Finasteride not maintaining hairline

[Ag87]

I am 25, a Norwood 1.5 with no noticeable loss on areas other than the hairline.

I've been on finasteride since October 2013. When I first started it, I couldn't believe the results. Hair loss came to a halt and I even had temple regrowth. These effects lasted a year until I had my first 'shed'. It wasn't as extreme as stories I've read on here, but there was a significantly greater loss than usual. This tapered off after a few months but my hair looked noticeably thinner.

The hair loss stopped again and my hair thickened up, but then another shed started October last year. It's strange that it followed the same pattern as the year before, I've read things about seasonal hair loss. However, since October, the hair loss hasn't really tailed off like it did last time.

I know evidence for finasteride isn't as strong for the hairline but shouldn't it at least be maintaining it? I understand that there are people a lot worse off than Norwood 1.5 but it's surely better to stop it before it progresses too far. The recession is getting more pronounced and I'm worried that soon I won't be able to cover it up. What are my options? Minoxidil? I'm terrified of the sheds reported with that. Should I continue with finasteride?

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

On average, finasteride is supposed to give small improvement at the hairline. That's the average though and there is a dispersion, it may be that for you, since you have aggressive male pattern baldness, a reduction of ~70% in scalp DHT is not enough.

One option is to wait and see if things stabilize.

Another option is to add Minoxidil.

Yet another option is to add RU58851.

Finally, switch from finasteride to dutasteride. It gives a ~98% rather than ~70% DHT reduction.

 

[diehunnen123]

I am 25, a Norwood 1.5 with no noticeable loss on areas other than the hairline.

I've been on finasteride since October 2013. When I first started it, I couldn't believe the results. Hair loss came to a halt and I even had temple regrowth. These effects lasted a year until I had my first 'shed'. It wasn't as extreme as stories I've read on here, but there was a significantly greater loss than usual. This tapered off after a few months but my hair looked noticeably thinner.

The hair loss stopped again and my hair thickened up, but then another shed started October last year. It's strange that it followed the same pattern as the year before, I've read things about seasonal hair loss. However, since October, the hair loss hasn't really tailed off like it did last time.

I know evidence for finasteride isn't as strong for the hairline but shouldn't it at least be maintaining it? I understand that there are people a lot worse off than Norwood 1.5 but it's surely better to stop it before it progresses too far. The recession is getting more pronounced and I'm worried that soon I won't be able to cover it up. What are my options? Minoxidil? I'm terrified of the sheds reported with that. Should I continue with finasteride?

i would for sure add minoxidil.