22y & 1y on fin - what next?

[sprince5]

Background Info
First noticed losing hair when I turned 20. At the time I was a solid NW0 getting compliments on my hair but I started noticing that my left temple was miniaturising and thinning. It felt like my hair quality deteriorated overnight but looking back I must have been shedding hair for some time. I continued losing hair on the left side of the hairline for the next 1.5 years and hair was feeling thinner and thinner. I could see miniaturised hair growing pretty far back into the hairline. At 21.5 years old I started finasteride – at this point the left side of my hairline was relatively receded.


Since finasteride
I believe my hairline kept on receding for the next 3 or 4 months when I was using products every day (see pictures below).



Since the start of lockdown (3 months in), I noticed that some (very few) of the baby hairs started turning into terminal hairs. This process has been very slow and loss was continuing behind the hairline and I believe I was shedding hairs on the whole left side of my head. In July (7 months) I got a haircut and I was pretty certain my hairline moved down (see wet hair photos below) - the new hair by the left temple blended in nicely with the older longer hair.



As lockdown eased, I started drinking a bit more and styling my hair more often. Although hair still felt pretty good in August, I felt that using hair products made me lose hair a bit faster and the barber thinned the hair on my left side behind the peak (hasn’t thickened up since). I have started to notice the thinness on the whole of the left side of my head during the last two months (September and October). Shedding was particularly bad on some days and I think was exacerbated by an unusually stressful period in my life.

Next steps
At this point it has almost been 11 months since I started fin (pics below). I have recently introduced Nizoral into my routine and switched from generic fin to Propecia (for consistency as my online pharmacy seems to switch between 2 suppliers of fin and some users report better results from Propecia). I wonder whether, because I feel like I might still be losing density and regrowth is slow, I should introduce a growth stimulant like minox, steomoxydine, dermapen and/or introduce a topical anti androgen like RU/CB OR whether I should wait until the 1.5-2 year mark to see whether the pace of regrowth has increased and the hair gets thicker. Ideally, I would like to maintain until Breezula comes out, but if hair continues thinning I am happy to introduce a growth stimulant or a topical AA.



Should I wait further 6-12 months to see whether the switch to Propecia and the introduction of Nizoral can help increase hair regrowth to baseline level or should I make changes to my hair loss routine now?