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Just before my 18th birthday I started taking finasteride to stop my hairline from receding any further. After a year it has been very successful at doing this. As far as I can tell, my hair has stayed exactly the same as it was when I first started treatment. There was an unintended effect, however. My facial hair had just started to come in and now much of it has disappeared. I have a few terminal hairs but I can go without shaving for months at a time without it being noticeable.
Now back to the point of this post. As many people on this forum have pointed out, finasteride has been known to lose effectiveness in certain individuals due to upregulation of the androgen receptors. They can evidently become more sensitive to DHT over time to the point that post-finasteride levels of DHT in the body can induce the same rate of balding as pre-finasteride levels. I would also like to remind everyone (even though you probably already know) that while DHT is responsible for killiing head hair, it is also responsible for making facial hair go terminal.
I believe that I might be the perfect test subject for observing androgen receptor upregulation. As of now, my beard has stopped developing. So my theory is that if my hairline should start to recede again, my beard should start developing as well. If it does not, this must mean that to some extent, the androgen receptors in the scalp can act independently of the ones located in the face. I don't predict this will be the case because in addition to an increased rate of balding, people who experience androgen receptor upregulation usually notice increased facial acne. This suggests that the receptors in the face and scalp are in sync with one another on some level
So there are basically three possible outcomes in this situation of mine:
1. I keep my scalp hair indefinitely and my beard doesn't come in.
2. I start to recede again and my beard starts to come in.
3. I start to recede again and my beard doesn't come in.
4. I keep my scalp hair and beard comes in as well.
I believe all outcomes except #1 can provide us with valuable information on how the body can react to finasteride. It may take me years to reach any conclusion, but I will keep my updates in this topic just in case. Thanks for reading!
Edit: Perhaps the word observation might be more appropriate than experimentation.
Now back to the point of this post. As many people on this forum have pointed out, finasteride has been known to lose effectiveness in certain individuals due to upregulation of the androgen receptors. They can evidently become more sensitive to DHT over time to the point that post-finasteride levels of DHT in the body can induce the same rate of balding as pre-finasteride levels. I would also like to remind everyone (even though you probably already know) that while DHT is responsible for killiing head hair, it is also responsible for making facial hair go terminal.
I believe that I might be the perfect test subject for observing androgen receptor upregulation. As of now, my beard has stopped developing. So my theory is that if my hairline should start to recede again, my beard should start developing as well. If it does not, this must mean that to some extent, the androgen receptors in the scalp can act independently of the ones located in the face. I don't predict this will be the case because in addition to an increased rate of balding, people who experience androgen receptor upregulation usually notice increased facial acne. This suggests that the receptors in the face and scalp are in sync with one another on some level
So there are basically three possible outcomes in this situation of mine:
1. I keep my scalp hair indefinitely and my beard doesn't come in.
2. I start to recede again and my beard starts to come in.
3. I start to recede again and my beard doesn't come in.
4. I keep my scalp hair and beard comes in as well.
I believe all outcomes except #1 can provide us with valuable information on how the body can react to finasteride. It may take me years to reach any conclusion, but I will keep my updates in this topic just in case. Thanks for reading!
Edit: Perhaps the word observation might be more appropriate than experimentation.
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