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Hey everyone. Some things to share before I get started:
-I’m 25 years old and have been on finasteride for nearly 5 years now at a dosage of half a mg every other day.
-My father’s side suffers pretty heavily from male pattern baldness(including my father himself), while my mother’s side does not.
-I didn’t get any results until several months after the two year mark after taking the first dose(approximately 27 months in). This period consisted of constant shedding cycles and many moments of thinking I was a non-responder. As it stands, I managed to maintain while also achieving full regrowth on my crown.
-I do not take Dutasteride, Minoxidil or any topicals;however, I do supplement vitamin b complex, zinc and fish oil. I also eat an overall pretty anti-inflammatory diet.
-I suffered from diffuse male pattern baldness beginning around age 18 or 19.
I remember several years back when I first started taking finasteride, I would constantly search online on forums for people that were in the same situation as myself at a certain month mark and were able to either maintain or recover from their hair loss. I struggled mentally for the first couple of years with the fear that I was one of the unlucky few that wouldn’t respond to it. Very often, I would see posts with something to the effect of “all the people who got the results they wanted are out living life, they’re not going to waste their time on forums” etc . And, to be completely honest, I almost fell into that camp myself(despite telling myself over the years that I would eventually write something).
Procrastination got the best of me for a while, but I realized there are probably a lot of people with the similar situation as I was in throughout the years, and I want to help. People like Bryan(rest in peace) who would always comment on Hair Loss Talk or BTT had a far greater impact to young guys than they even realize. There would be times I would come across an old post from like 2011 of someone with a close situation to me at the x or y month mark or whatever it might have been, and it gave me hope. At the end of the day that’s all we can really ask for when we start taking this thing, right? Let’s be honest, it’s a scary drug to take for the majority of people that hop on it and any promising stories can go a long way. So I want to chime in, and maybe it will help someone now or in the future.
As I write this, I’m 25 years old and have been on finasteride for nearly 5 years now. I started taking it a few months before my 21st birthday. I always had incredibly thick hair growing up and would constantly get remarks from my family that I had my grandfather’s hair, would never go bald like my father etc. It was so thick, in fact, that I would intentionally have the barber thin it for me whenever I got my haircut in High School. Around 18, I noticed I was losing a ton of hair in the shower. This persisted for maybe 7 or 8 months, and I basically chalked it up to a deficiency or stress. Later, I began to notice that I was seeing parts of my scalp that I never saw before and decided it was time to see a dermatologist. He took out the tools(a pair of specialized magnifying lenses and a flashlight) and broke the bad news to me. I was devastated. I looked online and came across all the typical stuff about the dangers of finasteride, horror stories etc. and was conflicted about what I wanted to do.
Eventually(~1 month and a half later) I took the plunge. I started with the standard 1mg daily and, I’m not going to lie, the first month was really tough. I was exhausted, felt incredibly anxious and had sexual side effects. It was miserable, and I knew I couldn’t live like that. Rather than drop it completely and, with the knowledge I gained about micro-dosing from Bryan and others on HairLossTalk.com and others, I reduced my dosage to .5mg EOD. The pharmacology regarding the flat response curve and the mechanism of action lasting over 72hours(despite the drug having a relatively short half life) all made perfect sense. IIRC correctly, the dosage I’m currently on gives about an 85% effectiveness in AR reduction compared to the standard dose. Despite all the research adding up, I was still nervous it wasn’t going to work for me. The majority of success stories I would read dealt with people adding Dutasteride to their regimen or something similar. Micro-dose success stories were pretty hard to find back then, but it was really the only option I had.
After changing up my dosage, I began to feel much more normal a few weeks later. Symptoms gradually declined for me and--if my memory serves correctly--it was probably around the 3 ½ month mark where I felt like myself. At this point, it was just a matter of waiting it out and hoping that this stuff could work. And that was far easier said than done. For the first two years, my hair was in pretty rough shape. I would go through periods where I thought it was working briefly, only to be followed by a terrible shedding period that would last weeks(sometimes months). I nearly gave it up several times but was motivated by one poster on HairLossTalk.com who said he also got cyclical sheds and stabilized around the 2 year mark. dutasteride was not an option for me and, given how miserable I felt on a standard dose of Finasteride when I first started, I knew I could never touch it. So patience – or at least trying my best to be – was all I had at my disposal. I was also very close to adding minoxidil to my regimen, but I was afraid I could potentially open the pandora’s box as to what could actually be helping me down the line.
