28yo Starting dutasteride/minoxidil

[ml87]

Hi guys

Just starting this topic as a bit of a log to see how I progress on the dutasteride every 2nd day + minoxidil regime I've decided on to combat my temple recession.

I'm 28 and first noticed slight temple recession at 23 or so, it's been slowly but surely receding since then. I have noticed that in the past year or so my hairline has become slightly more 'broken' and features more shorter hairs. It's gotten to the point where if I want to present as non-bald into my 30s I can't really afford to lose much more, so I've decided I might as well try something since obviously hair>bald.

Luckily other than the recession my hair seems fine in terms of thickness etc, and I have no crown thinning to deal with so I can pretty easily cover the receded sections with hair.

Some genetic background, I'm Slavic/Spanish white. My father has a pretty good head of hair at 55, albeit slightly bit thin, and receded further than mine and grey, but v good for his age. My mother's father however is fully bald. My 27yo brother has no hair loss, so overall my genes should be 'decent'.

Pics below, I did a few annotations to give my best guess as to my 18yo hairline in black, and my hairline from 3-4yrs ago in green. I'm pretty sure I always had a pretty high forehead. My right temple seems to have receded more than my left significantly, not sure why this is, but I do sleep on my right side 99% of the time. The hairline on that side has always been a weird shape anyway. Hoping for a bit of regrowth ideally but if I manage to maintain this I'll be happy too!

 

[kenny-k]

For your hair I think dutasteride might be a bit overkill, my hair is completey demolished at 23 and I don't take dutasteride cuz it inhibits way too much DHT to be healthy imo.

 

[Dench57]

Strange choice to go straight in the deep end with dutasteride when your hair looks in very good shape as it is. Propecia is the safer option for a first timer and has FDA approval as a hairloss treatment and decent safety profile.

 

[ml87]

I'm using dutasteride because I was given it by a friend who filled me in on it's basic properties, he has had success taking it so far for his diffuse thinning. As far as I can tell if I take it every few days it will be somewhat similar in net effect to a normal finasteride dose. I'll probably try to get finasteride after the pills I have run out.

If I end up with side effects I'll reconsider.

 

[g.i joey]

get finasteride man, dutasteride should only be a second line of fire if finasteride cant maintain/never worked for you. In the long run, it is wiser to take finasteride first to stretch out the amount of efficacy you could obtain from these meds.

 

[Vlatch]

I'm using dutasteride because I was given it by a friend who filled me in on it's basic properties, he has had success taking it so far for his diffuse thinning. As far as I can tell if I take it every few days it will be somewhat similar in net effect to a normal finasteride dose. I'll probably try to get finasteride after the pills I have run out.

If I end up with side effects I'll reconsider.

You are right. If you take 0.5mg of dutasteride every 5 days or every week, it will be more or less the same as taking 1mg of finasteride a day.

Dutasteride is only stronger than finasteride if taken every day, otherwise it can even give you the possibility to lower less DHT than with finasteride, while maintaining a smooth DHT curve, by taking it once every 10 days or every fortnight for example.
On the other hand, if you take 1mg of finasteride, say, once a week, your DHT curve will go up and down like a yoyo, because finasteride has a half life of 8 hours compared to 4 weeks with dutasteride.

 

[jbrog1987]

You are right. If you take 0.5mg of dutasteride every 5 days or every week, it will be more or less the same as taking 1mg of finasteride a day.

Dutasteride is only stronger than finasteride if taken every day, otherwise it can even give you the possibility to lower less DHT than with finasteride, while maintaining a smooth DHT curve, by taking it once every 10 days or every fortnight for example.
On the other hand, if you take 1mg of finasteride, say, once a week, your DHT curve will go up and down like a yoyo, because finasteride has a half life of 8 hours compared to 4 weeks with dutasteride.

What about supplementing finasteride intake with dutasteride twice (or maybe three days) a week?

 

[Vlatch]

What about supplementing finasteride intake with dutasteride twice (or maybe three days) a week?

That's overkilling it, some people claim they get better results by complementing their finasteride intake with 0.5mg of dutasteride a week, but in your case, 1mg of finasteride a day/every two days or 0.5-1mg of dutasteride a week should suffice.
You do not need to eliminate all the DHT in your body...

 

[ml87]

An update:
Never bothered to take minoxidil after I read that minoxidil-regrown hairs cannot be maintained unless you take minoxidil indefinitely, which is not something I can be bothered doing at the moment.
No obvious change to my hair (as far as I can tell), and have had no side effects from the dutasteride. I have been taking dutasteride 2.5x per week (.5mg doses).

 

[worrywart]

That's overkilling it, some people claim they get better results by complementing their finasteride intake with 0.5mg of dutasteride a week, but in your case, 1mg of finasteride a day/every two days or 0.5-1mg of dutasteride a week should suffice.
You do not need to eliminate all the DHT in your body...

so you only take dutasteride twice a month?