"Shedding" for nearly seven months...time to stop?

[JDW]

Mate the last thing I want to do is put anyone off starting drugs as there are a lot of people on here who have had tremendous success from finasteride. All I'm doing is reporting what happened to me and the timescale in which it happened. I may be in the minority but if you look at this sub forum, I'm not alone.

All I'd say is that the chances of this happening to you are statistically very small but they are there. Just make sure you're prepared to accept what could happen on these drugs.

 

[haunted-ballroom]

i have to disagree with JDM. You don't know your hair at all. I was certain after almost 2 years that propecia wasn't working. I was convinced in my mind that there was no chance for me. I kept taking the pills out of desperation and when I least expected it, my hair stopped coming out. Don't act rash based on gut instincts, just try to put your hair out of your mind for a while, and keep doing what ur doing.

Not acting rash man, the shedding whacked the $#iT out of my hair in a couple of weeks and it's continued to get worse to the extent where my whole top part of my head is visible when DRY and the front and temples have receeded. There's shedding, there's shedding and then there is this which is a f****ing harvest. Why on earth would I want to continue any longer...my hair loss hasn't changed much in years, I was looking for maintenance but now I've got precious little left to maintain.
f*** IT

sh*t! What happened I wonder...? Why would the meds do that to you...

 

[lunarjm]

Mate the last thing I want to do is put anyone off starting drugs as there are a lot of people on here who have had tremendous success from finasteride. All I'm doing is reporting what happened to me and the timescale in which it happened. I may be in the minority but if you look at this sub forum, I'm not alone.

All I'd say is that the chances of this happening to you are statistically very small but they are there. Just make sure you're prepared to accept what could happen on these drugs.

So you had massive shedding, but no regrowth as a result?

 

[JDW]

i have to disagree with JDM. You don't know your hair at all. I was certain after almost 2 years that propecia wasn't working. I was convinced in my mind that there was no chance for me. I kept taking the pills out of desperation and when I least expected it, my hair stopped coming out. Don't act rash based on gut instincts, just try to put your hair out of your mind for a while, and keep doing what ur doing.

Not acting rash man, the shedding whacked the $#iT out of my hair in a couple of weeks and it's continued to get worse to the extent where my whole top part of my head is visible when DRY and the front and temples have receeded. There's shedding, there's shedding and then there is this which is a f****ing harvest. Why on earth would I want to continue any longer...my hair loss hasn't changed much in years, I was looking for maintenance but now I've got precious little left to maintain.
f*** IT

$#iT! What happened I wonder...? Why would the meds do that to you...

Bescause they mess with hormone levels... who knows what effect that can have on the body.

 

[JDW]

Mate the last thing I want to do is put anyone off starting drugs as there are a lot of people on here who have had tremendous success from finasteride. All I'm doing is reporting what happened to me and the timescale in which it happened. I may be in the minority but if you look at this sub forum, I'm not alone.

All I'd say is that the chances of this happening to you are statistically very small but they are there. Just make sure you're prepared to accept what could happen on these drugs.

So you had massive shedding, but no regrowth as a result?

I lost so much in such a short space of time that I was advised to get off the
'treatment' because even if some of it did grow back I should expect the same massive loss to happen again down the road.

can I mention that I also suffered sides such as tiredness and a severe loss of libido.
Not a drug to be taken lightly people.

 

[Stu85]

Hey JDW, do you have before and after pictures? It's not that I don't believe you, it's just perhaps to another pair of eyes it may not be quite as bad as you say.

I guess I'm a bit worried as I feel like I've been shedding quite a lot for about 2 months now (I've been on Propecia for about 3 months), though I don't think it's quite as bad as when it started. Unlike you I seem to have no side effects other than the shedding - no loss of libido, no tiredness, nothing. I can't quite say whether or not the hair on my head has noticeably thinned much due to the shedding, but I'm paranoid that it will...

 

[JDW]

sure man,



http://www.hairlosstalk.com/discussions ... hp?t=33106

 

[Nick4441]

JDW

has the tiredness improved now you are on lower dose.

