From: JB
Date: 03 May 2000
Time: 14:39:43
Remote Name: proxy-538.public.rwc.webtv.net
Guys...give the medicine a chance to work. Here are the facts: EVERYONE loses up to 150 hairs/day. It' normal. Seeing strands of hair is not shedding--shedding involves clumps of hair falling out. Yes, Propecia causes some hair to fall out--it's called telogen effluvium--essentially it's a reaction to the hormonal change your body is undergoing--the same reason some women lose hair while pregnant or while on/stopping birth control pills. Also...remember that we are all being super-sensitive at this point and that we are more aware of any hairs that we see outside of our hair. Stick with it. It's silly to stop the medicine because you see some hair loss--that means it's working. The hairs in the resting (telogen) phase are coming out to allow the new hairs to grow. This is exactly the time to stay on the medicine--the expected shedding will end soon and the medicine will have a chance to work. I know, it's odd that a medicine that's supposed to retain hair actually causes it to fall out (it's the hormone change) and you feel like you're going backwards. My doctor explained it to me like this: very often when taking medicines you seem to get worse before you get better. Did you ever take oral acne medicine? Remember how it got worse before it got better because everything came to the surface? That's what is happening here--the resting hairs are leaving the surface. So...one last closing point: remember that we all lose 100-150 hairs each day...so if you see ten in the shower, twenty in the sink, some on the floor, some around other areas of the house...they still haven't added up to the normal daily loss of 100-150. Also...one other thing: we are all hyper-critical...no one else sees what we are complaining about.