I have always been paranoid of hair loss, despite naturally having a head of thick, course, dark hair. When I was in my 20's, I used Propecia off-and-on, but never consistently. I noticed some very slight receding during my 20's, but no noticeable loss anywhere else.
In 2005 or 2006, when Avodart (dutasteride) was first released, I began using it. At that time in my life, I still had not experienced any noticeable hair loss, except for some slight receding in the front. However, I knew I was at a high-risk age and decided it was time to get serious about prevention. I started using a minimum of .5mg Avodart daily. Some days, I would take 2 gel caps, maybe twice per week. I was 31 years old when I started Avodart. I used it consistently from its release in 2005 or 2006 to October 2009. I rarely, if ever, missed a day and took it at the same time every day.
During the years I was on Avodart, I noticed slow and gradual hair loss all over -- front, mid, and crown. I was disappointed because I was losing hair while on the medication, but I was still fairly happy with the overall state of my hair, considering my age. I was most concerned about the crown and even though I could feel it was getting a bit thinner back there, no one could visually see any difference. My girlfriend, hair stylist, friends, etc., could notice no loss on the crown. When I took photos and looked at them, I couldn't notice much, if anything.
In October 2009, my Doctor suggested I briefly go off Avodart and allow it to clear my system so we could do some medical testing. While off the medication, around December 2009, I quickly lost a significant amount of hair on my left temporal area. I'm estimating a patch of hair about 1" X 1". This happened really fast. In January 2010, I began to notice that my crown was feeling a bit "flat" as if the hair was thinning. I had the usual suspects examine it for me and no one seemed to be too concerned or thought that there was loss on the crown.
At the beginning of this month, February 2010, with the medical testing behind me, I decided to go on Propecia instead of Avodart. I've been taking the finasteride at 2.5mg/day. Hopefully, it will start working and doing its thing soon because yesterday I decided that my crown was definitely feeling funny and noticeably thin, so I took some pics and was shocked at what I saw. There's no longer any question about it - I've got a noticeable "spot" on my crown. I also went to get a hair cut yesterday and my stylist indicated there had been a significant change since she had seen me 4 weeks ago.
I am sick about this and absolutely shocked at how quickly this occurred, while off the medication. I am attaching a pic below.
About the Avodart, I would also like to add that the only side effects that I noticed, during the years I used it, was dry skin. I never had an issue with dry skin before, but while on Avodart, the skin on my face, arms, hands, legs, knees and elbows became really dry. Oh, and one other thing that was definitely related to the Avodart was a reduction in the volume of my ejaculate. I would say this was reduced by at least 50%.
In 2005 or 2006, when Avodart (dutasteride) was first released, I began using it. At that time in my life, I still had not experienced any noticeable hair loss, except for some slight receding in the front. However, I knew I was at a high-risk age and decided it was time to get serious about prevention. I started using a minimum of .5mg Avodart daily. Some days, I would take 2 gel caps, maybe twice per week. I was 31 years old when I started Avodart. I used it consistently from its release in 2005 or 2006 to October 2009. I rarely, if ever, missed a day and took it at the same time every day.
During the years I was on Avodart, I noticed slow and gradual hair loss all over -- front, mid, and crown. I was disappointed because I was losing hair while on the medication, but I was still fairly happy with the overall state of my hair, considering my age. I was most concerned about the crown and even though I could feel it was getting a bit thinner back there, no one could visually see any difference. My girlfriend, hair stylist, friends, etc., could notice no loss on the crown. When I took photos and looked at them, I couldn't notice much, if anything.
In October 2009, my Doctor suggested I briefly go off Avodart and allow it to clear my system so we could do some medical testing. While off the medication, around December 2009, I quickly lost a significant amount of hair on my left temporal area. I'm estimating a patch of hair about 1" X 1". This happened really fast. In January 2010, I began to notice that my crown was feeling a bit "flat" as if the hair was thinning. I had the usual suspects examine it for me and no one seemed to be too concerned or thought that there was loss on the crown.
At the beginning of this month, February 2010, with the medical testing behind me, I decided to go on Propecia instead of Avodart. I've been taking the finasteride at 2.5mg/day. Hopefully, it will start working and doing its thing soon because yesterday I decided that my crown was definitely feeling funny and noticeably thin, so I took some pics and was shocked at what I saw. There's no longer any question about it - I've got a noticeable "spot" on my crown. I also went to get a hair cut yesterday and my stylist indicated there had been a significant change since she had seen me 4 weeks ago.
I am sick about this and absolutely shocked at how quickly this occurred, while off the medication. I am attaching a pic below.
About the Avodart, I would also like to add that the only side effects that I noticed, during the years I used it, was dry skin. I never had an issue with dry skin before, but while on Avodart, the skin on my face, arms, hands, legs, knees and elbows became really dry. Oh, and one other thing that was definitely related to the Avodart was a reduction in the volume of my ejaculate. I would say this was reduced by at least 50%.
