For guys <NW4 who refuse oral DHT inhibitors, what do you think is the end game here?

[25 going on 65]

Not the guys who tried to take fin or dut but could not tolerate the sides. To them I give my deepest respect and condolences.

I mean guys who are NW1.5-3 who easily have enough hair worth saving, but refuse to take fin or dut (usually fear of sides). Do you not realize you are worried enough to be on a hair loss forum, yet you are giving up without a fight?
If you do not realize, then here- YOU ARE GIVING UP YOUR HAIR

There are guys on this forum who would love to be in your position, to have the choice to take these drugs, as they watch you complain about baldness while you are simultaneously letting it happen.
tbh you kind of owe these guys an apology.

Do you even realize you have a huge advantage over like 95&#37; of balding men? Most guys never understand MPB well enough to effectively stop it. They just f*ck around until one day they are like NW3 + diffuse, then start inconsistently rubbing rogaine into their scalps, then at NW4 start "researching" (ie surfing Wikipedia & randomly ordering crap like saw palmetto or nettle root). Then they hit NW5, realize they are f*cked for life, and just give in. Just settle down with some hillbilly lady in a rundown, ranch style house with nothing but cable TV to look forward to every weekend

Meanwhile I see guys who are like NW1.5-2, who can easily avoid all this, posting about MPB on hair loss forums yet too scared to take fin/dut. Well done wasting your advantage. Congratulations, you are more aware than like 19/20 dudes on the street, yet because you spent 30 minutes pissing yourself on PropeciaHelp it means absolutely nothing.

The worst part? Half of you will end up taking oral inhibs anyway, like 2 Norwood levels after you knew you should have.

You have 2 possible futures. One is you with hair, one is you bald.

Do not be the "what-if" guy

[Dan26]

This man speaks the truth!

Honestly if you hopped on dut at the first signs of hairloss, you'd likely be golden for many many years....Personally I do not advise dut in young men for long term use, but if you look at the studies it is shown very effective and pretty damn safe. I say that as I am hoping fin is enough for me lol, perspective could shift in the future! The worse your hair gets, the less you will care about sides, and more you will throw caution to the wind and pray for the best...

[Notcoolanymore]

Not the guys who tried to take fin or dut but could not tolerate the sides. To them I give my deepest respect and condolences.

Do not be the "what-if" guy

I agree with this. The rest of your post is spot on too.

I think most of the young guys think they have plenty of time to address their hair loss. By the time their hair loss get really bad they will have better options than they do now. They think fin will definitely make them impotent so they will just wait for a better treatment. They believe better treatments are just around the corner, and they will not have to worry about sides with these new treatments.

I hope I am wrong, but something tells me the next "cure" isn't going to work for everybody, will also have the potiential for sides, and will not turn a NW5 into a NW1.

When it comes to treating hair loss time is definitely not on your side. Hopefully some of the young guys will understand this sooner rather than later.

[Notcoolanymore]

Another quick note to the guys that are waiting for miracle cure that is side effect free. Now I am not claiming to be the smartest guy and I am definitely not an expert on hair loss.

From what I understand about hair loss, DHT is the main culprit in damaging hair follicles. The only way to stop hair loss is to do something about DHT. I just don't see any way to get around the potential for sides when you are talking about manipulating hormonal balance in the body. Maybe some meds will do this better than fin, but I think it is just wishful thinking to believe that you can get away with screwing with hormonal balance and it not effecting anything else in the body. Even if there is a treatment that will grow hair, you will still need to use something that will deal with DHT.

[fred970]

I got boobs on medication and had gynecomastia surgery a year ago.

I do not refuse to take finasteride, I just can't. Yet some clinic representative told me I was not "willing" to take meds. Gyno is worse than hair loss.

Edit: sorry, I just read the beginning of your thread. Thank you.

[25 going on 65]

I thought I would get more resistance but I like the replies so far. If this thread convinces even one guy to take fin/dut who would go bald otherwise, we have done good work here

[StuckInARut]

This is so true, thanks OP for posting this thread. I hope if someone currently sitting on the fence reads this it helps them to see the light so to speak. Better to have tried than not tried at all and live with regret. That is unless you can accept your hair loss and just move on with your life.

[Dan26]

@notcool there is much more to hair loss than androgens. And they're are things like CB which are supposed to address the androgen side of hairloss even more effectively than finasteride, and have no sexual sides, and hopefully no other sides as well. But still even with androgens covered that will at the best only maintain what you have, people looking for true sustainable regrowth will need more. (AA's can add thickness etc but as far as regrowth it is not common for most)

To all the young guys on here...Beleive me, I was very very anti fin and anti minox in the beginning, and in a lot of ways I still am. BUT, this is about being honest with yourself and realistic...