I have dropped mine to 0.5mg and seen some improvement but still getting tired and demotivated.

In the same boat.

Hair is going to crap..not sure its shedding or no regrowth or both.

If my hair got better then some tiredness I could live with but with hair getting worse not sure that this is all worth it. finasteride just seems to be making it worse and dulling life as well.

Merk study that hair is almost guarnteed to get back to base at worst case is the only solice but maybe we are the exceptions and better that we don't take it...I'd give anything just to get back where I was 2 months ago when I started finasteride. Another couple of months I think I'll be bald and in a coma...

I was only looking for maintenance too so I could get hair transplant to fix the hairline, now the whole front section needs hair transplant...the hair transplant bill is going up all the time if I ever consider it.

 

[JDW]

I'm considering taking it in the evening from now on so that potential sides will maybe only kick in whilst I'm sleeping...tiredness, loss of libido etc.

worth a try?

 

[oscer]

While there are people who did not respond on finasteride, there are NO people who lost more hair DUE to finasteride. So keep this in mind. While you are on propecia, there are 2 cases. Your hair is either better or the same as it would be without propecia. The fact that you are still thinning means that you maybe not be a responder, or that your hairloss is really agressive. Why not adding rogaine and nizoral?

That's good to know

JDW

has the tiredness improved now you are on lower dose.

I have dropped mine to 0.5mg and seen some improvement but still getting tired and demotivated.

In the same boat.

Hair is going to crap..not sure its shedding or no regrowth or both.

If my hair got better then some tiredness I could live with but with hair getting worse not sure that this is all worth it. finasteride just seems to be making it worse and dulling life as well.

Merk study that hair is almost guarnteed to get back to base at worst case is the only solice but maybe we are the exceptions and better that we don't take it...I'd give anything just to get back where I was 2 months ago when I started finasteride. Another couple of months I think I'll be bald and in a coma...

I was only looking for maintenance too so I could get hair transplant to fix the hairline, now the whole front section needs hair transplant...the hair transplant bill is going up all the time if I ever consider it.

I still have a decent head of hair and want only to keep it. Ye some extra would be nice but maintaining is my main goal. I decided to start taking fincar 1.25mg in late Oct, by December I'd stopped as my shedding was worse. This shedding continued over xmas so much so that I jumped back on the fincar thinking it was natural but heavy shed cycle. I have my doughts now. I've been on fincar now for only 3 weeks and the sheddings still there if not worse and my scalp is deffinately itchier. I've decided to cut the fincar down to .5mg just incase i'm sensitive to it and add some saw palmetto. From what I've read on these boards most recommend a year before any noticable difference. The thing is the way my sheddings going I'll be noticably balder in 6 months. I know paranoia plays a hugh part. God knows I've got it now. The more i read the worse i get. Some of the horror stories(bit like yours)are making me think about stopping the fincar and just go with nature. I know I'll go thin eventually I just don't want fincar to exellerate this or is this impossible???

 

[JDW]

People, you have to understand that finasteride cannot cause hair loss. It may cause a shedding, although many doctors seem to disagree with this, but shedding is not like taking your hair roots out of your scalp. After a shedding hair WILL come back, either thinner, same or thicker.

So if it in fact comes back thinnner then think about it, ok this would've happened anyway in time but the fact that the shed has sped this process up means that you will have cosmetically worse hair than you would have had had you not been on the finasteride.

How can you say it will come back with such authority when there are countless polls, reports and anecdotal evidence to say that in many cases the shed hair quite simply never comes back?

 

[AussieExperiment]

The cold hard truth

Based on familial pattern, I am destined to start balding early but slowly, not this rapid thinning. So, if I have hyperandrogenicity, will stopping finasteride use stop this thinning or only exacerbate it?

Mate I have said it in other posts aswell, but I will say it again here because it is important. FORGET your family history. It does not mean anything. Take me for example, absolutely no history of male pattern baldness in my entire family tree (I have gone back about 6 generations). And yet I get get hit with it.

Similarly there are plenty of people out there who have aggressive male pattern baldness in their family and they are fortunate enough to be skipped.

