Finasteride inhibits chemically the type 2 alpha five reductase enzymes that convert Testosterone into DHT. It inhibits the enzymes at about a 90% clip. There are two types of enzymes that primarily make DHT: type 1 alpha five reductase and type 2 alpha five reductase.
The type two alpha five reductase enzyme is located in the innermost portion of the outer root sheath OF YOUR HAIR FOLLICLES. They are also in your prostate. Most all of the DHT that damages your hair is actually converted to DHT right there at the follicle, falls down just a tad to the androgen receptors on the cytoplasm cellular walls of the dermal papilla and bind the the androgen receptors that are there.
The doctor or professor who told you that about finasteride doesnt know jack fuucking shiit. Finasteride simply does not stop ALL DHT from being made, therefore you have some that binds STILL, and you go bald, just a HELL OF ALOT slower than what you would have without it. It NEVER stops inhibiting type 2. It decreases blood serum levels of DHT by about 65-70% on average. Merk has tested a type 1 alpha five reductase inhibitor, some MK386, but found it had a much smaller effect upon hair. The reason Avodart is probably more beneficial for hair in baldness than finasteride is that it stops 98%, almost all, of the type 2-created DHT (in the outer rootsheath) from being made.
Hair counts on propecia go up for about 2 years, and then SLOWLY decline thereafter,but VERY VERY SLOWLY. You get back to baseline in "around" years 12-14, still losing hair, but much more slowly.
You can add nizoral shampoo about every third day (ketoconazale stays in the scalp at theraputic concentration for 72 hours) to your regimine along with finasteride. Leave it in for about 2 minutes. A study on ketoconazale and its anti-androgenic effect is available here at GourmetStyleWellness in the resource library. The study was done with human beings, not mice. Their hair got thicker, sebaceous glands smaller, sebum secretions smaller. Added to finasteride, Nizoral should help bolster the effect for many more years.
If you can just hang onto your hair for another ten years or so, something better will assuredly be available by then
Minoxidil has a hypertrichotic effect on hair by numerous pathways. It opens potassium channels, is a weak prostaglandin analogue, inhibits TGF-beta 1 weakly, is a vasolidator, ups VEGF, inhibits the hardenting of the collageneous fibers in the connective tissue sheath one sees with baldness, inhibits the collagen forming in the "abnormal collagenous streamsers" underneath the follicle that we see in the histopathology of Androgenetic Alopecia.
The "big 3" is touted on this website for a reason. That reason is, they work. If you were to add anything to "the big 3", at this moment, I'd suggest tricomin, which has at least been through 2 FDA phase trials with similar effectiveness as minoxidil before Graftcyte, the parent company, pulled the drug from the very expensive phase three.
Other cheapie things that might help are drinking plenty of green tea (alpha five type one inhibitor in the form of one of the catechin's therein), taking grape seed extract (PKC inhibitor), and taking curcumin (tgf-beta inhibitor, tnf-alpha inhibitor,) and getting some silica in your diet (oatmeal, onions..........IL-1 inhibitor).
Thats about it at the moment. Until cloning, this is about all we have thats really proven other than topical spironolactone (messy, smelly, best to apply twice a day, and revivogen.............messy, greasy, smelly).
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