Thinning/Shedding in temple area.

[Derpicus]

I'm concerned over my shedding/thinning while on Finasteride which I've been on for around 5 months now. I noticed some new hair growth that was making it look like I would be a Norwood 1 or 1.5 again at like 2 months of use once that hair started to fill in more or thicken more. I got my hopes up but I noticed a bit of thinning making it more of a visible horseshoe pattern. There's still hair there but it keeps moving up and creating a more thin area.

I've read that this could be a sign that it's working as it generally gets worse before it gets better but. My male pattern baldness was spreading quite slowly and now it went from just a receding hairline to thinning my hair horribly around the temples. I don't have access to photos to quite prove it at the moment, but I've been keeping track of how my hairs been doing since I started on finasteride and the thinning has spread quite a bit. I'm not sure if finasteride is working for me, and I've asked about Avodart but my doctor refuses to try it out as its not FDA approved. I live in Canada as well so I don't think I have the option of an online pharmacy. Should I just stick it out with the finasteride? Is this sort of thing normal while on Finasteride? I've been really stressing about it lately the past 2-3 weeks which is probably not helping my situation either. I appreciate any sort of response I get.

 

[L&R]

Stick it out on the finasteride. Like yourself, I noticed small new hair growth after a couple months on finasteride, but from month 2 to maybe 4.5 was awful for thinning. After that thinning finally stopped, the regrowth has been very strong and a lot more noticeable over the last month and my hair is better than where I started in just that short time. You really need to tough it out (assuming no major sides) for a year before knowing if it works for you or not.

 

[Derpicus]

Thanks, its great to hear that someone else had the same experience and then had some good results after the thinning. I don't have any side effects which everyone seems to say they get or have, so I was really questioning if it was working. I was told to wait a year optimally before I would see good results, and I was just stressing because I want to keep what I have, and the thinning really set me off. So if this was a sign it wasn't working I wanted to switch to Avodart since I've read that it can respond for people that finasteride didn't respond to.

 

[L&R]

I haven't posted pictures before, but I'll try to give you a better look at my progression. I hit my worst stage from around 3.5 months to 4 months, then started noticing more of the new growth around 4.5 months, and now it's been filling in ever since (currently at 5.25 months).

 

[Derpicus]

Really appreciate you posting your progress. It looks like it's been working wonders for your hair you can really see the improvement that it's done for you.