Put simple, family history may indicate if you are more susceptable to male pattern baldness but that's it. It is very possible you could be bald before you are 20 or your hair loss could slow down and it may not get much worse.

Treat YOUR symptoms not your fathers symptoms. Denial will not fix anything. YOU have male pattern baldness and it sounds like it is progressing faster than your fathers. So stay on Finasteride.

 

[lunarjm]

neuro- i was on propecia for nearly 2 years before it started working. My shedding was the same up until around the 1.5 year mark, when it increased. It lasted for maybe a month or so then returned to normal shed. Now, nearly 2 years after starting, my hair does not fall out. I haven't experienced this since the onset of male pattern baldness 3 years ago. I dont' see a single hair in the shower, on my pillow, or in the sink. I advise you to continue finasteride for 2 years, and try to forget about your current situation. See where you after the 2 year mark. Think of it like investing in stocks. You can't toss your money around based on daily fluctuations, you invest in the long term. Keep your investment in propecia for 2 years minimum. It's worth it.. definitely the best product available to us for fighting male pattern baldness.

Charlie...was the shedding replaced by new hair? Seems weird to wait 2 years just to stop shedding if no regrowth occurred?

 

[lunarjm]

While there are people who did not respond on finasteride, there are NO people who lost more hair DUE to finasteride. So keep this in mind. While you are on propecia, there are 2 cases. Your hair is either better or the same as it would be without propecia. The fact that you are still thinning means that you maybe not be a responder, or that your hairloss is really agressive. Why not adding rogaine and nizoral?

So what's up with the horror stories on here about people loosing a bunch of hair after starting finasteride? Seems like there are more than a few that I've read.

 

[lunarjm]

Re: I agree

JDW...I have been following your posts...I am in much a similar predicament.

I am 25 years old, had some recession most of my college years, but it wasn't progressing. I started 1 mg finasteride as a precautionary step and with slim hopes that it would some how regrow some of my temples. Well, this was in June 2006. I have recently stopped taking it after having major shedding (and I know it was caused by the finasteride because it was only the top part of my head shedding which has 1.5" hairs and I was losing over 100 a day - far more than the "daily" amount of usual shedding).

About 3 months after taking it, I got an itchy burning scalp accompanied by dandruff (all of which I have never had my whole life). I've been using Nizoral 1% and 2% and T/Gel extra strength which my Dr recommended. My dandruff has gone away, however my scalp seems to have lost a lot of feeling and I am still shedding. I do not think I will ever continue with it because 1) shedding is not listed as a side effect by Merck 2) in all Merck's studies a patient never increased hair loss, he simply continue at the same rate and 3) I have read that derms reccomend discontinuing the use of medications which cause effluviums. I don't see much regrowth now and I have been off it 2 months (I started in June, used for 4 months straight). Anyways, I am definitly going to keep in touch to post my results if I ever recover from it. My worst concern now is the numbness in my scalp which leads me to believe that I have premanently damaged my scalp somehow...anyways I will post again later!

Any update umdace?

I started finasteride about 2 months ago and I've seen an increase in dandruff which I usually get in the winter anyway, but I'm more interested in the shedding. Seems like a lot of people experience a large amount of shedding with finasteride, and if that's the case...that is HAIR LOSS to me, UNLESS it's replaced by new hair.

 

[lunarjm]

i have to disagree with JDM. You don't know your hair at all. I was certain after almost 2 years that propecia wasn't working. I was convinced in my mind that there was no chance for me. I kept taking the pills out of desperation and when I least expected it, my hair stopped coming out. Don't act rash based on gut instincts, just try to put your hair out of your mind for a while, and keep doing what ur doing.

Not acting rash man, the shedding whacked the $#iT out of my hair in a couple of weeks and it's continued to get worse to the extent where my whole top part of my head is visible when DRY and the front and temples have receeded. There's shedding, there's shedding and then there is this which is a f****ing harvest. Why on earth would I want to continue any longer...my hair loss hasn't changed much in years, I was looking for maintenance but now I've got precious little left to maintain.
f*** IT

JDW...I started finasteride about 2 months ago and my temples do look a little worse and my skin is def drier, but I can't help wondering if I'm going crazy after reading posts like this? I can live with finasteride not working, but if finasteride f*cks my hair up, then that is a mindf*ck.

