- Reaction score
- 148
The top row of pics are taken in same place with same exact lighting and exact same hair length/cut. All other pics the lighting is replicated as best as possible for accurate comparison. Baseline time for the pics is when I started dutasteride so the "before" pics I had already been on minoxidil for 4 months, with the exception of the old hairline pic from May 2013
I went through a terrible initial shed starting at about 2-3 weeks which initially made my hair worse than baseline which is normal for treatment. Probably around 8-10 weeks is when I started to see first regrowth. I got both crown and hairline regrowth.
My regimen's dosages are listed under my name on the left of this post
minoxidil once daily at night since November 2013
Dutasteride .5mg daily since March 17th 2014
RU since April 2014,discontinued in July 2014
Nizoral twice weekly since June 2014
Have not experienced any sides whatsoever
As you can see my hair actually got much worse between month 5 and 6. I went through a really horrible shed but it has since come back the same or slightly stronger. This is common with treatment. Most of my long term regrowth appeared to have taken place in the first 5 months. I do not expect it to fill in completely and never did, and I am happy with the results. I'm young. Age 19 & 4 months at the baseline time but some point down the line (maybe 5+ years when I have a career and can afford it) I plan on getting a hair transplant to fill in what's left. I expect to maintain what I have indefinitely because of dutasteride's strength
My shedding never stopped, I still shed and have hairs on my fingers when I apply minoxidil. Also, my scalp still itches. This shows it is not correlated with failure of treatment.
I stopped RU somewhere in July because I believe dutasteride is so strong that there is no real point in using RU. I believe that it may be impossible to lose hair long term on dutasteride due to male pattern baldness, as it blocks 99% of type 2 DHT, considered to be the sole cause of male pattern baldness
Apparently people have been persuaded to use dutasteride instead of finasteride by my results. I want to clear this up: There is really no significant difference in expected regrowth between dutasteride and finasteride. Both are very good for maintaining what you have, not necessarily for regrowth. dutasteride is a little better and may allow people to maintain what they otherwise would have continued to lose on finasteride. But still, 85% of finasteride users will maintain longterm, like 5 or 10 years, or longer. This number is something like 98%+ or even 99%+ for dutasteride. I probably would have seen excellent results with finasteride as well. Most of my regrowth is probably due to the minoxidil. minoxidil is multiple times better then either finasteride or dutasteride in terms of actual regrowth when it comes to hair counts and hair thickness. But an oral anti androgen is by far the most important thing to take for long term results, which minoxidil can not do on it's own.
edit: 2021 update: my hair is exactly the same as when I started 7 years ago. I had to get off it for like 9 months to resolve some fertility issues, before restarting it in June 2021 (I had cancer when I was a child, it was almost certainly due to that, not the dutasteride, although the dutasteride could have made it worse which is why I stopped). Lost some ground in my time off but nothing terrible.
I went through a terrible initial shed starting at about 2-3 weeks which initially made my hair worse than baseline which is normal for treatment. Probably around 8-10 weeks is when I started to see first regrowth. I got both crown and hairline regrowth.
My regimen's dosages are listed under my name on the left of this post
minoxidil once daily at night since November 2013
Dutasteride .5mg daily since March 17th 2014
RU since April 2014,discontinued in July 2014
Nizoral twice weekly since June 2014
Have not experienced any sides whatsoever
As you can see my hair actually got much worse between month 5 and 6. I went through a really horrible shed but it has since come back the same or slightly stronger. This is common with treatment. Most of my long term regrowth appeared to have taken place in the first 5 months. I do not expect it to fill in completely and never did, and I am happy with the results. I'm young. Age 19 & 4 months at the baseline time but some point down the line (maybe 5+ years when I have a career and can afford it) I plan on getting a hair transplant to fill in what's left. I expect to maintain what I have indefinitely because of dutasteride's strength
My shedding never stopped, I still shed and have hairs on my fingers when I apply minoxidil. Also, my scalp still itches. This shows it is not correlated with failure of treatment.
I stopped RU somewhere in July because I believe dutasteride is so strong that there is no real point in using RU. I believe that it may be impossible to lose hair long term on dutasteride due to male pattern baldness, as it blocks 99% of type 2 DHT, considered to be the sole cause of male pattern baldness
Apparently people have been persuaded to use dutasteride instead of finasteride by my results. I want to clear this up: There is really no significant difference in expected regrowth between dutasteride and finasteride. Both are very good for maintaining what you have, not necessarily for regrowth. dutasteride is a little better and may allow people to maintain what they otherwise would have continued to lose on finasteride. But still, 85% of finasteride users will maintain longterm, like 5 or 10 years, or longer. This number is something like 98%+ or even 99%+ for dutasteride. I probably would have seen excellent results with finasteride as well. Most of my regrowth is probably due to the minoxidil. minoxidil is multiple times better then either finasteride or dutasteride in terms of actual regrowth when it comes to hair counts and hair thickness. But an oral anti androgen is by far the most important thing to take for long term results, which minoxidil can not do on it's own.
edit: 2021 update: my hair is exactly the same as when I started 7 years ago. I had to get off it for like 9 months to resolve some fertility issues, before restarting it in June 2021 (I had cancer when I was a child, it was almost certainly due to that, not the dutasteride, although the dutasteride could have made it worse which is why I stopped). Lost some ground in my time off but nothing terrible.
Last edited:
