I'm starting a post to help people who are thinking about switching from Finasteride to Dutasteride. I found it difficult to find a genuine story, backed up by photos, relating to this decision.
First of all, a brief history:
First of all, a brief history:
- I started shedding whilst in my early twenties, and whilst at Uni (I was at Uni 2003-07). I didn't realise at the time though that this was me losing my hair. I had tons of hair! I just used to put a towel around the back of my neck and over my shoulders to protect my clothes from being covered by my hair. I didn't even understand that my hair was thinning by the time I graduated.
- Once graduated, I started working. I understood then that my hair was thinning badly due to the age group of the people I found myself surrounded by. So I probably Googled things and I started Minoxidil lotion. Strangely, even though this must have happened around 2010-11, I remember walking home from the pub with my old man (who has decent hair) and a group of youths shouted "baldy!" at me.
- Minoxidil lotion continued for a year (the lotion was a real pain) before I learnt about Propecia. Getting Propecia from my UK GP was a real struggle. Eventually I was referred to a dermatologist who sent a letter to my GP to say he was OK with me starting Propecia.
- I continued on legit Propecia + Minoxidil for many years, complaining about the cost. Without noticing, my hair did improve though (I can see that thanks to Facebook!). But it took years! So anyone that is thinking about giving up after 6 months should stick with it.
- Around 2012-13 I became fed-up with the cost of Propecia. I also had long moved out my parent's home and to the other side of the country. I couldn't change my doctors tho for fear of not getting another private prescription for Propecia! So I remember asking on a forum about generic and someone old me about Dr Singh and the minoxidil Direct website. So I got in touch with Dr Singh and started generic finasteride 5mg cut into quarters. I also found the greatest invention ever, generic Minoxidil foam. Still not ideal but so much easier than the lotion! The generic finasteride was still expensive but not anywhere near private prescription + Propecia from Lloyds Pharmacy. I also introduced Nizoral 2% and use that twice a week.
- Dr Singh was unable to prescribe finasteride around 2015 so I've been getting it from Dr Edgar since then. Same amount: 5mg cut into quarters.
- From this time until two months ago, I did not worry about my hair. My hairline has never been the greatest but I've had full coverage over the rest of my head. It's also worth mentioning that I was overweight until around 2010. So I decided to change my life around and get into shaped. I lost around 40% of my body weight and reached my goal of running a marathon in under 3 hours. I don't run that kind of distance anymore, but I do run 4/5 times a week and stay in shape.
- Up until 2 months ago, I didn't noticed a single one of my hairs falling out since a year or so into finasteride (I can only say that because I stopped finasteride 2 months ago and I see the odd hair of mines in the sink, stuck to the mirror, floor, but strangely not on my bed pillow). I was due to get another year's worth from Dr Edgar but I noticed my hair has become thin again, and my temples are showing. I can't believe I hadn't noticed before now!!! So I asked to switch to dutasteride, he said no. So I found a hairloss website that suggested introducing 0.5mg dutasteride once a week can help for someone who has been on finasteride for years, but he hasn't agreed yet (still waiting on him to phone me...). So I thought, I'm going to try life without finasteride and see what happens... I did find a post of someone who said they quit finasteride and minoxidil on my Google searches and they said they had amazing results. I now wonder how genuine that was because again, no photos.
- I didn't panic, stayed on minoxidil and tried not to worry. Then I saw my first hair. This created a panic so I started Googling. Do I go back on finasteride or knowing that had become ineffective or do I start dutasteride. Couldn't get dutasteride so just sat it out for a month but I noticed my temples getting even thinner. So I found a post suggested that minoxidil can cause hairloss in the areas it is applied.
- So last weekend, having read through a post started by a forum member called Kombo, I decided to re-start finasteride and take dutasteride once a week. No-one would prescribe both drugs though. So I had to make a choice. So I've chosen Dutasteride. I started taking dutasteride yesterday morning.
