Is finasteride making my hair loss worse?

[uk_propecia1]

Just wondered if this has happened to anyone else... I'm 27, starting losing my hair in my early 20s but not very fast to begin with (family history of male pattern baldness on both sides of the family). Then since the beginning of this year it began falling out really fast, so I went to the GP, had blood tests (which revealed nothing) and got a prescription for Finasteride in February. Within a week and a half of taking it, my hair suddenly became incredibly oily and dirty, and began falling out amazingly fast. It was worst behind my ears, where lots of individual hairs started sticking out into mid-air for no apparent reason! Also hair loss was really bad at the temples and sides of my head, where a lot of hairs started twisting into strange, complex shapes :freaked: No matter how thoroughly I washed my hair, I could never get it to feel clean. I thought this would stop, but after six weeks or so I saw a dermatologist and he told me to stop taking it because he thought my hair loss was due to alopecia areata, not male pattern baldness so finasteride wasn't necessary.

After a couple of weeks my hair stopped falling out so fast and went more or less back to what it was before, but it was still getting worse. Eventually the dermatologist suggested the hair loss might stop of its own accord (!), I had loads more blood tests but they still didn't show up anything. I stopped seeing him because he didn't seem to have a clue.

Then in May I saw a highly recommended trichologist, who told me to start taking finasteride again and get my scalp clear because the skin was very flaky and he said that was probably making the genetic hair loss worse. I started back on finasteride, and within a week my hair went really oily again and started falling out much faster, just like the first time. I spoke to the trichologist but he told me to keep taking it because it would probably stop within a few days. After a month it was getting so bad I was convinced it was making things worse, so I stopped again (I know you're not supposed to do that, but I was getting really stressed by it by that time and was desperate to stop it). Within a couple of weeks it went back to "normal" (i.e. falling out at the previous rate).

I've now decided I don't have much to lose by taking it, even if it is making it worse, and have been on it for three and a half weeks now. I'm going to carry on to see what happens in a few months' time, but the same thing is happening already: after 2 days my hair began falling out at a furious rate again, it feels dirty and I don't know what to do. My hairline is receding quite fast and the hairs at the edge are really short and dead-looking. The trichologist refuses to believe finasteride can be doing me any harm and insists that any changes in my hair are caused by something which happened three months ago, not just a few days. I'd like to believe him, but given that this has now happened three times, I don't think it can be a coincidence and I'm sure he's wrong. I've gone from having what I considered to be more or less a full head of hair in January to having two bald patches at the temples which are getting harder to cover up, it's really thin everywhere else apart from the back above my neck and it's really beginning to get to me because I've wasted a lot of money on seeing specialists privately, having blood tests and buying products that don't work, and all that's happened is that it's got worse and worse.

Has this happened to anyone else? Could finasteride really be making things worse? I know plenty of people experience shedding after 2 months or so, but after 2 days?

 

[holyhair]

my best advice is to start taking pictures so you can really see if it gets better or worse.
Nizoral shampoo might help with the health of the scalp.

 

[MPBWarrior]

Doesn´t really sound like male pattern baldness, especially if the finasteride just makes it worse and what you´re going through seems to be a permanent shed.

 

[uk_propecia1]

Thanks for the replies - I have been taking pictures, I don't really want to post them here but it is clearly worse now than it was. Until about May or so my hairline stayed more or less where it was and the hair loss was diffuse, which was why the dermatologist didn't think it was male pattern baldness, but since then the hairlines has really receded at the temples in a classic male pattern baldness pattern. Oh well, I'll go to the trichologist again in a few weeks' time and see what he says, but I can't understand why finasteride is doing this...

 

[j25]

UK Propecia, i can totally affiliate to your story. Exactly the same thing has happened to me. Diffuse thinning, and after starting fina permanent shedding and sudden receding of the hairline. However, my top has remained the same for the last two years, more or less.
I tend to believe that finasteride is just not doing much for the hairline, and that your temple recession coincided with the moment that you started finasteride.

 

[jbob23]

Increased Frontal loss after starting propecia

I'm experiencing the same thing. Major loss in the temple areas and the hairline has really started to go back. I've lost more hair this year than I have in the past 15. It all seemed to start when I began taking propecia back in January 2006. I went through the typical extremely oily skin, testicular pain, and irritated scalp. I stopped after 4mo. because my scalp got so bad. After my scalp returned to normal I began the propecia again about 1 mo. after I stopped. Again the oily skin began. This time I stopped using the TGel everyday which really seemed to help to eliminate the scalp irritation this time. I recently switched to 1/4 Proscar. My hairline continues to recede along with more shedding. Ever since starting propecia in January to now August there has been a huge differnce in frontal hairloss and hair quality. I am now on 1/4 Proscar with Nizoral 1% every 3 days.