Those two years felt like an eternity. It was shed after shed—periodically revisiting old forums to see if any other posters also struggled with a similar situation. It felt like a never-ending roller coaster. Then, a few months after the 2 year mark after showering I started noticing I didn’t have any hair on my hands. My hair catcher would have only a few strands compared to the standard lump I was accustomed to seeing. I figured it was likely just a weird period, but it continued. Weeks went by, months went by… still the same few strands. I would get small sheds a few times a year but everything stabilized overall. At one point, I began to notice when I was getting my haircut and , when the barber held the mirror in front of me ,I saw the back of my head that my crown had completely grown back. As it stands, the front of my hair is far thinner than it was at 16 or 17, but nobody would think I was losing my hair. I only know from my personal experience with my head of hair that it is still “miniaturized” compared to how it used to be—but it’s been the same for the past 2.5+ years. I’ll never have my teenage head of hair again, and that’s ok . I would say my hair looks similar to how it did a few months after taking Finasteride with the added bonus of crown regrowth. Maintenance was a massive success for me.
Some things that might help I learned along the way:
-I’m 25 years old and have been on finasteride for nearly 5 years now at a dosage of half a mg every other day.
-My father’s side suffers pretty heavily from male pattern baldness(including my father himself), while my mother’s side does not.
-I didn’t get any results until several months after the two year mark after taking the first dose(approximately 27 months in). This period consisted of constant shedding cycles and many moments of thinking I was a non-responder. As it stands, I managed to maintain while also achieving full regrowth on my crown.
-I do not take Dutasteride, Minoxidil or any topicals;however, I do supplement vitamin b complex, zinc and fish oil. I also eat an overall pretty anti-inflammatory diet.
-I suffered from diffuse male pattern baldness beginning around age 18 or 19.
I remember several years back when I first started taking finasteride, I would constantly search online on forums for people that were in the same situation as myself at a certain month mark and were able to either maintain or recover from their hair loss. I struggled mentally for the first couple of years with the fear that I was one of the unlucky few that wouldn’t respond to it. Very often, I would see posts with something to the effect of “all the people who got the results they wanted are out living life, they’re not going to waste their time on forums” etc . And, to be completely honest, I almost fell into that camp myself(despite telling myself over the years that I would eventually write something).
Procrastination got the best of me for a while, but I realized there are probably a lot of people with the similar situation as I was in throughout the years, and I want to help. People like Bryan(rest in peace) who would always comment on Hair Loss Talk or BTT had a far greater impact to young guys than they even realize. There would be times I would come across an old post from like 2011 of someone with a close situation to me at the x or y month mark or whatever it might have been, and it gave me hope. At the end of the day that’s all we can really ask for when we start taking this thing, right? Let’s be honest, it’s a scary drug to take for the majority of people that hop on it and any promising stories can go a long way. So I want to chime in, and maybe it will help someone now or in the future.
As I write this, I’m 25 years old and have been on finasteride for nearly 5 years now. I started taking it a few months before my 21st birthday. I always had incredibly thick hair growing up and would constantly get remarks from my family that I had my grandfather’s hair, would never go bald like my father etc. It was so thick, in fact, that I would intentionally have the barber thin it for me whenever I got my haircut in High School. Around 18, I noticed I was losing a ton of hair in the shower. This persisted for maybe 7 or 8 months, and I basically chalked it up to a deficiency or stress. Later, I began to notice that I was seeing parts of my scalp that I never saw before and decided it was time to see a dermatologist. He took out the tools(a pair of specialized magnifying lenses and a flashlight) and broke the bad news to me. I was devastated. I looked online and came across all the typical stuff about the dangers of finasteride, horror stories etc. and was conflicted about what I wanted to do.
