early 20s, finasteride not working?

[riaperand]

Hi Everybody,

I'm new to this forum- anyways- here's my story. I would appreciate the feedback.

I'm currently in my early 20s years old. Started taking finasteride (1 mg/day from a 5 mg tablet split into fifths) everyday about a year ago (middle of June 2011) since I noticed some thinning on my temples and on my crown. My hair loss was not terrible- you probably couldn't tell I was thinning unless you looked closely or I was in pretty bad lighting. Plus, my hair grows such that they fall over my temples.

I did the technique of taking 1 mg once every week for two weeks, then twice every week for two weeks, and so on until I hit 1 mg a day about 14 weeks later. During this time I experienced a big shed for a few months (lots of hair would be in my hands when I shampooed). However, I did experience sexual sides at this point, so I tapered off, and then tapered on again, and my sides gradually went away. So by the end of August, I was on 1 mg/day and by October, my sides pretty much went away. My shed also went away.

Fast forward to today (July 2012) - I've continued to use finasteride 1mg/day and taken pictures. However, my hairline seems to have gotten worse. My crown seems to have either gotten worse/stayed the same. The lighting seems to play a role in how the crown looks. My hair "feels" less dense when I shampoo it (I wash hair every day) and it looks a bit crappy completely wet (although I have straight Asian hair, which I guess will let scalp show through more easily when wet). Moreover, when I check the random hairs that I see lying around/end up on my hands, a lot of them seem thinner on the end closer to the root. But I'm not shedding profusely (i.e. when I lather my shampoo on my hair, an absurd amount of hair doesn't come onto my hands).

Also, my libido was pretty high for a while a few months back (i.e. I was getting off several times a day)- but this might have been because I was eating like half an avocado a day. Right now it is okay. I'm not sure if the fact that I don't see finasteride actively working+ my elevated libido means I have reflex hyperandrogenicity or what. I'm currently not taking any other medication (besides using a shampoo with ketoconzole twice a week).

Basically, I have no sides with finasteride, but it doesn't seem to be working that well. My hair is not shedding like crazy like it did when I first started finasteride. I've been fully on propecia for about 10 months (I technically started a year ago, but I was tapering on and off to try and adjust to sides).

What should I do? Wait it out longer to see if the hairs that I shed a year ago come back/if I experience regrowth? Or get off finasteride?

Thanks for the help.