Propecia use for receding hairline, then diffuse starts

[hans]

I started my propecia regimen a bit over half yr ago, but it was in hopes of stopping my receding hairline in its tracks. I never felt I had a diffuse thinning problem ever. However, ever since I started propecia I'm starting to see an overall thinning. My hair is definitely more lifeless and limp then i can remember. It just lies flat on my head like its got no life whatsoever. I'm not saying propecia has caused this to happen, but at the same time, I'm wondering if this is something some of you have experienced.

 

[ANDREW_J_I]

hmmmm, that sounds strange. but maybe u just hdant noticed ur thinning so much on top before. mine got really noticeable not long ago and thats when i decided to do something about it. it just got too muhc, now its really bad diffuse thinning.

propecia wudnt have caused that. i just think u may have had a hair loss spurt or sumthing n now it has become very noticeable and perhaps u r a type of diffuse thinner.

 

[Primex]

Wow, that's really odd. It's done the exact opposite for me. I have receeding hair and it was starting to thin and shed like crazy before I started Propecia. Now my shedding has decreased by like 75% at least, maybe more. Maybe you were thinning and you didn't know it.

 

[Felk]

Remember that you scrutinise your head of hair everyday now, so be very careful about that crafty bugger associated with 90% of all hairloss problems - your mind and it's eye!

Maybe you were thinning and you didn't know it.

I second this. It's taken me around 5 months to get a clear idea of the thickness of different areas of my head. I always had a curly mop of hair, so i had an excuse to be so ignorant - i knew nothing of the male pattern baldness pattern.

 

[jumpedthegun]

I've been suspicous of the same problem. I started finasteride to mainly stop a receding hairline (I also thought my hair might be a little thinner in the very front too). i had just turned 27. after starting finasteride, i had a pretty bad shed at month three, which made me look diffuse, especially near the front. things filled back in a bit on top, and i noticed my temples were filling in as well, so i thought everything was working great. but then my hair has gone through ups and downs (mainly downs) and now at 13 months, my temples look great, but i am diffusely thin ALL across the top.

now i'm at a crossroads, and don't know what to do. i'm seriously considering dropping finasteride.

1. Maybe the diffuse thinning is caused by constant shedding on finasteride, and that if i drop the finasteride and tackle my temples with just spironolactone, the top of my head will thicken back up.

2. Maybe finasteride kick-started diffuse thinning, and stopping finasteride will just cause me to continue thinning on top.

3. Maybe when i started finasteride i already had the early stages of diffuse thinning and just didn't know it, and the finasteride has only been effective for the recession. (diffuse thinning and recession are two different beasts).

 

[JWM]

Yup, same thing happened to me. Been on finasteride for 8 years (afraid to drop it)

Before finasteride I had very mild diffuse thinning in the middle of my scalp, behind the hairline. After 1 year it was safe to say that those areas had become far more diffuse.

Hormones are a mystery.

 

[JWM]

FYI, dutasteride made the situation MUCH worse when I tried it for a 8 months last year whcih makes me think that some folks don't respond to well to internal 5ar inhibitors

 

[Johnny24601]

re:

I don't dispute that this is possible but without photos it is pure speculation. I sort of feel the same way as my hair sometimes feels really thin but then I look at before and after photos and see that it was thinning before I started.

 

[ang_99]

Yup, same thing happened to me. Been on finasteride for 8 years (afraid to drop it)

Before finasteride I had very mild diffuse thinning in the middle of my scalp, behind the hairline. After 1 year it was safe to say that those areas had become far more diffuse.

Hormones are a mystery.

Did the diffuse thinning reach a max in year 2 Or are you still continuesly thinning more and more in those 8 years? In other words did the diffuse level off early on in your propecia venture, years 1 and 2? Just wondering because I've been on Propecia for a year and a half and my hair feels and looks more diffuse than baseline. I heard others say that they had thinning on propecia after year 1 and it just leveled off after that.

 

[jumpedthegun]

It's not speculation. I admit that diffuse thinning is very difficult to track once it starts, but you can definitely tell the difference between no diffuse thinning and some diffuse thinning.

anyway, JWM, I need to ask you some things, because i think i'm in the exact same spot as you were 7 years ago. i've been on finasteride for 13 months. now i have moderate diffuse thinning in the middle starting at the hairline and moving back about two inches and slight diffuse thinning on the rest of the top.

i feel like i should drop finasteride because it is obviously not improving things on top, nor halting any decline, and may in fact be the cause of the thinning. however, part of me is afraid to drop finasteride (probably for the same reasons as you). if it just gets worse, then i'll be even worse off.

so, after the first year on finasteride when your hair declined, did it continue to get worse over the next 7 years. or did it even out, and not get any worse. because even though my hair is worse than baseline, i think i would stay on finasteride if i knew that my hair would be the same as it is now in 7 years. any advice would be appreciated. if you could go back, would you do things the same?

also, did you see any results on your hairline?