Eventually(~1 month and a half later) I took the plunge. I started with the standard 1mg daily and, I’m not going to lie, the first month was really tough. I was exhausted, felt incredibly anxious and had sexual side effects. It was miserable, and I knew I couldn’t live like that. Rather than drop it completely and, with the knowledge I gained about micro-dosing from Bryan and others on HairLossTalk.com and others, I reduced my dosage to .5mg EOD. The pharmacology regarding the flat response curve and the mechanism of action lasting over 72hours(despite the drug having a relatively short half life) all made perfect sense. IIRC correctly, the dosage I’m currently on gives about an 85% effectiveness in AR reduction compared to the standard dose. Despite all the research adding up, I was still nervous it wasn’t going to work for me. The majority of success stories I would read dealt with people adding Dutasteride to their regimen or something similar. Micro-dose success stories were pretty hard to find back then, but it was really the only option I had.
After changing up my dosage, I began to feel much more normal a few weeks later. Symptoms gradually declined for me and--if my memory serves correctly--it was probably around the 3 ½ month mark where I felt like myself. At this point, it was just a matter of waiting it out and hoping that this stuff could work. And that was far easier said than done. For the first two years, my hair was in pretty rough shape. I would go through periods where I thought it was working briefly, only to be followed by a terrible shedding period that would last weeks(sometimes months). I nearly gave it up several times but was motivated by one poster on HairLossTalk.com who said he also got cyclical sheds and stabilized around the 2 year mark. dutasteride was not an option for me and, given how miserable I felt on a standard dose of Finasteride when I first started, I knew I could never touch it. So patience – or at least trying my best to be – was all I had at my disposal. I was also very close to adding minoxidil to my regimen, but I was afraid I could potentially open the pandora’s box as to what could actually be helping me down the line.
Those two years felt like an eternity. It was shed after shed—periodically revisiting old forums to see if any other posters also struggled with a similar situation. It felt like a never-ending roller coaster. Then, a few months after the 2 year mark after showering I started noticing I didn’t have any hair on my hands. My hair catcher would have only a few strands compared to the standard lump I was accustomed to seeing. I figured it was likely just a weird period, but it continued. Weeks went by, months went by… still the same few strands. I would get small sheds a few times a year but everything stabilized overall. At one point, I began to notice when I was getting my haircut and , when the barber held the mirror in front of me ,I saw the back of my head that my crown had completely grown back. As it stands, the front of my hair is far thinner than it was at 16 or 17, but nobody would think I was losing my hair. I only know from my personal experience with my head of hair that it is still “miniaturized” compared to how it used to be—but it’s been the same for the past 2.5+ years. I’ll never have my teenage head of hair again, and that’s ok . I would say my hair looks similar to how it did a few months after taking Finasteride with the added bonus of crown regrowth. Maintenance was a massive success for me.
Some things that might help I learned along the way:
- If you’re taking this EOD or plan to, make sure you’re taking it as close to the same time each day or night as possible(within 3 hours or so). The human body is all about routine—especially when hormones are involved. A few times I would forget to take my pill the night before and if I took it the following morning, my body would notice that. I would experience some side-effects from the delay.
- Drink a full glass of water each time you take the pill. I don’t know why this is the case, but if I would take it without only a sip or two I would get prostatitis and lethargy symptoms the next morning. Having a full glass of water helps a lot.
- If you’re cutting the pill to microdose, make sure it’s as close to even as possible. It’s never going to be 100%, but this falls into the same category as the first point. Consistency and routine is key. My body would definitely notice if I got lazy and the ratios were off. In theory, this shouldn’t mater given the FR response curve, but I 100% noticed a difference in energy and side-effects.
- I want to close by saying that if you don’t feel like taking the pill, don’t. Anytime you are messing with your hormones it’s a serious thing and takes full consideration. I completely back anyone who doesn’t feel comfortable to take the plunge. In my case, my hair mattered enough to me to take the risk. If I felt confident enough to let my hair loss ride, I definitely would. Always listen to your gut! I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about how my hormonal health will be 10+ years down the line
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- TDLR: I suffered from diffuse male pattern baldness. I took .5mg of finasteride EOD for nearly two years without results. A few months after the two year mark, my hair began to stabilize and I achieved regrowth in my crown and maintained everywhere else.
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