My maternal uncles are around 40 and all approximately Norwood 2.
Current regimen:
Minoxidil: ~1 year 10 months
Fynzur spray (topical finasteride): 6 months
Dermastamp: ~1 year 10 months, 1 mm once per week
With this routine I’m able to maintain my hairline.
No diffuse thinning, only hairline involvement.
I often read that starting oral finasteride early gives better long-term protection and prevents future loss before it becomes visible.
Given that my hairline is currently stable, would adding oral finasteride purely as a preventative make sense, or is it unnecessary at this stage considering my family history and current response to topical finasteride?
Looking for input from people who started finasteride young or chose to delay it.
Photos: Last 3 photos are from May 14, the remaining ones are from 3 days ago.
Your current routine looks solid since it’s keeping your hairline stable. Adding oral fin could offer stronger DHT blocking, but can increase side effects. Given your family history and current hair stability, sticking with what you’re doing might be best for now.
oral finasteride is better if you cannot apply the topical finasteride all the way up to the horseshoe area. this is NOT up to debate. if you can do this, then yeah. now you may say “oh but my hair loss is not aggressive, why should I bother?” Because norwood 1 is mature hairline, norwood 2-2.5 are balding (slightly), norwood 3-4 are severely balding and norwood 4-5 are bald but refuse to shave it off. there is only so many norwood scales out there, so don’t be “relaxed” and be aware of what would happen to you. remember; all it takes for you to have to shave it off is for 3-4 inches of recession of hairline further to the crown area and at that point it is over for you. either apply topical finasteride to all regions where thinning can be expected (non-horseshoe area) or accept that there exists some possibility that you may go bald.
