Hello everyone,
Before I get to my question, I guess it's suitable for me to give some background information about myself so it's easier for you guys to answer my question. I'm a pretty young guy, 19 years old, and I started to thin very early. I had a NW2 hairline by the time I was 14 years old, and my forelock and temples have been slowly receding ever since. My hair loss pattern matches a standard NW2 pattern almost exactly. So, a month ago I decided to start the Big 3, and I have been using the products diligently (Finasteride 1.25mg ED, Nizoral 1% 3-4x a week, and Minoxidil 5% 2x ED.)
A couple weeks into the treatment I noticed that my shedding was getting worse, and I was losing around twice the amount of hair that I normally would every morning in the shower. This put some trouble on my mind for a brief period, but after some research into the subject I found that it's apparently very normal for people to experience increased shedding during the first few months of treatment. So, I was placated, and resumed taking my medication and following through with my regimen.
Lately, however, I've been experiencing shedding in places OTHER than my scalp. My leg, arm, and chest hair seems to be falling out very easily. More-so than I would think is normal, though I've never paid a lot of attention to the phenomenon. If I lightly brush my fingers through my arm hair over the sink, 20-30 hairs easily fall from my arm onto the white ceramic. My chest hairs seem to be even weaker, with multiple hairs falling out with each pass of my hand. And, it's not as if I'm pulling hard or attempting to pluck them out -- no. I'm very lightly combing my fingers through the hair, causing only the gentlest of pulls on the strands. I've never read or seen a post detailing this, so as you might expect, it's got me a tad worried that I might have something else going on besides male pattern baldness. To be very transparent, it's not as if all the hair on my arms has fallen out. I still have a great many hairs on my arms, and it doesn't look as if they've thinned in any noticeable way, so I might just be worrying far too much about the issue. With so many hairs falling out so easily, though, it's hard for me to restrain myself from at least posting to this forum. So, I have some questions for this board that I hope some who are more experienced with this process might be able to give insight into. Answers might ease my mind a little, or at least point me in the right direction.
My question is, can Finasteride or Minoxidil case shedding elsewhere in the body besides the scalp? I've read online that DHT plays a role in the development of other types of hair (though I've only read about the role of DHT in beard hairs.) Could it be that my decreased DHT levels from the Finasteride could be causing the hair around my body to fall out? If so, will it come back?
I've had no other side effects from Finasteride what-so-ever. For minoxidil, I have had a very mild scalp itch, and I have had one bout of very mild dandruff (which only started after I spent some time in the pool, so perhaps the chlorine had dried my scalp.)
Any insight into this would be great! Thanks everybody
Before I get to my question, I guess it's suitable for me to give some background information about myself so it's easier for you guys to answer my question. I'm a pretty young guy, 19 years old, and I started to thin very early. I had a NW2 hairline by the time I was 14 years old, and my forelock and temples have been slowly receding ever since. My hair loss pattern matches a standard NW2 pattern almost exactly. So, a month ago I decided to start the Big 3, and I have been using the products diligently (Finasteride 1.25mg ED, Nizoral 1% 3-4x a week, and Minoxidil 5% 2x ED.)
A couple weeks into the treatment I noticed that my shedding was getting worse, and I was losing around twice the amount of hair that I normally would every morning in the shower. This put some trouble on my mind for a brief period, but after some research into the subject I found that it's apparently very normal for people to experience increased shedding during the first few months of treatment. So, I was placated, and resumed taking my medication and following through with my regimen.
Lately, however, I've been experiencing shedding in places OTHER than my scalp. My leg, arm, and chest hair seems to be falling out very easily. More-so than I would think is normal, though I've never paid a lot of attention to the phenomenon. If I lightly brush my fingers through my arm hair over the sink, 20-30 hairs easily fall from my arm onto the white ceramic. My chest hairs seem to be even weaker, with multiple hairs falling out with each pass of my hand. And, it's not as if I'm pulling hard or attempting to pluck them out -- no. I'm very lightly combing my fingers through the hair, causing only the gentlest of pulls on the strands. I've never read or seen a post detailing this, so as you might expect, it's got me a tad worried that I might have something else going on besides male pattern baldness. To be very transparent, it's not as if all the hair on my arms has fallen out. I still have a great many hairs on my arms, and it doesn't look as if they've thinned in any noticeable way, so I might just be worrying far too much about the issue. With so many hairs falling out so easily, though, it's hard for me to restrain myself from at least posting to this forum. So, I have some questions for this board that I hope some who are more experienced with this process might be able to give insight into. Answers might ease my mind a little, or at least point me in the right direction.
My question is, can Finasteride or Minoxidil case shedding elsewhere in the body besides the scalp? I've read online that DHT plays a role in the development of other types of hair (though I've only read about the role of DHT in beard hairs.) Could it be that my decreased DHT levels from the Finasteride could be causing the hair around my body to fall out? If so, will it come back?
I've had no other side effects from Finasteride what-so-ever. For minoxidil, I have had a very mild scalp itch, and I have had one bout of very mild dandruff (which only started after I spent some time in the pool, so perhaps the chlorine had dried my scalp.)
Any insight into this would be great! Thanks everybody
