.


Thanks
 
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