I’m a 23-year-old guy who’s been dealing with male pattern baldness since I was 18. Three years ago I started treatment after seeing a doctor. He prescribed 0.5mg oral finasteride + 5% topical minoxidil. After about 8-9 months I finally saw some decent regrowth. It wasn’t a full recovery but it was noticeable.
The doctor then told me to stop the finasteride and continue only with minoxidil. I didn’t know much back then, so I followed his advice. Within 2-3 months the shedding came back. I got worried and went to a second doctor. He put me on 5mg dutasteride every other day + continued minoxidil. I stayed on dutasteride for almost a year but saw zero improvement — the shedding never really stopped and I had no new growth.
After doing more research on this subreddit, I decided to switch to 1mg finasteride daily and 1.25mg oral minoxidil (half a 2.5mg pill). I was hesitant about oral min because I’m already extremely hairy everywhere on my body, but nothing else was working.
I was on 1.25mg oral min for 3-4 months but didn’t see the results people talk about. A week ago I increased to the full 2.5mg. Since then I’ve been experiencing insane shedding. After skipping showers for two days, when I finally showered the hair just poured out — way more than I’ve ever seen in my 5 years of dealing with this. It was all over the floor. I couldn’t even count the hairs.
Is this the normal “minoxidil shed” people talk about, or should I be worried? Has anyone experienced something this aggressive after increasing the dose? Any advice would be appreciated.
Yeah, shedding after bumping up the min dose is pretty common and usually a sign of the drug working. It’s called “minoxidil shed” and means newer, stronger hairs might be growing in. Stick with your routine for a bit longer to see if it improves. Keeping an eye on it and giving it more time is key.
Thanks , so do most of people crazy shed like this?
Please post pictures