Shedding After 4 Years On Finasteride

[BaldingGuy]

Not perfect my friend... This temple recession is really freaking my out.
I've been using Minoxidil for one year and a half. I apply it in my whole scalp. I detected that my left temple was worse in November 2016, and I've been using it more vigorously there since then.



Yes. But I was never really disciplined with it... I've probably used it daily for one year and then I would skip some days and in two years I quitted the medication... This was back in 2010. Never had any side effect. Then I just started using topical Minoxidil in September 2015.

Today I had an appointment with a hair transplant MD, that just told me to keep tracking the evolution of my left temple for the next 2 months... Then he will make another evaluation and then we will see if we can do something medication wise. I have some small hairs growing there, but I'm not really positive about them.

My anxiety levels are over the top and I can barely do my normal life without having hairloss in my mind 24/7... I even dream about it. Today I had a really bad day... Cried a lot, a bunch o suicidal toughts is 4 am here in Portugal and I can't even sleep... To be honest my sleep pattern has been a completely mess in the last months.

In a dream scenario this small hairs would turn into terminal hairs, but as I said, I'm not really positive about it.

@resu ,@rclark and @michel sapin , thanks for spending some of your time with this thread, it helps me a lot to share this with other people that can really relate to this situation. I really appreciated it!

Once again, sorry for my bad english guys!

Olá amigo, tambem estou em portugal e na mesma situaçao que tu. Se quiseres falar já sabes ! abraço

 

[iamgotham]

So guys, small update on this situation.

After almost 2 years since I made the original post I must say that my hair is practically the same. I quitted Dutasteride because it was just too much (I was taking it everyday - don't know if the sides were real or if it was just all in my head), I'm still taking Finasteride (daily) and I apply Minoxidil every night, I also keep using the Alpecin Caffeine Shampoo.

I grew my hair long, and I was just trying to not focus too much in my hair. I've always shed since I was 14 years old - I'm 29 - I don't know if my hair cycles are really short, or if it's just a combination of factors (people say that persons with curly hair shed a lot more).

Now here's the tricky part. In the last two months I've been experience massive stress (again!), my grandpa died, my dad had a uncessefull back surgery, I met this girl that is completely messing with my head and then I got chickenpox (I never had it when I was a kid).

During the chickenpox episode I had really high fevers, and I noticed that my hair started to shed a lot more. I can easily loose 100 hairs in the shower and it's super weird, 'cause once again I shed a lot on the nape area and in the back of the ears, I can easily take 10 hairs in one pull test in that area... They come off with the white Keratin bulb (not a huge one, just a regular small one). In the top of my head the shed is just the regular one, not really noticeable.

Also, in the same month of the chickenpox I started taking this anti-depressant called Wellbutrin... My apetite disappeared, I lost 10kg in one month and my anxiety went through the roof.

So guys, your insight could be really helpful. Do you think that this shed is just caused by stress and anxiety or do you think that can be something else beneath it? Any recommendations?

Thanks so much for your time!

 

[ihatebackstabbers]

I've been using Finasteride for 10 years. I was 34 years old when I started. I've had a few minor sheds during the past 10 years but my hair would eventually thicken back up. My hair density and hairline remained practically the same until 7 months ago. I lost someone very close to me in December. It devastated me. To make matters worse, I had a falling out with my family. My mental state went south.

I was stressed and depressed 24/7. I stopped eating right and exercising. I lost a lot of weight and was getting sick a lot. My skin looked bad and my hair was thinning and my hairline was receding. It wasn't until June that I got some closure with friends loss. Soon after, my mental state started to improve. I slowly got back on track with eating and exercising like I always did. I got back to taking care of my hair and health as a whole. I want to point out that I never stopped taking Finasteride everyday.

