18 year old afraid to start finasteride because of shedding. Please help!!

[DChalo]

Hello, I am posting on these forums with a lot of stress in mind. I am an 18 year old and my hair has gotten very thin in the past year. This happened to my cousin on my moms side, who was completely bald by 23. I went to the doctor today and got a prescription for generic finasteride. Now, i was excited at first, but now I am anxious about starting it. Right now, it is not very noticable that I am balding, in fact, most people cant tell as it is still rather early in the process. I have heard that taking finasteride causes immense shedding. Will this shedding cause noticable bald patches in my hair?? How common is it? I am at college and it would be very embarrassing to just randomly have a bunch of hair fall out and cause me to appear bald even before I would without medication. The only reason I am doing this is because I heard starting early is your best bet to get the best results with finasteride, but Im really afraid of the shedding phase. What should I do?

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I basically want o know if it causes a noticable difference in your hair

 

[zzzzz]

might as well copy paste this from other thread:

you're being completely illogical. If you don't start treatment your hair will get worse. If you do it will get better or stay the same most likely. It will never be worse than it would if you never started treatment if you do. (long term) So why wouldn't you start treatment if you are scared of losing some hair again? Completely stupid

yea my initial shed was DEFINATELY noticeable. It was almost like I was on chemo. I lost an absolute chitload of hair over 7 weeks. But I got good results in the end

stop being a pussy.

BTW only miniaturized hair will be effected by initial shed. If you are in very early stages I doubt you will see much of an increase in shedding. My initial shedding was bad, but most of the entire top of my head is basically miniaturized hairs

 

[Notcoolanymore]

might as well copy paste this from other thread:

The only thing missing is: "I am scared to death of the sides".

You see about 10+ new threads just like this one every day. It's no mystery that everyone is scared to treat their hair loss.

 

[I.D WALKER]

Yeah, of course sides do blow, but so does hair loss. If/when sides do occur with meds. at least we can do something about. Without the standard battery of meds., forget doing anything about your hair loss. Whenever some one is vacillating over pros and cons, it generally comes down to selecting the lesser evil. Bottom line : with meds. there maybe slight risks.., without meds. baldness is guaranteed. Not to mention the years of potential adverse effects on one's personal welfare that infamously ensue. Choose wisely.

 

[Wolf Pack]

Good post by Zzzzz. Also as far as I am aware the shed from finasteride is usually milder than minoxidil. Might not even get one.

 

[CarlJohanson]

BTW only miniaturized hair will be effected by initial shed. If you are in very early stages I doubt you will see much of an increase in shedding. My initial shedding was bad, but most of the entire top of my head is basically miniaturized hairs

Oh wow, I didnt know that! Thanks zzzzz!