Ok, so I'm about 1 and a half month into fluridil and I thought I'd share my experiences with you.
I had some doubt whether or not fluridil was right for me (time will tell), seeing as I am mainly interested in thickening and (hopefully regrowing), but I am giving it a good 6 months before I make any conclusions.
I like to think of it as an experiment
First things first; the product itself:
I've got to admit I hated the caps at first, but I suppose you get used to them. They're great when you travel, but it's kinda akward to store 4 boxes full of suspicious- looking ampules in the bathroom. (Luckily enough, I am in a healthy marriage with a woman who knows she's not supposed to touch my finasteride if she ever should want to get pregnant, and knows that fluridil is a hair agent; not anabolic steroids.) But EVEN SO; it's a pain to have close to a hundred little ampules rather than 3 simple bottles..
I actually consider ordering the stuff month to month because of that: I can easily fit 30 or so ampules in an unsuspicious little bag which I can stow away in a drawer, but not 120.
applying and stuff
Some people say the caps are hard to open, or that they cut themselves, but I haven't had that problem just yet. I discovered you can snap the glass cap open WITH the applicator, shielding your fingers. Works for me.
2mL is quite a lot. If you only need it at a certain area (vertex, temples), you will get soaked. There's just enough to cover the entire scalp if you need to (at least mine). The way I do it: i apply one third at the "bald-patch risk area", the other third at my temples, and just spread the rest all over the scalp.
Also, the stuff dries crazy fast. I can literally apply it in the bathroom downstairs, go into the bedroom upstairs, go to bed, and my hair is dry.
the downsides
Ok, so fluridil decomposes if it gets in touch with water.
At first I thought this would be just a technicality. Turns out it isn't. This is a MAJOR pain in the a**, and is actually a pretty solid argument against fluridil in general. Consider the following:
Fluridil stops working if:
-if I break a sweat (running to the metro, warm weather, sex, exercise, manual labor, simply wearing a hat)
-if it starts to rain
-if I cook something (leaning over a pot of boiling pasta= moist air)
-if I apply hair gel too close to my scalp
...and at least a thousand other scenarioes.
The way I deal with this is to only apply fluridil at bedtime, and leave the central air on during the night (which we always do anyway). At least it gets a solid 8-9 hours on my scalp before I shower in the morning. (Believe it or not: simply standing in a shower gets your hair wet- even if you don't wash your hair.)
Also; I've tried cutting down on shampooing, increasing the dermal fat on my scalp (as they recommend in one of the studies). Don't know if it helps.
Results:
Obviously to soon to tell if anything miraculous happens, but I actually do shed less. A lot less in fact; I used to be able to pull out 5 or so hair with a hair-pull test but now it's nearly nothing.
Same goes for combing; I do not shed a single strand.
So for now I stay optimistic. If at 6 months this doesn't give me anything, I'm switching to good old rogaine.
I had some doubt whether or not fluridil was right for me (time will tell), seeing as I am mainly interested in thickening and (hopefully regrowing), but I am giving it a good 6 months before I make any conclusions.
I like to think of it as an experiment
First things first; the product itself:
I've got to admit I hated the caps at first, but I suppose you get used to them. They're great when you travel, but it's kinda akward to store 4 boxes full of suspicious- looking ampules in the bathroom. (Luckily enough, I am in a healthy marriage with a woman who knows she's not supposed to touch my finasteride if she ever should want to get pregnant, and knows that fluridil is a hair agent; not anabolic steroids.) But EVEN SO; it's a pain to have close to a hundred little ampules rather than 3 simple bottles..
I actually consider ordering the stuff month to month because of that: I can easily fit 30 or so ampules in an unsuspicious little bag which I can stow away in a drawer, but not 120.
applying and stuff
Some people say the caps are hard to open, or that they cut themselves, but I haven't had that problem just yet. I discovered you can snap the glass cap open WITH the applicator, shielding your fingers. Works for me.
2mL is quite a lot. If you only need it at a certain area (vertex, temples), you will get soaked. There's just enough to cover the entire scalp if you need to (at least mine). The way I do it: i apply one third at the "bald-patch risk area", the other third at my temples, and just spread the rest all over the scalp.
Also, the stuff dries crazy fast. I can literally apply it in the bathroom downstairs, go into the bedroom upstairs, go to bed, and my hair is dry.
the downsides
Ok, so fluridil decomposes if it gets in touch with water.
At first I thought this would be just a technicality. Turns out it isn't. This is a MAJOR pain in the a**, and is actually a pretty solid argument against fluridil in general. Consider the following:
Fluridil stops working if:
-if I break a sweat (running to the metro, warm weather, sex, exercise, manual labor, simply wearing a hat)
-if it starts to rain
-if I cook something (leaning over a pot of boiling pasta= moist air)
-if I apply hair gel too close to my scalp
...and at least a thousand other scenarioes.
The way I deal with this is to only apply fluridil at bedtime, and leave the central air on during the night (which we always do anyway). At least it gets a solid 8-9 hours on my scalp before I shower in the morning. (Believe it or not: simply standing in a shower gets your hair wet- even if you don't wash your hair.)
Also; I've tried cutting down on shampooing, increasing the dermal fat on my scalp (as they recommend in one of the studies). Don't know if it helps.
Results:
Obviously to soon to tell if anything miraculous happens, but I actually do shed less. A lot less in fact; I used to be able to pull out 5 or so hair with a hair-pull test but now it's nearly nothing.
Same goes for combing; I do not shed a single strand.
So for now I stay optimistic. If at 6 months this doesn't give me anything, I'm switching to good old rogaine.
