Question I've never seen answered

[Trax13]

Hi, this is my first post, however I've been lurking this forum for months now. First a little background on myself: 34 yrs old, diffuse thinning, hairline still there but getting thin, first noticed slight thinning back in March of this year (but in hind sight my thinning may have started as far back as 2011). I've been taking 1/4 finasteride since May 17. I currently dont use anything else (eg minoxidil, regenepure, etc). i use Toppik to conceal. Blood test also came back normal. My dad is thinning but he didnt start until his early 50s. One of my grandfathers was bald, the other one had hair until the end. Uncles and cousins all have hair except for one uncle who started losing his in his 20's.

Anyway onto my question. Ever since starting on finasteride I noticed my hair has gotten drastically worse. Just 2 months ago I noticed I just had a little thinning behind my hairline. Fast forward to today and the entire top of my head is now thin. Everyone mentions the shed they get on finasteride, but they all talk about seeing dozens upon hundreds of hair coming out. I don't see any substantial hair anywhere. Theres never any hair on my pillow when I wake up, I may see around 5-7 hairs on my hands when I shampoo. I work in an office and never see hair on my desk or clothes or anything.

Does anyone know how my my hair can get so thin so quickly when I dont see any evidence at all of massive shedding? My derm is an idiot and couldn't give me an answer. I have an appt to see a different derm in a few weeks but this is driving me crazy! It feels like everyday I am losing more ground! I've even called in sick for work numerous times because I'll wake up and see that my hair has gotten so much worse. Im so depressed Somebody please Help! BTW, sorry for such a long post

 

[Baldie101]

If you never see anything on your shoulders then I wonder if you really are getting affected or if it's in your head only.

Now to get this out of the way, I would like you to post pictures of your hair today and 1 or 2 years ago. Then we can compare and tell you if you really are losing it or if it's your head that's losing it.

If you don't got any pictures of you from 1-2 years ago then we can't really tell you much now. Instead you should take pictures now and then 6 months later. Post those then and get to know if you are losing hair or not.

When I lose my hair it's always a lot and I see hair everywhere. Well I'm a norwood 5 or 6 and I still see hair everywhere when I start the hairfalling out cycle...

 

[Benjamin36]

This is exactly like my situation. I started finasteride because I wanted to prevent further hair loss and maybe get a bit of regrowth and a few months after starting the top of my hair thinned out. It is a really odd because my hair loss was really slow and all of a sudden it is as though it boosted into gear right after starting finasteride.

 

[Trax13]

I definitely know im thinning. I only noticed it in march of this year but when i brought the subject up with my barber she confirmed that she noticed it 2 years ago! I have had a spikey looking haircut for the past 6 years (asian hair) and had a slow diffuse thinning. My barber had been cutting my hair in a way no one would notice the balding (geez thanks for telling me!). It wasnt until after one haircut i saw a balding spot right behind my hairline. Its been all downhill since then. I cant help but feel mixed emotions about my barber. on the one hand she was just trying to help by making my balding less obvious, but at the same time if she had told me the minute i started thinning i could have done something about it a looong time ago and saved more of my hair. Im really hoping finasteride works for me. Not seeing much hair anywhere yet seeing the difference in the mirror is very discouraging and confusing. The suspense of if finasteride will work is killing me! Worse yet 2 derms and one hair transplant doctor have all told me there is no such thing as shedding/losing more hair when you start finasteride. Wtf!

 

[Baldie101]

Oh so there's nothing called shedding when you start on finasteride...funny, I lost quite much hair when I used it. Though it was like 2 months later than what people were saying. I started shedding again at month 10. So I guess that means it's not working for me, except I felt before the shed that my hair had gotten more full and I had gained more hair...interesting interesting....

How long is your hair? It could be that it's short to notice the hair fall...
Otherwise my only guess would be that if there's no hair on the pillow then it's probably being washed off when you take the bath.

Other than those I can't really tell how you may lose your hair without noticing or seeing anything.