Finasteride stopping me from tanning & turning my beard and eyebrows white?

General Basic Questions
1

Hey guys,

Been on Fin (1.25mg EOD) for a few years now. It maintained my baseline (no regrowth), and I have zero libido sides, which is great.

But I noticed something weird: I basically can’t get a tan in the sun anymore. A few months ago, I upped my dose, and now I’m suddenly getting white/light hairs in my beard and eyebrows. It’s definitely not natural aging – my dad still has fully dark hair, and the hair on my scalp/body is totally normal. I also got my Vitmain D and B12 checked and they were ok.

I found this study:https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5859039/ From what I understand, Finasteride actually inhibits melanin production. Interestingly, this seems to be caused by the molecule itself and isn’t linked to the 5AR-inhibition.

Has anyone else experienced this? I’m thinking about changing my protocol to let my melanin recover and have two ideas:

Switch to oral Dutasteride: Since it’s a different molecule, maybe it doesn’t mess with melanin production? Couldn’t find any studies on Dut and melanin, so just guessing here.

Switch to Topical (Fin or Dut): I know it still goes systemic, but the concentration in the blood would be much lower.

What do you guys think? Has anyone dealt with this and found a workaround?

2

That’s normal, you get white hairs on beard first and in the scalp later. And it’s not only decided by your dad genetics but also your mom, grandmom, granddad etc. Your dad not having white hairs at your age doesn’t explain it. It also depends on other things, like if you are getting a lot of sun exposure you can get white hairs more easily. If you are getting poor sleep, or stress etc.

There is no evidence as far as I know that finasteride causes white hairs earlier when used in humans.