hey there,
I am 28 years old and I've suffered from hair loss since I was 18 years old. At the beginning my hair was getting thinner and thinner, so that I lost 2/3 of my volume just by thinning. At the time I thought it was just because of age as this was happening even to my sisters. There were also problems that I still struggle with to this day: very dry hair, my hair color has completely changed (from copper-colored to a "street mutt" blond to dark blond), I had to struggle with danduff and severe itching.
When I turned 24, it really started. My temples have retreated more and more and the vertex has become damn light/bald. In less than a year from a Norwood 2 to a 4. Since then things have been sluggish, but still progress. Since I was only ever recommended PRP, minoxidil or caffeine shampoo in Germany, I thought it was hopeless and didn't investigate further (a huge mistake).
After discovering this forum a year and a half ago, I dug through the entries and ventured into my current regime. (can be seen :v). Finasteride was also part of this regime. Nevertheless, I had strong side effects at 1mg per day. Dry eyes, increased migraine attacks, apathy, severe depression (I suffer badly from my hair loss, but I'm not a depressed person). So I stopped the treatment. After I read more here, I of course read the tips for a lower dose and started with 0.25. Although the side effects were significantly lower, they were still present. The apathy alone almost cost me my life I forgot to close the front door, I sometimes lost sight of entire periods of time (I sometimes didn't know how I got to a party or to the university, not even whether I came on foot or by bus) and recently almost fell in front of the train after I wanted to get on it because I didn't pay any attention to the train and where it was standing . My entire family said that in the 2 months I've been taking Finasteride again, I've been a completely different person. No idea if this was nocebo. After that it got a lot better, even though it was really hard for me. I was actually happy to finally have an alternative to caffeine shampoo/Snake Oil and wasn't worried about side effects before taking finasteride. One of the side effects (I think it's coming from finasteride) is that I got light boobs...Since I'm underweight it shouldn't be from the 1-2 Kg weight gain. Maybe someone of you knows more about this. That's all that's left of Side Effects. Underweight, balding and boobs. I'll tell you, not a good combo :v
With my current regime, I hope to at least delay it. Unfortunately, Min and Microneedling have not helped so far, although I have been using Min every day for exactly a year, micron. every 7 days. Keto was freshly added and I will start this from tomorrow. I'm also considering trying alfatradiol or finding something that might be weaker than finasteride but works similarly to at least delay it a bit (still hope for Kintor as an alternative). Who knows.
I hope this suffices as a brief insight. Of course, I'm available for questions, but I have to admit that I'm not too deep into the subject to be able to answer adequately here. I don't even know if the finasteride side effects really came from finasteride :^). I also hope that my English is sufficient. Unfortunately, I rarely speak/write in English.
I'll add photos over time!
I am 28 years old and I've suffered from hair loss since I was 18 years old. At the beginning my hair was getting thinner and thinner, so that I lost 2/3 of my volume just by thinning. At the time I thought it was just because of age as this was happening even to my sisters. There were also problems that I still struggle with to this day: very dry hair, my hair color has completely changed (from copper-colored to a "street mutt" blond to dark blond), I had to struggle with danduff and severe itching.
When I turned 24, it really started. My temples have retreated more and more and the vertex has become damn light/bald. In less than a year from a Norwood 2 to a 4. Since then things have been sluggish, but still progress. Since I was only ever recommended PRP, minoxidil or caffeine shampoo in Germany, I thought it was hopeless and didn't investigate further (a huge mistake).
After discovering this forum a year and a half ago, I dug through the entries and ventured into my current regime. (can be seen :v). Finasteride was also part of this regime. Nevertheless, I had strong side effects at 1mg per day. Dry eyes, increased migraine attacks, apathy, severe depression (I suffer badly from my hair loss, but I'm not a depressed person). So I stopped the treatment. After I read more here, I of course read the tips for a lower dose and started with 0.25. Although the side effects were significantly lower, they were still present. The apathy alone almost cost me my life I forgot to close the front door, I sometimes lost sight of entire periods of time (I sometimes didn't know how I got to a party or to the university, not even whether I came on foot or by bus) and recently almost fell in front of the train after I wanted to get on it because I didn't pay any attention to the train and where it was standing . My entire family said that in the 2 months I've been taking Finasteride again, I've been a completely different person. No idea if this was nocebo. After that it got a lot better, even though it was really hard for me. I was actually happy to finally have an alternative to caffeine shampoo/Snake Oil and wasn't worried about side effects before taking finasteride. One of the side effects (I think it's coming from finasteride) is that I got light boobs...Since I'm underweight it shouldn't be from the 1-2 Kg weight gain. Maybe someone of you knows more about this. That's all that's left of Side Effects. Underweight, balding and boobs. I'll tell you, not a good combo :v
With my current regime, I hope to at least delay it. Unfortunately, Min and Microneedling have not helped so far, although I have been using Min every day for exactly a year, micron. every 7 days. Keto was freshly added and I will start this from tomorrow. I'm also considering trying alfatradiol or finding something that might be weaker than finasteride but works similarly to at least delay it a bit (still hope for Kintor as an alternative). Who knows.
I hope this suffices as a brief insight. Of course, I'm available for questions, but I have to admit that I'm not too deep into the subject to be able to answer adequately here. I don't even know if the finasteride side effects really came from finasteride :^). I also hope that my English is sufficient. Unfortunately, I rarely speak/write in English.
I'll add photos over time!