Take me as an example brothers...
I thought RU would be enough to maintain for me and then I could switch to CB once it got figured out and I would avoid fin...but as my hair got worse and i started to realize the uncertainty of the effectiveness and timeline of obtaining CB, I had to change things up. On top of that, applying those expensive experimentals everyday on my entire nw6 area would be mad expensive. My original plan was to start on fin for ddensity/crown etc and nuke the hairline to do everything to preserve it, and I shiould have stuck with that but I kept putting off fin.

My case is a lot different then most of the guys this thread is aimed at because I'm into expirmentals, but the idea is still the same, be realistic with yourself at the very beginning.

[ChrisM]

After a year and three months on Fin and now 6 months on Dut I can say my vellus hairs have all darkened and thickened and gotten coarse. I never had slick baldness but a diffuse pattern baldness that was NW5 slipping in NW5V - 6 and it has gradually over time with consistent medication, patience and time paid off. Even with my head shaved I used to be able to see the horseshoe baldness pattern and now I can't see its boundaries more gray hair is filling in where there was no hair at all and right now I would say that it has pushed my hair forward at least about 1 up the scale if not reversed it out so that the thinning is now located in the vertex mainly while the crown has thickened up considerably. I have had an on and off war with my MPB since the age of 23 and I am now 42. Propecia was just marketed at the time of the start of my fight and it was not available over the counter or in generic form and a dermatology specialist I decided to see at the time would not prescribe it. I was using Rogaine which was at 2 percent at the time and scalpicin for the burning of my scalp that felt like acid was poured on it and my bald spot grew. I took to wearing hats it grew larger. I started all the crap fads, Procerin, Beta Sisterol Shampoo of Dr. Lee, Nioxin, Follicure, T-Gel, Tricomin herbal remedies, and guess what noithing nada.. zero, zip and zilch. Only now I believe at least what I did stopped the acceleration which would have been far more rapid. My dad at the age I am now was a Norwood 7 with small wreath of hair on his sides and the back of his head virtually nothing. Now I am using Minox foam at 5 percent, T-Gel or T-Sal for any folliculitis or dermatitis, Ketoconazole at 2 percent, and Dutasteride because I needed to kick hair loss in the ass and Fin was not cutting it. Now have lower T in my blood past my forties and by extension lower DHT levels in that ratio that now my chances of retaining and getting back more of a youthful appearance in my hair or least my hair gray and not youthful will have returned over time and by the end of the year it will more than likely be with optimism that I will look like I was never as bad as I was with full coverage and that counts for something. Thing is consistency is the key here as well as when you start is the consistency of your regimen. You can't stop and start it and expect results.. you can't half ass it. You can't say hey I started this two weeks ago and where is my hair it doesn't work that way either. It is going to be a long, hard fought battle and you have to be prepared for the worst even then.

[DannyBoyy7]

If these meds you are talking about actually cured hairloss as in take once and never again then i would of took it but it dont you have to keep paying for me it is just a waste of money but thats just me...and not gonna risk my sex drive either just to have hair and i couldnt care less if those sides you get are rare just not taking the chance...only took one thing to try and and help my hairloss and it was some shampoo for my dandruff (i thought maybe dandruff was the reason what can i say i was young and dumb and hoping for the best i was probably about 17/18)...but even then i hardly used it which proves i cant of cared that much otherwise i would of used it all the time would of been a waste of time regardless but still never knew that then.

[Notcoolanymore]

If these meds you are talking about actually cured hairloss as in take once and never again then i would of took it but it dont you have to keep paying for me it is just a waste of money but thats just me...and not gonna risk my sex drive either just to have hair and i couldnt care less if those sides you get are rare just not taking the chance...only took one thing to try and and help my hairloss and it was some shampoo for my dandruff (i thought maybe dandruff was the reason what can i say i was young and dumb and hoping for the best i was probably about 17/18)...but even then i hardly used it which proves i cant of cared that much otherwise i would of used it all the time would of been a waste of time regardless but still never knew that then.

You've defeated your hair loss. Congrats. Most guys are not in the same boat as you and will not accept it as you have. For those guys a decision needs to be made. Get on proven meds or accept losing your hair.

[hiilikeyourbeard]

You've defeated your hair loss. Congrats. Most guys are not in the same boat as you and will not accept it as you have. For those guys a decision needs to be made. Get on proven meds or accept losing your hair.

alright, i agree that all guys should give fin a chance. fin and minox aren't the only options. lot of people do well with some of the experimentals

[Zapy]

I'm one of those people, I don't know I figured that what triggered it was what I was eating and the weight lifting.

