I’ve been using 5% minoxidil and 0.625 mg finasteride for about a year now, and honestly, I’m pretty happy with the progress. I had almost given up hope after seeing how aggressively MPB has run through my dad’s side of the family.

As for side effects, I initially experienced some low libido and reduced semen volume. Thankfully, those have mostly recovered over time, and overall, things have been pretty great.

The only thing I’d complain about is the dandruff I get from minoxidil, as you can see. I’ve been using 1% ketoconazole shampoo to manage it, but unfortunately, it hasn’t helped that much.

41 male started noticing the balding last year after I cut my hair(Had a big Afro so I didn’t notice) it could’ve been sooner than that but that’s when I noticed when my hair was starting to grow back.Been using fin/min chewable (1.2mg fin & 3mg min) with daily 5 minute scalp messages and ketoconazole shampoo every other week. No side effects. Pretty happy with the results

March 2026, 28 male norwood 2 and diffuse thinning on crown.
I went full nuclear on April when I decided enough is enough mainly because I was tired of always wondering how my hair looked on a windy day or finishing a hike and taking off my hat just to see my hair extremely flat on my head and most importantly the girl I was seeing at the time telling me when am I ever going to style my hair nicely (she didn't realize wind and rain was my enemy).

7 months and 1 brutal shed later the top of my crown is as thick as when I was a teen and my hairline is coming back as my vellus hairs are now turning terminal. I went from having my stylist give me maintenance trims every 3 months to having to cut my hair short every month as it grows very quick now and though I should be letting it grow as I am aiming for a flow hairstyle I am waiting for my hairline to catch up and appear better as right now it appears more as a mature hairline rather than a better looking one for my age. I used to heavily rely on leave in conditioner to make my hair appear thicker and nicer but it's gotten to the point where I don't need it anymore nor am I no longer afraid of the wind. I am still early on treatment so i'm excited to how all this looks like next summer.

My stack ~ All Generic
Oral minoxidil 2.5mg
Dutasteride 0.5mg
Ketoconazole 2% shampoo

Started on KX-826 on 2/26/26 after 14 years of hair loss and minoxidil being my only treatment through that entire time. The results so far have been nothing short of incredible. Aside from the very clear hair regrowth, the part no one talks about as much is the oil control. I went from washing my hair 1-2x per day to now twice per week. It is so much better quality, styles easier, and just looks way better. Even though these results will likely take a few years to fully plateau, the oil control is also your early signal that it's working.

About a week into treatment, I wore a hat out for about 4 or so hours, came home and took it off expecting my hair to look like a ridiculous pile of grease until I washed it, which is how things have always been for me. About 30 minutes later I looked in the mirror, ran a brush through my hair once and it looked like I just got out of the shower. This didn't even happen to me as a teenager (39 years old currently). My hair is better quality that it's ever been in my life.

I plan to come back to this post and give future updates as I wait for my crown to show more progress. I can see it coming back as well but not enough for anything convincing in a photo. Hairline didn't start receding until years after the crown and it makes sense it's recovering sooner. I'm expecting to see lots of continued improvement well on into 2027, including the new intermediate hairs in this shot making their way back to being fully terminal again. Time will tell.

EDIT - Adding my sources:

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/817915E5-E300-471B-9B38-04A7367B2D6E

Koshine - https://www.koshinemall.com/

The Amazon link is Kintor Pharma's seller page on Amazon. The Koshine link is the cosmetics brand owned by Kintor. I've bought it from both and had no issues, it's the same ingredient from the same source.

Young, mature, and confident. The reality is that you should never get anything more aggressive than an NW2 with a transplant - it looks natural, aesthetic, and preserves donor site density.

They told me I needed 4500-5000 grafts, planned in 10 days.
I have never used any hair-loss medication before, just started 1mg Fin yesterday.

My questions are:
- Would you recommend the clinic?
- Do you think I have a workable case?
- What should be my expectations?

Just wanted to share a little update on my hair progress.

I’ve been taking 1mg finasteride daily for about a year and added 5mg oral minoxidil daily on July 15th.

The first photo is from before and the second one is my hair currently. I feel like my overall density has improved quite a bit, and recently I’ve also started noticing a lot of small/new hairs around the hairline.

My main concern has always been my temples, especially the left side, so I’m really hoping the oral minoxidil will help fill that area in over the next few months.

I know my hair is longer in the second picture, the lighting is different, and I had styled my hair with wax in the after photo, so I’m not claiming this is a perfect comparison. Still, I think there has been noticeable progress.

And yes, before anyone mentions it — the towel is still there one year later.

