So, after an initial stage of denial about the cause of my thinning (I’d grown up hearing the myth that baldness only comes from the mother’s side of the family, and every man on that side is follically blessed), I finally started looking into MPB interventions this year. I decided to start with minoxidil alone because I was worried about the potential side effects of finasteride. After about five months of daily usage (with both the foam and the topical solution), I see…absolutely no improvement. I’m considering just biting the bullet and using finasteride now, but before I do, I have some questions I’m hoping this sub’s members can walk me through.
First, what’s more likely to be the issue with the ineffective minoxidil–that for some reason my scalp just doesn’t respond to it, or that DHT is attacking my follicles so aggressively that it’s canceling out the effects? (Maybe there were a few hairs trying to sprout, but then DHT made them stop and fall out before I could notice them?)
If it’s the former, then…hmm. My understanding’s that finasteride’s pretty effective at preventing further hair loss, but things are less clear when it comes to how much regrowth one can expect. Maybe finasteride will help me maintain my pre-existing hair, but if it doesn’t help me regrow lost hair, and minoxidil doesn’t do that either for me, what then? Would I have to bite another bullet and pony up my savings for a transplant? Or is there any evidence that someone who doesn’t respond to minoxidil at all might conversely respond remarkably well to finasteride when it comes to regrowth?
OTOH, if it’s that the DHT is just overwhelming the minoxidil effects, then finasteride should counter that and allow the minoxidil to finally work. But if this is the case, should I expect a different timeline to start seeing improvement? For instance, if the minoxidil’s been blunted this whole time and only starts kicking in after the finasteride blocks the DHT, would I expect to see an initial stage of further shedding, as if I were using minoxidil for the first time, or would things have progressed past that stage since I’ve already been using it for five months?
Finally, I suppose there’s a possibility the minoxidil could work just fine without needing finasteride, but for some reason I’m just taking longer than usual to show effects, or I’ve somehow been misusing it (not rubbing it in thoroughly enough?). If it’s this, when should I expect to see evidence it actually works? The prospect of rubbing my scalp even more forcefully for another month or however long, and dislodging even more individual hairs, only for it to turn out that I’m simply not responsive to minoxidil, feels intimidating.