How Dutasteride utterly destroyed my hair and why you shouldn't take it

[Diffused_confidence]

When i tried finasteride i received for the first time the male pattern baldness itch. i was so confused about it as i didn't think that was meant to happen. and it just made my hair worse. so i stupidly decided to step up and try Dutasteride and it got worse. and i think its messed my body up abit as I'm more prone to the Male pattern baldness itch.

I tried spironolactone, and topical strong DHT blockers and i had the same response.

Its so weird and i wish i understood what was going on. i wish i understood why my body doesn't work with these products.

How long were you on it? There is a shed phase.

 

[Guru0007]

Same reaction here

 

[neddy2016]

How long were you on it? There is a shed phase.

I was on it for a few months. the first week i was on it i had an odd emotional breakdown. i cried every day for a week. it was so strange. but i randomly decided to apply some Saw Palmetto topical to my scalp and i felt a rush of testosterone and i felt much better. maybe this could explain it, but i have no idea.

I think after 2 weeks i started getting an annoying scalp itch. i mean the areas that i was thinning in really started to itch and it looked like those areas were getting thinner. i did wonder whether it could be a shed, but i noticed no hair fall. i was constantly looking for hair fall hoping it was a shed. it felt like it was just getting thinner at a rapid pace.

Over a month in i decided to take 1 finasteride every other day instead of every day. the itch did go away, and the hairloss slowed back to normal pace. and i did that for 3 months or more with no noticeable difference. so then i was convinced on here to try Dutasteride, thinking i might need something stronger. and i regret it because my body hasn't thanked me for the body chemistry mess up. and i still got an insane scalp itch and rapid thinning. and now 3 years on after stopping DHT blockers i am now incredibly sensitive to anything that has an DHT blocking effect.

My body seems to be telling me these days that if i want to keep my hair a little longer not to even try and change my body chemistry.

 

[Diffused_confidence]

I was on it for a few months. the first week i was on it i had an odd emotional breakdown. i cried every day for a week. it was so strange. but i randomly decided to apply some Saw Palmetto topical to my scalp and i felt a rush of testosterone and i felt much better. maybe this could explain it, but i have no idea.

I think after 2 weeks i started getting an annoying scalp itch. i mean the areas that i was thinning in really started to itch and it looked like those areas were getting thinner. i did wonder whether it could be a shed, but i noticed no hair fall. i was constantly looking for hair fall hoping it was a shed. it felt like it was just getting thinner at a rapid pace.

Over a month in i decided to take 1 finasteride every other day instead of every day. the itch did go away, and the hairloss slowed back to normal pace. and i did that for 3 months or more with no noticeable difference. so then i was convinced on here to try Dutasteride, thinking i might need something stronger. and i regret it because my body hasn't thanked me for the body chemistry mess up. and i still got an insane scalp itch and rapid thinning. and now 3 years on after stopping DHT blockers i am now incredibly sensitive to anything that has an DHT blocking effect.

My body seems to be telling me these days that if i want to keep my hair a little longer not to even try and change my body chemistry.

You need to be PATIENT with these meds. It takes up to a year to see results.

 

[Einstein]

You need to be PATIENT with these meds. It takes up to a year to see results.

It gets under my skin when I read these types of posts. They don't do their part when taking treatment then they come on the boards and imply finasteride, minoxidil, or any treatment ruined their hair.

 

[Diffused_confidence]

It gets under my skin when I read these types of posts. They don't do their part when taking treatment then they come on the boards and imply finasteride, minoxidil, or any treatment ruined their hair.

I'm on finasteride. Still losing ground and had a terrible shed today (like over 100 hairs). I feel like sh*t about my hairline now. Before taking finasteride it was meh, but now it sucks but I have to have faith that this is part of the drug working.

I might be delusional and still lose my hair but at least I fought it and tried with no regrets.

 

[Guru0007]

Try estrogen bro it do

I was on it for a few months. the first week i was on it i had an odd emotional breakdown. i cried every day for a week. it was so strange. but i randomly decided to apply some Saw Palmetto topical to my scalp and i felt a rush of testosterone and i felt much better. maybe this could explain it, but i have no idea.

I think after 2 weeks i started getting an annoying scalp itch. i mean the areas that i was thinning in really started to itch and it looked like those areas were getting thinner. i did wonder whether it could be a shed, but i noticed no hair fall. i was constantly looking for hair fall hoping it was a shed. it felt like it was just getting thinner at a rapid pace.

Over a month in i decided to take 1 finasteride every other day instead of every day. the itch did go away, and the hairloss slowed back to normal pace. and i did that for 3 months or more with no noticeable difference. so then i was convinced on here to try Dutasteride, thinking i might need something stronger. and i regret it because my body hasn't thanked me for the body chemistry mess up. and i still got an insane scalp itch and rapid thinning. and now 3 years on after stopping DHT blockers i am now incredibly sensitive to anything that has an DHT blocking effect.