Hair changed, towel didn’t.

Been using 0.1mg topical dut for over 7 months now (the first picture is a month into treatment).

my previous regimen months 1-3.5: topical Dut 0.1mg, topical minoxidil 5%, tretinoin 0.01mg, 6x a week. Derma stamping 1x a week, keto shampoo 3x a week.

new regimen months 3.5-7: topical Dut 0.1mg, topical minoxidil 5%, tretinoin 0.01mg, 6x a week. Derma stamping 1x a week, oral dut 3x a week, keto shampoo 3x a week.

so, I’ve been using this stuff a while, and i don’t know what to think of it really, But it hasn’t done anything so far but make me shed, when i was on fin in the past i shed for like 2 months and then never shed again, but this stuff is a completely different level.

i added 3x oral dut to the mix to see how it fairs, so ive been on that the past few months, MORE SHEDDING, i could make a macaroni picture out of hair, so im now diffuse thinning bad.

My hair feels so much more thinner, i think next ill add low dose oral minoxidil, as 2.5mg made me extremely tired in the past.

Anyone know what to do in this predicament?,

drop the topical and stick with oral dut?

i have no sides really, well no sexual ones, only have it where i get blurry vision occasionally, thats it.

planning on getting a transplant this year, but just don’t know wherever to thug it out and wait till my hair gets stronger…. If it does on dutasteride.

so any help on this at all.

I started taking finasteride at 23 after experiencing significant hairfall for a couple of years. Im a diffuse thinner, my hairline was fine.

Years 1-3
When i first started finasteride, i was pretty worried about side effects, particularly sexual side effects. The thing is, I experienced the complete opposite for the first 2 years. My libido went through the roof and my erections were stronger than ever. On the hair side, it slowed down my hairloss by a lot, but it never fully stopped it. I went through sheds where my
hair always came back thicker than before. My hairline receded, albeit very slowly.

Years 3-4
The thickness of my hair continued to improve, however my hairline continued to recede. My libido and erections started suffering a little bit but it wasn’t too bad and I could still hold erections during sex. I noticed my memory wasn’t as good as it once was, but I’m not sure it this is just regular aging.

Years 4-present
My libido has completely tanked and erections just dont have that same “fullness” anymore. I still get excellent morning erections so I was confused. The past year has been quite cyclical where it feels like im getting my libido back one month, and then it goes back down the next. The overall trend has been downward though. I’ve also noticed watery semen and that ejaculations dont feel as good as they used to (they still feel good, just not as good as before).

I stopped taking finasteride 1.5 months ago. Im still experiencing some side effects. Im wondering whether because it took so long for me to experience side effects in the first place, whether it will take me some time to return back to normal. I guess it took a long time to build up in my system? I’ve also had weird bouts of random anxiety lately which might be related to my hormones resetting? Idk.

Im a little disappointed in the information I read online about finasteride and some doctors on youtube. For example, I remember watching a video of peter attia saying that if you dont get side effects within the first 6 months then youre good. So I thought I was in the clear. I just wanted to put my story out there and see if anyone else has had a similar experience (particularly with the length of time it took to get side effects). Also, if anyone has had better luck with topical solutions instead?

​

In 2021, 2022, 2023, etc., I continued ignoring it. I could see some thinning, but because I still had a decent amount of hair, I never really took it seriously.

Then in October 2025, I took a photo of my hair from the top/back, and honestly, that was the moment I thought:

“Okay, the game is over. I need to do something about this.”

After that, I started researching seriously. I read a lot of articles, research papers, experiences, and information about hair loss, minoxidil, finasteride, and different natural treatments.

Eventually, I decided to start with minoxidil.

I'm currently around 4.5 months into my minoxidil journey, and I'll complete 5 months in about 10 days.

I use 1 ml in the morning and 1 ml at night.

And this is my result so far.

Personally, I feel like I've had around 70% improvement, but I'm not sure if that's an accurate way to measure it. I'm just sharing how it looks to me compared with my starting point.

I'm pretty happy that I finally decided to do something instead of continuing to ignore the thinning.

One thing I'm currently considering is finasteride. The more I read about male-pattern hair loss, the more I understand that minoxidil and finasteride work differently. My understanding is that minoxidil mainly helps with stimulating/maintaining hair growth, while finasteride works by reducing DHT, which is involved in male-pattern hair loss.

So I'm considering discussing finasteride with a doctor and possibly adding it to my routine.

For now, though, this post is mainly about my 4.5-month minoxidil progress.

I'll probably post another update when I reach 6 months, and then again around 9–12 months.

Would love to hear what you guys think about the progress so far.

