Theory on dutasteride and frontal thinning...

[arrogantprick]

...it may be an optical illusion. dutasteride has worked great for me except in the hairline, which has improved just not as much as elsewhere. Looking at a mirror, my hairline looks like it may be worse than before, but I think it may be because the back part of my head is so much thicker, so the front looks thinner by comparison. If I look at top view before and after photographs, the front is slightly improved, just not nearly as improved as the back.

For those of you who think your hairline is thinning while on dutasteride, and the other part of your head is thickening, do you have pics?

 

[iamnaked]

YES!

I concur with this theory, and would also like to add the observation that I've had strongest regrowth and thickening in the area between the temples and the top part of my sideburns. This accentuates the 'inroads' that the male pattern baldness has made on my hairline, but I think this is more indication of how hard it is to regrow hair on completely slick bald areas than any "dutasteride ate my hair conspiracy".

Chill, paranoid b****s.

 

[Aplunk1]

I also agree... I doubt that dutasteride accelerates frontal hairloss...

If anything, it probably thickens up the top, crown, and sides more... giving a slight contrast with the front.

 

[Felk]

I would be inclined to agree, but check out the before and after pics of some of these guys who have shedded at the front on dutasteride. There's one or two on this site who posted recently, but many more over at HLH...

Anyway, i know it's better to go off averages and logic, and it makes no sense that this would happen, unless the testosterone-sensitive-front theory is correct. I guess also using spironolactone at the front is the safest bet, which is what you both do anyway, iamnaked and aplunk?

 

[iamnaked]

To set the cat among the pigeons:

What's the difference between someone for whom Dutasteride is just plain not working, and someone for whom it's causing this mysterious frontal shedding.

 

[CCS]

If it caused shedding, it would be worse than placebo. The study I think I saw said it was better than placebo, and better than 0.05mg/day dutasteride as well in the front.

if the front were hurt more by testosterone than buy DHT, propecia would not help, unless the front can't handle higher than normal amounts of either but is better at ....

How much does propecia raise scalp testosterone? Not by much, right? Maybe that is because less systemic testosterone is made, but most of this is in the scalp, since if the scalp goes up 150%, that is not from systemic levels, unless another place makes it or sends it to the scalp first. So, I think the spike from dutasteride is from 5ar1 being shut down. 5ar1 in the sebum glands makes most of the DHT in the scalp. Maybe blood DHT is less able to enter follicles than testosterone is. That still does not explain the difference between the front and the back, though.

I don't know. Maybe I'd do 3 per week instead of 2. It seems like such guess work. I'll just schedule and hour per week searching the hair sites for the link to the page with the link to that study.

 

[Felk]

if the front were hurt more by testosterone than buy DHT, propecia would not help

"There is insufficient evidence that propecia works on the hairline and temples"

Now, i know they only tested by using the back, and the temples are hardest to regrow and maintain, but with a systematic drug you'd think they'd report the results everywhere on the head if the results were there, as it's not like minoxidil where they only applied it to the back.

 

[CCS]

yeah, i wondered if pictures were that expensive or what. I do worry if it does not work. Still, minoxidil is so cheap, why was it not tested in front as well? it works for me in front. Or at least it gave me 3/4 inch peach fuzz on smooth bald scalp that had been smooth bald for 3 years, in the front. it is not a 2 month cure, but it seems to work from that. Yet no tests were done, or at least not reported.

 

[Aplunk1]

Felk, I (embarrassingly) lost my bottle of 5% spironolactone...

I might reorder some when my entire year of dutasteride is up... 3 months.