6 Months into Finasteride I'm still miniaturizing along hairline and diffuse thinning - NEED HELP

[okay321]

Hey guys I seriously just need someone who's gone through this to confirm to me with their similar experience that this doesn't mean I'm done for and there's still hope. It's regarding continued miniaturization during finasteride use, not shedding, yes that's happening a lot, but what I'm worried about is the shrinking hairs that are still getting smaller and smaller and eating deeper and deeper into my hairline.

4 months into finasteride 1mg a day, my hairline is still receding back with once strong hairs becoming thinner and wispier and shorter, I've also been shedding aggressively since finasteride use via diffuse thinning to the point that my scalp is now visible. Listen, I know that 6 months is early, and I understand that shedding could be a good sign from finasteride, but put those two things aside for a minute, one thing that is really stressing me out is the continued miniaturization mechanism that is happening.

Please don't confuse shedding with miniaturization. They are two totally different things that are happening simultaneously. The fact that the hairs along my hairline are still shrinking and becoming shorter and thinning concerns me tremendously because it looks like I haven't even stabilized.

Question: Has any finasteride users here, dealt with this and came out okay? ongoing miniaturization during finasteride use and ended up okay after a few more months or a year? Because I'm hoping that somehow the stabilization just takes some time for some people and the miniaturization will stop/reverse in time. If I'm not a good responder though, I want to know asap so that I can possibly add for more things to the protocol. Either way, I'd appreciate anyone who can share their experience here and came out okay because it's taking a massive toll on my mental health at this point.

 

[whatintheworld]

Without pictures it's impossible for anyone to really comment on your situation. Too many times people have come through with similar posts only to show a Norwood 1 hairline with no hairloss. Not saying that this is your situation.

Did you go to a dermatologist to have your hair loss confirmed as male pattern baldness before starting finasteride?

 

[okay321]

I understand where you’re coming from as I’ve seen those posts as well and I can absolutely guarantee I am not those dramatic types freaking out over nothing. My hair is going out with a vengeance. Like something kicked in with my genetics at 26 and it ACTIVATED! And arguably for the same reason, I didn’t take it seriously as soon as I should have, allowed a lot of damage to be done, even my sides and nape are really thin, it could be retrograde but to answer your second inquiry I haven’t been able to get it properly diagnosed by a derm because everything in my city and surrounding area is virtual appointments till restrictions calm down a bit, I’ve got a trichologist I want to go to but I feel the virtual appointments obviously don’t have the precision necessary to diagnose my situation especially. Gotta wait it out. Just seeing the hair go so fast is making the waiting game stressful

 

[Matt Rogers]

I took finasteride for 6 months and hair got a lot worse. I ended up just quitting it

 

[Matt Rogers]

I would say give it a few more months at least. My hair Is way worse from where my hair was at when I quit finasteride. Maybe it would've kept getting worse if I had stayed on finasteride too ill never know

 

[okay321]

Damn I understand the same frustration of not seeing results yet off of finasteride. Did you get any sides from finasteride? And what’s your current hair loss protocol now that you’re off of finasteride?

Thanks for the advice, I definitely will take it and go for a few months longer because I have no sides and I’m still invested in the idea that maybe things will turnaround, but of course being realistic as well, it’s hard to balance the two sometimes. Either way you’re right, I might as well hold out for a while longer

 

[Matt Rogers]

My current protocol is just microneedling and minoxidil. I'll have to add something else in soon though my hair continously gets worse.

My sides on finasteride were only shedding of body hair and weirdly eyebrow hair. The eyebrow thing really frustrated me because I had like perfect eyebrows and finasteride shed half of them away. Luckily they've rebounded though.

Maybe add minoxidil to try and revive those miniaturized hairs. Just take into account minoxidil is something you'll have to do the rest of your life if you use it and also it will cause initial shedding

 

[Diffused_confidence]

Hey guys I seriously just need someone who's gone through this to confirm to me with their similar experience that this doesn't mean I'm done for and there's still hope. It's regarding continued miniaturization during finasteride use, not shedding, yes that's happening a lot, but what I'm worried about is the shrinking hairs that are still getting smaller and smaller and eating deeper and deeper into my hairline.

4 months into finasteride 1mg a day, my hairline is still receding back with once strong hairs becoming thinner and wispier and shorter, I've also been shedding aggressively since finasteride use via diffuse thinning to the point that my scalp is now visible. Listen, I know that 6 months is early, and I understand that shedding could be a good sign from finasteride, but put those two things aside for a minute, one thing that is really stressing me out is the continued miniaturization mechanism that is happening.

Please don't confuse shedding with miniaturization. They are two totally different things that are happening simultaneously. The fact that the hairs along my hairline are still shrinking and becoming shorter and thinning concerns me tremendously because it looks like I haven't even stabilized.

