Taking finasteride Since Feb. Shedding/hairloss has only got increasingly worse!

[blondguy]

I am a blonde guy who throughout his life had A LOT of blond hairs. They were an average thickness for blonde hair, but I just had lots of them and always got comments from people, especially hair dressers.
(May relate to hair growth from taking dilantin since I was in middle school, as more hair growth is a common side effect) By thickness I mean you could NEVER seem my scalp, part my hair as much as you would like, it was just hair on more hair.


Anyway, August 2011 i noticed that the hair on my temples were starting to recede. (Really I first noticed it a year before that but it was so little hair I put it out of my mind, also I lost so little hair on my temples I didn't even really notice it.) But as I progressed into Fall 2011 I started to notice very mild hair loss at the "corners" of my hairline. This freaked me out enough to go to the Dermo and although they did not notice anything gave me propecia. I ended up wanting to ignore the whole thing to Feb. 2012 when I started noticing more and more especially when I took off a knot hat after wearing it all day. My hairline at the corners was going back. From then on it kept seeming to go faster and faster. Then I started noticing I a density change in my hair, i could actually see through the hair at the front, it was no longer a solid block of hair.

The first BIG change happened when I started general shedding where I suddenly noticed more hair was coming out. I thought this was a good sign, but I went through the summer with the shedding increasing more and more. Then just when I thought it had stopped (maybe it did for about a month) Fall 2012 my hair again went on a MAJOR shedding campaign. I mean dramatic, people who I had not seen in two weeks would ask me if I had gotten a hair cut because it looked so different (far more flat).

Now in November its still shedding like this but I am starting to notice a bald patch form in the back of my head. (Really right now its more of a VERY wide gap around where the part is. Also my hair is no reeded enough in the front that you can really tell my hair is not at a normal place. Further in all my parts there is space, and you can actually see the skin of my scalp. I run my hands through my hair and its distinctly thinned out.


QUESTION: Is any of this a sign of something? That it has only gotten worse, and worse and worse? Can this drug still work for me, and what kind of results should I expect? I guess I just feel really lost and confused by all this. Its almost like its just some big scam to get money out of me!

Any advice of things I can do to make the drug more effective. (Example: I take finasteride when I wake up in the morning, and that can vary from 5:30AM to 11:30AM depending on the day of the week. Would taking it at night be better?

Help!

 

[antman]

Finasteride is most likely reducing hair loss resulting from DHT for you. unfortunately many things affect male hair loss - it may be one of many factors that is the ultimate cause of hair loss for you or it maybe that you need more time for the drug to work. don't drop finasteride.

taking it at night won't change much - as for effectiveness -

1. Stress (or more specifically excessive cortisol release) can result in more hair loss - "Our conclusion is that meditation was important for patients to reduce their stress levels and, consequently, to achieve better results in their androgenetic alopecia treatments (Ademir Carvalho Leite Júnior, 2011)". yoga, cognitive behaviour therapy and any other activity that reduces stress will be just as good as meditation.

2. Diet - "These data suggest that oxidative stress may exacerbate the onset of androgenic alopecia by affecting TGF-β secretion, a known inhibitor of hair follicle growth and inducer of catagen (Jamie Upton et al, 2011). just eating vegetables should be enough.

3. Minoxidil 1ml twice daily has been shown to increase hair

4. some people appear to respond well to less clinically documented hair loss treatments like shampoo Nizoral (Ketoconazole) twice weekly, topical spironolactone once daily and Bimatoprost once daily.

5. your hair loss may be linked to some other health issue. Do you have any other medical problems like - asthma, allergies, skin problems, fungal infections, thyroid problem, vitamin deficiency eta?