Hair Loss after taking a break from Finasteride

[jayg1981]

Hi guys,

I wanted to see if anyone ever had a similar situation or any suggestions..

I had been taking 1mg (3-4 times a week) until this summer, June, when I had a break from finasteride, I was abroad and forgot my finasteride. I stopped for about 4 weeks.. until beginning of July, then when I got back home I started for like 5 days and got covid, was ill in bed for 10 days and ended up not taking finasteride for another 2 weeks.

All in all I was off it for 5.5 weeks.. then I started again on 1mg (3-4 times a week) in the end of July.

Then 2 months later, at the end of september, I got hit with a bad shed.. losing hair rapidly, in the shower, all over my pillow, every time I ran my hair through my head I would have 4-5 hairs on my hand.

Fast forward another 2 months, its the beginning of December and the shedding has totally stopped... for the last 2 months I have been taking increased dose of finasteride (1mg every day). Shedding has stopped, but it's much less than dense to where I was..

My question is.. is it possible to get the hair back to where it was? or is it permanent hair loss? I have read about 'catch up hair loss' after stopping finasteride and I cant find any positive success stories from people who took a break from finasteride, had a shed, then got it back? Would be great to hear from anyone who has some experience with this?

 

[infamousrodi]

Hi guys,

I wanted to see if anyone ever had a similar situation or any suggestions..

I had been taking 1mg (3-4 times a week) until this summer, June, when I had a break from finasteride, I was abroad and forgot my finasteride. I stopped for about 4 weeks.. until beginning of July, then when I got back home I started for like 5 days and got covid, was ill in bed for 10 days and ended up not taking finasteride for another 2 weeks.

All in all I was off it for 5.5 weeks.. then I started again on 1mg (3-4 times a week) in the end of July.

Then 2 months later, at the end of september, I got hit with a bad shed.. losing hair rapidly, in the shower, all over my pillow, every time I ran my hair through my head I would have 4-5 hairs on my hand.

Fast forward another 2 months, its the beginning of December and the shedding has totally stopped... for the last 2 months I have been taking increased dose of finasteride (1mg every day). Shedding has stopped, but it's much less than dense to where I was..

My question is.. is it possible to get the hair back to where it was? or is it permanent hair loss? I have read about 'catch up hair loss' after stopping finasteride and I cant find any positive success stories from people who took a break from finasteride, had a shed, then got it back? Would be great to hear from anyone who has some experience with this?

5 weeks isn’t enough time for finasteride to clear from your scalp serum. If anything taking a break from finasteride like you did is a smart idea as it flushed out any excess finasteride. Could just be a finasteride shed, and it’s highly unlikely you lost any ground unless your hair loss is very aggressive.

 

[jayg1981]

Thanks for the response @infamousrodi So in your opinion I can get it back to where I was before the break?

 

[Moz5x]

Hi guys,

I wanted to see if anyone ever had a similar situation or any suggestions..

I had been taking 1mg (3-4 times a week) until this summer, June, when I had a break from finasteride, I was abroad and forgot my finasteride. I stopped for about 4 weeks.. until beginning of July, then when I got back home I started for like 5 days and got covid, was ill in bed for 10 days and ended up not taking finasteride for another 2 weeks.

All in all I was off it for 5.5 weeks.. then I started again on 1mg (3-4 times a week) in the end of July.

Then 2 months later, at the end of september, I got hit with a bad shed.. losing hair rapidly, in the shower, all over my pillow, every time I ran my hair through my head I would have 4-5 hairs on my hand.

Fast forward another 2 months, its the beginning of December and the shedding has totally stopped... for the last 2 months I have been taking increased dose of finasteride (1mg every day). Shedding has stopped, but it's much less than dense to where I was..

My question is.. is it possible to get the hair back to where it was? or is it permanent hair loss? I have read about 'catch up hair loss' after stopping finasteride and I cant find any positive success stories from people who took a break from finasteride, had a shed, then got it back? Would be great to hear from anyone who has some experience with this?

The shed you experienced may have been due to Covid.

COVID-19 infection is a major cause of acute telogen effluvium - PubMed

COVID-19 infection is now a frequent and a common cause of acute telogen effluvium. Hence, clinicians should be aware about the relation between this infection and this pattern of hair loss. Drugs that have been used for the treatment of COVID-19 were excluded as a cause of acute telogen effluvium.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[jayg1981]

I would actually prefer it be telogen affluvium triggered from the Covid infection.. as then I would be sure it was temporary!

 

[jayg1981]

@Moz5x but the study you quoted referenced 92% of the research group were female.. do you think Covid related Telogen effluvium is really a thing in men? From what I am reading online it's something that tends to affect women mostly

 

[Moz5x]

Just saying it’s a possibility and it shouldn’t be ruled out. I don’t know how aggressive your hairloss genetics are. How old are you? How long were taking finasteride prior to the break? Ultimately time will tell.

