Treatment Regimen Advice For 32 Yo Male

[JSlakov]

Hello,

I'm a 32 year old male. I noticed signs of male pattern baldness, thinning at the crown and a bald spot developing, about 5 yeas ago. .About three years ago I started using minoxidil when I finally accepted the truth of what was happening. I started with the Walgreens foam, twice a day, and later switched to Kirkland liquid once a day at night. Recently, I switched back to foam twice a day, this time Kirkland. On that regimen, it's been status quo: the thinning has not gotten worse, but has also not improved.

About 6 months ago, I put aside my fears of side effects and got a prescription for Finasteride. I have been taking it once a day for that time period and have not seen any effects one way or another.

At this point, I am resigned to the fact that I will never have the flowing locks of my youth. But with a crew cut, my hair doesn't look that bad and so I am happy that it hasn't gotten worse. Still, the regimen I'm using is expensive and putting on the minoxidil twice a day is annoying. I'm looking for advice as to whether I could consider dropping one of the two treatments. Ideally, I'd like to drop the minoxidil and do just the finasteride, but this seems more risky since the minoxidil has proven to slow/stop my hair loss on its own and finasteride hasn't.

Anyone have experience with this kind of choice? Any ideas about how I could test it out without risking irreversible hair loss? Thanks!

 

[kj6723]

I mean, you don't want to continue with the minoxidil even though you've figured out that it seems to be what works for you...I guess it comes down to how badly you want to keep your hair.

 

[Eren]

You started with minoxidil, so you're stuck with that for the rest of your life.

Quiting minoxidil means that you WILL lose its gains EVEN if you stay on finasterde. So, simply said, you WILL lose gains/hair loss will continue.

Once you start minoxidil and it's working, then it's a life long commitment.

Making a deal with the devil.

 

[abcdefg]

Yeah thats why its probably better to start with finasteride to see if it works because if it does you might not need anything else. Easier said done then though I am on minoxidil but not tried finasteride yet since minoxidil is just a bit safer. I do agree that minoxidil is a bit of pain to use especially with hair and it makes your hair all sticky and greasy
I might do the same as you trying finasteride and hopefully dropping the minoxidil since I still think finasteride is much more effective at keeping hair.

 

[JSlakov]

In that case, I think I will finish out my year of refills for finasteride and if there's still no gains I will go off of that and stick with minoxidil, annoying as it is. Thanks for answering, guys.

 

[David.G]

Your regimen maintained your hair. You should be doing cartwheels. If min could maintain my hair I would happily pay for it until I die.