I am a good responder to Finasteride for a solid 10 years. The only reason that I lost a lot of hair is because of the extreme stress and lack of nutrition. Since dealing with the root causes in June, I have slowly been gaining some of my hair back. I guess technically my hairloss would be considered Telogen effluvium and malnutrition. I know it's too soon to tell but I don't think I will recover back to where I was before my situation began in December. One thing that I do know is that if I didn't turn my life around I would be in worse condition now and my hair would be the least of my problems.

Sorry for the long response. I actually cut it short because it was way to long. Your hair regiment seems to be serving your hair well. If your like me, it is probably the only reason why you have that much hair with all the things your going through.

 

[iamgotham]

So, things are getting really bad.

2 weeks ago I was diagnosed with mono, and the hair in the back of my head (nape) is falling like crazy! I can easily take 150 hairs out in 5 or 6 pull tests in that region.

During this week I stopped took a break from Finasteride, since I thought that I could give my body a small break in order for him to recover from this damn virus. I pretend to start taking finasteride again on Monday.

This is definitely not a normal shed... I'm just praying for things to get back to normal. I'm already taking a vitamin hair complex, since my doctors told me that this shedding is probably related with the fact that my body is weak after all this viruses.

This is so frustrating... Between July and September I had chicken pox and mono... DAMN! Since then my hair is falling like crazy! I easily shed 600 hairs a day.

 

[iamgotham]

Guys, can you please give me some feedback...?

Do you think that this two viruses (chicken pox and mono) could have been responsible for this shed? Also, do you think that I can recover some of the hair if I keep using Finasteride and Minoxidil?

Visually, my hair looks almost the same... According to the number of hairs that I'm shedding I guess that I should see some drastic changes by now... Am I wrong?

Thanks for the help!

 

[ihatebackstabbers]

I think people like myself are refraining from replying because you obviously have more pressing issues than your hair. If you haven't seen a doctor yet, then it is imperative that you do. You need a doctor to do full blood work to figure out what underlining causes point to your health issues. Personally, I would rather be bald and healthy than have a full head of hair and unhealthy. It's a bad idea to intermittently take Finasteride and Minoxidil unless there is a reason to do so. That is not my personal opinion, its a fact according to every journal that I've studied. I wish you well.

 

[iamgotham]

Hey @ihatebackstabbers, thanks for the reply!

I'm being followed by 2 doctors (one of my uncles is a director from a hospital), and I've done tons of blood works (and all the tests and exams you can think of) during the last couple of months, fortunately everything is fine. Actually those doctors told me that I was just a really unlucky guy (being exposed to this virus in such little time). I recovered well from both (chicken pox and mono), the only problem here at the moment is this hair shed.

Maybe I was exaggerating in the numbers I said before, but today between shower and combing I lost 120 hairs (yes, I was counting them). This will easily go up to 250 in the end of the day. Also my doctor told me that the shed can be related with the two viruses (it seems that high fevers have a relation with increased shedding) or can be seasonal... However my hairline seems thinner (left temple looks really bad) and the hair feels less dense. I see some regrowth on the left temple, but I am pessimist and I just think that it's probably miniaturization.

Also, I think that my hairline was not like this before the viruses... But I can't guarantee that.

Let's see the next couple of weeks...

Once again, thanks for the feedback!

 

[iamgotham]

Update!

Started Dutasteride and Oral Minoxidil one month ago. The changes? I'm shedding like a dog! Between showering and combing, I easily lose 400 hairs! (I actually counted them)

I really don't know what to do... I see some hairs growing but I honestly don't know if they're miniaturization or regrowth. I shed a lot since I was a kid, but this really scares me!

My hair is even longer now and I think that I lose some volume (it's curly), but the length of the hair can actually make him look with less volume. Don't really know guys, this is really confusing. I think that my only option is to stick to the meds and probably trim my hair a bit.

I'm not really optimistic about Dutasteride, I don't know any stories of people that recovered from this kind of sheds... All I wanted was maintenance in order to get a hair transplant next year (hairline + temples). Bah!

 

[iamgotham]

Hairline status:

Any comments?

Thanks for the help guys!