 

[jayg1981]

@Moz5x Hi Mox5x I'm 36 and had been on finasteride for 3 years prior to the break. I would say I am a norwood 2/3 and had a pretty good result om finasteride, my hair had thickened up nicely.

 

[jayg1981]

and @Moz5x I agree.. I am open to it, the covid may well have had an effect.. when I went to have a haircut when I was shedding, and told my barber I was losing hair, the first thing he asked was if I'd had covid recently.. so I think it is happening to quite a lot of people who get covid

 

[Moz5x]

We will all catch covid eventually. Hopefully the shed was the worst part of that experience for you. I’m dreading it when my turn comes lol. Since you respond well to finasteride I think you’ll be fine as long as you keep the regimen consistent going forward.

 

[20YearsOnFin]

My question is.. is it possible to get the hair back to where it was? or is it permanent hair loss? I have read about 'catch up hair loss' after stopping finasteride and I cant find any positive success stories from people who took a break from finasteride, had a shed, then got it back? Would be great to hear from anyone who has some experience with this?

I have no idea if covid made your situation worse, but what you described in your op , was kind of text book what happens if you stop finasteride for a length of time greater than 30 days. (hair tends to shed approximately 90 days after cessation)

The fact the shedding stopped again like clockwork, approximately 60 days after it started, should also confirm to you that its the result of pausing treatment.

Generally stopping finasteride for 14 days won't induce any extra shedding , but once you go over 30days you start to enter the danger zone if you like, and the risk of slowly dumping all the hair artificially held in by finasteride will increasing start to become a possibility the longer the break goes on.


The good news is finasteride does seem to be working for you, so you should get most of that hair back, but its often a slow progress (up to 2 years) so its a lot of recovery time and a gamble just for taking a 5-6 week break.

 

[20YearsOnFin]

5 weeks isn’t enough time for finasteride to clear from your scalp serum.

Kind of, but Its not whether or not its 100% cleared from your scalp, its that by that length of time the amount left in your follicle will already be a much reduced dose, so if your body does requires a certain consistent dose to be able to stabilize and maintain your hair, any sudden deviation or reduction in that dose will often induce shedding that commences around 90 days later.

The exact length of time this takes will depend of the individual of course as some people are able to maintain on reduced doses anyway.

I would actually prefer it be telogen affluvium triggered from the Covid infection.. as then I would be sure it was temporary!

Telogen effluvium triggered from an Covid infection or a kind of Telogen effluvium triggered from pausing finasteride for 6 weeks would hopefully be temporary in both cases.

 

[jayg1981]

The good news is finasteride does seem to be working for you, so you should get most of that hair back, but its often a slow progress (up to 2 years) so its a lot of recovery time and a gamble just for taking a 5-6 week break.

@20YearsOnFin thanks for the input and yes I was a good responder on finasteride, even only taking it 3-4 times a week. Hopefully it will come back.. And I really hope it wont take 2 years! lol....

 

[jayg1981]

We will all catch covid eventually. Hopefully the shed was the worst part of that experience for you. I’m dreading it when my turn comes lol. Since you respond well to finasteride I think you’ll be fine as long as you keep the regimen consistent going forward.

@Moz5x Don't worry I think this new omicron strain will become the dominant one now.. and replace Delta... and from what I can see it is much milder than Alpha and Delta.. so hopefully the virus is petering out. For what it's worth I had 2 bad days (fevers, headaches, muscle ache etc) Keep your immune system strong with high doses of Vitamin C, Zinc and Vitamin D3 and you'll be right as rain!

 

[Moz5x]

Totally agree. I’m not afraid of dying from covid…I’m afraid of losing hair! Lol. Good luck and keep us posted on your situation.

 

[jayg1981]

@Moz5x haha thanks buddy I will keep you posted!

 

[jayg1981]

@20YearsOnFin I am curious why you said 2 years? is this from personal experience or just a random guess?

 

[20YearsOnFin]

@20YearsOnFin I am curious why you said 2 years? is this from personal experience or just a random guess?

Hi, yes this is the kind of time frame it takes my hair to recover, i don't mean it will take 2 years before it starts to grow back or you begin to notice a difference.

At the moment you are already almost 6 months in from when you first took a pause, so by another 6 months you should have regained the bulk of it, by then you will be in the second year and it should slowly continue to improve throughout that next period.


If your hair is thick enough after 6 months you may have already forgotten about it by that point, and be less likely to realise its still improving, But it can take that kind time before its actually 100% back to normal.

 

[jayg1981]

Hi All, just an update thankfully I am now pretty much back to where I was before I took a break! I'm also back to dosage size of 1mg 4x a week