Hello, everyone. I’m 20M and been balding since I was 17. I began my hair loss treatment since June 2025. I have been on 1mg finasteride consistently for last 4months. I was also on 5% topical minoxidil (once a day) for the first 2 months but stopped applying it due to some circumstances (I was also not so consistent with applying it and missed a few days during this period). I didn’t stop minoxidil cold turkey though, I used it really inconsistently for another 1 month.
I’m now shedding really heavily(~200 hairs/day) for the past couple of weeks and going way below baseline. Not to mention, my hair fall never really stopped during this treatment. But the hair fall has certainly increased for the past couple of weeks. I’m losing both miniaturized/thin and thick terminal hairs(both short and long). Also I’m losing hairs from every direction of scalp(sides and nape area also).
What does this indicate? I don’t think minoxidil did anything for me as I didn’t apply it consistently enough. Is this shed due to stopping minoxidil, or does this mean finasteride is not working? When will this shed stop and will I regain the hairs that I’m losing now and go back to baseline? Or is this my balding progressing?