Rob was originally where I got the idea from the massages and he does a far better job at explaining things than I do, a lot of this page is primarily the research I did independent of Rob's site to test the legitimacy of scalp massages as an effective hair growth option. I wanted to believe it worked but it seemed far too simplistic to actually regrow hair but I was pleased to see there was actually quite a lot of scientific backing to it.
I could never do the recommended 2x20 minute massages, primarily due to being depressed and not really having a lot of energy to do a lot, balding really puts your mood on a low so staying consistent I hard. I instead just opted for a minimum of 5 minutes a day massaging my scalp and put more in if it felt necessary. I tried to treat it objectively using scalp pliability and the sounds of the crunches as a way to measure how much I should massage.
Here's a picture of how loose my scalp is, it's even looser after finasteride. Rob still recommends the 2x20 minute ones though and I think I can see why after starting finasteride on top. You really need to break up that fibrosis a lot with the massages as it slowly reforms back to that hardened with limited bloodflow. I can't say that last sentence is actually the case but there is an obvious difference in scalp quality before and after a massage and ideally you want your scalp in this better condition for as much as the day as possible for optimal blood and nutrient supply to the follicles. Very interestingly I noticed the state of my scalp when jumping on finasteride was awfully similar to how it was after intensely massaging but with just less effort, I'll be contacting Rob in the next few days hoping he'll be able to shed some more light on that. I've been on finasteride for 3 weeks now.
I would highly recommend not tapering off The Big 3 if you want to avoid any tragedies, Nizoral you could easily give up since the regrowth properties of daily use alone are still only as effective as 2% minoxidil which is fine but not a great deal. Only worthwhile if you're experiencing seborrheic dermatitis alongside balding or if you have spare cash and want to go all out. If you taper off of minoxidil you will almost definitely shed as the hairs grown are reliant on it, Rob himself had a fairly bad shed tapering off minoxidil when he moved to massages years ago. I think it took him a few months for it to grow back but the end results was better than minoxidil. Minoxidil is actually pretty bad at regrowing hair alone and should only really be used in conjunction with microneedling treatments. Finasteride will also help prevent the balding process with a lot less work and I personally found it to be a good choice to add to my regime just 3 weeks ago to help maintain what I've regrown. Based on my research it's incredibly safe to use and the potential side effects aren't that bad, especially considering some other drugs out there. That said I've experienced zero side effects myself. There isn't really a natural alternative to finasteride since the side effects come directly from inhibiting DHT, not the drug itself. The main way to get around this is by indirectly inhibiting DHT and there are a lot of ways to do this but it's likely going to require a lot more work on your end along with inferior results to finasteride alone. If you're not experiencing sides on finasteride I'd definitely stick to it but you could easily remove nizoral if wanted and slowly taper off minoxidil to cut down on costs.