My body seems to be telling me these days that if i want to keep my hair a little longer not to even try and change my body chemistry.

try estrogen it will downregulate ar even im going through a same reaction as urs im taking estro now

 

[neddy2016]

It gets under my skin when I read these types of posts. They don't do their part when taking treatment then they come on the boards and imply finasteride, minoxidil, or any treatment ruined their hair.

And posts like this really get under my skin. i don't believe for 1 second that an inflamed scalp is a good sign for finasteride or dutasteride. it feels like a warning sign that something isn't working. and i really tried, but you know what? this scalp itch has stuck with me ever since i stopped. DHT blockers have messed my system up big time.

And when i took it every other day. i wasn't even sure it was doing anything. maybe i should have tried that longer rather than jumping to dutasteride. but honestly i have always been suspicious since the scalp inflammation. Most people have scalp inflammation fixed with finasteride. they don't usually get it from Finasteride.

I also tried other topical DHT blockers and i received more scalp inflammation. i did wonder whether that could be a sign of a shed, but the more i read about it, the more i realized that its actually a negative sign. inflammation is what kills hair follicles. it doesn't create a shed.

 

[neddy2016]

Try estrogen bro it do

try estrogen it will downregulate ar even im going through a same reaction as urs im taking estro now

Like spironolactone? nowadays i can't use any topicals anymore. my scalp has become so sensitive to dht blockers of any sort.

I have often wondered whether our immune systems have some connection to whether these treatments work for us or not. i also tried minoxidil for and received some really bad joint pain in my knee and wrist.

 

[Matt Rogers]

And posts like this really get under my skin. i don't believe for 1 second that an inflamed scalp is a good sign for finasteride or dutasteride. it feels like a warning sign that something isn't working. and i really tried, but you know what? this scalp itch has stuck with me ever since i stopped. DHT blockers have messed my system up big time.

And when i took it every other day. i wasn't even sure it was doing anything. maybe i should have tried that longer rather than jumping to dutasteride. but honestly i have always been suspicious since the scalp inflammation. Most people have scalp inflammation fixed with finasteride. they don't usually get it from Finasteride.

I also tried other topical DHT blockers and i received more scalp inflammation. i did wonder whether that could be a sign of a shed, but the more i read about it, the more i realized that its actually a negative sign. inflammation is what kills hair follicles. it doesn't create a shed.

Same with me. I never had the itch before finasteride and ever since finasteride I've had it even two years after quitting. The itch sucks you know your hair is getting crushed in the itch area and it's honestly hard to concentrate on things when you have a crawling itch on your scalp that never goes away

 

[Diffused_confidence]

Same with me. I never had the itch before finasteride and ever since finasteride I've had it even two years after quitting. The itch sucks you know your hair is getting crushed in the itch area and it's honestly hard to concentrate on things when you have a crawling itch on your scalp that never goes away

That is due to the thinning of hair. When hair is thin and your scalp is exposed more you feel the thinness and can't stop feeling it.

 

[DarkHairHair]

hello i have dupa ( diffused all over head even at sides and back) since 4 years , im on fina since 10 months but it's not working.

Should i try dutasteride for dupa ? Im scared of the shedding becauqe it could make the situation worse

 

[Jacoby77]

It has to be in my head lol. This guy can't fathom it, so it must be in my head.

Ok, so I'm going to say something that will piss more people off that simply can't fathom real physiological changes in my own body that I experienced probably at least on ten separate occasions in the past decade of experimentation with finasteride. The change in hair shaft diameter... It doesn't occur due to an actual growth of more keratin. That wouldn't make sense because the hair wouldn't be able to get thin so quickly when finasteride stops working after a few weeks. That would require sudden loss of keratin or a new hair cycle and that obviously makes no sense.

So, the reason the hair is able to increase and decrease in diameter in such a short time frame is due to a concentration gradient. There is some mineral... I'm not sure what it is exactly... Could be intracellular sodium, potassium, calcium, etc... something like this which causes the hair shaft to swell due to greater water retention... water flowing toward area of highest concentration. It is the only reasonable and logical explanation. Same reasoning for why water retention occurs in the skin, which also happened to my skin in parallel with the increase in hair shaft diameter... I experienced water retention. It's why women generally have such plump and beautiful skin.. they retain more moisture and their skin swells up. And it wasn't in my head... You don't imagine your hair shaft diameter basically doubling in size. You don't imagine the weight of your hair being significantly heavier when wet. The changes were far too profound and observed way too many times to be delusionally imagined. The darkening of the hair... I'm not sure exactly what caused that, although, I suppose that could have occurred for the same reason.

As a side note, I'd rather lose all my hair than change the way I currently eat. The benefits are so profound that I'd rather give up hair to feel the way it makes me feel. Luckily, I don't have to do that because the exact opposite occurs... and it's ok if you don't take my word for it. I'll be happy to show visual evidence within 7-8 months following my recovery.

