9 months on fin. Top hair is lifeless. Hairline the same.

[ericgerard]

Hey guys.

I'm 23 and I noticed my hairloss last year for the first time when a friend noted that my temples seemed kind of high. I hopped on 1.25 mg/day fin (proscar) 9 months ago and my hairline has stayed the same with a bit of regrowth in the temples (I'm not even a norwood 2 right now). My crown has always been fine. However.. I feel like my mid frontal area right on top of my head has taken a serious blow in the thickness department in the past maybe 4 months. I just notice that the back and sides seem quite thick but my mid frontal area lays flat and lifeless. You can't see my scalp when my hair is long and laying flat, but when I part my hair in that region it really just seems limp. I quite honestly don't remember it being like this 9 months ago, and seeing as I'm not even a norwood 2 (and I have absolutely no family history of diffuse baldness) then I'm not sure this could be a progression of my hairloss, but possibly due to shedding from fin. I'm quite sure that I'm not imagining this, as I used to be able to spike my hair up confidently but now I'd much prefer wearing my hair down.

What are your thoughts on this? I shed maybe 20-30 hairs per day in the shower.. much fewer than before I started on fin. Do you think this could be an effect of shedding and I'm still to wait for that area to recover?

[Buster]

The same thing happened to me when I started Fin. About 3 months into starting I noticed that I could see my scalp through my hair just past the hair line, which I'm confident was not the case before. I hoped that it was "the fin shed" but that was almost 2 years ago, and it hasn't recovered.

[ericgerard]

Thanks for the reply, Buster. So it hasn't recovered.. but has it gotten any worse since?

[Buster]

I don't think it has gotten worse, but to be honest, ever since it happened I really don't look at my hair too much, because it just bums me out.

[Notcoolanymore]

I don't think it has gotten worse, but to be honest, ever since it happened I really don't look at my hair too much, because it just bums me out.

I know what you mean. This crap sucks.

[ericgerard]

Just curious if anyone here has had decent results in middle anterior scalp region from fin alone? I have good coverage.. scalp can only be see in strong lighting and if hair is wet or spiked. Most people call me crazy when I tell them I have hair loss, but i definitely have hairloss as evidenced by my hairline. The hair on the top of my head is probably 75-80% as thick as the hair on the back and sides, and I believe this is due mostly to miniaturization in that area (thinner shafts) rather than a loss in hair count. Think I can possibly just thicken those shafts up on fin alone? I'm not really asking for regrowth from dormant/dead follices!

[redy]

When I started fin my whole entire top of the scalp seemed really dry and lifeless, during the summer. The take away from the rest of this is to try taking better care of your hair in general.

It might have been sun damage, it might have been MPB, but ever since I've been on fin for.. 7months total my hair is darker and more manageable throughout the scalp.

I noticed this as soon as maybe 3 month into fin. My hair is also longer, but I take a lot better care of my hair and don't use harsh shampoo at all, and use both shampoo and conditioner. Most days I only use conditioner. I also use some better hair products, and less of it in total. Hair looks better.

However, I've been shedding like a dog this month in it's entirety, and most of january. I'm not sure how noticeable it is, because my hairline has been very thin since before treatment. It's definitely not worse than when I started anywhere on my head, though, and never was.

[ericgerard]

Yeah, I am starting to wash my hair less throughout the week as I find shampooing every day really dries it out. I have always used conditioner. I just recently started taking fish oil, MSM, and biotin every morning.. so hopefully my hair will get some of its life back. I feel like my hair needs to be oilier to add some body and shine, and I guess that means my scalp also needs to be oilier.

What I am mostly confused about though is this. My hairline has only early/minor recession (not even a NW 2 yet) and my crown is totally fine. However, I really feel that there is a thinning spot right dead center on top of my head. What kind of hairloss pattern is that? It doesn't seem consistent with my family history of hairloss (the typical recession + crown bald spot, thinning on top over time).

[Notcoolanymore]

Sounds like diffuse thinning. Maybe in response to treatment?

[ericgerard]

I'm hoping that is the case, and that it will recover soon enough. I'm going to start using 5% minoxidil to see if it'll thicken my hair up.

My hair on top looks something like the before shots in this video, although not as bad. Btw, does this look real? These results are amazing. If you look in another of his videos, it appears that most of his results were complete after the first 3 months, and then a slow increase from 3 - 12 months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvb_JMC1aLc&list=UUgcAoywikIhagxmcUI72Vgg

[Notcoolanymore]

I think those results are possible. Some people are just great responders to minoxidil.

[ericgerard]

A guy on another forum suggested that I might have TE as a result of taking fin. Is that even possible? Most of the hairs I shed are thinner and less pigmented towards the root, which is what prompted him to say this.

[redy]

A guy on another forum suggested that I might have TE as a result of taking fin. Is that even possible? Most of the hairs I shed are thinner and less pigmented towards the root, which is what prompted him to say this.

For me...

When I started fin, I slowly stopped shedding immediately and then started slowly shedding a month or so after. At about 3 months in, my hair started getting darker and thicker in the crown. The mid section, which had been lifeless looking too in light, matched the crown again, just thin around my crown cowlick area.
All the hairs shed were thinning or very thin follicles. Thinner at the end would typically mean that the hair was healthy, and then started dying off typically to MPB, as the hair grows from the root, and everything after the root is not going to change. When a hair gets too heavy it falls out, and DHT'd follicles will fall out much faster due to thinner weaker roots. I'm assuming that some of them must have come back thicker because I wasn't applying minox in the crown and that definitely had gotten better. Like I said, I also treated my hair better, and haven't been in the summer sun since.. summer.

Unfortunately, now I am shedding a lot since about 5.5-6months into treatment, and it's been 7months since starting treatment currently. These hairs seem to be shedding constantly now, and I'm really hoping that what is going on is that the hair follicles that were less affected by DHT are starting to enter telogen and rest, and the weaker hairs that may have started growing around the time of starting treatment and the newer hairs from a few months ago which have a shorter cycle than the healthiest of my hair are restarting again. My only hope with this is that I almost never shed hair that are the length of my longest healthiest hairs, and are usually about as thin and frail as my arm hair.

I guess if my theory is correct, I will post about it so this question will stop occuring unanswered... and then hopefully you will never see me again on these sites.

[ericgerard]

Well, good luck in the coming months, redy! I'm going to the doc tomorrow and I'm going to see about getting a referral to a dermo. I'd really like to know what's going on.

[Buster]

Well, good luck in the coming months, redy! I'm going to the doc tomorrow and I'm going to see about getting a referral to a dermo. I'd really like to know what's going on.

I'd be curious about what he says. I did the same thing after telling my doctor that my hair was worse and the dermatologist just looked at my hair and suggested Rogaine.