"Whereever there is still hair, you can thicken it"?

[ThinningAsian]

I have read about this on the main page. I would like to know up to how extent is this possible. Is it talking about literally like:

Meaning 1) "as long as there is still a few strands of hair in an area, other strands can still sprout from hair-less areas"?

OR

Meaning 2)- "you can thicken only those areas with "dwarfed hair" due to DHT sensitivity, but no hope for those follicles where that hair "died" already"?

I am concerned, because if it is Meaning #2, I think my scalp has some parts where the hair died already. I am starting to see my scalp becoming "shiny" It wasn't like that before. There is still enough hair to hide the balding, but you can see the thinning already, and if the light is really intensely focused on my scalp, you see my scalp "shining".

I have yet to consult my doctor to see if some of my hair really died already. But I would like to know now from you guys if that saying is under Meaning 1, or Meaning 2 (or a different meaning altogether) so that I can set my expectations properly.

Thank you very much, and I am hoping to hear from you guys soon.

 

[backintime]

I, too, would like to know the answer to this. I'm not too concerned about the top of my head but would love for my temples to be able to fill in a bit.

 

[ThinningAsian]

Hello. The forum went down, and I just wanted to make sure that this topic is still up.

Thanks in advance

 

[kehcorpz]

My understanding is that as long as the follicle is still active then the hair can potentially be revivied. This will not happen in all cases since some people are more sensitive to DHT than others. If the scalp is shinny then I would not hold up much hope. If the hair has only recently been lost then you could potentially revive it but growing hair at the hairline is the hardest thing to do.

The thing is finasteride works just as well in the front as it does in the back. Studies weren't done in the front because the coefficient of variance increases with a greater area to measure. I think that the biggest problem with the front is that it sets in much earlier and most people don't really decide to get something done about their balding until they notice the vertex area, by then their frontal hair might have already died and it cannot be rescued. Finasteride blocks 5-ar-2 at those sites, there's no reason why blocking 5-ar-2 at the front would give no results unless the hair follicle is already gone.

 

[ThinningAsian]

Thank you very much for your responses. Now I can set my expectations properly.