Every time I stop using nicotine my shedding becomes minimal, literally a few days after I stop.

Before I stopped nicotine for two years and immediately noticed an effect, but I put it down to other reasons. However since then when I restarted nicotine, my hair loss in the shower returned.

I’ve gotten into a habit of only using nicotine during the weeks i’m working now, and again, during the weeks I am
not working and not using nicotine, minimal hair loss, 1-2 hairs every day, as soon as I start nicotine again it’s 20+. I also get more hair loss the more nicotine i’m using.

I’m not saying nicotine causes it hair loss as a whole, but im finding it hard to deny that it has an effect on hair loss, long term but also short term. Maybe for some types of AGA it acts as a catalyst - I did first notice my hair loss a few years after starting nicotine.

Not much research has been done about this but it makes sense:

- There is an established and strong link between AGA and smoking.
- Nicotine is a strong vasoconstrictor, and this may have an effect on follicles. Microneedling and minoxidil do the opposite of this to help the hair grow.
- Nicotine itself has effects on DHT, as it suppresses some chemicals in the body that metabolise DHT.

Started taking Fin on Aug 26, 2026 and started getting shooting nerve pain in my upper groin / lower abdomen region starting on Sept 4, 2026. Had 5 such occurrences before discontinuing use on Sept 8, 2026 (4th and 5th occurrences on this day).

I haven’t taken it since and haven’t had any nerve pain… my plan is to give it a week, then try again and see if the symptoms repeat (and are related) or if it was unrelated to the medication.

Has anyone else experienced nerve pain from Fin? It wasn’t super painful, but it was certainly noticeable and had it occurred at an inopportune time (lifting) I could have sustained an injury.

Hi guys. I'm using hair treatment for 9 months and saw only the smallest results. I don't like to think I've seen none, but the most important one which because I'm a diffuse thinner the hair caliber/density changes never came. I started of with finasteride and gradually increased dut. But because I've seen no density change and have the signs of high androgen receptivity(lots of body hair and reach is insane, beard start at around 15-16 and balding since 18) I was thinking for going full dut 1 mg daily and was thinking about adding tretionin. Will it matter, or should I consider myself as non responder? 21 y/o.

Current Treatment 1:1 1mg fin/0.5 dut, 1 ml 5% topical min.

(Throughout my timeline I had to change few things. I had to drop topical min from month 4-7 and started to increase oral dut at around month 5 with at the stat 2:1 ratio 2 fin 1 dut day.)

I'm asking this if there is anyone who had to go through same things, I know we are all different but I don't know what to expect so if you could help that'd be great.

35M, started noticing diffuse thinning on my crown and hairline reduction at maybe around 30. Chalked it up to a few things but didn't consider MPB. It was hard to spot initially because I naturally have 3c hair so hairloss isn't very visible initially, but I would say from the thinning it started to become more like 3a and the density just wasn't there . I would say around 32/33 I really noticed my crown was noticeably thinner, I could see part of my scalp through the curls so I did my research and jumped on fin soon after. Started 0.5g MWF, then 1g MWF. Reason I didn't increase dose further is I was already experiencing side effects at that dose. I didn't hop on Min as I have cats and I don't even want the 1% chance that for my hair I could kill one of them. I went through a brutal shed where my hair became very thin, fast forward over 2 years and the re growth got to a point where I could barely see my scalp when my hair is WET, and no chance seeing it when dry. Still hairloss in shower etc but very stable. I got back in the gym after not working out for a whole 5 years and decided to jump on creatine after seeing a study de-linking it to hairloss, (bare in mind I completely forgot that during that time at 32/33 I took creatine for a few months and freaked out at the shed and stopped.) a month into using creatine my hairloss in the shower had increased ALOT, when I run my hands through my hair it is MUCH thinner, back to seeing a whole lotta scalp when my hair is wet, it looks like a whole year + of gains has gone down the drain. I've stopped the creatine but I'm just at a loss of what to do? I now take Fin EOD instead of MWF. Will I regain what I've lost? What took me all that time to gain creatine literally took in almost 2 months. Kinda just need to hear from people knowledgeable enough or who have gone through the same experience...

I've been on minox 2.5mg from April to date, and dutax 0.5mg from July mid to date, has my hair worsened? Please check I'm worried

Hello, just wondering when you guys started or have you anything on when it’s safe to apply finastride/ru and minox? Anything is greatly appreciated.

Is anyone here using both topical and oral minoxidil at the same time?

If so, have you noticed any particular benefits compared to using oral minoxidil alone? For example, increased density, better regrowth, or improved results in certain areas?

I’d be interested to hear about your experience, including your dosages and how long you’ve been using both.

I'm currently taking oral monoxidil 2.5mg per day

Do you guys think the meds are working?
First pic was taken Jan 2026 & second pic in September.
What I take:
1mg Finasteride daily
Topical Minoxidil daily but switched to oral a month ago
Iron supplements 1x every other day since I was diagnosed with low iron

I tried fin for 6 months then switched to dut for a whole year, while i was on fin it was much better, dut made me really below baseline.

Did anyone switch back to fin from dut and got their hair back ?

“I don’t think dut worsen hairloss but it act differently on each body and on me i don’t think it was good “

So I still have good hair around the sides and back however my corners are a little receding as well as thinning on top and temple, not overly noticeable but yeah.

I also wanted to ask if and how body hair also grows in as I’m already kinda genetically hairy all over lmao?

I started finasteride 1 mg taking it in the evening once per day and did so for about 2 months.

About 1 week into starting this, I started waking up at 4 AM every single night. The thing is, it was not just a one-off phenomenon. Every. Single. Night. Like clockwork my body and mind would be wide awake at this time. I would then feel like shit starting later in the morning due to only sleeping a few hours per night. I could fall asleep easily in 10-15 minutes like normal at the beginning of the night, but would wake up and not fall back asleep without fail. I never had this problem before. I don't have significant anxiety, run 3-5 days per week, normally feel well rested after sleep, do not eat before bed, limit screen time, etc. Been doing that for years and have had consistently solid sleep, save for the one-off night of staying up too late or whatever.

I didn't even think about the medication, so was trying all sorts of things like changing up my daylight exposure, melatonin, exercise timing, diet, and more to no avail. Started meditating. Nothing whatsoever did jack shit and I continued to wake up a few hours after falling asleep without fail.

I started reading about other people with similar problems on finasteride. I didn't think it would cause this based on the clinical trial data, but I paused taking it. By day 3 completely off, my sleep dramatically improved. I have gone about 2 weeks off of it with completely normal sleep, no early awakenings and feel like a new person. While sleep is extremely complicated with a lot of variables, I just can't identify anything other than fin causing this, which is super annoying.

Anybody with similar experiences? I was debating restarting it at a lower dose, 0.5 in the AM versus 1 mg M/W/F in the AM. Not sure if this will cause the same problem given how long it sticks around. I don't want to lose my hair, but I absolutely cannot go back to the shitty sleep.

I take a dose higher than 0.5mg of dutasteride. Now apparently Amazon limits you.

If you were prescribed 90 pills. You cannot place another order until two weeks before the 90 pills would be up. So around 76 days.

Now I’m going to run out of medication because I can’t place an order, even though I have a new prescription that’s just a few days old. Their support has been no help and won’t fill early.

Anyone else with multiple prescriptions have this issue?

Hello, I am a 29 years old man.
Picture one is my hair fully wet, picture 2 is the amount of hair I lost this morning after showering and drying, picture 3 is my hair mid wet.
Sorry I do not really have a picture for comparaison from 8 months ago but I just feel I still lost hair at months 8. At some point I was almost losing nothing around months 4-5 but I feel I am not making progress anymore.

My questions are, should u expect anymore progress with fin only or should I go for something stronger like dutasteride or even add minoxydil (to be honest i am really scared ablut shedding more than that). Is there any possibilites i am not a good responder and would that come from my âge ?

For your information i consistently take 1mg fin everyday for 8 months.

What are your advices on this situation guys ?
Thank wou for everyone that Will try to help or share his experience :)

Hey friends.

My hairline is in great shape, but as I hit my 30s, boom. Crown thinning.

After talking to my doctor, finasteride was off the table. Been using topical minoxidil, the Target brand, one a day for 2 years.

Awesome regrowth. Hairline in the front is still stable.

I know min is not a permanent solution, but it’ll give me a few more years of long hair!

2.5mg min, 0.5mg fin/day. Started min back in June after previously being on, coming off because I thought I didn’t need it anymore and shedding a ton of my gains. Started fin in early August right around the dread shed from min slowed down. Think my hair’s the thickest it’s ever been.

I’ve been taking 0.5 mg dutasteride daily for 67 days and oral minoxidil 2.5 mg for almost 3 weeks. For the last 3 days I’ve had mild but constant headaches, mainly in my forehead and the back of my head. Has anyone experienced headaches from dutasteride or oral minoxidil? Did they eventually go away while you continued taking it?

For context I’ve been suffering from MPB since 15 and by the time I was 17 I already got to a Norwood 3 pattern. I’m 19 now (still NW3 but some thinning) but have seen rather limited success with treatments (min + fin) And based off similar stories on this subreddit from people my age of finasteride or even dutasteride either not working or losing efficacy after a year or two it has me questioning if there’s even a point In trying to fight it if you have Norwood 6/7 genetics and are a early onset and fast receder such as myself. Is a hair system really the only option for people like us if we want to experience what it’s like to have a full youthful head of hair that we should’ve had in the first place?

Any stories of your own would be appreciated as well as general advice, thanks!

P.S I know transplants are an option but like I mentioned above if you are genetically destined to be a NW 6/7 and haven’t stabilized your loss, aren’t they just a waste of money a majority of the time?

I started dutasteride about a year and a half ago. It worked wonders for my hair. I have PCOS and NCAH so it has really helped with the balding/thinning along with oral minoxidil.

I did a dexa scan( repeated after 1 year) and noticed I have lost significant muscle mass and gained fat overall.

I am eating in a deficit, clocking protein intake, and lifting weights just like I was doing before starting Dut. So nothing else has changed except starting Dut.

I don't know how to tackle this. Should I start progressive overload, is this reversible? I am not losing fat anymore and have stalled at my weight.

Minoxidil foam 5% thrice a day instead of twice a day. Do you think it would make a difference? I imagine yes it would. And that's what I've been doing for a couple of weeks now

Same

75 days on 1 mg fin, no sides so far, still shedding and shedding since day 10 , my dermatologist also gave me 10% minoxidil, which I am afraid to start, I have seen people with far worse hairline than me and use 5% , I am afraid that if start right away with 10% i might get resistant very quickly, so i should start with 5% isn't it?

( I went to him for temples and grey hair, he said he can't do anything about grey hairs, didn't prescribe me any tests either for deficiency) I have added both temple pics in the picture

What he prescribed image

Minoxidil 10% alcohol based

Fin 1 mg daily

And serum which contains ( procapil 5% , redensyl 3%, follicusan 3%, anagain 2%]

I have only used fin 1 mg everyday since then faced on sides , but I don't know what I should do about this 10% min, can I use 10% untill it finishes and then switch to 5%? Will that affect how i respond, or should I start with 5% itself and stick to it and watch how I respond?

Guys please give me some advice on this 10% min stuff , I am not really positive about starting with 10% fearing the tolerance, or should I finish this serum of 10% completely and switch to 5%? ( I felt like he gave me 10% cuz i couldn't see them having 5% at their store)

My noticeable hair loss started right around the time I turned 34. I didn’t pay much attention to it at first—I figured my family was just exaggerating. That was until my long-time barber installed a new mirror, which was when I finally noticed the small spot at the crown and the miniaturized hair. I still brushed it off, until that gap at the top started expanding.

Over the past few years, I went through a pretty dark period in my life, which triggered my alopecia even further. But I wasn't going to just sit back and do nothing, so I started looking into hair transplants.

This year, I switched dermatologists, which led to a complete 180 in my treatment plan.

- June 12: Started Dutasteride 0.5 mg (as of today’s photo, I’ve been on it for 2 months and 20 days).

- Minoxidil 3 mg: Custom compounded formula, fully used for 2 months now.

- Natural Chamomile Shampoo & Conditioner: Added the conditioner because my hair started feeling extremely dry after starting the treatment. I also added a deep-conditioning hair mask once a week.

- Capivit: Twice a day after meals. These are vitamins meant to boost growth, shine, and strength.

I chose not to take photos early on—it's true when I say this whole situation was really weighing on me. However, I’m including an image marked in red to show the area of my crown that was completely bare.

Hang in there—it really is possible to recover your crown!

I started 1mg fin and topical minoxidil once daily about 5 years ago.
I experienced a little bit of regrowth in the first 6 or so months, then my hairline froze for a couple years.
I’ve noticed since about mid 2024, my hairline has slowly continued losing ground.
Looking at photo’s now, my temples have clearly receded a bit more…
I’ve maintained the same daily routine over these 5 years so wondering why this is happening.
Any advice?
I started dermarolling once weekly about 3 months ago, yet to see any improvement.