dutasteride not a "nuke" in the hairloss arsenal... but close

[DutFan]

A "nuke" would destroy all of balding as we know it... we're not there yet. Hopefully sometime soon.

But for me, this dutasteride is the closest there is so far. It is still absolutely just blastin' it for me (my crown is going to fill in, I can tell). You've heard the saying "bring in the heavy artillery"... this is it right now. It's the "heavy artillery" of fighting back on hair loss.

I definitely wouldn't start there... I'd roll out the "tank" with the propecia/rogaine combo first.

If that doesn't work though, I wouldn't hesitate to get the howitzers out, and let the cannons fly w/ the dutasteride. I'm glad I did in time... I gave propecia a solid 2 years and then made the switch. It's night and day.

 

[Thinning Sucks]

I want to go with just adding 0.5mg dutasteride weekly with finasteride but even with this I'm worried about any frontal destruction I can afford at all. Crown is almost totally gone so I have to decide within this year.

Plus the dreded shed. Wonder is the low dose would cause a shed?

 

[Beingbaldsucksass]

I will move to dutasteride in a couple of years

 

[pidda]

Eh, if I ever get extremely desperate and if I am feeling a bit transsexual, I might add some oral spironolactone if dutasteride by itself wont completely stop it down the road. I don't really want boobs so that is kind of a deal-breaker for me. Good to know that dutasteride is working so well for you, I been thinking about adding it once I am one year into finasteride.

 

[DutFan]

I am running about .25mg to .5mg dutasteride per day over the past 2 months. It's been close to every other day with that rotation (I try to keep it as close to that as I can). The recommended daily dosage is .5mg, but I'm getting away with alternating in .25mg (half tab) here and there. My results over these two months have been GREAT. I really mean it... it's worked so much better for me than propecia already.

Plus the dreded shed. Wonder is the low dose would cause a shed?

I have not seemed to shed as bad as I did when I started propecia. My shedding may have kicked up just a notch over the past 8 weeks (since starting the dutasteride), but nothing terrible. I think my body may be somewhat acclimated to a reduction in dht (w/ two years of propecia use), and the shed this time may have not been quite as dramatic. I did DEFINITELY get a shed when I first started using propecia.

 

[abcdefg]

We really need a topical nuke more then an internal nuke.

 

[DutFan]

We really need a topical nuke more then an internal nuke.

I think it will be "hair cloning"...or "follicular unit multiplication" of some kind. I think that scientists will eventually find a way to multiply peoples' hair, to produce an unlimited supply of donor hair. I think that will be the "nuke."

 

[Receding89]

Where can I get this dutasteride stuff?

 

[Night]

Where can I get this dutasteride stuff?

inhousepharmacy carries it.

 

[Rawtashk]

As does 4rx.com. They also sell it in tablet form, so you can quarter it and go on at .125mg a day....which is STILL more effective than 5mg finasteride.

 

[fro]

Hey DutFan,

What dose of dutasteride are you on? I've been on finasteride for 14 years...Whoa!!!! Can't believe it :-D Need something stronger now though. Great results at first, and great maintenance, but I can see the benefits waning a bit, and I think it may be time to move forward with dutasteride. I've been taking 5mg of finasteride for the past 5 years. Do you think 2.5 mg of dutasteride would be to aggressive? I read that 2.5mg was optimal dutasteride dose for hair loss.

Thanks!

 

[DutFan]

Do you think 2.5 mg of dutasteride would be to aggressive? I read that 2.5mg was optimal dutasteride dose for hair loss.

I was on 1mg of finasteride for about two years to no avail. I believe it helped slow my hairloss in the crown, but it did not stop it.

After slowly regressing for two years on finasteride, I made the jump to dutasteride starting on the third year. I never went to 5mg finasteride, and made the change directly to dutasteride.

I am currently taking .25mg (half tab), and .5mg (full tab) every other day. I may bump this up to .5mg daily (which is the recommended dosage)... I'm just trying to see if I can get away with a lower dosage.

I have heard that 2.5mg daily of dutasteride can be used for "maxed out" suppression of DHT. However, that's definitely fairly aggressive. Here is a table from Wikipedia about clinical trial stats and dutasteride:

----------------------------------------------
In the phase II trials, an expert panel observing a one-inch diameter circle on the vertex of the head reported the following results at 24 weeks:

• Placebo: - 32.3 hairs

• Finasteride 5 mg: + 75.6 hairs

• Dutasteride 0.1 mg: + 78.5 hairs

• Dutasteride 0.5 mg: + 94.6 hairs

• Dutasteride 2.5 mg: + 109.6 hairs

------------------------------------------------------

So you can see how 0.5mg dutasteride stacks up against 5mg of finasteride, and 2.5 of dutasteride.

I've started w/ 0.5mg dutasteride, with the hope of phasing in 2.5mg if I ever need to down the road. And who knows, by then... they might even have something better.

 

[fro]

Awesome, guys! Thank you very much for the info. I'll start on 0.5mg of dutasteride daily, and only move up to a higher dose if I don't see a difference in 6 months. I responded very well to minoxidil and finasteride, so hopefully I'll also have a strong positive response to dutasteride.