Been on Propecia for years - Starting Rogaine - Shed?

[DuckingAngels]

Hi All,

My family history for baldness is pretty brutal (aggressive balding on all of the men on the dad's side, mixed bag on the mum's side, with her dad being one of the few rays of light) and so as soon as i showed the first signs of MPB I jumped on propecia. That was when I was 23, almost exactly four years ago.

Since then, i've had side effects of mild gyno (somewhat responds to exercise) and i think it has exacerbated my skin but that's hard to prove. Other than that all good.

In terms of my hair, I suspect it is probably in a much better place than it would have been if i hadn't been taking propecia - it's still a NW2 in terms of recession. But it has steadily thinned out over the years, and I would say it's finally gotten to a stage over the last six months where it's starting to show to the untrained eye, and it's becoming harder to style.

So I am thinking of starting to take Rogaine as well - but I have heard lots of stories of massive sheds, and sometimes a very slow recovery. My friend for example said that taking Rogaine dropped his hair from a baseline of 100 down to around 60-70, and slowly recovered to eventually be about a 110. In other words it eventually had a positive net effect, but not without months of it looking far worse.

As I plan to mainly use Rogaine on the hairline, I am concerned that this shed could tip me over into the category of 'visibly balding' - whereas right now my friends/girls are none the wiser.

Does anyone have any advice here on the shedding? Or thoughts to share? Particularly anyone who also was using propecia for a while before trying Rogaine. Thanks in advance.

[Steven D]

Hi All,

My family history for baldness is pretty brutal (aggressive balding on all of the men on the dad's side, mixed bag on the mum's side, with her dad being one of the few rays of light) and so as soon as i showed the first signs of MPB I jumped on propecia. That was when I was 23, almost exactly four years ago.

Since then, i've had side effects of mild gyno (somewhat responds to exercise) and i think it has exacerbated my skin but that's hard to prove. Other than that all good.

In terms of my hair, I suspect it is probably in a much better place than it would have been if i hadn't been taking propecia - it's still a NW2 in terms of recession. But it has steadily thinned out over the years, and I would say it's finally gotten to a stage over the last six months where it's starting to show to the untrained eye, and it's becoming harder to style.

So I am thinking of starting to take Rogaine as well - but I have heard lots of stories of massive sheds, and sometimes a very slow recovery. My friend for example said that taking Rogaine dropped his hair from a baseline of 100 down to around 60-70, and slowly recovered to eventually be about a 110. In other words it eventually had a positive net effect, but not without months of it looking far worse.

As I plan to mainly use Rogaine on the hairline, I am concerned that this shed could tip me over into the category of 'visibly balding' - whereas right now my friends/girls are none the wiser.

Does anyone have any advice here on the shedding? Or thoughts to share? Particularly anyone who also was using propecia for a while before trying Rogaine. Thanks in advance.

I think its normal