Stay with fin or switch to dut

[Dan26]

4 months on fin is no where near enough time...

but if loss is aggressive and no sides on it then upgrade to dut or add in RU

[thinninghair]

Yo Jotronic, I've spent some time looking at your site...good stuff.

As you seem to be an authority with hair loss and hair transplants, I'd love to learn more about getting a HT with y'all.

Send me a PM or something, and we can go from there. Appreciate it.

Finasteride in general is not known to very effective for the frontal third of the scalp but it is very effective for the mid-scalp and crown. Don't switch to Dutasteride till you've been on fin for at least a year and understand that if you do switch you may experience a stronger shed than you did on fin. I know some guys that use both, they take finasteride daily but twice a week they'll add Dutasteride to the mix.

Regarding this time line that is sometimes mentioned, the medication doesn't just stop working as if a light switch has been turned off. It either works or it doesn't but if it is working it may only be working enough to just slow the progress to a crawl. If this is the case then the cumulative effective takes years to notice which is why I think some people think it just stops working after five or ten years.

Some things to do:
1. Make sure you're taking Proscar and not generic finasteride. Name brand is better, more consistent. This is the reason why many people I've talked to have said that the medication stopped working. They were using name brand with success, switched to generic and then they started losing their hair again. They'd call me to say that their "Propecia stopped working" and then when they would get back on name brand at my urging the shed would stop and in most cases the hair would thicken up again.

2. Continue using Regaine twice daily, it tends to have a synergistic effect when taking Proscar or Propecia. Combined, they just work better. Note, I'm not the biggest believer in Regaine/Rogaine to begin with but it does have benefits that are documented and quantifiable.

3. Maybe consider adding Nizoral shampoo to your routine. If you don't have access to Nizoral then any shampoo with ketoconazole should do the trick. You'll find it with 1% ketoconazole or 2% ketoconazole. 2% is better but may have a higher chance of side effects such as itching and dryness but there is evidence to show that it is beneficial for sure.

You could also consider some supplements such as MSM and Biotin. I take both and while I know of no studies that support their use for hair loss I know for a fact that they help make hair healthier. I've experienced their benefits myself as they make hair grow faster and stronger (along with finger nails and toe nails).

My current regimen includes:

1. Proscar 1/2 tablet daily. Yes, I take 2.5mg because I believe that the higher the dose the better the result. I have not graduated to a full tablet yet but Spencer Kobren has been taking a full 5mg for 20 years. Without Proscar I would have progressed to a full blown NW7 instead of being just past a NW6 but not quite a NW7. See my website to learn more about what I'm talking about...www.hairtransplantmentor.com.

2. Nizoral four or five times a week.

3. MSM 3000mg daily

4. Biotin 500mcg daily.

I also take fish oil and tumeric daily as anti inflammatory agents. I believe that reducing and preventing anti-inflammatory reactions keeps the body in a general state of strong health. When the body has inflammatory reactions all kinds of things can happen including, yep, hair loss.

So, no you should not stop taking fin and switch to dutasteride. Stay the course and consider adding the other items I mentioned to improve your results. Good luck.

[win200]

Agreed that 4 months is too early. Remember: this isn't like taking an antibiotic. You're literally rejiggering your endocrine system, and that takes time. There's a reason that doctors recommend you evaluate at 18 months.

And on the dut front, it's absolutely a different ballgame than fin. I've been on fin since September '12 and added dut into the mix in December '13. I wasn't having a bad experience on fin, but I just wanted the maximum protection to keep my options open. I had mild sexual sides on fin--I'm fairly prone to sexual sides on medications--but they were tolerable. On dut, it's much, much worse--to the extent that I'm going to give up the drug.

Keep in mind that dut eliminates virtually all the DHT from your system. That's a very powerful re-alignment of your body's chemistry, and we don't know the long-term effects. I haven't met a doctor yet that isn't uncomfortable, to some degree, with prescribing dut for hair loss. I had to persuade my GP to give it to me, and he was not thrilled about writing the script for it.

[Dan26]

Agreed that 4 months is too early. Remember: this isn't like taking an antibiotic. You're literally rejiggering your endocrine system, and that takes time. There's a reason that doctors recommend you evaluate at 18 months.

And on the dut front, it's absolutely a different ballgame than fin. I've been on fin since September '12 and added dut into the mix in December '13. I wasn't having a bad experience on fin, but I just wanted the maximum protection to keep my options open. I had mild sexual sides on fin--I'm fairly prone to sexual sides on medications--but they were tolerable. On dut, it's much, much worse--to the extent that I'm going to give up the drug.

Keep in mind that dut eliminates virtually all the DHT from your system. That's a very powerful re-alignment of your body's chemistry, and we don't know the long-term effects. I haven't met a doctor yet that isn't uncomfortable, to some degree, with prescribing dut for hair loss. I had to persuade my GP to give it to me, and he was not thrilled about writing the script for it.

my derm perscribed my 2.5mg dut per day like it was nothing ahhaha...i only take 0.5 though.

if you are ok on fin, there is a high chance you will be ok on dut...but if you have mild sides on fin, dut will probably make them worse.

[win200]

my derm perscribed my 2.5mg dut per day like it was nothing ahhaha...i only take 0.5 though.

if you are ok on fin, there is a high chance you will be ok on dut...but if you have mild sides on fin, dut will probably make them worse.

I mean, I'm not an alarmist about DHT inhibitors, but that's an insane (and expensive!) amount of dut. I mean, it's up to your doctor's judgment, but that sounds borderline irresponsible to me--like your derm isn't really that familiar with the drug.

[Plan C]

Agreed that 4 months is too early. Remember: this isn't like taking an antibiotic. You're literally rejiggering your endocrine system, and that takes time. There's a reason that doctors recommend you evaluate at 18 months.

And on the dut front, it's absolutely a different ballgame than fin. I've been on fin since September '12 and added dut into the mix in December '13. I wasn't having a bad experience on fin, but I just wanted the maximum protection to keep my options open. I had mild sexual sides on fin--I'm fairly prone to sexual sides on medications--but they were tolerable. On dut, it's much, much worse--to the extent that I'm going to give up the drug.

Keep in mind that dut eliminates virtually all the DHT from your system. That's a very powerful re-alignment of your body's chemistry, and we don't know the long-term effects. I haven't met a doctor yet that isn't uncomfortable, to some degree, with prescribing dut for hair loss. I had to persuade my GP to give it to me, and he was not thrilled about writing the script for it.

So have you given up on dut entirely? I think you're more likely to get sides if you use both simultaneously, so why not stick with dut and drop fin?

[Sanchez123]

So have you given up on dut entirely? I think you're more likely to get sides if you use both simultaneously, so why not stick with dut and drop fin?

Hi Plan C. Did you ever switched to Dutasteride? Can you please share your story (same situation here).

[Sanchez123]

if you feel as though you cant afford to lose much more ground and your loss is very aggressive, consider dut....I was on fin for 5 months, had no sides so switched to dut. Both sides of family were nw5-6 by 30!!!

Did fin do anything for you before switching?