Last month I made it to exactly 1 year on dutasteride and minoxidil, oral, and results have been good.
However since then I’m losing so much hair, all the progress is being erased! Temples are growing, top of the head is getting balder and everytime I as much as run my fingers through it I can pluck at least 3 hairs from it.
WHY? IT WAS GOING SO WELL!
Dutasteride can only slow hair loss, if you are lucky it will slow it so much that it’s like it stopped it 100%, if you are less lucky, you will keep losing hair but slower
You’re not giving a lot details so I have to speculate, maybe you’re not consistent with minoxidil, maybe it’s just normal healthy hair shedding. 3 hairs doesn’t seem like much tho
Right, I’m sorry, here’s more details:
Male, 23 years old, losing hair since ~17
Norwood 2.5
Started with Minoxidil & Dutasteride around May last year and saw great progress, hair loss slowed by about 80%
Recently (for a month now) however hairloss accelerated again, returning to the speed it was before starting with the meds. I have been taking both of them daily, although I was a bit flaky a few months ago (forgetting maybe about 2 days per week).
The hairloss currently is BAD, it’s 3 hairs each time I pass my hand through my head. There’s hair all over my home, just like, if not even MORE than before I started the treatment.
It’s like my body just started resisting the dutasteride? Or it stopped having an effect?
What are my options here? Switch to a higher dosage? Finasteride? Could it be vitamin or hormone related? I really dreaded that this could happen, and it’s happening.
I’ve seen some people reporting (seemingly) abnormal hair shedding with dutasteride. From how potent dutasteride is, I would expect it to cause more hair shedding and even more when it’s combined with minoxidil. Did you ever shed during this year or is this your first shedding phase ?
Heavy hair shedding is really hard to analyse because it can happen naturally and 5AR ihibitors and minoxidil change the hair cycle and a bunch of things that can make you shed without it being a permanent shed
You are not consistent with your minoxidil application, you should apply minoxidil twice daily tho you can get away with once daily. Missing 2 days a week seems like a lot to me, I think it would compound over time to make you lose hair. Missing dutasteride twice a week is not as bad but still, it’s supposed to be taken daily
You can have resistance to dutasteride and loss of effect but it’s rare
Finasteride is a less potent 5ARi so I don’t think it would help
Now what are your options ? I would say first to go to a dermatologist so he can verify if you have androgenic alopecia and not some other alopecia, blood work to rule out any defiencies, you can try topical finasteride and the most important imo, be consitent with your medication because otherwise it’s hard to have a clear picture and know what’s causing what
If none of this works, then you can explore some alternative experimental treatments because DHT is not the only androgen that messes with your hair follicles unfortunately
It is my first noticeable heavy shed, I didn’t experience the customary “first three months of dutasteride” shed.
I was under the impression that oral minoxidil, having a systemic effect, didn’t require two applications per day, but thanks for correcting that. I’ll make sure I’ll take it correctly every day.
I’ve also scheduled a full bloodworks for this week, if I have any abnormalities with hormones or vitamins I’ll make an update in this thread.
Thank you.
Sorry I made a mistake, topical minoxidil requires 2 applications per day, oral minoxidil is once per day, but what I said still applies, you will shed if you consistently miss days, minoxdil’s half life is pretty short
Good luck man and update us