One Year on 0.5 mg propecia and better off for it
Hi guys,
Like many of you, I was reading posts and getting educated about hairloss treatments around a year ago. Right now, I have noticably thicker hair all over my head than I did then. The only thing I've used is 0.5 mg propecia.
Here's how my experience has gone. When I first got the stuff, I hit up the full 1 mg dose daily. After about a week, I could feel that I was a bit less horny, wasn't waking up with as much wood, and my scalp felt a bit tight and more dry than it normally is. I expected the loss of libido, and had read that it was temporary, so didn't trip on it. But I did notice it, and let's face it guys, that's not a good feeling. What bothered me more, was that my scalp was getting so dry and feeling stretched. I literally could feel the drug going to work on my dome. I'm a tall, athletic guy with a really fast metabolism. Can eat like a horse and not gain weight, I actually lift to stay heavy, otherwise I get too skinny. I've always noticed I am pretty damn sensitive to drugs. I've dabbled with enough illegal substances like LSD, Ecstacy and cocaine to know it usually took me about half of what my buddies were hitting up to get the same effects. Funny enough, I could always smoke them under the table with the killer wheezy, so I think metabolism is a huge factor in how this stuff (finasteride) hits you. But don't take this the wrong way - I'm not a drugged out freak. I'm actually in a top law school and doing better than a lot of private-school, HAVAHD-types who have "never touched the stuff."
Stone Cold - I'll bet you're a big athletic guy, more bulky than I am, but all that exercise probably has your metabolism revved up and you're probably just sensitive to any new drugs that mess with your system.
Anyway, you all hear about these "sheds" people get. Well I noticed about two weeks in at 1mg that if I ran my hand through my very dry hair, a lot of hairs were coming out, and from places like the sides where male pattern baldness doesn't occur. I freaked at this and stopped taking the pill. I think I figured this out later though - I read that big hormone shifts can cause this kind of general, all over the head shed. Pregnant women get it, when their hormones bug out. I had just started too aggresively for my system and metabolism. My body was shocked that I was so DHT free all of a sudden, or more likely that I had such increased testosterone due to the balancing effect of losing that DHT - you can read up on this. At first upon suppressing DHT your normal testosterone levels increase - this is what causes the acne some get (I noticed it slightly, and I almost never get acne, chose my parents wisely...). SO...I got off it for a week or so, and everything went back to how it was before. Morning wood, scalp felt normal again, but the same slow hair loss kept going. By the way, my hair loss has been very slow but steady. I had noticable temple loss. Was getting a LITTLE thin in the back dome, but not too bad. I was just starting to get the "Hey man, you're receding" comments. Like Norwood 1.5 or so.
After some time went by, I repeated this process again. Finally, I decided to try out 0.5 mg per day. I didn't get the loss of wood. I didn't get that overly dried out feeling in my scalp. I really didn't feel anything. After a few weeks, I noticed my hair was combing better or something - kind of hard to explain, but just a general improved feeling. Couldn't point out any new hairs or anything, I just seemed to have "better hair days" than I'd been having. More time went by and I kept religiously taking my half a propecia pill every morning.
I began noticing that when I woke up in the morning, my hair was less greasy and more manageable. Like it wouldn't get all matted down and look so bad I HAD to take a shower to make myself presentable to hide the temple loss. Just generally looking and feeling better.
Which brings me to the present time. I did not really gain back hair where it was already gone, but what has happened is wherever I did still have hair, even up front, it seemed to stay in longer and grow out more. It looks a lot better than it did. My good old mom, who I had begun bitching to about my hair, saw me the other week for the first time in about three months and thought I looked great, and told me "Good for you that you figured something out." I don't stress about it like I used to, and my mind is a bit more free to focus on other sh*t. THis is the first time I have checked back into the boards here, and I'm just doing it because I saw a similar encouraging post once and told myself I'd pass on the good word myself if I had any success, because otherwise all you guys will read are people who are having problems - those of us who feel better don't hang out and post anymore. I don't care who you are, if you lose hair, you deal with some confidence issues. It isn't right, but it's true for most of us. I take my hat off to the guys who don't stress on it, but I'll bet even they get sick of the comments from their "friends." It's funny, the same strength those guys have is the same reason it's still okay to make fun of the bald guy, as opposed to the fat guy, just plain ugly guy, guy with a hair lip, on and on...
So....all I can say is give your system a chance to deal with this stuff, try to introduce it to your system gradually. Start out with a low dose and let yourself see how you feel. All I need is 0.5 mg, but maybe that will chance with time. After a year on this, maybe I'll up a little and see how it goes, but so far no need. I'm not a topicals guy- too much to deal with for me, so I am stoked I started on propecia when I did. I actually wish I had done it sooner. Now my only problem is I can't remember which pharmacy I ordered online from - they were awesome and much cheaper than anything I am finding now - so I've gotta go browse now. Give this stuff a try guys - don't sweat the effects for a while, let your body adjust and try to find your right dose. Stone Cold - the sore tits would concern me too, but again I think it's a hormone change thing and you should hang tough with at least 0.25 dose for a month. Things will balance out, you'll start to notice good things on your dome in about 2-3 months, and especially after six, and being at the one year mark, maybe a little shy of that, right now, I can say I have more hair than I did last year this time. Stuff works - it keeps the DHT poision away from your follicles, and that's just science. Whatever amount you can use probably helps. Take care everyone,
-better off