Telogen effluvium and finasteride..WhY !??

[Sir_LagaLot]

i keep hearing if you have t.e and take finasteride it'll just make things worse. why ? if you have t.e...then alot of your hair is in the telogen phase...and if you take finasteride, the shed you get from it is 'supposedly' taken as a good sign cause the hair you lose in the shed is hair you would've lost anyway? so wouldnt taking finasteride just make you shed the telogen hairs and regrow faster?...in short..wouldnt it have somewhat the same effect as minoxidil would if you apply it for t.e .

quote from http://www.farrellmanual.com/educate/shedding.htm regarding finasteride shedding.

Finasteride

There have been multiple reports of excessive shedding several months after finasteride therapy. Typically, there is a good response to finasteride to prevent or reverse male pattern baldness. Then, around the 11th to 16th week there can be sudden shedding,sometimes on a massive scale.


And another question...why the hell am i losing nothing but thin almost-vellus type hair from the back of my head in this never-ending shed, that i still have from the second week of finasteride?...these t.e symptoms...i can take my hand through the back of my head and keep ending up with nothing but 5-6 thin hair. i'd never even seen such thin hair before. whats the deal with this?... and is it normal to lose hair within 10 days of starting finasteride?..i thought the sheds came after 2 - 6 months..not 2 weeks!...

 

[Dinzy]

I think the Telogen Effluvium finasteride thing is if you have Telogen Effluvium and do not have male pattern baldness. In that case it could make things worse and will not make things better. Telogen lasts 100 days regardless of the treatments you are on. Shedding a telogen hair means that a new hair still may not grow there for 100 days and take another couple of months to become noticeable.

I am not sure but I noticed some excessive shedding after 2-3 weeks on finasteride+min. It may have been the same loss I was experiencing before I started paying attention to it + some increase so I don't know. I lost 50-80 hairs from the top while shampooing. Now I loose 30 or so and more and more of them are thin crappy hairs. Is this an improvement? I don't know. Maybe there just aren't as many good hairs left to shed.

The more and more I think about it, the better and better the thought of buzzing it feels. Sure it may be a shock to see myself with nothing more than stubble, but it will allow me to stop worrying while I ride out the 6 months or so I need to evaluate my response to finasteride/min. It will also make it easier to make the transition to shaving it bald if I end up having to do that.

 

[Sir_LagaLot]

hmmm....

BUMP

 

[wotsthedeal]

Finasteride should not make you shed unless you have male pattern baldness. In theory, taking finasteride if you have a Telogen Effluvium and no actual male pattern baldness would do nothing at all to your hair.

 

[Sir_LagaLot]

actually..that seems absurd...finasteride would only make you shed if you had male pattern baldness?...you shed when the system gets a shock from the lowered DHT in your body...i dont think it has anything to do with male pattern baldness whatsoever...especially as shedding hair in the back ??..DHT doesnt affect the hair in the back so why would finasteride make me shed there? its nothing but a t.e induced by it.

which is precisely why docs recommend staying off the finasteride for a while if you have a t.e claiming it'll make things worse with another shed. finasteride induces a t.e, and that doesnt have anything to do with if you already have male pattern baldness IMO.

 

[wotsthedeal]

Your hair follicles have to be sensitive to DHT in order to feel the effects of finasteride, AKA - you must have the balding gene.

 

[Sir_LagaLot]

hmmm....i thought the shed just came from the rapid sudden decrease in dht. if stress makes you lose your hair does that mean your follicles are susceptible to stress?...its just a shock to the system that makes you shed the hair..?

why would a shedding caused by a decrease in dht mean your hair is sensitive to it?...i would've thought had you shed when your dht levels were high THAT would be a definite sign...but a decrease? :wink:

anybody else agree with this?

 

[Sir_LagaLot]

*BUMP