Should I even be on Propecia?

[ASUknowit18]

Hey all-
Finals week and I am stressing, this is a nice little break from my studies (to learn about hair loss...yayy)

Anyway, I live in Illinois and go to school in Arizona. I noticed I was thinning out and had a bit of a bald spot...nothing anyone really notices or picks out. But I wanted to stop it there. I visited my doctor in summer of 2001 (I was 18) and he said "I just see a little thinness back here, nothing major." I just thought "OK. I won't worry about it."

So recently I notice my hair is pretty thin when I get it wet. That has me concerned. So I call my doctor and tell him I am concerned about my hair loss. He prescibes Propecia to me over the phone. I think if he saw me in person, I have the same hair I had in 2001.

I have noticed a lot of people say "I started shedding 50-100 hairs in the shower and my drain was clogging...etc...I have never seen anything like that. I lose about 10 in the shower (usually really "thin" ones...what does that mean?), and about 10 more when I actually put styling crap in my hair to "do" it. It has never been clumps or anything like that.

So basically, my question is...is it worth it taking it right now, even though my hairloss hasn't hit that "shedding stage." Is it worth the risks/money?

Also-When you shed really thin hairs, what does that mean? They are "dead?" Or are they regrowing...any help appriciated. I tried doing a search but nothing specific came up in the first 5 pages with those two words in the title.

 

[flux]

You dont have to be shedding to be losing your hair.

The thin hairs are the ones that are going. Hair doesnt just fall out. It grows in thinner and thinner, with shorter growth phases, until its just white fuzz (vellus hair), and then finally gone altogether. You are definitly losing your hair. GET ON THE finasteride.

 

[Guest]

Ditto on what flux said Get On The finasteride Now! the sooner the better..

 

[Axon]

Hair loss is a process of miniaturization of the hair follicle. It is not a process of hair fallout. This is a horrible, horrible myth. Everyone who has hair has normal shedding.

We all have hair cycles. A hair grows, dies, grows again. If the actual root hair is shrinking and getting thinner, you will notice hair "loss," or more accurately, hair thinning. No man with male pattern baldness loses it in 2 or 3 days. If your hair is falling out in clumps, you're talking about a significant health issue, not non-health-threatening male pattern baldness.

Anyway, I regret not starting on Finasteride at 21. In my opinion, the drug actually works, and it would have saved my teenage hair had I began it earlier.

 

[ASUknowit18]

Thanks guys. I have been on it for 2 months. Hopefully I notice no more hair loss. I usually respond to medicine quite well, so I just hope I am one of the 83%.