Very low doses of finasteride?

[gh05]

Has anybody tried taking very low doses of finasteride in an attempt to slow hair loss (even if only slightly) by reducing DHT levels slightly?

I firmly believe that DHT is an important hormone for the body and is there for a reason...so I don't want to reduce it to 30% or whatever 1mg per day is said to do.

Theoretically could I reduce DHT to say 50-60% by taking a lower dosage? Could I take 0.25mg every couple of days for instance?

Obviously I know that it wouldn't be as effective as 1mg per day but surely it must do something. I feel like I have high DHT levels anyway - my body hair growth recently is ridiculous.

Has anyone tried doing so?

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Only way to find out is trying.

I'm on 0,5mg daily. It has slowed what I'm losing quite a bit. I'm not sure if enough. It sometimes still seems high. Maybe that dose is not enough?!

I think it depends on how aggressive your male pattern baldness is and how sensitive to DHT you are. You will have to find the minimum that works for you. That is also my goal. Find the lowest dose to keep/regrow. Then if I'm losing ground I'll up the dose if necessary.

Good luck and always keep us posted. We need them success stories coming in.

 

[gh05]

Just a query on how you know it has slowed down the rate of loss?

Because most people say that male pattern baldness tends to be a very slow process of hair growing back thinner and thinner over months and years...until it gradually becomes more noticeable. I never understand when people count the hairs because surely male pattern baldness doesn't work like that?

...but yes, if i do experiment then I will definitely post updates.

 

[BenVegas01]

Have a look at this

Study of the FDA Files on Propecia (April 6, 1998), done by Professor Sherman Frankel (http://dept.physics.upenn.edu/facultyinfo/frankel.html) from the Dept. of Physics, University of Pennsylvania.

http://www.physics.upenn.edu/facultyinf ... peciafda2/

He actually wrote the FDA a letter asking them to reconsider approval of the propecia. The FDA replied here -

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dailys ... av0001.pdf

One of the most interesting passages is where the FDA actuallys state that 'the data show that scalp DHT reduction was inhibited

-55.90 at .05mg
-53.95 at .2mg
-57.56 at 1mg
-65.24 at 5mg

Not sure what to make of the figures which actually seem to contridict other studies done. However, the interesting thing here is the reasonably flat response rate of Finasteride.

 

[gh05]

Ok, thanks for the links.

for those who very low doses - how do you cut the propecia pill?

I'd want to take a very low consistent dose (i.e. not just 1mg every few days) to avoid a constant fluctuation in hormone levels which I believe can't be good for anyone long term.

Would it be possible to cut a 1mg propecia pill into quarters and take that every day or two?

 

[Finnjävel]

Get a pill cutter http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... tter_2.jpg

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Just a query on how you know it has slowed down the rate of loss?

Because most people say that male pattern baldness tends to be a very slow process of hair growing back thinner and thinner over months and years...until it gradually becomes more noticeable. I never understand when people count the hairs because surely male pattern baldness doesn't work like that?

...but yes, if i do experiment then I will definitely post updates.

You're right that you can never be sure. But even when you are not literally counting hairs I still notice that I lose substantially less hair when washing. I have this thing in the sink that catches hair and you can't help but notice your reduced hairloss that way. Also when styling my hair and running my fingers through my hair I can tell it is much less than it used to be.
I don't know if I'm still losing ground up on top. Only time will tell. But I disagree with you when you say how you cannot find out that the rate of loss has slowed down. You definitely can. If you really want to be sure (although I don't advise you) - count.

I use a pill cutter and cut Propecia into quarters. Perfectly doable and not a problem. I think it's a smart way of trying to find your dose. Also when dealing with sides. I frankly doubt that anything without a DHT inhibitor will work unfortunately.

 

[gh05]

Just a query on how you know it has slowed down the rate of loss?

Because most people say that male pattern baldness tends to be a very slow process of hair growing back thinner and thinner over months and years...until it gradually becomes more noticeable. I never understand when people count the hairs because surely male pattern baldness doesn't work like that?

...but yes, if i do experiment then I will definitely post updates.

You're right that you can never be sure. But even when you are not literally counting hairs I still notice that I lose substantially less hair when washing. I have this thing in the sink that catches hair and you can't help but notice your reduced hairloss that way. Also when styling my hair and running my fingers through my hair I can tell it is much less than it used to be.
I don't know if I'm still losing ground up on top. Only time will tell. But I disagree with you when you say how you cannot find out that the rate of loss has slowed down. You definitely can. If you really want to be sure (although I don't advise you) - count.

I use a pill cutter and cut Propecia into quarters. Perfectly doable and not a problem. I think it's a smart way of trying to find your dose. Also when dealing with sides. I frankly doubt that anything without a DHT inhibitor will work unfortunately.

What I meant was I've heard so many people saying that balding isn't about losing whole hairs but instead about the hairs growing back over time thinner and thinner. I don't know really - I'm a bit confused myself about why professionals seem to say that counting hairs doesn't mean anything.

You know you say you cut your 1mg pill into quarters...does that mean that you take 0.25mg twice per day to make up the 0.5mg??

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Ok got it. I'm not sure either. So you're talking about miniturization of the hairs. I don't know how that works together with the hair falling out. What you also hear is that somebody who doesn't suffer from male pattern baldness shouldn' t lose more than 100 hairs a day. So I went down from probably something like >200 to less than 100 I believe.

At the same time in the introduction to this forum it says don't count the hairs that fall out, it's only important what stays on your head. I don't know if I'll ever understand that fully. To be honest I'm not sure I want to :whistle:
I figure for a lot of things it's really trial and error. Nobody will have the answer to all your questions. Especially with the experimental things a lot of people do. However, it's perfectly ok to just try it out.

The recommended dose is 1-1.25mg of finasteride. Apparently lower doses work too. It depends on - like I said - your tolerance to DHT and aggressiveness of male pattern baldness. I'm not an expert, this is what I've read and what's commonly explained to people. So give it a go. There are people on here using 0.5mg including myself who have success (I don't count mine as success yet). With lower doses I don't know. Could work. Maybe you need to add e.g. spironolactone to it to really work.

I'm cutting into quarters because at the beginning I had sides (digestion related). My body couldn't take even half a pill. I found out that it works very well like that now. My body adapted (it's great!) and now I could probably tolerate more. But I want to give this a go. I've seen success here (Rawatashk). You could even cut it into 1/8s if you wanted to.

Hope this helps.

 

[rwhairlosstalk]

I do this with spironolactone. The max dosage is 100mg. I take 25mg.