I know once I started eating healthy (lost 20 lbs) and stopped lifting weights and started doing more cardio and started using healthier better shampoo I feel like it stopped. Maybe I'm wrong, but even if I am I figure that by the time I'll be bald I won't mind it anymore. I'm 24 right now.

Also I know that weight lifting is probably what caused my hairthinning. My mom told me that no one in our family had hairloss except for my uncle who weight lifted. And I remember that once I started weight lifting, I got a bit of hair in my upper back (immediately) where I built new muscle. It also makes me a lot hornier lol

At the end of the day it's just hair on your head, not that big of a deal, be glad you're healthy and have a fullfillign life. Appreciate what you do have and enjoy the little things, stop crying about things you can't control. The people that matter won't mind and the people that do mind don't matter.

[yeahyeahyeah]

1) there is a poster called kirkby on here who lost a drastic amount of hair after hopping on fin. Went into a never ending shed.

2) Cognitive sides - brain fog worries me. I am required to have a clear mind due to work.

3) I am hoping histogen would hurry up. My HL being slow - I am hoping that it will hold out until then, they I will get a HT and top up from histogen.

4) I dont like the idea of playing around with my hormones.

5) I AM PISSED FIN IS THE ONLY THING ON THE MARKET

Not the guys who tried to take fin or dut but could not tolerate the sides. To them I give my deepest respect and condolences.

I mean guys who are NW1.5-3 who easily have enough hair worth saving, but refuse to take fin or dut (usually fear of sides). Do you not realize you are worried enough to be on a hair loss forum, yet you are giving up without a fight?
If you do not realize, then here- YOU ARE GIVING UP YOUR HAIR

There are guys on this forum who would love to be in your position, to have the choice to take these drugs, as they watch you complain about baldness while you are simultaneously letting it happen.
tbh you kind of owe these guys an apology.

Do you even realize you have a huge advantage over like 95% of balding men? Most guys never understand MPB well enough to effectively stop it. They just f*ck around until one day they are like NW3 + diffuse, then start inconsistently rubbing rogaine into their scalps, then at NW4 start "researching" (ie surfing Wikipedia & randomly ordering crap like saw palmetto or nettle root). Then they hit NW5, realize they are f*cked for life, and just give in. Just settle down with some hillbilly lady in a rundown, ranch style house with nothing but cable TV to look forward to every weekend

Meanwhile I see guys who are like NW1.5-2, who can easily avoid all this, posting about MPB on hair loss forums yet too scared to take fin/dut. Well done wasting your advantage. Congratulations, you are more aware than like 19/20 dudes on the street, yet because you spent 30 minutes pissing yourself on PropeciaHelp it means absolutely nothing.

The worst part? Half of you will end up taking oral inhibs anyway, like 2 Norwood levels after you knew you should have.

You have 2 possible futures. One is you with hair, one is you bald.

Do not be the "what-if" guy

[ChrisM]

1) there is a poster called kirkby on here who lost a drastic amount of hair after hopping on fin. Went into a never ending shed.

2) Cognitive sides - brain fog worries me. I am required to have a clear mind due to work.

3) I am hoping histogen would hurry up. My HL being slow - I am hoping that it will hold out until then, they I will get a HT and top up from histogen.

4) I dont like the idea of playing around with my hormones.

5) I AM PISSED FIN IS THE ONLY THING ON THE MARKET

You do realize there is Dutasteride which is three to four times more effective that Finasteride and blocks at least two types of 5AR hair loss enzyme in DHT making it a far more potent DHT blocker.

I quit Finasteride correction I weaned myself off of Fin after a year and three months seeing no remarkable results and then switched up to Avodart. Holy Crap... in under six months the baby vellus hairs on my crown and vertex darkened and in some cases turn gray by thickened. Since I had no side effects from Fin I figured in was worth the crap shoot and it was most definitely pics will be forthcoming. I was an advanced NW5 into a NW6 and now it looks like I jumped up in levels back steadily to a NW3 due to patience and resolve. Even my ex and the mother of my kids has a lingering stare after me as I leave the door from her place to pick them up with a renewed look on her face of what happened this guy looks better and I have worked out in conjunction with that and lost weight and gained some abs and put a chin up bar in my home. It has given me back a sense of coming back from limbo.

In a few months I saw far more results than Fin ever showed and on top of that I upped my keto to the medicated 2 percent and got more Minoxidil 5 percent foam and now I see my scalp flaking and shedding for more sensitive skin underneath growing hair. With very little to no shed just growth. Plus I take Biotin a hair growth and nails supplement which has also helped along with black tea.