What to do if propecia hasn't worked

[OrdinaryUser]

I appear to be at an impasse now. I've been medicating with finasteride for 6 months, and while it has improved my hair, the improvement is not sufficient enough for me to keep using the drug indefinitely. The new hairs that have come in are so insubstantial, and are very thin and have very little pigment. And what's more, it has done little to thicken the hair I do have. I suppose I have to know when to surrender to a situation that has no possible victory, and balding has taught me this in the most harshest of ways.

So now that I've exhausted the primary treatments of Rogaine (made my hair way worse, "unmasked" a lot of further MPB according to my Derm) and Finasteride, what else can be done? Are there people on here who've failed to see results with the above treatments and maintained the hair they have other ways? I know it's unlikely, as my genetics are against me, but I'd still like to try.

[DeuceWillis]

While I'm not personally on propecia, I do believe the general knowledge of it is to give it at least a year to 18 months. If you quit now you might lose ground you could've at least held onto until you figured out later it didn't work as well as you wanted. Just a thought.

[Notcoolanymore]

I am kind of in the same boat. I have seen some improvement, but it isn't drastic or anything. I still have the same buzz cut I did when I started this hair loss battle. I know many don't like to hear this, but I will give the typical response, you need to give finasteride more time to work. 6 months just isn't enough time to judge how much it will improve your hair. There is also dutasteride if you want to give that a try.

[OrdinaryUser]

I am kind of in the same boat. I have seen some improvement, but it isn't drastic or anything. I still have the same buzz cut I did when I started this hair loss battle. I know many don't like to hear this, but I will give the typical response, you need to give finasteride more time to work. 6 months just isn't enough time to judge how much it will improve your hair. There is also dutasteride if you want to give that a try.

Thanks for the comments. I can't say there's absolute no improvement, but like you the improvements aren't drastic enough. I recently bought a hair cut kit and am buzzing my head now. I don't recognize myself anymore with this style of hair but I guess I just have to get used to it, no other choice lol.

And I know 6 months isn't a great indicator of the drug's efficacy, but if I assume the same rate of improvement for another 6 months, I still don't see it giving me much reason to stay on it. I mean, what I am doing at that point is just salvaging very weak hairs with little pigment with little cosmetic value, and are nearly invisible when exposed to light, probably looks pathetic. If only I had started it when I initially saw my first shed around 2-3 years ago, then I probably could have reason to stay on it. But now, my hairline has receded ultra quick and nothing will improve that, I only came in with the minimal expectation that it would thicken the hair on top, but it didn't really do it.

I've got an appointment with a dermatologist and I will ask about dut, but I feel like I've given the main treatments a go, and something stronger than fin is not really something I am willing to try. Maybe I should to just save up for a HT.

[baldozer]

I am kind of in the same boat. I have seen some improvement, but it isn't drastic or anything. I still have the same buzz cut I did when I started this hair loss battle. I know many don't like to hear this, but I will give the typical response, you need to give finasteride more time to work. 6 months just isn't enough time to judge how much it will improve your hair. There is also dutasteride if you want to give that a try.

Dutasteride can give you sleep insomnia, did you know that?

[Amandeep]

wait so did it stabilise your hairloss? I've been taking 0.5 mg everyday for over 4 months now and my hairs still thinning, crowns actually gone a lot worse!! Did your hair get worse on it? I'm hoping this is just an initial shed, but seeing as my hairs gone so much worse than before I'm pretty worried

[Aonyx262]

Dutasteride can give you sleep insomnia, did you know that?

As opposed to non-sleep insomnia?

[Notcoolanymore]

He's against all treatments because there really isn't anything that can improve his situation(NW7). Since he can't benefit he doesn't want anybody else to either.

[Aonyx262]

He's against all treatments because there really isn't anything that can improve his situation(NW7). Since he can't benefit he doesn't want anybody else to either.

Well, My N=1 on GSK Avodart hasn't had any insomnia or side effects at all that I've noticed.

[blondetooth]

Fin isnt really a growth stimulant, but it helps prevent loss.

6 months is not long enough, 6 months would have been enough time if you took some dutasteride in the beggining like 1 dut every 2 weeks.

[ParanoiaDestroya]

I never quite understood the notion that finasteride simply "doesn't work" for some people. It blocks a percentage of DHT, so it has to be doing something. It might not be doing much, but it's slowing it down to some degree, however smell. You'd maybe think that was to do with dosage, but the clinical data I'm aware says that there's no efficacy in a dose beyond 1mg. However, I know that Bernstein generally increases the dosage after a few years in his patients.

So that whole thing confuses me. If 1mg isn't enough to hold the line, do I increase dosage? I mean what the hell...

[blondetooth]

its not about DHT amount, its about sensitivity and genetics. It should help in everyone though, its just hard to tell exactly how much, and its more of a hair loss haulter not grower.

[ParanoiaDestroya]

I understand that it's DHT sensitivity as determined by genetics. What I'm saying is that if you have less DHT, your hair loss should slow to some degree.