The Shedding Doesn't Stop.... Time To Give Up

[BaldingGuy]

So I've been on finasteride and minoxidil for almost 8 months now and I'm ready to quit! I think i've done more harm than good with this s%&t! And since it's only getting worse i don't think waiting a full year is going to do much... By then i'm sure i've already buzzed my hair quite a few times which defeats the purpose of being on the treatment.

So I'm going to summarize my experience for those can relate to it. Oh and don't be a fool like me, always start with ONE treatment at the time. That way you will know what's working!

So I went to the derm (Mar '17) because my head started to itch (Nov '15) after a bad period in my life. She looked at me and since I had a minor temple recession and some miniaturizing hairs (still thick) in the hairline she concluded that I was in the very early stages of male pattern baldness. She prescribed me finasteride and minoxidil and sent me on my way.

First weeks nothing really happened, just some minor sides (couldn't get a full erection) and a little bit of shedding but nothing major. The sides went away after awhile!

By the end of the first month I had lost some of the miniaturized hairs on my hairline, specially on my left side. I was shedding more than before the treatment.

Went through the second month thinking it was the shed everyone talked about but by the end of the second month ... baang!! A huge shed came... It lasted into my third month...

Third month the big shed slowed and I started to lose just a bit more than before the treatment. I got my hopes up thinking it would stop and then started to see regrowth. NO! I also started to use a keto shampoo for the itch and the flakes i had (i thought it was minoxidil residue).

In July (fourth month) my hair was only getting worse but there wasn't any alarming shedding, maybe double of what it was before the treatment. So i stopped putting minoxidil on my entire scalp and just put it on the front and crown. By the end of that month i went to a hair specialist who said the minoxidil i was using was irritating my scalp and prescribed me antibiotics, some steroid foam and a different brand of minoxidil and proscar and said to cut it...

Month 5 and 6 were the worst! Lost a bunch of hair in the front.. It was insane! I also noticed this white layer on my scalp that I could peel.. Nasty! I went back to the generic 1mg finasteride bc i couldn't cut the pill symmetrically and the shedding slowed down a bit. Also, when i went to my barber he told me my scalp was full of sebum and it wasn't like that before.

A week before the 7nd month i went the the doctor again and told him the sebum part and he confirmed that i had seb. dermatitis... He told me to reduce the minoxidil to once a day and said to rotate between 2 medicated shampoos..

Now: After almost a month of medicated shampoos hair is so thin i can see my scalp through sun light and under my mirror light.. It getting to the point i can't even style it like i used to without showing the scalp.. Even with dry hair.. Oh and the dermatitis is still there and the shedding too!

minoxidil did regrow a lot of hairs in my temples where i haven't had any for years... Which tells me it's working in some way. So why am I still shedding like this? Is it a coincidence that i started to lose hair like hell and got persistent dermatitis on the treatment...? It must be a huge coincidence!

I've read other people saying the same.. Has anyone stopped finasteride and the symptoms got better? I always blamed minoxidil. Now I'm thinking it was helping but my body is struggling with the hormonal changes from taking finasteride and triggered the dermatitis and excessive shedding.. I think it's just as plausible as it being a coincidence...

 

[BaldingGuy]

Sorry for the long thread! Oh and a fun fact is that i didn't recead that much, my hair just thinned out, even my sides feel thinner..
As for the SD, even the areas I don't apply minoxidil for almost 4.5 months (since early July) have dermatitis so I really don't think it's minoxidil... But who knows..
And I got ONE sexual side that i can 100% relate to finasteride. The volume of my semen decreased dramatically!

 

[AnxiousAndy]

Stick with treatments. Have you got any baseline pics and current pics to show us?

 

[Wakakuu]

Can you update us with photos?

 

[Sanchez1234]

Sorry for the long thread! Oh and a fun fact is that i didn't recead that much, my hair just thinned out, even my sides feel thinner..
As for the SD, even the areas I don't apply minoxidil for almost 4.5 months (since early July) have dermatitis so I really don't think it's minoxidil... But who knows..
And I got ONE sexual side that i can 100% relate to finasteride. The volume of my semen decreased dramatically!