If after a few weeks you get shedding and dry hair, that's normal with finasteride though? That's the shedding phase making way for better hairs. Why quit finasteride when you get shedding?

 

[Guru0007]

Try estrogen bro

 

[Guru0007]

Like spironolactone? nowadays i can't use any topicals anymore. my scalp has become so sensitive to dht blockers of any sort.

I have often wondered whether our immune systems have some connection to whether these treatments work for us or not. i also tried minoxidil for and received some really bad joint pain in my knee and wrist.

Bro any improvements?

 

[ChemHead]

If after a few weeks you get shedding and dry hair, that's normal with finasteride though? That's the shedding phase making way for better hairs. Why quit finasteride when you get shedding?

Because it isn't normal. People have just deluded themselves into believing that it's normal because it happens to a bunch of other people and none of them actually understand what's going on.

The shedding and dry hair was caused due to a lack of ability for the skin and hair to produce sufficient estrogens because of the HPTA dysregulation that finasteride causes. The only way to change that is to reset and let the HPTA recover. finasteride works mostly because of its acute effects on estrogen synthesis, imo. It's a really ineffective way to cause these effects, though, and you're more than likely going to suffer from some kind of HPTA dysregulation.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

I agree that people have deluded themselves into.thinking that LOSING HAIR, aka "shedding" is a good sign. Never understood why

This is much more complicated than delusion. Janey knows delusion, lol. It's because the word "shed" is so imprecise. Then add on the fact that it does not seem to me that it is certain that Telogen Effluvium exists separately from male pattern baldness. Bridge said and I agree, even if different from male pattern baldness, you can have both at the same time. I think that Telogen Effluvium should be removed like they do with the DSM from treatment protocols entirely. It provides zero information related to the future or the present. The idea of guy after guy coming on here and posting pics and then arguing that they have Telogen Effluvium and not male pattern baldness is pathetic unless they are only balding in their imagination which still might call for finasteride to ease their nervousness about being bald. Everyone should be nervous and I continue to attack the utility of all Telogen Effluvium diagnoses.

Telogen Effluvium should be renamed to something akin to Extreme Disaster Stress accompanied by Severe Malnutrition induced Hair Loss or EDS, and almost always in terms of diagnoses or how I put it, unless you have been to war or haven't eaten in a month then no, you have male pattern baldness and if you don't then who cares unless someone is anti-finasteride but after 9 to 12 months it's too late. Again, Bayesian analysis makes much of this clear. Just thinking we might be bald has a huge correlation with actually having male pattern baldness even if imaginary since virtually all Telogen Effluvium diagnoses seem to be wrong.

What should be the Derm's focus then? On only advising people with no hair loss that they are imagining it and as I said, finasteride might still be needed for psychological reasons and just as common sense to those of us who think being completely bald ruins life as we know it or want to know it.

 

[losingbattle88]

You guys are a bunch of hypochondriacs. There's always a shedding phase that last for months when starting dutasteride or finasteride then it regrows thicker. I would have very thin hair today if it weren't for dutasteride usage. 99% of the hair I lose or cut off my head are thick healthy hairs. Thanks to dutasteride.

 

[losingbattle88]

Thank you, i don't think it's testosterone alone since i took 200 MG spironolactone when i was desperate and it didn't do anything for me except making things worse somehow

If taking dutasteride that blocks 95% of dht and then adding a T blocker such as spironolactone made hair worse then I can assure you that your hormones were unbalanced and you had Telogen Effluvium. Don't blame dutasteride for this. Infact dutasteride killed my scalp itch and I shed only 35 to 50 hairs on it for many months until it calmed down.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

You guys are a bunch of hypochondriacs. There's always a shedding phase that last for months when starting dutasteride or finasteride then it regrows thicker. I would have very thin hair today if it weren't for dutasteride usage. 99% of the hair I lose or cut off my head are thick healthy hairs. Thanks to dutasteride.

I shed like mad on spironolactone but I never shed from any other medication, including topical and oral min, Duta and finasteride. But spironolactone is similar in that certain sheds are benevolent but how do we determine which ones? So I am perplexed in terms of forming an algorithm because we have no statistical data that I know of regarding hair growing back after any shed regardless. If one has Telogen Effluvium, separate from male pattern baldness, then what do you do since presumably Telogen Effluvium does not respond to finasteride. I am not disagreeing with your main point. It's just that Bridge seems the first person to wonder if Telogen Effluvium and male pattern baldness can happen together. I think so but I think that they are virtually always both caused by androgens. How come 18 year old girls aren't on here asking for help with Telogen Effluvium regularly--I have heard from some but it presents as FPB.

Why don't 12 year old boys regularly get Telogen Effluvium? It's because it's a garbage catch-all thing dermatologists say so nobody's feelings get hurt. Remember in 1984 we had no treatments and my derm was not of a good bedside manner but at least he told me the truth.