Help! finasteride is making my hair worst!!

[20YearsOnFin]

This happened to me. I probably started taking finasteride too early- I was 30 at the time with slight thinning in the crown area but I will admit I became obsessed with what I was seeing. After only 2 months of being on finasteride my hair actually thinned, became dry, my hairline was destroyed which wasn't an issue before. I also had/have side effects including a burning/itchy scalp. Oily skin, panic attacks (which may have been due to my hair quality deteriorating only a weekly basis).

3 years on- 2 1/2 off of finasteride and my hair quality is kaput. It's brittle, thin and whispy. I can't style it and my scalp is visible. I believe my hair loss slowed after coming off of finasteride but the damage was done. I'm at the same stage of hair loss as my brother who is 8 years older. my other brother who is 2 years younger than I am is probably at the stage of hair loss I was before I started finasteride. Not exactly fair comparisons but I believe finasteride has robbed me of a few years of thick/healthy hair

I've taken several generic brands of finasteride that have rapidly destroyed my hair, the only thing that has recovered it, is to switch to a different brand that actually worked, if you were on actual Propecia whilst this happened, and didn't want to give up, the next step would have been to try dutasteride and or keep adding additional treatments to see if anything worked.

Stopping 5-Ari's whilst your hair is at its lowest point, is likely to permanently leave it in a worse off state then when you started.

Unfortunately if your family has a strong genetic predisposition to baldness and you are heading to a Norwood 4+ adding all the treatments available may still not be enough.

 

[Wjisme95]

This happened to me. I probably started taking finasteride too early- I was 30 at the time with slight thinning in the crown area but I will admit I became obsessed with what I was seeing. After only 2 months of being on finasteride my hair actually thinned, became dry, my hairline was destroyed which wasn't an issue before. I also had/have side effects including a burning/itchy scalp. Oily skin, panic attacks (which may have been due to my hair quality deteriorating only a weekly basis).

3 years on- 2 1/2 off of finasteride and my hair quality is kaput. It's brittle, thin and whispy. I can't style it and my scalp is visible. I believe my hair loss slowed after coming off of finasteride but the damage was done. I'm at the same stage of hair loss as my brother who is 8 years older. my other brother who is 2 years younger than I am is probably at the stage of hair loss I was before I started finasteride. Not exactly fair comparisons but I believe finasteride has robbed me of a few years of thick/healthy hair

I see. For me i did not experience any of the other sides like ichy scalp, oily skin/ increased acne and stuff. Its just increased recession... Not sure why this is happening. Hopefully it will reverse soon

 

[hairhelp777]

I have been on finasteride for 6 and a half months now on 1mg EOD dosage. I have not seen any results from finasteride but on the contrary it is making it 100X worst! My hair miniaturisation has increased while i am on finasteride and now half of my temple is recessed. Why is finasteride doing this? Shouldnt it be helping to keep my hair? And also i did not encounter any shed on finasteride, rather my hair fall actually reduced. But my hairline recession has gone worst. I know finasteride is doing this because previously my hairloss wasnt so rapid. What is going on? Please help im desperate

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June hairline

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Current hairline

Do you have itching/burning/strange sensations in scalp? You might want to consider if you have LPP and finasteride is causing a flare. This happened to me when I started finasteride - and didn't realise I had LPP but it caused a major flare for me with more itching/burning/shedding.