I don't know what to do

[shutterfly]

I noticed my hairloss in early 2004, and didn't do anything to it until early this year. I started off with Rogain twice a day and reduced to once a day about 2 months due to the sticky hair feeling.

In April this year I started taking Finast from Unitedpharmacies.com 1.25mg/day and quit after 3 months because I saw no improvement. Since I switched to Proscar 1.25mg/day from the same store and still saw no improvement so far. One quite strange thing was the Proscar I’ve ordered was actually mailed from Fiji, although the tablet’s package marks it’s made by Merck in Argentina…..

There are about 14-18 hairs falling off when I comb my hair every morning, and they include both "old" hairs (long and thick) and newly grown hairs (shorter, and thin). I also feel hairs are falling off when I take daily shower. This situation has been pretty stable over the past 2 months since I notice this. Besides, I have experienced no shredding at all.

At this point I don’t know what to do. I am not sure if I got the wrong treatment (which I don’t think so because I was given a propecia prescription after I saw a doctor) or simply the medicines I am getting are fake? What are you guys’ experiences? Am I too hasty reaching this conclusion?

Now I think what I am going to do next is to shell out big dollars for some propecia from more "trustworthy" places such as drugstore.com, etc. and see how it goes.

 

[87david]

I wouldn't necessarily deduce that the Propecia/Proscar you got is fake. I've never heard of any bad comments of unitedpharmacies.com. Most of the problems that I have seen comes from people when they buy generic. When people do order online it is usually because they don't have a prescription and/or they are just shopping for the best price. Of course, this does not mean that what you received is not fake, but it is unlikely that it is. What does your packaging look like? Are your pills diamond shaped? Coincidently, my Proscar also came from unitedpharmacies and also says Argentina. I know mine is fine because I have experienced some side effects. All I can say is what most will, and that is to be patient with your treatments. Some state that it could take approx 6 months or more to start seeing results. I know that it is disconcerting when you're losing hair, but everybody is different in how they respond to certain treatments.

 

[The Gardener]

In April this year I started taking Finast from Unitedpharmacies.com 1.25mg/day and quit after 3 months because I saw no improvement.

You are not giving finasteride nearly enough time. You need to have a one year outlook with finasteride, even to notice anything.

Hair cycling is a very slow thing. Even the hairs that were caught at the very beginning of their growth phase at the time you started using finasteride would take three months before they grow long enough to even be seen above the surface of the scalp skin. Considering that the hair growth cycle takes years, it takes at least a year for enough hairs to go into resting phase, start growing, and then reach a length long enough to make a cosmetic difference in your overall hairline. And, very small hairs along the periphery of your hairline might have to go through a few cycles before they even develop any sort of pigmentation, much less cosmetically noticeable length.

I don't know anything about the vendor you purchased your finasteride from, but if you are worried about it, I suggest buying a batch from a trusted source, and then comparing the packaging to see if what you were buying from the discount source is the same. The fact that it was manufactured in Argentina or shipped from Fiji doesn't imply anything. I am sure that Merck produces legitimate finasteride in factories in many places.