Hey guys I [28M] have been on my hair loss journey for the past couple of years and I’ve gotten to the point where I’m feeling a bit hopeless. I had tried multiple forms of 5-alpha reductase inhibitors to find a route that didn’t cause terrible sides, and finally landed on topical dutasteride + topical minoxidil (max strength) from Happy Head as my choice. I have been using this consistently for a year, but the shedding has never ceased or gotten better. Every few days I’m picking a mat of hair out of the drain, and after a year my hair looks worse than it ever has.
I have tried to reach out to the “doctor” at happy head and got an AI response that didn’t help. All I keep seeing is that shedding normally gets better after 6 months of treatment and then you get your regrowth. So what if it doesnt stop? What if you keep shedding until you have nothing left? I understand that shedding is a normal part of the air growth process with these drugs but how do I know that it isn’t actual permanent loss and not shedding if it never gets better? In my mind permanent hair loss would be in essense identical to shedding at a glance, so someone experiencing “shedding” may be losing their hair forever and not realize it.
All I see is “trust the process bro” but everyone is different, and for some few people this process will not work. I’m starting to feel like one of those people, please let me know if I’m thinking about this wrong or what else I can do.