I really believe the dutasteride hairline fear is overblown. I was on it for 4 years and only saw benefit after an initial shed. The only reason I got off is that I just couldn't shake the brain fog and it was impacting may job. It is clearly better than finasteride at blocking DHT. I had less scalp itch, my acne went away, and less body hair. The sides are definitely worse though and there are few long term studies. Who knows what it is doing to your liver long term. People taking it for hair loss are really rolling the dice.
Here is why the dutasteride hairline fear is overblown:
- People often get fake dutasteride from shady places. This is still an issue but was extremely common when dutasteride first entered the hair loss scene. I got mine from a doctor.
- People panic switch to dutasteride when they are losing a ton of hair on finasteride. When you switch to dutasteride, you are going to shed. Extremely miniaturized hairs might not make it back from that. dutasteride is speeding up the process a little but IMO the hairs people lose were going to be gone within 6-12 months at best anyway. Additionally, sometimes people's loss is just to aggressive for dutasteride to stop. Thus, dutasteride will get the blame even though the loses were the result of finasteride not doing an adequate job for some period of time.
- People don't wait out the shed and give up within 6 months or less. They never stick it out long enough to see the benefit. This is especially true IMO for people who are worried their dutasteride might be fake.
- This is a theory but I believe dutasteride causes telegian effium in a lot of people. The hormone drop is just too severe. Often this goes away after a few months. Other times it becomes chronic and people lose density all over. I think people mistake this with balding sometimes.
