What's the deal with Finasteride hair count chart?

[TravisB]

http://www.regrowshair.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/mean_change_crossover_data_chart.gif


It shows that Propecia increases hair count quite significantly in one year, when in reality in vast majority of people (including me), the best it does is maintaining, and no new regrowth.

 

[beaner]

http://www.regrowshair.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/mean_change_crossover_data_chart.gif


It shows that Propecia increases hair count quite significantly in one year, when in reality in vast majority of people (including me), the best it does is maintaining, and no new regrowth.

How do you know what it does for the vast majority of people? Hair loss forum antecdotes represent a miniscule amount of total Propecia users and do not accurately represent real world results.

 

[Quantum Cat]

Even Merck who did the original trials and developed Propecia didn't go so far as to claim it would give much regrowth. They stated that some men saw some thickening, but in the majority maintenance/halting hairloss was the norm.

Consider any regrowth with Finasteride a welcome bonus, but don't hold your breath on it.


where does that chart even come from? You don't give a source

 

[Baldie101]

Nah, it looks fine. It's only 90 hairs and not 90K hairs the first year and it's a mean. It only shows that Finesteride works best the first year where after the effect falls down and thus you get the maximum effect after 2 years. Mixing in up with just water or starting later which are the other options don't give the great result as if you just used Finersteride for the whole period of 5 years.

There's a patient count at the bottom. It shows how many people got more and more hair as the years went by. It's not that weird for only half of the people getting new hair in year 5, which is only 38+ new hairs.

 

[msnyc]

Misreading the study

Nah, it looks fine. It's only 90 hairs and not 90K hairs the first year and it's a mean. It only shows that Finesteride works best the first year where after the effect falls down and thus you get the maximum effect after 2 years. Mixing in up with just water or starting later which are the other options don't give the great result as if you just used Finersteride for the whole period of 5 years.

There's a patient count at the bottom. It shows how many people got more and more hair as the years went by. It's not that weird for only half of the people getting new hair in year 5, which is only 38+ new hairs.

That graph does not show absolute difference from baseline for each year it shows gain per year. By the end of year 5 the average gain was 277 hairs per 1" diameter circle, which is about 20 cm2 which in turn is about 14 hairs cm2. It might not be a hair transplant but given that a decent hair transplant is 45 that is not a bad result. Throw in decent minoxidil responding and you have a cosmetic difference (not a full head of hair). In fact if you started on thinning hair of say 25-30 cm2 that could translate into visually aesthetic results.

 

[viet nom nom]

The attrition is hardcore. This might leave out a bunch of people who were getting dickall for results and thus quit.

 

[Wolf Pack]

The 10 year trial of finasteride where 86% maintained/regrew: did they check hair counts? I'm sure they keep decreasing after year 2 but the whole process is slowed down massively so loss not noticeable for ages. Add in a hair transplant or 2 and that's enough for most peeps.

Even on dutasteride counts go down I bet with only 2 percent type 2 dht left, scary huh? Genes, destiny and all that.