 

[AussieExperiment]

Get back on finasteride

JDW...I have been following your posts...I am in much a similar predicament.

I am 25 years old, had some recession most of my college years, but it wasn't progressing. I started 1 mg finasteride as a precautionary step and with slim hopes that it would some how regrow some of my temples. Well, this was in June 2006. I have recently stopped taking it after having major shedding (and I know it was caused by the finasteride because it was only the top part of my head shedding which has 1.5" hairs and I was losing over 100 a day - far more than the "daily" amount of usual shedding).

About 3 months after taking it, I got an itchy burning scalp accompanied by dandruff (all of which I have never had my whole life). I've been using Nizoral 1% and 2% and T/Gel extra strength which my Dr recommended. My dandruff has gone away, however my scalp seems to have lost a lot of feeling and I am still shedding. I do not think I will ever continue with it because 1) shedding is not listed as a side effect by Merck 2) in all Merck's studies a patient never increased hair loss, he simply continue at the same rate and 3) I have read that derms reccomend discontinuing the use of medications which cause effluviums. I don't see much regrowth now and I have been off it 2 months (I started in June, used for 4 months straight). Anyways, I am definitly going to keep in touch to post my results if I ever recover from it. My worst concern now is the numbness in my scalp which leads me to believe that I have premanently damaged my scalp somehow...anyways I will post again later!

umdace Shedding is very common with Finasteride and Minoxidil. Shedding can last up tp 6 months and sometimes longer. It means that the medication is working. If you stay on the treatment than the hairs will regrow thicker and stronger within 12months after they are shed. If you get scared and drop the treatment than they may not grow back.

It is a shame you stopped treatment. You may have gone through the hardest period ('the shed') for nothing. Without finasteride the hairs you lost may not grow back.

If I were you I would get back on Finasteride. Unfortunately you will probably have to start from scratch now which would mean another 1.5 - 2 years before you see any benefit.

 

[flimflam]

While there are people who did not respond on finasteride, there are NO people who lost more hair DUE to finasteride. So keep this in mind. While you are on propecia, there are 2 cases. Your hair is either better or the same as it would be without propecia. The fact that you are still thinning means that you maybe not be a responder, or that your hairloss is really agressive. Why not adding rogaine and nizoral?

So what's up with the horror stories on here about people loosing a bunch of hair after starting finasteride? Seems like there are more than a few that I've read.

I've read lots of stories like that too. But do you know what? Very few of them, VERY few provide any kind of photographic evidence of these "massive" sheds. I'm certain many of these people are paranoid and their mind is exaggerating the extent of the damage.

I don't doubt sheds happen, but I do doubt they're as bad as this minority seems to suggest.

There are people like me who have experienced no shedding whatsoever (but I'm only 2 months in). There are success stories where long term users have experienced nothing like that - and then on to excellent regrowth.

Then there are the many many people who have never even heard of this forum and have experienced great results with finasteride.

Just think about that and get things in perspective

 

[FlashDance]

Update

Well, as for the shedding, maybe I just didn't pay attention to it before I started taking finasteride, but I definitly noticed a lot after starting. I also experienced the aforementioned scalp problems about 2 months after starting finasteride, and Ketoconazole did not help these any.

I keep my hair on the top about 1.5 inches and the sides at .25 inches. So, when I noticed the ample amounts of hair on my bathroom counter, I knew they were from the top parts of my head since they were all 1.5 inches. This confirmed that they ALL were coming from on top of my head.

However, I still think I am near baseline in the way my hair looks. Looking back at past pictures, I noticed that my hair had been thinning for a while. So now, I'm committed to remaining on Propecia since this is my only hope to halting or reversing the thinning. I just wish my scalp didn't always burn/hurt. If this stopped, I'd feel a LOT more confident in Propecia.