Thanks for your replies. I meant in my post that I was considering taking both orally and topically dutasteride. I read on a couple of sites of people getting very quick positive results from putting on dutasteride topically. From your replies, I think I will hold off.
In answer to your question as to whether dutasteride is stopping my hair loss, I will give you some background on my hair loss history up to this point.
I was on Propecia for approximately 12 years, from 19 and a half to 31 and a half. The propecia completely stopped all hair loss and I had a very thick head of hair 11 of those years. I thought all of my problems of hair loss were solved. Around the age of 30, after about 11 years on Propecia, I noticed my hair starting to thin. The propecia seems not to be as effective anymore. I had in fact never heard of Proscar or dutasteride at this time and thought that propecia was the only pill on the market to stop hair loss. The reason I didn't know about dutasteride or proscar is because since my hairloss problems seemed to be over while on propecia, I never further researched hair-loss on the net.
About 8 months ago, I went to a hair transplant doctor in Thailand about my thinning. He said he could transplant hair to the temple area (an area that had suddenly balded at age 18 and which had gotten bigger after Propecia lost its effectiveness) but he could not transplant any hair to anywhere else on my head, because in fact all of my hair was still on my head, it was just thin. He told me that he would have nowhere to put the hair grafts. He did the transplant to the sides (1,300 grafts) and told me just to stay on the propecia and hope for the best.
As the thinning progressed, I started researching the internet about propecia losing its effectiveness and discovered that other people had been having the same problem, remarkably many having the problem after the same number of years as me, 11 or 12 years. I still had not stumbled upon any oral alternatives to Finasteride. I decided that my only alternative was some sort of topical shampoo that might thicken my hair. So I ordered some Nizoral 2 %. I was thrilled about how thick that stuff was making my hair. I started using the Nizoral almost every day because of the thickening effect it was having. However, after about a month on Nizoral, I noticed that my hair was starting to shed big time. I found out that I was using the Nizoral way too much. The Nizoral thinned me out so much that I was afraid to use it anymore even once a week. I did however start using it about a month ago, once a week.
So then I decided to find another shampoo and that is when I stumbled upon Revita, a day that will live in infamy for me, as Revita almost completely decimated my hair. I was using Revita 5 days a week as directed by the company. After a few weeks of this, I went through an absolutely atrocious shed that I still have not gotten over. I immediately stopped the Revita, even though the damage had been done. Revita thinned my hair 50 %, no exaggeration. I truly curse that company to this day. I stopped Revita 9 weeks ago. After I stopped Revita, the shedding stopped, however even now, 9 weeks later, none of that shed hair has come back. I'm hoping and praying that that hair will come back any day now. Everyone says that shed hair comes back two to three months after the shed, so hopefully that will happen.
At almost the same time I stopped Revita, I got off Propecia and started dutasteride, .5 mg/day. For about two months, until about two weeks ago, all shedding had stopped. There was no really thickening to speak of, and no hair had come back, but the shedding had stopped. Then about two weeks ago, shedding started again, presumably from having had started dutasteride two months earlier. I am now two weeks deep into the shed. My hair is a mere shadow of what it was before I went on the alternative Propecia journey. I hope and pray that the shedding will stop very soon, the dutasteride. will kick in, all of my hair from the Nizoral and Revita debacles grows back, and ultimately my hair thickens back to the stage it was before Propecia stopped losing effectiveness. I realize that's a lot to ask, but many people have reported results like this, so maybe it will work out for me. Right now, my hair is a complete mess. The hairs on my head feel very week and are extremely thin. When I come out of the shower, I can see my scalp quite a bit. Even when my hair is dry, when I pull up my hair I see major scalp. I have tried desperately with powders, wax, hairsprays, etc. to cover up the balding, but at this point it is next to impossible to do so. My self-esteem is shot as well. If dutasteride works out for me, I will sing its praises throughout the internet. I will try to keep people updated with my results on dutasteride.
