Hello all, I have been lurking this site on and off for a long time and decided to sign up and start posting. Here is my story, I will try to be detailed without being too long winded.
Im 26 years old and started noticing my hairline was getting, ill say "broader" my freshman year in college. I wasn't too worried at first because my father and his brother both have what they like to call "Five heads" that is, they genetically have more recessed hairlines but have full heads of thick hair in their 50s, they don't suffer from male pattern baldness at all. on the other hand my maternal grandfather and all of his brothers and nephews are totally bald. (horseshoe pattern, still all have pretty good "donor area" hairs)
After I graduated college, I noticed that the front of my hair was starting to thin out a little, pretty much unnoticeable to anyone but me, but it was happening, albeit very slowly. I continued to shed a lot but my loss was still very slow and pretty much undetectable, Fast forward to about two years ago when I moved to NYC and my new barber said to me "your hair is thin, its like cutting baby hair". In the past, barbers had always commented on how thick my hair was. That was when I decided enough was enough and jumped on generic finasteride. keep in mind, my hair was still not that bad, my hairline hadn't changed much but I just lost a ton of density and the quality of my hair was not where it was just two or three years before. I started taking .25 mg of finasteride with the plan to gradually up the dosage to 1 mg which I did, about three months in I started experiencing sides. I should mention that I am extremely healthy, I follow a very strict and healthy diet and exercise regularly. I know my body very well so I am confident in saying these sides were not a coincidence . I experienced breast tenderness (no enlargement) painful erection and watery semen, these side effects however went away at around month five mark.
I didn't see any change whatsoever by month 6. Hair loss and shedding was the same ( I shed quite a bit and always have), So I decided to add Min liquid every day at night, another 6 months went by and still nothing at all and hair was slowly getting worse. Now after about a year and three months on finasteride and six months on minoxidil my hair is still getting worse. To top it off, I started noticing little tiny hairs all over my bed. I realized it must be from the back of my head. I took a picture of the back and it looked like someone taken a weed whacker to the the nape of my neck. This really freaked me out because I had always had really thick donor hair that went down to the nape, even my maternal relatives who are bald still have pretty thick donor areas as I mentioned before. I now have a terrible itch in the donor area that I never had before. I have read very similar stories to this regarding the nape loss while on finasteride. Am I saying it is definitely from finasteride? no, it may be Telogen Effluvium or I might just naturally be getting retrograde alopecia, but it just seemed so sudden aggressive and unlike my general pattern and genetic disposition. I now have stopped finasteride cold turkey to see what happens. I have been off for three weeks and have noticed very strong erections and acne on my forehead which I would get before taking finasteride, so clearly finasteride was doing something to DHT/Test, but not enough to stop my hairloss and potentially did something to my donor hair (again, cant say for sure, and I find it hard to believe, but Ive heard very similar stories.) All in all I don't really have anything bad to say about finasteride and minoxidil other than they didn't work for me, and would still recommend them as a first line of defense. I think all in all, finasteride is a pretty weak drug, but it all depends on YOU and YOUR BODY and not on the drug itself. Everyone is going to respond different to changing androgen levels and thats just the bottom line.
I am going to take a few months off meds and then potentially take a different approach. Ive ordered all the ingredients for ZIX and currently have a bottle of dutasteride staring me in the face, that I am very apprehensive to start. sorry for the long story but I will continue to update on any new regimen i start.
Thanks for reading and sorry for the length.
Im 26 years old and started noticing my hairline was getting, ill say "broader" my freshman year in college. I wasn't too worried at first because my father and his brother both have what they like to call "Five heads" that is, they genetically have more recessed hairlines but have full heads of thick hair in their 50s, they don't suffer from male pattern baldness at all. on the other hand my maternal grandfather and all of his brothers and nephews are totally bald. (horseshoe pattern, still all have pretty good "donor area" hairs)
After I graduated college, I noticed that the front of my hair was starting to thin out a little, pretty much unnoticeable to anyone but me, but it was happening, albeit very slowly. I continued to shed a lot but my loss was still very slow and pretty much undetectable, Fast forward to about two years ago when I moved to NYC and my new barber said to me "your hair is thin, its like cutting baby hair". In the past, barbers had always commented on how thick my hair was. That was when I decided enough was enough and jumped on generic finasteride. keep in mind, my hair was still not that bad, my hairline hadn't changed much but I just lost a ton of density and the quality of my hair was not where it was just two or three years before. I started taking .25 mg of finasteride with the plan to gradually up the dosage to 1 mg which I did, about three months in I started experiencing sides. I should mention that I am extremely healthy, I follow a very strict and healthy diet and exercise regularly. I know my body very well so I am confident in saying these sides were not a coincidence . I experienced breast tenderness (no enlargement) painful erection and watery semen, these side effects however went away at around month five mark.
I didn't see any change whatsoever by month 6. Hair loss and shedding was the same ( I shed quite a bit and always have), So I decided to add Min liquid every day at night, another 6 months went by and still nothing at all and hair was slowly getting worse. Now after about a year and three months on finasteride and six months on minoxidil my hair is still getting worse. To top it off, I started noticing little tiny hairs all over my bed. I realized it must be from the back of my head. I took a picture of the back and it looked like someone taken a weed whacker to the the nape of my neck. This really freaked me out because I had always had really thick donor hair that went down to the nape, even my maternal relatives who are bald still have pretty thick donor areas as I mentioned before. I now have a terrible itch in the donor area that I never had before. I have read very similar stories to this regarding the nape loss while on finasteride. Am I saying it is definitely from finasteride? no, it may be Telogen Effluvium or I might just naturally be getting retrograde alopecia, but it just seemed so sudden aggressive and unlike my general pattern and genetic disposition. I now have stopped finasteride cold turkey to see what happens. I have been off for three weeks and have noticed very strong erections and acne on my forehead which I would get before taking finasteride, so clearly finasteride was doing something to DHT/Test, but not enough to stop my hairloss and potentially did something to my donor hair (again, cant say for sure, and I find it hard to believe, but Ive heard very similar stories.) All in all I don't really have anything bad to say about finasteride and minoxidil other than they didn't work for me, and would still recommend them as a first line of defense. I think all in all, finasteride is a pretty weak drug, but it all depends on YOU and YOUR BODY and not on the drug itself. Everyone is going to respond different to changing androgen levels and thats just the bottom line.
I am going to take a few months off meds and then potentially take a different approach. Ive ordered all the ingredients for ZIX and currently have a bottle of dutasteride staring me in the face, that I am very apprehensive to start. sorry for the long story but I will continue to update on any new regimen i start.
Thanks for reading and sorry for the length.
