- Reaction score
- 374
I've been taking oral finasteride for ten years. Currently on 0.5mg daily. It helped with overall density but wan not strong enough to hold my hairline since three years ago.
For the past year or so I've been trying a compounded minoxidil with topical finasteride 0.25mg/ml. I started off with the crown but did not stick it out with the front due to the extra irratation it brought likely due to the carriers. For some reason it was much worse in the front. I'm not sure if I had any regrowth on crwon but for sure it did not get worse.
Recently I started consistently applying it to my front. I figured out a way to manage the irratation by carefully parting my hair, massaging the solution in, etc. After a week of using it the itch on and behind my hairline was completely gone. This did not happen with oral finasteride.
However, I started getting heavy sides too. Dead dick and insomnia, which I got years ago when I was on 2mg finasteride daily so I'm more than familiar with them.
My reflections:
1. Yes, 5AR inhibitors might work better topically than orally. DHT is a paracrine/autocrine hormone and it's produced where it's used so that makes sense.
2. For poor people like me you might be getting heavier sides on topical finasteride. My experience was also that when using topical finasteride on the crown, I did not notice extra sides; but on the temples, a different story. Maybe it has something to do with how the blood circulation is more active and brings the drug much easier to specific parts of the body (brain, for instance, where finasteride unleashes a killing spree on neurosteroids as we all know). That, compared to how an oral dose is killed by your liver in half and then diffused into the entire bloodstream, might explain my case.
For the past year or so I've been trying a compounded minoxidil with topical finasteride 0.25mg/ml. I started off with the crown but did not stick it out with the front due to the extra irratation it brought likely due to the carriers. For some reason it was much worse in the front. I'm not sure if I had any regrowth on crwon but for sure it did not get worse.
Recently I started consistently applying it to my front. I figured out a way to manage the irratation by carefully parting my hair, massaging the solution in, etc. After a week of using it the itch on and behind my hairline was completely gone. This did not happen with oral finasteride.
However, I started getting heavy sides too. Dead dick and insomnia, which I got years ago when I was on 2mg finasteride daily so I'm more than familiar with them.
My reflections:
1. Yes, 5AR inhibitors might work better topically than orally. DHT is a paracrine/autocrine hormone and it's produced where it's used so that makes sense.
2. For poor people like me you might be getting heavier sides on topical finasteride. My experience was also that when using topical finasteride on the crown, I did not notice extra sides; but on the temples, a different story. Maybe it has something to do with how the blood circulation is more active and brings the drug much easier to specific parts of the body (brain, for instance, where finasteride unleashes a killing spree on neurosteroids as we all know). That, compared to how an oral dose is killed by your liver in half and then diffused into the entire bloodstream, might explain my case.