From: akuhlman
Although I am not a qualified doctor, I would like to put forward to following problems relating to the people that are linking hair loss with the use of finasteride.
First of all: I hardly think it is scientific to judge increases / decreases in hairloss with what you 'see' in the shower and on your pillow.
Secondly; if you go to the official propecia webside of Merck and read through the studies it is clear that you will NOT see any results for at least 6 months after using it.
Perhaps there is a psychological factor is all of this as well, especially with regard to the sexdrive. Someone reading about the possibility of a somewhat reduced sexdrive before taking Propecia might lead to self fulfilling prephecies.
I am a user of Finasteride/propecia myself and did not see any results until after 6 months. I have now regrown a lot of hair, and almost have a full head of it again. Not noticed any differences in sexdrive.
From: G-Man
Hi there, I've been using Proscar (1.25 mg/day) for almost 3 months now,and have had increased shedding in the first month and in the past week. I've also noticed my hair gets more oily much more quickly, and that's when the shedding picks up. Obviously, as in most other people suffering from hair loss, these two things are related.
Now, my hair thinning is not your typical MPB pattern. It's sort of diffusely thin all over. I first started to thin right after puberty (15-16), but the pace has been extremely slow, so that it's not overly visible, but my hair looks thin along the frontal hairline and clearly lacks volume. The thing is, I had been using Saw Palmetto for maybe half a year and then had my most severe shedding ever in the fall of 1999, and my scalp irritation, itchiness and dandruff had never been worse(this had been a big problem since about the time my hair started to thin). So I switched to this new shampoo, Polytar-extra medicated, and within two weeks my scalp irritation and flakiness was gone. This shampoo has tar, salicylic acid and menthol, so I guess it's pretty powerful. The amazing thing is, in a month or so I started noticing major regrowth, and I mean "major". It was unbelievable.
I had used Nizoral before, and it had helped with my dandruff and scalp inflammation and had even maybe increased my hair density for a while, but for whatever reason, at one point it stopped working. Anyways, with Polytar (I continued using Saw Palmetto) my hair looked great till the fall of 2000, when the shedding started again and went strong for about a month. So I said "screw it?" and started taking 1.25 mg finasteride. Well, the shedding continued, and my scalp got oilier. I'm still using the Polytar, and have no problems whatsoever with dandruff and only minor scalp irritation, but my shedding has continued to one degree or another.
Sorry about the long post, but I was wondering if anyone else having a slow-progressing diffuse pattern of hairloss has been on finasteride for a while and how the hair loss reacted to the regimen. Is the increased sebum due to finasteride? But if that's so, it's my understanding that DHT is the main culprit for increased sebum oil production and so shouldn't decreased DHT levels result in decreased sebum? It seems a bit paradoxical to me. Also, initially, after starting finasteride, I saw mostly long, thick hairs being shed. Are those the terminal hairs and are they the ones which are supposed to fall out initially with finasteride use? Finally, I just can't figure out where the dense regrowth that I experienced for more than half a year after starting the Polytar shampoo came from, yet now this shampoo, although still controlling the dandruff, no longer seems to have the same beneficial effect on hair density, just like the Nizoral. Finally, after three months of Proscar, the shedding hasn't really stopped, and my hair seems thinner and thinner all over.
I know these are a lot of unconnected questions, but if any one out there knows some of the answers, has experienced a similar pattern or thinks they could provide some advice, it'd be much appreciated. Thanks.
G-Man