Right temple looks receded.
Forget your dermatologist. Ask any member on the forums thats been active for more than a year and they'll have more information on hair loss than your dermatologist. Some of then havent even heard of finasteride. Look into your family's history of hair loss, both mother's and fathers. If theres baldness present, you'll be susceptible to it as well. In all likelihood, you've probably been one of the unlucky guys to acquire the gene.
As for solutions, this is where your life is going to get pretty miserable:
Minoxidil
Works marginally but nobody still knows how it really works. Typically doesn't do much for your hairline. Also causes massive shedding which is typically followed by regrowth. Not a cure and doesn't block DHT which is the cause of hair loss.
Finasteride
Blocks DHT but also has potential side effects such as permanent erectile dysfunction, lower sex drive, brain fog, etc. Not a cure either as it mainly only slows down/stops hair loss. Sometimes you'll see regrowth but as I said, not a cure so it will NOT regrow everything you've lost.
And that's all thats available! Nizoral and other shampoos are garbage. Think about it; its applied to your hair and gets rinsed out moments later. That's NOT going to do anything to your follicles which are 3-5mm deep into your skin. Theres ZERO penetration in shampoos so forget about them doing anything.
There are experimental treatments like CB and RU, but are blackmarket products (both block DHT, one has minimal side effects the other is supposed to have NO side effects at all).
If you're worried about hair loss, you should do something to push for a cure, because you'll quickly learn that
a) society enjoys mocking baldness
b) society doesn't care to help hair loss sufferers
c) researchers are ridiculously slow to find a cure
d) FDA stalls any progress of treatments with its red tape bullsh*t
e) only two legitimate biotechs are working on a full on cure and neither of which are supposed to have a product any time soon (Replicel and Follica) worse yet, Replicel is likely to fail anyway so you've only got ONE to look forward to in the distant future.
In regards to c), two separate teams of researchers (one in China and one in the UK) have both cracked the hair loss problem, each with 50% of the problem. Theoretically the cure should be possible now as both teams could exchange info and work to find the solution... but like I said, researchers are ridiculously slow.
Good luck.
