Questions regarding finasteride

[TanbarkBellss]

Hey guys, i got some Q's that need some A's.

1. I was on a regime for about 5 months last year (finasteride & minoxidil daily. nizoral occasionally). Due to financial problems, i wasn't able to continue the regime. Now, 2-3 months later, i'm read to start the regime again. What can i expect to happen here? Will positive results be more effective/responsive or less effective/responsive? Will i skip the shedding phase because i already did that late last year? Or will i shed again?


2. When one is in the midst of a regime, how serious of a mistake is it to miss a day of taking your finasteride? Occassionally in past regime's i would miss a day here and there of taking finasteride or applying minoxidil. This happened probably once for every week or 2. How badly does that hurt the process? Or is it not such a big deal?

3. What happens if you're on finasteride daily but minoxidil is only once a day instead of twice?

 

[Bryan]

Applying topical minoxidil once a day is obviously not as effective as applying it twice a day, but don't assume that twice a day is twice as effective as once a day! I don't claim to know the exact proportions of effectiveness, but I'm "guesstimating" that once a day is probably something like 2/3 or 3/4 as effective as twice a day.

 

[TanbarkBellss]

Ok, thanks for the reply.

Can anybody these questions?:

- How significant of an issue is it if you miss a day of finasteride here and there? (say, for example, once every 2 weeks)

- If you go on finasteride for 5 months, then stop for 3 months, then start the regime back up again, do you re-shed?

 

[anxious1]

missing a day is no big deal. it wont make any difference.

probably noone can answer ur 2nd question. u might not shed again because the weak hairs have already been shed. however i wouldn't really know.

its kinda irrelavant. Either ur gonna take it or ur not. if u take it again whether u go downhill first or not, within 2 yrs u should be back above baseline. Or if u dont take it, in 2 yrs youll probably be worse than baseline, depending on how fast the progression is.

 

[Todd]

- If you go on finasteride for 5 months, then stop for 3 months, then start the regime back up again, do you re-shed?

Ahem: I have done this. I quit for almost 6 months.
The shedding begins during the period you stop. It kicked in for me at about 4 months. Wasn't noticeable until about 6 months.
When I started again (a year ++ since now), shedding stopped after 2-3 months (much quicker than the first time) and now I'm basically back to where I was before (Norwood 1.72/ thick nw2).

I think in your case, the only thing a 3 month brake will do is slow down the onset of results from finasteride. I wouldn't expect any shedding, 3 months is a little short time for that, and even if you DO shed, it probably won't be that much.

Skipping a day or two is no biggie, I do it at least once a month due to sheer forgetfulness