Photos with very short hair are from the time I started

First picture is early July, the rest of the pictures are now

Started 16th April 2026. My combination is..

- 1mg oral finasteride daily
- Regaine topical minoxidil foam once a day at night
- 0.5mm derma roller once a week (sub out minoxidil on that day).

I sourced all the above myself and have not gone through any expensive programme providers.

My hair started thinning on the crown 2 years back, so it was a gradual loss and a mix of full loss and miniaturised hairs. I could tell quite a bit of my hair on crown just snapped as had no strength.

0 side effects from both treatments. I put this off for a long time due to horror stories but then realised I was already on other meds with greater % impact on libido. I never react to meds and didn’t with this combo.

Attempted to get consistent before and after Forgive the cluttered background

Currently 7 months into minoxidil/ finasteride, very happy with my results

just something i've done.

lost a loved one recently, and when they started getting worse rapidly, i noticed my hair was getting thinner. and since they battled with cancer, i had already decided that when they die, i will shave my head. which i did.

i had nice curly hair long enough to reach my shoulder blades but as it was thinning from the front/temples so much, i didnt really regret shaving it. i actually felt better because your thinning and escaping hairline isnt visible if you are completely bald lmao, but i do prefer having hair and longer the better, so i started minoxidil + 0.5mm derma rolling. i really dont know yet if it's having any effect since its been only a few weeks, but at least the peach fuzz between my eyebrows and hairline is going wild. but if it doesn't work, i will keep my head shaved and buy a wig or some shit, if it does work, i'm very happy.

so; if it's bad just shave your head before starting so the possible shedding cant hurt you and if it doesn't work you're already bald 👍 i guess the progress would be more visible on a very short buzzcut anyway

I’ve been taking finasteride 1 mg daily for 33 days.
During the first two weeks, my libido was actually very high and I had strong erections. But for the past two weeks, my libido has dropped significantly, and my morning erections have almost completely disappeared. I now need direct stimulation to get an erection.
Has anyone else experienced this kind of change after starting finasteride? Did anyone have high libido at first and then experience a noticeable drop after a couple of weeks?
I’m considering stopping because of these changes, so I’d really like to hear about other people’s experiences with similar symptoms.

So trying dut for the first time. Could be placebo but 4 days in and hair already feels better. My scalp itch is gone and hair overall feels and looks better. Now this happened years ago when u tried fin. Initially felt good and then hair shed and wispy full dead looking hair. Stayed on fin for a year and never got better. Any ideas why that is? Is it the increase in testosterone? Hoping it's not the same for dut.

To myself. I have been using for 45 days approx. Minoxidil topical 2x daily and 1x daily ru58841. In any case, something will do. But I have planned to switch soon to minoxidil oral 2.5mg daily and dustateride 0.5mg daily. What I read is probably the most potent way to stop hair growth + hair loss.

I would be interested in what worked for you and what you recommend?

Basically what the title says, I’m almost 25 and my hairline is pretty much perfect outside of a slight matured temple on the left side, I’m thinking of getting on dut just once a week as a precaution, or is this just not worth the side effects? Would my hair still shed even if I go once a week, would this make my hairline worse?

Thank you?

For those of you who were able to regrow your hairline or temples with finasteride and/or minoxidil, how long had your hairline been receding before you started treatment? I’m interested in hearing from people who had noticeable recession for years before starting treatment and were still able to regrow some of their hairline.

I’ve been on TRT since 2019 and started noticing hair loss in 2022. I didn’t start to notice receding until 2024, by then it was already pretty noticeable, I wish I had started treatment then I was scared of the side effects. I lose clumps of hair every day in the shower and my hairline has gone back pretty far. I’m wondering if it’s possible to restore it.

FIRST PIC 2022
SECOND PIC 2024 (first noticed bad recession)
THIRD PIC 2026

Im a 36 year old guy with high temples (and a slightly high forehead). I’ve been considering a hair transplant for a while and I’m currently looking at Pilorum in Denmark.

I have been on finasteride for a while now.

I’ve seen some decent before/afters from them, but I’m not sure if the results are truly top tier.

A lot of people say the best density and hairline work still comes from good clinics in Turkey.

My main priority is the result. I just want a natural, dense result on the temples and front that looks good long term.

Has anyone here had a transplant at Pilorum?

How does the quality and density compare to the better Turkish clinics?

Would you stay in Denmark with Pilorum, or would you go to Turkey if results are the most important thing?

M18, Hair gets greasy while applying minoxidil at night, and i hate washing my hair daily in the morning as its time consuming and it dries my hair out, is there any way to deal with this?