12 Months In.

[LotsOfQuestions]

Hey guys. Thought I would post an update.

It been 12 months now since I first started on 1mg Finasteride. Wouldn't mind a little reassurance about the 2nd shed.

For the first 3 months I shed continuously and then it slowed down around months 4-7 then started shedding again. And here I am now, I can see that there are 100s of new small hairs that have appeared all around the hairline (temples in particular) and if they were to grow out I would be fully content with staying on this treatment alone and not using anything else. However despite all this new growth I still seem to be shedding alot of these small hairs and some larger ones. Overall my hair looks thinner than it did at month 6 when I saw almost no shedding at all.

I am really hoping that this shed will subside and it will fill in, a year is a long time to wait and I thought the results would have been more stable by now.

Any advice in terms of waiting this out? I cant find too many stories about people stabilizing after 12 months. Minoxodil is an option I want to avoid, I just don't have a stable enough routine in my life to use it twice a day.

 

[Bowser]

Your story is almost exact as mine when I started finasteride. I've been on it almost two years now.

I had sheds about 2 months in, then a horrible shed at 12-13month mark and panicked. I would say to hang in there, you're just going through another cycle.

finasteride has definitely helped me over all. I've come to live with repeated cycles of shedding and growth which I still get now by the way. I would say my hair is about the same as when I started finasteride, may be a little thinner in the frontal area but I'm glad i persevered.

Good luck

 

[Jrthomas85]

For what it's worth, I can say that my story is also similar to yours and Bowser's. I'm 27 and also have a receding hairline (Norwood 2.5ish). I've been on a combination of 1.25mg finasteride/day and a custom minoxidil/retin-a solution from my hair loss specialist, as well as nizoral and a host of vitamins. I've been on this regimen for about 11 months.

I can't say that my "sheds" have been cyclical. From my perspective, it seems like some days I will see a decent amount of shedding of both short vellus hairs and longer terminal hairs (10-20 hairs in the shower), while other days I will see practically no shedding. Likewise, there are a few days when my temples are very itchy (possibly "DHT itch"?), while the majority of the time, I am experiencing very little or no itch. There are some days that I look in the mirror and am convinced that my hair looks worse than my baseline, and other days I feel that I'm experiencing some thickening. I'm not sure if these perceived differences are just psychological or indicative of hair cycles (shedding then regrowth). I am of course taking pictures, but it is difficult to tell if I'm any better off than a year ago.

While I am planning on waiting it out for another year as many have suggested (even my doctor), I am inclined to think that for many of us, simply seeing little to no change in our hair loss or progression IS the best result that we can hope for.

 

[talmoode]

I am in the same boat with you guys!...most of days I feel like my hair looks so much worse than a year ago when I first started finasteride and I get depressed then when I compare pictures of my hair now and back then..I feel like there is no much difference at all..maybe a bit thinner in front and on top? I wish I could say I am happy to have maintained what I have but to be honest, I am not happy at all....I kind of hoped to achieve what Zeroheat has achieved in the success story section:sad: