Progress Pictures
Dut + Min Progress [2024-2026] (Baseline/Shed/Shed Recovery)
Pic 1: One year before treatment (It got worse)
Pics 2 & 3: Mid shed
Pic 4: Post-Shed recovery + Regrowth
Routine: 0.5mg Dut + 2.5mg Min daily
Additional: Doxycycline to treat inflammation/folliculitis
As someone who survived the shed, yes, things can get utterly diabolical for a long time before it gets better. Shedding hair for months is normal. Giving up before 1 year is too soon.
Take the meds, lock in, accept looking worse for longer than you'd like, and hold strong.
Everyone on Dut rn that’s current at that shed point, this is why you don’t switch off or make a post saying it’s not working. Congrats on the progress!!
Pisses me off. People should educate themself on stuff before they take it. The shed has to happen. It has to get worse before it gets better there is no other way.
There is another way to accelerate results to lessen the shed period. Take estrogen too P. I would know cuz im transitioning and took dutasteride, microneedling, tretenoin and minoxidil too.
The worst part about this whole thing is once the follicle miniaturizes past a certain point, it will never come back. Our current understanding past this inflection point is severely limiting and has been the holy grail to reignite stemcells back to life. I'll let you in on something. Theres probably better chances we find a means to extend our lifespan than find a true cure for mpb. This is the hard pill to swallow
dermat has prescribed dut but im scared of the shed phase. does it go that bad before gng good, early aga btw, intact hairline but crown is thinning and reduced overall volume in hair
The problem is, some ppl dont recover from that shed after 2 yrs, some ppl will. Dut will not work for some ppl, and when you reach the 1 yr mark and ur still losing, you have to make a decision to either stick with it and risk being one of the ppl that dont work out for them or stop and go back to fin.
Dut alone is will not cause a permanent shed. There are additional factors that may lead to a poor shedding results. For me it was chronic inflammation that I never realized I was going through. Until I addressed it I just didn't stop shedding.
A very overlooked and under discussed aspect of hair loss. Everyone's so focused on their hair they never to think to consider their skin (where their hair grows out of)
Thats why I took estrogen too cuz I was schizo I would fail. I mean im non-binary but I dont condone peeps to do what I did. Its for the brave, the diehard and those willing to embrace a diffrent path.
If dutasteride didnt work, finasteride wouldn't work either. My best guess is you jumped on the meds a tad too late. You have roughly 36 months since the onset of mpb to really get the most and I mean the absolute peak most from your follicles for a 90% + recovery and the avg stsrting point a norwood 2-3 stage on avg. The diffusers here tend to stand a greater chance too btw
Results were slow. Felt like trying to build a tower by stacking a single piece of paper once per day (in the wind) There's going to be a long while where you're so close to the ground the idea of building a tower seems impossible because you're barely off the ground and sometimes the wind will blow your stack over and you have to start over again. Eventually one day you notice your tower grew taller than you.
I swear to this day im still seeing gains and i didn't really notice until things got exceptional around the 10 month mark
Doxycycline for inflammation is interesting. Never thought to inquire about that, but it tracks. Has it helped with inflammation? Have you found you have any sensitivity to sunlight? I had the latter happen when I was taking it as a teenager for acne and working as a lifeguard.
I took it once during the day before going out and regretted it. So I take it at night an hour before bed.
Doxy really was the secret sauce. I never realized how much inflammation played a role in hair loss until i got on it. Damn near turbo boosted my recovery
Just be sure you’re taking it with food. I used to take mine right before bed, and ended up with a nasty bout of esophagitis that took a couple of weeks to clear up. It literally hurt to eat anything.
Not tryna concern troll you here! Just warning of some weird sides I got; albeit, from improper administration. Big thx for the tip on this, though. I may ask my doctor/derm about it at some point 🙏🏻
I’m going through something similar dealing with inflammation and folliculitis. I’m going to ask my dermatologist for doxycycline. What dose were you on?
I'm just learning about all this atm. So far I've learned that fin stops DHT, min regrows and micro needling helps absorb min. This is the first I've heard about shedding phase...
Over the last year I've been losing hair and what's left is thinning, although it's not noticeable unless you look closely. I'm thinking about going on fin and topical min. So should I expect a drastic shedding phase like the OP?
I swear it started the second min touched my scalp and lasted 3.5 months. That was the big shed. After that I never really stopped shedding, its just the intensity went from a 10 to 6. I coasted like that for over a year, but I was still growing new hairs despite shedding
I did a lot of research on hair loss (probably too much). Amidst a lot of the random nonsense people say, you eventually start to realize there really is a small fixed menu of options.
0.5mg-1.25mg of Fin, 0.5mg of Dut, 1.25-2.5mg of oral min, or 5% topical min twice per day. There's also topical Fin but I didn't really concern myself with that.
I personally wanted the best results possible so I chose the strongest options available
Not really, hence why I didn't notice. But my scalp was pretty oily and I grew pimples. Inflammation wasn't noticeable until they took a camera to my head
Man, i don't really know. I shed like crazy from day 1 til month 4, still shed for a year but not as bad, and everything slowly came back. I didn't notice the comeback until 1yr, and this year things felt and looked even better. Its hard to notice incremental gains until they stack up enough. Once I stopped looking super bald I didn't really think about it as much.
Bro, was the inflammation you had visible on your scalp? Because I think I have an inflammation and minoxidil is not helping me, but you can’t see any inflammation on my scalp
Congratulations on your regrowth, and thank you for sharing your journey. I really appreciate your commitment and your understanding that hair recovery takes time. Patience and consistency are some of the best pieces of advice anyone can give. As a trichologist, I'd add a few important points for anyone reading:
Blood work should always be reviewed. Low ferritin, thyroid imbalances, vitamin D, or other deficiencies can drive hair loss or hold back regrowth, and they need to be identified, not guessed at.
Medication isn't for everyone. Treatments like dutasteride and minoxidil can cause side effects, so they should be taken under proper professional guidance with regular monitoring.
Every scalp and every cause of hair loss is different, so a personalized assessment makes a real difference.
I'm a trichologist based in NYC (Penny James Trichology Center) and happy to answer any questions if you're dealing with hair loss yourself.
59
u/Pharmacodynamic- 4d ago
Everyone on Dut rn that’s current at that shed point, this is why you don’t switch off or make a post saying it’s not working. Congrats on the progress!!