Please update

 

[BaldingGuy]

Please update

Not good my friend.... So I was on finasteride until Jan and my shedding didn't slow down and the dermatitis was still there strong.. My hair loss was getting worse by the week (don't know how the hell that's possible)...
That's when I said f*** it, went to an appointment with my derm and said that it can't be normal that after 10 months my shed was still a lot worse than before starting finasteride + minoxidil.. She agreed and gave me a prescription for Duta..

So the first month on duta and minoxidil was awesome, few days of shedding... One day i just counted like 4 hairs in the shower.. Less itching... Amazing!! Then after a month I started to shed a lot, I've been shedding for like 15 days.. But since i'm a little skeptic of the famous "duta shed" i think it was a bad sign so went to the derm again last tuesday and convinced her to give me spironolactone.
Started with 75mg for 2 days, upped to 100mg another 2 days and now i'm on 150mg... Since i never figured out if the itching, scalp sensations and dermatitis were androgen related or caused by irritation from minoxidil i think now I'll know pretty soon...

My current treatment is: 1mg Duta ED, 150mg spironolactone ED and 2x minoxidil 5% ED...
By the next month if nothing changes i'm going to drop minoxidil to be sure it's not irritation ... I'll probably try to get the oral version to have the minoxidil benefits with no irritation from ethanol etc..

It's crazy. If i knew what i know now i would have done SO many things different... I would start with just fina and never touched minoxidil, after 6 months if my shedding was worse than before I would immediately change the treatment, because the density I've lost in those 10 months waiting for fina and mino to work is unbelievable!! I'll most likely never get it back even with this treatment .. It really hurts...

Next month I'll post the pics of my 1 year transformation..... Sad stuff!

 

[BaldingGuy]

Btw, I'm not advocating that anyone should take the same route as me, or change the treatment 6 months in.... I'm just saying that in my case, if i could go back in time i would have done the things I said above.. Everyone is different.

If any guys had the same experience as I did please feel free to share... Or if anyone was visibly worse in the first 12 months and suddenly things turned around it would also be awesome if you shared ..

 

[AnxiousAndy]

How's your shedding since being on spironolactone?

 

[BaldingGuy]

Well, these last 2 days started to shed again.. maybe it's the spironolactone shed since it's been almost a month... Don't know... Before that my shedding was almost gone... <10 hairs in the shower and probably could count another 10 throughout the day which is normal... the scalp soreness and itching have also returned... I've been slowly upping my dose! Currently i'm on 200mg spironolactone..

I'm just wondering how the hell can I shed and have the same scalp feelings i had on just fina when I'm on 1mg duta and 200mg spironolactone.. Maybe i need 2 more months on 200mg spironolactone to judge it's effect but i already feel it's sides so it has to be doing something.... It's freaking frustrating!
My next step will be dropping minoxidil to see if the solution is causing an allergic reaction or inflammation ..

 

[Alphalete]

pics?

 

[Credo]

Have you considered the possibility that your hair loss has been caused by constant scalp inflammation? Perhaps all those treatments are a bit of an overkill since you said you only had very minor recession before and reported scalp problems throughout the entire year.
Perhaps you could regrow that hair even without meds if you solved the inflammation problem.

 

[Cue Bald]

if your scalp is inflammed have you tried Nizoral shampoo? it's meant to be good for male pattern baldness too hence why it is part of the "Big 3"

 

[AnxiousAndy]

Any updates @BaldingGuy ?

 

[alibaba92]

Well, these last 2 days started to shed again.. maybe it's the spironolactone shed since it's been almost a month... Don't know... Before that my shedding was almost gone... <10 hairs in the shower and probably could count another 10 throughout the day which is normal... the scalp soreness and itching have also returned... I've been slowly upping my dose! Currently i'm on 200mg spironolactone..

