24M.
I was on Dutasteride 0.5 mg and topical minoxidil 2.5% for from Sept 2023 - May 2025. It did little to stop my hair loss.
There were periods where I would lose very little to no hair. But those lasted for at most 2 weeks. In general I lost hair but I believe it was less than what my hair loss was like without meds, although not by much.
I’ve had next to no growth from topical minoxidil over these last two years but never tried oral because I was afraid of sides. Dutasteride had had its share of sides on me. I got ED and my libido severely decreased.
In January 2025, I found out I was severely vitamin D deficient and so started taking 40,000 ug supplements per week, hoping it would help. But I saw no real change.
In late March 2025, I noticed some of my eyebrow hairs falling off. This exacerbated and by April, I was losing close to 10-15 hair strands from each eyebrow everyday. I would wake up, feel a tingling sensation in my eyebrows, gently run my fingers over them, and voila, 4-5 hairs stuck to my fingers off from each eyebrow. I would feel itchy over there, very gently scratch over them and lose hair.
I visited a dermatologist and she diagnosed me with telogen affluem. I got thyroid and other tests done and at this point (mid April) stopped taking vitamin D because I was on the higher end of the normal levels for it. I haven’t taken vitamin D since.
I’ve been losing my eyebrow hairs since that day. Someday it’s very bad, 10-15 hairs an eyebrow each day. Other days it’s as little as 2-3 each eyebrow. I sweat a lot on my head when I am out in the sun (I suspect it’s because the lesser hair means I am exposed more, but idk) and largely lose my eyebrow hairs when I wipe the sweat from them.
I’m honestly just losing hope. I have my dad’s genes. I have a similar eyebrow shape and structure to him but compared to his younger pictures form around my age, I have thicker eyebrows. He’s completely bald on the crown and scalp and has very thin, almost non-existent eyebrows (his eyebrows have receded a lot from when he was young)
Is it time to start oral minox? I’m scared of the sides. Is there any test I can do to check if minoxidil is even gonna work for me?
I’m off Dutasteride for now because I just had enough of it. I don’t want to start it again, would rather use finasteride because of the shorter half-life.
Sorry about the wall of text. I’m just very gloomy right now, would appreciate any thoughts or advice. Thank you.