Question from Reader:
Thanks for commenting. I see that you're a senior member. With your experience on this forum, could you perhaps help me out a bit?
I very much suspect that Finasteride made my hair much worse and that it may have induced a case of Telogen Effluvium (or maybe even "Reflex hyperandrogencity"). Maybe you could look at my post:
"Hair gotten much thinner after 4 month on Finasteride (What should I do?)"
What would you recommend me to do?
You probably won't like the answer but many times sheds come about because they are benevolent, meaning the body is shedding hair so that it can replace it with better hair. It might be more efficient for the body to essentially replace all hair at once and synchronize the anagen phase and hopefully lengthen it.
I never had any issues with any "male" treatments in terms of sheds but with spironolactone and estrogen, I had massive Telogen Effluvium over the course of say a month, down to a NW7 and I had pretty good coverage before that. It all grew back much better and nicer than before everywhere but it is a slow process and I am more or less in month 18 post-shed now. Being non-binary, I have a big advantage because estrogen in large quantities is pretty much proven to assist in large hair recoveries but then the person has to endure sides related to feminization.
The fact that hair outside of the typical horse shoe areas are also subject to Telogen Effluvium in terms of benevolent hair fall followed by improvement hopefully means that all of the shafts are increasing in diameter. The theory is that increased diameter which is good, cause the shedding because the body tends to want strands to have the same diameter all along the strand. After the shed, this is facilitated and the anagen phase which is ultra-important might then be greatly increased. Women tend to have several times the length of the anagen phase as do males and while this is related to appearance, it differs from regrowth in terms of whether dormant follicles are being awakened.
For now, your best bet is to get Keto 2 percent shampoo and also a blue dandruff shampoo like Selsun Blue or Head and Shoulders. These will reduce inflammation and hopefully help minimize shedding:
https://www.hairlosstalk.com/news/education/understanding-shedding-hair-loss-treatment/
I have a hair and transition blog but the main hair pics are here:
A funny thing happened to me on my way to the ball. I don't disavow anything prior to this and deep down, I knew that this was probably goi...
inpursuitoffeminity.blogspot.com
I also have my own thread on here:
https://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/threads/hair-is-not-life-but-its-pretty-damn-close-hrt-and-pictorial-posts-prove-it.130425/page-42#post-1959345
Anything further please ask.
Janey
Reader:
Thanks!
Whats worrying me is that I seem to have the same side-effects of those that claim to have had relfex hyperandrogencity. Basically the reverse of those that seem to respond well to finasteride.. I feel I'm at crossroads and better make the right choice now before I have to cut it all of at age 24...
I added a couple of things to the prior response.
I don't know what to say about reflex hyperandrogenicity except that if there is such a thing, then maybe such folks are doomed regardless. I mean with standard male treatments outside of the college age, hair never improves in terms of coverage or count or if it does, only slightly. The goal is maintenance and to hope for regrowth but it's not that common. I maintained from the age of 26 to about the age of 48 using regular min and finasteride and that was pretty amazing in itself but then they started working less and less. I tried to use estrogen in non-feminizing quantities but there really aren't any quantities that regrow hair without at least the possibility of feminization which often is not much at all. I got "lucky" in terms of experiencing a huge amount of feminization and since people responded to me better, I just went with it.
Estrogen promotes youth and great skin and hair in general and a slight bit of facial feminization promotes attractiveness in most males in my opinion but there are difficult psychological aspects to deal with (who am I? male or female or both or neither) and for some, but not often, breast development can be robust and it was for me. For many people breast development turns out being a feature and not a bug but that just depends. I had already married and raised a family and you don't want to hinder your reproductive capacity.
You might just have to bite the bullet and endure the shed because you would have gone bald anyway and as in the article I linked, shedding should be a positive theoretically but I know it's not much fun to go through. I just was so certain that high doses of E2 would work that I stayed the course. I post pictures every couple of weeks and my improvement from completely bald to now has been staggering and one of the highlights of my entire life. I often ask to post questions on my thread without identifying info so if you don't mind, our exchanges might benefit others in your situation.
Janey
Reader:
The thing is, I was having gains with minoxidil alone. But then added topical finasteride to it, without consulting my derm. From what i had read by them, it provided either stabilization or improvement. And minoxidil would do nothing in terms of adressing the cause of male pattern baldness. Only now I find out how finasteride can worsen hairloss dramatically...
I must have been too greedy... Looking what's left of my topical finasteride, I must've used 2 months of supply in just three weeks... So more than 2mg ED. From what I know the dose response seems to taper off when it comes to blocking DHT right? But does this also apply for other workings of finasteride?
All things combined, my hormones must've taken a blow. Hoping it is Telogen Effluvium and I recover. But not sure if I should stick to microdosing finasteride to try and get back the same thickness of hairs.
Janey:
I did something similar with spironolactone. I exceeded my prescription, figuring that "it can only help" and this was true but it accelerated my shed. The goal is slow steady progress in terms of avoiding sheds. Topical finasteride is supposed to be less strong, isn't it? I would advise that you shampoo alternating Selsun Blue with Keto 2 percent and lower your dosage of finasteride to see if that helps. You could temporarily try topical estrogen and see if that works to lessen hair loss or right the ship in terms of shedding but as you can see from that article, we don't have much in our arsenals to deal with sheds but reducing inflammation.
Reader:
If it were a normal finasteride shed, then I wouldn't see literally all the hairs getting thinner right? Also getting thinner before the shed.
Glad to hear how you've achieved success in your journey. Sure, info should be shared for everyone to improve their situation, as long as it is anonymous.
That's a good question about the hair being lost. I notice now that the hair that comes out in the brush is often misformed and less robust so maybe those are the hairs more likely to be lost. My other suggestion is to try to find an endocrinologist who deals with hair loss with experience using things like spironolactone for XY hair loss. I know it sucks. I decided for myself that HRT was my only path to being able to enjoy the rest of my life as a generally (I think) attractive person but that is everything to me because as we have seen, isolation sucks and we simply know that attractive people tend to have superior results in life in terms of marriage and material success and having friends and acquaintances.