Question: Has any finasteride users here, dealt with this and came out okay? ongoing miniaturization during finasteride use and ended up okay after a few more months or a year? Because I'm hoping that somehow the stabilization just takes some time for some people and the miniaturization will stop/reverse in time. If I'm not a good responder though, I want to know asap so that I can possibly add for more things to the protocol. Either way, I'd appreciate anyone who can share their experience here and came out okay because it's taking a massive toll on my mental health at this point.

I know the shedding phase can occur from months 3 to 6. So I agree with @Matt Rogers that you should wait 4 to 6 months. I don't know if finasteride could make things worse because the people with 5ar deficiencies never go bald so it is unlikely testosterone is actually a serious androgen.

 

[Matt Rogers]

I know the shedding phase can occur from months 3 to 6. So I agree with @Matt Rogers that you should wait 4 to 6 months. I don't know if finasteride could make things worse because the people with 5ar deficiencies never go bald so it is unlikely testosterone is actually a serious androgen.

I thinks it's all about androgen sensitivity. So I believe sometimes people have adverse reactions to finasteride and actually unregulates their androgen receptors somehow. That's what I believe happened to me

 

[Diffused_confidence]

I thinks it's all about androgen sensitivity. So I believe sometimes people have adverse reactions to finasteride and actually unregulates their androgen receptors somehow. That's what I believe happened to me

I read about that too. It is also possible you didn't respond to medication. Believe it or not, 15% of people on finasteride still lost hair. I think of those 15% most of then slowed it down but still lost ground and some it had no effect at all

 

[Matt Rogers]

I read about that too. It is also possible you didn't respond to medication. Believe it or not, 15% of people on finasteride still lost hair. I think of those 15% most of then slowed it down but still lost ground and some it had no effect at all

It wasn't that I just didn't respond it was that my hair got significantly worse. Like 50 hairs shed pre finasteride to 300 hairs shed while on finasteride and my scalp got very itchy

 

[Diffused_confidence]

It wasn't that I just didn't respond it was that my hair got significantly worse. Like 50 hairs shed pre finasteride to 300 hairs shed while on finasteride and my scalp got very itchy

Hmmm. That seems significant but it is usually advised to wait 1 year to evaluate the results. I spoke with a guy from tressless and he said his hair was really bad before he had really good regrowth above baseline. Like he went from decent coverage to thinning hair for a few months and decided to buzz it while on finasteride. Turns out his hair improved a lot after. Different people respond so I would definitely not quit until 1 year if things didn't improve.

 

[Matt Rogers]

Hmmm. That seems significant but it is usually advised to wait 1 year to evaluate the results. I spoke with a guy from tressless and he said his hair was really bad before he had really good regrowth above baseline. Like he went from decent coverage to thinning hair for a few months and decided to buzz it while on finasteride. Turns out his hair improved a lot after. Different people respond so I would definitely not quit until 1 year if things didn't improve.

Ya I probably should've waited. But my hair was close to NW1 when I started finasteride. So going on finasteride and having my hair get killed while on it when it wasn't bad to start with mentally killed me. I almost quit the first two weeks but decided to give it six months. I was honestly losing 500+ hairs a day the first couple weeks on finasteride it was awful

 

[Matt Rogers]

For whatever reason finasteride massacred my crown and mid scalp but did not really shed my hairline much at all. But now that I have been off for 2 years my scalp and crown are pretty good and it is my hairline that is getting destroyed

 

[Diffused_confidence]

For whatever reason finasteride massacred my crown and mid scalp but did not really shed my hairline much at all. But now that I have been off for 2 years my scalp and crown are pretty good and it is my hairline that is getting destroyed

Yeah that sounds like finasteride induced telogen effluvium. Finasteride didn't cause permanent hair loss in the crown / midscalp bit it had to replace the bad hairs with good ones and the hairline, which is first to go, continued to go.

 

[TurboFixer]

For whatever reason finasteride massacred my crown and mid scalp but did not really shed my hairline much at all. But now that I have been off for 2 years my scalp and crown are pretty good and it is my hairline that is getting destroyed

since starting finasteride 5 months and a week ago my my hair loss speed increased a lot and i thinned out especially at my hairline but really all over.

Now i think im getting sides but i don't want to quit in case it returns what it took from me...

 

[jazz1]

You stick with the same medication brand? Or switch brands by any chance?……

 

[Diffused_confidence]

Here is a video I found. It's not beyond the possibility that it is a shed phase. Side effects aside, I'd give it 1 year to make conclusions.

 

[okay321]

You stick with the same medication brand? Or switch brands by any chance?……

Well so far I've only used an online pharmaceutical company that sells generic finasteride that is shipped to me, it's similar to keeps, upguys, and all those other companies.

 

[okay321]

Here is a video I found. It's not beyond the possibility that it is a shed phase. Side effects aside, I'd give it 1 year to make conclusions.

Thank you for sharing, I'm going to give it a year forsure since I'm halfway there, I might as well stick it out.