Hey JustStarting.
I've had a positive experience with Finasteride (although this is a repeat of something I recently posted elsewhere). Started it over four-and-a-half years ago, at age 21 when I started to notice the signs of male pattern baldness. As of now, I've maintained almost everything I had when I started -- and that's just with finasteride and no other treatments (except Nizoral 1%). The effects of finasteride are just starting to fade a tiny bit for me now, which is why I've been mulling regimen changes in other threads recently.
As for side effects: when I first started it, I had greasy skin and a little bit of surface acne for a couple weeks. My libido was up and down for a few weeks, but that wasn't really a big deal. (And it was more up than down!) I shed a little bit after six weeks, and then a ton at six months. It really took a full year until I was happy being on the drug -- not because the shedding was so horrible, but because I was convinced that finasteride wasn't doing a damn thing to help me. Once I got to around ten months, I looked in the mirror and realized that things were a bit thicker in back, and that I hadn't deteriorated in front from my baseline at all. Then I realized that the drug was working. Thing was, since nothing very dramatic ever happened, I never noticed it was doing anything for me -- until the day I realized that I'd maintained my hair for a year (and then two, then three, then four years).
Once I realized it was working, I went from being depressed about my hair all the time (and spending lots of time lurking on gourmetstylewellness.com every day) to getting on with my life. Sure, I wish I could have regrown every last hair in back, or restored my hairline to where it was when I was twelve years old, but the results I got were entirely consistent with what the finasteride studies showed: maintenance with maybe just a little regrowth. The key with this drug, as everyone on the gourmetstylewellness.com talk boards kept saying to newbies like me at the time, is patience.
I've had a positive experience with Finasteride (although this is a repeat of something I recently posted elsewhere). Started it over four-and-a-half years ago, at age 21 when I started to notice the signs of male pattern baldness. As of now, I've maintained almost everything I had when I started -- and that's just with finasteride and no other treatments (except Nizoral 1%). The effects of finasteride are just starting to fade a tiny bit for me now, which is why I've been mulling regimen changes in other threads recently.
As for side effects: when I first started it, I had greasy skin and a little bit of surface acne for a couple weeks. My libido was up and down for a few weeks, but that wasn't really a big deal. (And it was more up than down!) I shed a little bit after six weeks, and then a ton at six months. It really took a full year until I was happy being on the drug -- not because the shedding was so horrible, but because I was convinced that finasteride wasn't doing a damn thing to help me. Once I got to around ten months, I looked in the mirror and realized that things were a bit thicker in back, and that I hadn't deteriorated in front from my baseline at all. Then I realized that the drug was working. Thing was, since nothing very dramatic ever happened, I never noticed it was doing anything for me -- until the day I realized that I'd maintained my hair for a year (and then two, then three, then four years).
Once I realized it was working, I went from being depressed about my hair all the time (and spending lots of time lurking on gourmetstylewellness.com every day) to getting on with my life. Sure, I wish I could have regrown every last hair in back, or restored my hairline to where it was when I was twelve years old, but the results I got were entirely consistent with what the finasteride studies showed: maintenance with maybe just a little regrowth. The key with this drug, as everyone on the gourmetstylewellness.com talk boards kept saying to newbies like me at the time, is patience.