 

[uk_propecia1]

Update, 6 September 2006

Thanks for the replies, guys -

j25: I hope you're right, maybe that's what's happening - are you still on finasteride, by the way? If so, when did you start - and has it never improved since?

jbob23: How soon was it each time before you noticed the oily skin/shedding after you started on Propecia? I've noticed a difference in hair quality too whenever I've been on it, for the worse - thinner and weaker somehow, and each time I stop it seems to improve within a few days, which I just can't explain. It feels and looks fuller, somehow - last time I stopped, within a few days it looked like I had more hair (which I know can't be true!)

Well things are pretty much the same as before - I think my hair's maybe not so oily now, but it's still falling out at the same, very fast rate. The trichologist told me to phone him after six weeks, so yesterday I called him - and I told him what's been happening and I think finasteride's making my hair fall out faster. He just wouldn't accept the idea - without even seeing me, he told me it's because my scalp was in a bad condition last time I saw him, which was 2-3 months ago, and anything that's happening to my hair now was caused by what was happening then, not finasteride (same old spiel). He flatly refused to believe that finasteride could be making it worse, though I did get him to admit it's not normal for it to cause shedding after only a few days. If it's because of the state of my scalp, why is my hairline receding so fast at the front/temples? He didn't answer directly, just gave me this "imagine you've broken your arm. Now your arm is in a cast, and you have to wait for it to get better, I can't wave a magic wand in the meantime." Sometimes I think he reckons I'm just being stubborn for no reason - he told me not to believe whatever I might have read on the Internet. As I said to him, I *hadn't* read on the Internet that it can speed up male pattern baldness, and that's what really worries me! I want to be wrong about this, and I want finasteride to work - I'm getting desperate now - but I can't just ignore what I'm seeing.

Let's suppose for a moment - just for the sake of argument - that it *is* making it worse. Dr R (who participated in trials on it in the 80s in Britain, apparently) claims finasteride has *never* made anyone's hair loss worse, it just doesn't help some people. Now, maybe it's extremely rare for finasteride to increase hair loss - but if people like him refuse to consider the possibility and don't listen to people like me, no wonder there are no proven cases! (in his opinion) I'd be happy to undergo any tests there might be to establish whether it's speeding up the process, if only to prove myself wrong. He's told me to leave it another 8 weeks and then we should know if it's working. Well all right, I'll give it eight weeks, but that's *it* - God knows how much more damage it'll do in that time. He also told me if finasteride doesn't work, he has a solution I can try on prescription from him which is a Type I alpha reductase inhibitor (we don't have Avodart etc. over here yet, or whatever it's called) for £16 a month. So at best, I'll be washing some foul chemical into my hair for the rest of my life instead of taking a daily pill... can't wait... :roll:

 

[htownballa]

The only way I could see that finasteride is making your hair worse is if testosterone is attacking your hair follicles and not dht...finasteride wipes out dht which causes a subsequent rise in testosterone....test is known to attack hair follicles in most ppl. but dht is usually the main culprit...in ur case it is probably the opposite tho

 

[Nathaniel]

I had tons of shedding during the first 5 months. Now it has stopped a bit but I will probably hit another shed cycle since I have been on propecia for 7 months.

You need to ride it out man. What do you have to lose? Thats what I told myself. I mean, I was losing my hair anyway so who cares if I lost it faster. I had more to gain than to lose if I gave it a shot.

Try it for a decent amount of time and please, improve your scalp health by taking nizoral shampoo.

 

[j25]

Uk-Propecia
I am still on finasteride. Started propecia in July 2004 after noticing crown and vertex thinning (hairline was still NW1), switched to 1/4 proscar in July 2005. Last May, i added spironolactone to my regimen.
No, my hair has never improved since starting finasteride. Especially my temples have deteriorated (however, i would consider them NW2). Vertex thinning seemed to stabilize, but quite recently it has become slightly worse again. I am also going through a permanent shed, losing 200+ hairs every day, especially during the last couple of months. Worries my a lot. However, i keep my hair long and comb it back, which seems to work for me. Only girlfriends can tell that i am thinning. But we all now that one day this will cease to work. I hate my hair to get wet, etc etc.
I just hope that this permanent shed will stop one day, or that spironolactone will kick in. In your case I can recommend a topical, or - as a last resort - duta.

 

[bg1]

hey UKPROPECIA - i am in the same boat - started shedding on 1mg finasteride within 2 weeks - also my dandruff got alot worse since starting finasteride - even nizoral or head and shoulders doesnt seem to clear my dandruff - the most terrible thing is the itch!!

After a couple of months i decided to reduce to 0.5mg finasteride - same shedding

now i have reduced to 0.25mg - just to clear up my dandruff and the itch
(i have seen some studies stating that 0.2mg of finasteride is good as 1mg finasteride if you suffer side effects)

I have lost so much hair in the past 4 months that I am now worse off than I was before finasteride ... bloody ironic!

But i am gonna stick with it until at least 8 months - if nothing happens then i will stop finasteride

 

[bubka]

take pictures to compare, give it a year to see if you are going to regrow or maintain... or even slow down hairloss

if none of those, then quit. after a year