I'm just wondering how the hell can I shed and have the same scalp feelings i had on just fina when I'm on 1mg duta and 200mg spironolactone.. Maybe i need 2 more months on 200mg spironolactone to judge it's effect but i already feel it's sides so it has to be doing something.... It's freaking frustrating!
My next step will be dropping minoxidil to see if the solution is causing an allergic reaction or inflammation ..

I think you got "reflex hyperandrogenicity"

 

[Retinoid]

It is more likely that the irritation and shedding was caused by Minoxidil and not Finasteride or spironolactone. I shed all the time with Minoxidil and get a crawling feeling on the scalp which I never got before.

 

[worm]

You mentioned dermatitis - I posted my cure on the alternative treatment section. I had quit finasteride, but maybe you could use both in combination, it'll do wonders for the itch, and for me it stopped the shedding in its tracks.

https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...ce-how-b6-and-zinc-have-saved-my-hair.101629/

 

[BaldingGuy]

It is more likely that the irritation and shedding were caused by Minoxidil and not Finasteride or spironolactone. I shed all the time with Minoxidil and get a crawling feeling on the scalp which I never got before.

And does the shedding and crawling feeling go away after stopping minoxidil? I thought about dropping minoxidil a lot through these 15 months but never really had the guts because of the dread shed that happens after stopping..
With that said, this month really made me think that the androgen part is controlled but the inflammation is making my hair worse. The reason i say it is because since I started taking a lot of cetirize and a cool *** cortico (betamethasone) my hurting, crawling and itching are gone.. When I stop they slowly start and my shed goes up a bit. I tested my theory this week when i didn't take ceterizine and just put a bit of the cortico. My dermatitis got worse soon after and my shed went up for 2-3 days... Then i started doing everything like usual and started to lose only <10 hairs (that i could count) again.
I know i wont get the hair i lost last year even if was majorly due to inflammation so having a massive shed due to stopping minoxidil would screw me up real bad!

 

[BaldingGuy]

You mentioned dermatitis - I posted my cure on the alternative treatment section. I had quit finasteride, but maybe you could use both in combination, it'll do wonders for the itch, and for me it stopped the shedding in its tracks.

https://www.hairlosstalk.com/intera...ce-how-b6-and-zinc-have-saved-my-hair.101629/

I'll check your treatment! Thanks!

 

[BaldingGuy]

I think you got "reflex hyperandrogenicity"

I think you got "reflex hyperandrogenicity"

Nah, I don't have any symptoms of hyperandrogenicity. The back acne I had on my back is gone, my skin is better, my body hair is more sparse and thinner. The bad side is I lost some weight, have to pie a lot and it's harder to have lasting erections. If i had reflex i would have other symptoms besides shedding..

 

[Retinoid]

And does the shedding and crawling feeling go away after stopping minoxidil? I thought about dropping minoxidil a lot through these 15 months but never really had the guts because of the dread shed that happens after stopping..
With that said, this month really made me think that the androgen part is controlled but the inflammation is making my hair worse. The reason i say it is because since I started taking a lot of cetirize and a cool *** cortico (betamethasone) my hurting, crawling and itching are gone.. When I stop they slowly start and my shed goes up a bit. I tested my theory this week when i didn't take ceterizine and just put a bit of the cortico. My dermatitis got worse soon after and my shed went up for 2-3 days... Then i started doing everything like usual and started to lose only <10 hairs (that i could count) again.
I know i wont get the hair i lost last year even if was majorly due to inflammation so having a massive shed due to stopping minoxidil would screw me up real bad!

The liquid caused itching, extreme burning and dandruff for me (never had dandruff) so I switched to foam which does not cause any irritation but causes that 'crawly' feeling and shedding from even the sides and back. I have a love/hate relationship with Minoxidil since it works so well for me. Even using it alone, without Propecia, my hair was recovering very well and I definitely LOST volume in the first month and a half due to the shedding. But I used it 10yrs ago with success and so trust it---it is not an easy treatment.