people has been using anti-androgens for years with success (see Derek from "more plates more dates" experience with RU).
finasteride is sh*t, most people who can tolerate it, tend to hop on dutasteride later because they start losing ground on finasteride.
it's not only DHT that kills the follicles, all androgens do , Testosterone and other anabolic steroids, all of them fucks with your dermal papilla cells.
the best way to counter the androgenic effect on the scalp is not by eliminating DHT via the blocking of 5-AR enzymes that are very important for Neurosteroids.
best way is by inhibiting all androgen's effects locally on the scalp. but most drugs we came up with tend to go systemic and block other ARs in the body.
pyri grows hair like magic. too bad i think it has reduced my sexual drive a little bit. but it didn't give me nasty brain sides like finasteride.