Propecia: How do you know it's working?

[HairyBalding]

I'm into my 4th month with Propecia and am just looking to gauge others experiences with mine. (I also use nizoral 2-3 times per week.).

Before starting Propecia I could run my fingers through my hair and generally come up with 5-10 hairs. Nowadays I find that sometimes I might get 1-2 hairs, but then on another day I'm back to the 5-10. Also, it seems to me that the hairs that do come out are thicker and darker than before. (Not sure if this is just wishful thinking on my part.) Also, there are more hairs (almost all of them) with a white "bulb" at the end.

Not only that but when washing my hair there are days where I've only got 5-10 on my hands and others where it's closer to 20-25.

(I know, I know, everyone says don't count hairs and don't pull hairs.)

Any significance to this? Anyone experience similar type shedding?

Additionally, the only side effects were some back acne for the first month (gone away); and no morning wood (still hoping that this will go away eventually).

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

[Guest]

It's a strange thing to guage really. Losing hair whilst washing is normal if you suffer from male pattern baldness or not. The only way to really guage is to take some pics when you start and do it each month. It's much easier to compare that way.

One good test that I always use is to gently massage the scalp to see if I can feel small prickly hairs sprouting. I can feel loads all over. This tells me that the hair is taill active and will grow.

Good luck!

 

[DJ007]

Im in the same boat,im at the 4 months stage on proscar and nizoral

Not sure if its working or not but some days i look in the mirror and think its looking better.

Still im in it for the long run, so i wont give up

Good luck bro

 

[gonna_win]

finasteride or not, your going to have hairs come out of your head. People that don't have male pattern baldness can lose 100 hairs a day, the important things is 'DO THEY GROW BACK AS THICK AS THEY WERE' i suggest you take photo's of your hairline and compare with previous months, remeber it may take up to a year to see if propecia is working for you!

 

[doggfather]

Now let's say you do take pictures of your hairline now and 6 months - 12 months later and you notice that your hairline has receded a little bit. Does that mean Propecia doesn't work? Or can you use the argument that if you didn't take Propecia your recession would be a lot faster? But if using that rationale then you are saying Propecia works and you should be using it indefinitely regardless of what the pictures say.

 

[Guest]

Now let's say you do take pictures of your hairline now and 6 months - 12 months later and you notice that your hairline has receded a little bit. Does that mean Propecia doesn't work? Or can you use the argument that if you didn't take Propecia your recession would be a lot faster? But if using that rationale then you are saying Propecia works and you should be using it indefinitely regardless of what the pictures say.

good shout!

 

[elguapo]

Good questions. I see guys in their first stages of hair loss, and they are both receding and losing hair in the crown area. I think if you do some research you'll learn that propecia does a better job at keeping hair in the crown area. So I think it is still working even if you are receding with time. I think people who know will tell you that if you get off the stuff, you will lose hair faster- that propecia is at least slowing your loss.

I'd stick with it. My hairline is receding a bit over time as well. But I think overall finasteride is helping me.

Good luck.