 

[JWM]

MY hair got worse, but at a slow rate. Would this have happened without finasteride? Who knows. That's the problem with these drugs. Sometimes it's really hard to tell if they're helping or not.

With the right haircut and product, my hair looks good. But when my hair gets wet... :shock:

I never dropped finasteride, because at the time (1998) I didnt know much about hairloss and figured that finasteride was my only chance. When my hair got worse, it was frustrating, but I didn't know what else to do. I never responded well to minoxidil either. I can even remember my girlfriend's mother at the time telling her daughter, in front of me no less, that I was going bald. This was after a year and a half on finasteride. Before that, my loss was not detectable, even when wet.

these drugs are mysteries if you ask me. We use them because of the science and testing etc. and like I mentioned above, it's impossible to tell how you would have faired had you NOT used the drug.

I wish this was more encouraging, but I'm telling the truth. I have frontal diffuse thinning that gets worse each year and nothing has been able to stop it, however it might be fair to say these treatments slowed things down.

Good luck

 

[ang_99]

oh great, we're screwed.

 

[StoptheMadness]

I don't understand why you people can't grasp that finasteride slows the rate of hairloss but doesn't reverse hairloss. The last poster here said "we're all screwed." Damn right!! It should be quite obvious that we are all screwed in the long run. Many here are optimists, or are pretending to be optimists. Balding people tend to look more ugly than their non-balding counterpart. True? Only your level of self-awareness will allow or keep you from understanding this. Some people care a lot about this, some people care little. The ones that care much take the self confidence hit and it's very hard to recover because balding continues in perpiteuity (sp) and there no way out unless transplant which is a no-no according to michael berry. Depending on the aggressiveness of your balding you will go bald, but to what degree know one knows. Your only consolation is finasteride to slow the process down, greatly. So please use finasteride, and quit complaining about the sides. The cost of the sides (if you have them, which should be minor and then ware off (sp) ) is better than looking like sh*t when you look in the mirror. Because that never goes away.

 

[ang_99]

I don't understand why you people can't grasp that finasteride slows the rate of hairloss but doesn't reverse hairloss. The last poster here said "we're all screwed." Damn right!! It should be quite obvious that we are all screwed in the long run. Many here are optimists, or are pretending to be optimists. Balding people tend to look more ugly than their non-balding counterpart. True? Only your level of self-awareness will allow or keep you from understanding this. Some people care a lot about this, some people care little. The ones that care much take the self confidence hit and it's very hard to recover because balding continues in perpiteuity (sp) and there no way out unless transplant which is a no-no according to michael berry. Depending on the aggressiveness of your balding you will go bald, but to what degree know one knows. Your only consolation is finasteride to slow the process down, greatly. So please use finasteride, and quit complaining about the sides. The cost of the sides (if you have them, which should be minor and then ware off (sp) ) is better than looking like $#iT when you look in the mirror. Because that never goes away.

But I dont wanna be bald... :cry:

 

[the_swami]

I don't understand why you people can't grasp that finasteride slows the rate of hairloss but doesn't reverse hairloss.

No offense, but that simply isn't true.

http://rxlist.com/cgi/generic3/propecia_cp.htm

 

[StoptheMadness]

From http://rxlist.com/cgi/generic3/propecia_cp.htm.......

Men treated with PROPECIA showed increases from baseline in total and anagen hair counts of 7 hairs and 18 hairs, respectively, whereas men treated with placebo had decreases of 10 hairs and 9 hairs, respectively. These changes in hair counts resulted in a between-group difference of 17 hairs in total hair count (p<0.001) and 27 hairs in anagen hair count (p<0.001), and an improvement in the proportion of anagen hairs from 62% at baseline to 68% for men treated with PROPECIA.

[/quote]
If you do your homework on this site, it's entirely possible that your hair count will increase from baseline (mine sure did)...FOR ONLY 1-2 YEARS. Then it's the slow decent into hell.

 

[htownballa]

Yes...solution is to use propecia to maintain/regrow as much as possible then get hair transplant when u dont like what u got