Is my routine good enough?

[JHHRRM]

Hi,
I’m 29 years old and I have diffusive hair loss for years now, in my country you can’t really get your hands on finasteride, so I tried to save my hair for years with just minoxidil, but I gave up as it had no effect.

I discovered I can order topical finasteride from minoxidilmax (are they legit?) so I placed an order.

My routine is the following:
1mg oral minoxidil in the morning

1ml of 0.05% finasteride and 7.5% minoxidil solution from minoxidilmax in the evening.

1mg oral minoxidil before sleep.

1x /week 0.5mm dermarolling.

I have enough solution for a year, but I’m afraid 0,5mg of topical fin won’t be enough or if the website is legit at all. I don’t know if 1mg of oral minoxidil in the morning and 1mg in the eveing is enough, or should I take 2mg in the morning and just the solution in the evening? I would take more than 1+1, but there is minoxidil in the topical solution as well so I can’t take much more.

what should I do? I’m desperate to save my hair.

[baldbutnotbold]

TL;DR: Your routine is NOT enough. See why below.

@JHHRRM

1ml of 0.05% finasteride and 7.5% minoxidil solution from minoxidilmax in the evening.

0.05% finasteride is not a typical dose my man. Typical dose is 0.1% to 0.3%. Given you are losing your hair at 29 and that it is going on for years, it may not hold the line though I am not sure. Maybe it will, maybe not. Not the time to risk it, better safe than sorry. You should up the dosage in my belief under a doctor’s guidance.

@JHHRRM

1mg oral minoxidil in the morning 1mg oral minoxidil before sleep

1mg of minoxidil is nothing against AGA, but you mention that you take 2mg daily. This complicates things, we know that 1mg is not enough but taken twice daily could be effective, again maybe yes maybe no. It is not the time to risk it. I would say you would be far better of taking 2.5mg oral minoxidil per day, once daily as a pill. but consult with a doctor as always before taking any medicines.

@JHHRRM

1x /week 0.5mm dermarolling.

Dermarolling is not something I do myself but I would advise you to be careful with it as it may ruin future hair transplants if done unwell. Also, microneedling could be done better via dermastamps/dermapens rather than dermarollers. I cannot tell whether this is good or not, but it is often said that 0.75mm-1mm is the better option, done weekly or every 10 days. Again I don’t know much, so don’t want to give these advices. I have yeast on my scalp and microneedling would likely fuck my epidermis and perhaps the scalp microbiome.

@JHHRRM

website is legit at all.

I also don’t know whether minoxidilmax is legit, so cannot comment on that either, I don’t recall ever having had bought anything from them.

@JHHRRM

I would take more than 1+1, but there is minoxidil in the topical solution as well so I can’t take much more.

Ok man, let’s do the math, shall we . So I assume that your topical fin+min solution from minoxidilmax contains 0.05% of fin and 7.5% of minoxidil, as you mention it that way. I never used it myself and don’t know the product’s precise ingredient amount. So, in every 100ml of this solution there is 7.5 grams of minoxidil and 50miligrams of finasteride per what you had written. I looked at the minoxidilmax website and found that many of the products there are 60milileters rather than the 100ml and it often is mentioned that 60ml should last 2months with once daily application. It is also suggested there to use only 1 ml per day not for the product you mention but for other products that they sell, so 1mlx60uses=60days worth of usage, so with 1ml it should last 2 months, 2mo=60 days. In each 1ml (assuming a proper homogenous mix) there must exist (given the equation of) (7.5(g)/100(ml)) = [(7.5/100)/(100/100)], that is about 0.075 grams worth of minoxidil per each mililiter. 0.075 grams of minoixidl is equal to about 75 miligrams of minoxidil. Typical scalp absorption of (I assume you apply 1ml and that minoxidil here is 7.5% in concentration and that it is a homogenous mix) of this minoxidil is given at 1.2%-1.4% for various sources. On average thus it would be (1.2+1.4)/2=1.3%, 0.075x(1.3/100)=0.000975. So, with each application you are getting about 0.9 miligrams of minoxidil into your system. 2mg, as in 1mg morning and 1mg evening before sleep plus 0.9 miligrams to your system roughly means that you get 2.9mg per day but it is spaced out. If 1mg is taken with 12 hr apart, that is 1mg evening and 1mg in morning, since minoxidil’s elimination half life is 3-4 hours, we can write the formula of elimination as f(x)=(x/2^3) at 12 hours (we assume that 4hr is the time it takes to be eliminated from the system by half.), for 1mg it is likely going to be 1/8 that is about 0.125 mg. So with an extremely rough calculation, you take a very tiny amount, that is unimportant and distributed over time (from topical) + 1mg (from oral) + 0.125mg (when the previous oral is still in your system) by evening, this is less than 2.5 miligrams per day and is likely safe. Keep in mind that A) I don’t take into account the scalp elimination half-life of minoxidil, that is a different matter and irrelevant B) previous doses eg. yesterday may add up.. As long as you stay below 2.5mg per day, you are generally safe however as always consult a doctor, this is NOT a proper medical review/calculation.

I rate your treatments as 5/10. Oral minoxidil at 2.5mg+Oral finasteride/dutasteride at 1-1.25mg and 0.5-1mg, respectively and switching to dermastamping will be better in my humble opinion for you. Consider adding topical spironolactone or ketoconazole and you will be golden. As always, refer to a good-proper (not all are created equal) doctor before taking any medicines or for even stuff like dermarolling, where your health is of concern.

The thing is, androgenetic alopecia has two treatments: finasteride/dutasteride and minoxidil (this is also used in areata btw) for regrowth. I cannot ethically and legally tell you to go take this and that as I am not a doctor but if you don’t or cannot use these medicines, you have to accept that hair loss will continue my man. You have to make a choice yourself, “with my own research am I ready to become both my own doctor and pharmacist or NOT”? I had to do this because dermatology doctors here are uninformed on hair loss and had to get the medicines required myself. I conducted hours upon hours upon hours of research on everything, read at least like fifty articles and researched what is 5-alpha-reductase and how fin/dut etc. work. Phases of hair, structure of epidermis of scalp and scalp regions, what is DHT etc. But I cannot advise or tell you to do the same thing and get the meds yourself, it literally constitutes as a medical advice, unethical and not legal. This is a bit of a brave decision to make, that is all I can say.

out of curiousity where do you live? In US, Europe etc. finasteride is cheap and easy to obtain. I adivse you to see a proper dermatologist mate. then if you get prescribed finasteride, get proscar and divide tablets via pill splitting tool that you can order from places like amazon (not with a knife) into 4. this will give you roughly 1.25mg of finasteride dose each, extra 0.25mg is not harmful typically, don’t worry even if standard finasteride is 1mg in dose. Or you could obtain finasteride raw powder and make finasteride topical solution yourself if you know how to do things (like I do, humblebragging ), given that your doctor prescribes it to you. But i would advise you to get it compounded nevertheless. I used a topical solution of; 70% Ethanol, 20% PG, 5% Minoxidil, 0.1% Finasteride plus some vitamins etc. myself for 2-3 weeks until I switched to dutasteride.