2.5 Months Finasteride, still Miniaturizing

[TotallyScrewed]

Fun update, 3.5 months now and still miniaturizing fast and have receded even more. Yay for being 1 in 10.

[TotallyScrewed]

dude you are in for constant cycles of what appears to be ''thinning and regrowing'', its just the name of the game brah chill out and see where you are in 18 months...my bet is at or above baseline

for me its like every haircut i get alternates from hair looking ok to hair looking in rough shape

Lol, if this doesn't work in 18 months I"ll have moved up 2-3 norwoods.

[TotallyScrewed]

Are you sure the hairs are thinner towards the root and not just depigmented? I too lose a bunch of these in the shower, but I have been maintaining and regrowing. When I look at these hairs I could SWEAR on my life that the root looks thinner and less pigmented. So the other day I took one of these hairs from the shower, bent it around so that the hair bulb was right next to the hair tip, and shot this image with a USB microscope:



What do you notice? The hair is the same thickness! The root isn't thinner, it is just depigmented. I hear this is normal for some people. As your hair transitions from it's growing phase into it's resting phase, pigment activity shuts off.

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately yeah I'm sure :/ some of them are depigmented too lol but they're also thinner.

I'm also sure I'm still receding (I take frequent pics)

dude you are in for constant cycles of what appears to be ''thinning and regrowing'', its just the name of the game brah chill out and see where you are in 18 months...my bet is at or above baseline

for me its like every haircut i get alternates from hair looking ok to hair looking in rough shape

Hmm. Did you recede at all? And you're saying the individual hairs continued to thin and then regrew thicker, or just that your overall density thinned out and regrew? I'm more worried about receding and individual shafts thinning.

[Dan26]

in fact right now i am hardly shedding but my hair looks very thin! previously i was shedding like a dog yet my hair looked like it weas getting thicker :S

It is odd bro...but remember those with MPB have much more hairs in telogen, and when you get on fin/dut it often signals even the healthy hairs to a qwuicker telegon transition so your likely to shed a lot of thin hairs and a lot of thick hairs...overtime if the drug is working, the thick hairs will come back just as they were, and the thinner hairs anagen phase will become longer, perhaps hair will hbecome thincker, and in a year or two you will hopefully 1) not shed nearly as much AND 2) have greater overall density

[Dan26]

dude you are in for constant cycles of what appears to be ''thinning and regrowing'', its just the name of the game brah chill out and see where you are in 18 months...my bet is at or above baseline

for me its like every haircut i get alternates from hair looking ok to hair looking in rough shape

[ericgerard]

Are you sure the hairs are thinner towards the root and not just depigmented? I too lose a bunch of these in the shower, but I have been maintaining and regrowing. When I look at these hairs I could SWEAR on my life that the root looks thinner and less pigmented. So the other day I took one of these hairs from the shower, bent it around so that the hair bulb was right next to the hair tip, and shot this image with a USB microscope:



What do you notice? The hair is the same thickness! The root isn't thinner, it is just depigmented. I hear this is normal for some people. As your hair transitions from it's growing phase into it's resting phase, pigment activity shuts off.

[TotallyScrewed]

This is true. But I'm sort of desperate to hear from someone who's thinning/receded/miniaturized etc and then come back from it.

[akai]

It's not the answer that you want to hear but you just have to ride it out. No one can predict what's going to happen. Stick it out for until you hit a year. Your hair is going to continue thin if you quit taking finasteride so you might as well give it a shot.

[TotallyScrewed]

Anyone? Did anyone thin/recede/miniaturize and then regrow? :/

[TotallyScrewed]

DHT is believed to shorten the anagen phase of the hair cycle. The usual duration of 3-6 years has been in some cases reduced to weeks or months. Do you have growing hairs that are thicker toward the top and thinner in caliber toward the scalp? If a hair falls out, it's difficult to compare that hair with the hair that later grows in its place unless you tattoo the scalp.

Like I said in the original post, all the hair is thinnest at the bottom (root), especially the last full inch or so.. About the length of hair you'd expect in ~2.5 months growth. There are no exceptions.

I'm not comparing one hair to the one that replaces it, I'm comparing a hair to itself as it gets progressively thinner down the shaft.

I'm worried about a hyperandrogenic reaction... The body compensating for decreased DHT levels by populating the follicles with more receptors.

My beard appeared to both thin and soften shortly after propecia and is now thick and coarse again, for example.

[35YrsAfter]

I'm not shedding, I'm miniaturizing. I'm also taking brand name Propecia.

DHT is believed to shorten the anagen phase of the hair cycle. The usual duration of 3-6 years has been in some cases reduced to weeks or months. Do you have growing hairs that are thicker toward the top and thinner in caliber toward the scalp? If a hair falls out, it's difficult to compare that hair with the hair that later grows in its place unless you tattoo the scalp.

35YrsAfter also posts as CITNews and works at Dr. Cole's office - forhair.com - Cole Hair Transplant 1070 Powers Place Alpharetta, Georgia 30009 - Phone 678-566-1011 - email 35YrsAfter at chuck@forhair.com
The contents of my posts are my opinions and not medical advice. Please feel free to call or email me with any questions. Ask for Chuck

[TotallyScrewed]

Correct. Many guys experience shedding, some for more than a year. Avoid the brands sold online without a prescription.

I'm not shedding, I'm miniaturizing. I'm also taking brand name Propecia.

[TotallyScrewed]

a lot of people say it got worse before it got better. you know about shedding on treatments right??
w/e it may be all you can do is keep taking it, it might be halting/slowing your hairloss too and evaluate after some more time. keep takig photos.

I know that many people shed... that isn't what I'm describing at all though. A shed wouldn't scare me if my hair wasn't thinning. My hair isn't shedding at an increased rate, it's thinning at an increased rate (or at least continuing to thin).

The individual hair shafts are thinning.

[35YrsAfter]

2.5 months is not enough, evaluate after 8 months or year.

Correct. Many guys experience shedding, some for more than a year. Avoid the brands sold online without a prescription.

35YrsAfter also posts as CITNews and works at Dr. Cole's office - forhair.com - Cole Hair Transplant 1070 Powers Place Alpharetta, Georgia 30009 - Phone 678-566-1011 - email 35YrsAfter at chuck@forhair.com
The contents of my posts are my opinions and not medical advice. Please feel free to call or email me with any questions. Ask for Chuck

[stan]

a lot of people say it got worse before it got better. you know about shedding on treatments right??
w/e it may be all you can do is keep taking it, it might be halting/slowing your hairloss too and evaluate after some more time. keep takig photos.