Does finasteride or minoxidil make your hair worse in the long run?

[AlecGaro]

Hey everyone I posted a similar question to this before but I guess I didnt phrase it correctly.

Basically my question is when you use finasteride (lets say it works for 5 years and then starts to lose its effectiveness), does your hair then just continue on its natural path of where you were supposed to be at that time? Or will your hair be on a better path (more hair and less balding), or a worse path (less hair and more aggressive balding)?

Also please answer the same question for minoxidil.

I want to know this before I start on finasteride.. and then maybe in a few years after that minoxidil if needed.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

From what I understand, if/when finasteride begins to lose its effectiveness, it's doubtful that your hair loss will become as aggressive as if you had never taken the drug itself. Finasteride isn't exactly like say painkillers for instance, where your body eventually builds up a tolerance and more of the drug is required to gather the same effect. Your hair follicles get weaker with age and eventually succumb to nature's course, even while on finasteride because it doesn't block ALL of the DHT from getting to your scalp. If you keep taking finasteride, even if you're still somewhat losing hair, it's at a much slower rate than it would be if you weren't on any treatment.

Stories from men that were on finasteride for long periods of time, and ceased use saw large increases in hair loss within a year. I believe the doctors refer to it as "catch up" hair loss. Your body will quickly start shedding the hairs that would have fallen out a long time had you not been on treatment, and your hair loss will become very aggressive. Basically, finasteride doesn't really do anything to make hair loss worse. All it does is postpone the inevitable. For some men, they've maintained for nearly 20 years whilst on the meds, others actually saw great gains in the early years and slowly returned near baseline as the years went on, and for others it works for a little while, but their bodies simply willed the hair follicles to die off early on.

 

[zzzzz]

no 100% to thread title

 

[AlecGaro]

does anyone else have any opinions or stories from you or others?

 

[zzzzz]

there are no opinions that are valid. There is no reason why finasteride or minoxidil could make your hair worse....