opinions please

[stryker]

Hello guys, long time lurker whose gained so much knowledge but needs opinions. Here's the situtation:

I'm 23 and have had diffuse thinning on the vertex, sides have also been creeping back for the last 2-3 years. Blond hair made the vertex even worse, confindence was extremely low, friends making comments.....everyone knows the rest.

After researching and learning from this site, I started 5% minoxidil with nizoral 3X a week about 6 months ago. Expereinced a massive shed about 4-6 weeks in, panicked and ordered Proscar 4months ago and been taking 1 mg a day since. Standard big 3 regime. I'm real a*** about the regime, only missed 1 application of minoxidil that I can remember.

Anyway, my results have been PHENOMENAL. I shaved my head during the shed and have let it grow since. I first started noticing white vellus hairs outlining the sides about 3 months ago. Since then they have gotten darker, thicker, and still seem to be creeping forward. My vertex is also much improved I think.

With these results and the hair grown back out. My hair looks better than it has in 3 years after 6 months of minoxidil, and 4 months of finasteride. Friends even have commented on how good it looks and have asked if I somehow grew back hair! Confindence is very high.

QUESTION: I'm completely happy with what I have now and if I stopped regrowing I'd be happy with what I got. I keep reading about how you have to give finasteride at least a year to get working. Should I be attributing my success mainly to the minoxidil since I've only been on the finasteride for 4 months?

My finasteride is about to run out and I'm thinking of not reordering and just staying on the minoxidil. What do you think?

I'm 23 and just not convinced being on a non-prescribed hormone regulator is needed when I seem to be responding well - I'm just wondering how much to attribute the finasteride to my good response

In retrospect I probably should have gave the minoxidil at least 6 months by itself but I panicked, now I'm not so sure if I should stay the big 3 or drop the finasteride till christmas or so and see what happens.

Any opinions would be appreciated
thanks

 

[garthbrooks]

i'm sure most people will say that you should stay on finasteride, if it's working for you with no side effects. if you're using proscar it shouldn't be costing you too much, right? maybe go to a lower dose to save even more money if that's an issue.

 

[NilesTilden]

I'll probably be in the minority on this, but if I were you I'd see if I could get by okay without the finasteride. You've only been on it for 4 months so I'd think any diff made by quitting would be negligable.

Personally, I would attribute the majority of your success to minoxidil as it is much faster acting than finasteride (observable results by month 2-4 as opposed to finasteride's 6 months to over a year).

If I'm you, I wait till the one-year mark with minoxidil and then decide if I want to add finasteride.

Best of luck whatever you choose.

NT

 

[nikeaddict]

stay on it, what if, and their is probably not a big chance, but what if you stopped and it went right back and maybe even got worse. id say stay on it, its easy and you have seen results. dont test your good results. great news though, its posts like yours that give a lot of people in here the hope they need.

 

[stryker]

thanks for the reply guys.

I'm leaning toward dropping the finasteride b/c like you said Niles, I think the loss would be negligible.

As far as side effects, I've noticed the libido has slid a bit and my body just feels a little softer, like how I would feel had I not worked out in month even though I have continually been working out the whole time.

I'm not terrified of or getting killed by side effects so getting off the finasteride would not be a reactionary response to adverse effects. I think finasteride would help out in the long run but if I can make it with just minoxidil and be content, why not just for piece of mind.

I'm just hesitant to F--- with a good thing I have going by
dropping the finasteride. My hair has by no means returned to that of a teenager, but it has improved over what it was which was what I was looking for.

has anyone done minoxidil alone for an extended peroid of time and had/kept results? Won't I need some kind of DHT inhibiter if I get off the finasteride?

 

[NilesTilden]

I'm sure plenty of guys have done well with minoxidil alone, over many years. I don't have all the studies or anything, but I've seen very favorable statistics in the past (probably from Bryan's posts, as he's really in-the-know about minoxidil studies). If I'm not mistaken, there was even a study which showed minoxidil regrows more hair than finasteride. Which has been my experience as well.

There's a real possibility that *all* of your results thus far are from minoxidil. However, if the finasteride is playing a larger role, and you start to lose noticably after quitting, you should be able to regain the losses by restarting the finasteride. So it should only be a temporary setback.

 

[NilesTilden]

Ah, I found the old study on long term minoxidil use, I believe Bryan is quoted in the 'comments' section of the study, if memory serves. Basically, minoxidil results continue to be significantly better than baseline for many years.

http://www.anagen.net/m14.htm

some other studies at the bottom of this page-

http://www.anagen.net/minoxin.htm

 

[Redbone]

Dr. Lee has a great head of hair and only uses Xandrox 5% once a day to maintain it. He has been doing this for a very long time.

 

[lunarjm]

I've been treating my temporal hair loss for a month now...

I stared with Dr. Lee's 5% Xandrox and DHT Shampoo after reading favorable opinions. I am starting on my second month of treatment and also plan to add 5% spironolactone.

Anyone else taking a similar regimen that would like to comment on expectations for the first 3-6 months. Any comments are much appreciated.

Also...anything work for my itchy scalp? I thought the DHT shampoo would help but it doesn't, although it should help with hair loss. I've tried T-gel, but it hasn't really done much for me. Thinking about trying Nizoral, any suggestions?

 

[Redbone]

I hear Tricomin helps to sooth an irritated scalp and adds life to washed out hair. It also helps to re-grow with copper peptides.