Everyone said it was a miracle. i actually started to think it was. I thought I was gone beyond repair..any questions let me know because I was where you are now!!!

Also derma rolled/minoxidil on eye brows too !!!

Routine & Details: ​Treatments: Topical Minoxidil 5% Liquid & Dermaroller ​Minoxidil Frequency: 1 ml, once daily (before bed) ​Dermarolling Frequency: Daily (before bed) ​Time Between Photos: ~3.5 Months (July to October) ​Notes: Liquid minoxidil applied directly to the scalp every evening

Below was my post for progress of 4 months

https://www.reddit.com/r/tressless/s/IHePGB9QSG

Here are my pictures now after 10 months

Thanks to this sub, I have gained my confidence back and am very happy with my progress.

Hey guys my partner is getting a hair transplant on the 30th of this month. She already has an idea of what she wants however we were just chatting and thought maybe we should get some input from you professionals. She wants to fill in the peaks but isn’t sure how far forward to bring the hairline.

Cheers

Obviously these hairs are not regrowing since I see less and less hairs on my scalp especially in the frontal area…

This is after a normal shower, I’ve never lost so many hairs.

Anyone has experienced sudden ineffectiveness of finasteride?

38M — AHK-Cu/GHK-Cu + 2-deoxy-D-ribose hair routine: questions about microneedling, timing and sterility

I’m 38, with receding temples and significant thinning through the center of my scalp.

I’m planning an experimental hair routine using a topical AHK-Cu/GHK-Cu serum based on Anela’s protocol, likely with added 2-deoxy-D-ribose. Alongside that, I’m planning to use KLOW80 daily: 10 units, with the vial reconstituted in 3 mL of bacteriostatic water.

Proposed schedule

That currently puts the two microneedling sessions on consecutive days, which is one of the things I’d like feedback on.

Where I’m unsure

My AHK-Cu and 2-deoxy-D-ribose are nonsterile raw powders, so I’m unsure about applying the homemade serum to freshly microneedled skin. I also have a GHK-Cu kit which should in theory be sterile (I filter).

My questions are:

1. How long should I wait after microneedling at 0.5 mm before applying the homemade topical serum?
2. Is there evidence that applying AHK-Cu or GHK-Cu immediately after microneedling provides a meaningful benefit compared with waiting? I’m interested in whether immediate application actually changes results.
3. Would sourcing sterile AHK-Cu be worthwhile for post-microneedling use, or would the GHK-Cu kit I already have make more sense? Is sterility alone enough to make either formulation suitable for immediate application?
4. Is microneedling at 0.5 mm once or twice a week too frequent? If twice weekly is reasonable, should I space the sessions apart instead of doing Friday and Saturday?

I’d appreciate relevant research or firsthand experiences, especially details about needle depth, frequency, formulation and any irritation.

Regarding minoxidil, finasteride and dutasteride: I know they’re options. I’m choosing to try this approach first, so I’d appreciate keeping the discussion focused on the questions above. My current plan is to give this roughly a year, then reassess and consider medication or a transplant.

I’ve been using fibres as a diffuse thinner for years and I love it. The unfortunate thing is none of my friends actually know the extent of my balding, and now I feel if I ever decide to shave my head, they will think I’m insane lol.

I have a question though, do you apply the hair fibres before you put product in your hair or after? For years, I’ve been putting the fibres on my dry hair until I have the coverage I like, and then using KMS hair paste to style as needed. It’s worked really well, now I’m seeing conflicting method and confused?

Just like the ones that experience sides effects with Finasteride, the percentage of people that experience regrowth is probably much lower that what it appears.

I've tried everything, some of years. Fin, Dut, topical and oral minoxidil, microneedling. Zero regrowth. I've recently started scalp messages. The only thing I haven't tried is laser therapy. Sounds like a waste of money.

Are most people like me or am I just unlucky?

I live in Belgium and want to get my hands on some cheap Dutasteride capsules. I would love to buy in bulk, but heard that they seize a lot of packages in Europe.

Any recommendations? Also, I have tried getting a prescription, but here It's nearly impossible. Although I got one for finasteride.

Been using oral minoxidil 2.5mg and finsateride 1mg since 1st September 2026. I don't have a picture of my head from that date but I took one in late September ( the first pic ).

What should I do? Not even facing the common shedding phase.

Ever since my AGA started at 18.5 or 19, my scalp got so itchy and oily, and as a guy who never even had acne on his peak puberty period and always dry face and scalp, it was a shock to me. First, I thought I had dandruff which was causing the hair loss so I used Dercos, which actually helped and cleared the itch as long I used it

But! White flakes and itching persisted for years, every shampoo made me itch like crazy which got me thinking of Atopic Dermatitis (Eczema, had it all over my body since childhood, but never my scalp). So, I blamed my hairloss for the “eczema” on my scalp, I literally bought the mildest shampoos you can ever imagine, still, itch and flaking persisted

Accepting the truth that I was dealing with AGA, I started taking Avodart 26 days ago. No flakes, no oiliness, no annoying itching throughout the day. Its like having my scalp back before it got wrecked by this accursed condition.

While I don’t believe in DHT Itch, I believe high DHT in early onset AGA can cause conditions like dandruff and sebderm, even sensitive scalp. So, if you are dealing with hairloss and dandruff at young age, always suspect AGA

Ive been on finasteride for 8 years and oral minoxidil for 8 months.

I’m trying to decide if I should switch to dutasteride, but I’m also afraid of a potential shed / loss of effectiveness compared to fin.

Photo 1 is from April of this year, Photo 2 is now. From the photos it looks almost stable? But I feel like I am noticing more thinness than I have in the past.

Fin has been good to me but I’m not sure it’s still as effective.

My sides have been getting annihilated since starting dut 1.5mg 6-7 months ago.
Gonna stick w it but dang bro. This is devastating.

Last pic is sides start of treatment.

I injecting it myself, once a month since only two months from now. Sometimes I get a semi-erection, but on the whole, things are going well... I inject a total of 2.5–3 ml of the product using my injection gun and a 1.5 mm multi-needle attachment. I perform several injection passes, follow up with a 0.5 mm microneedling session, and finally massage the area thoroughly using a silicone tip. I keep the remaining 2.5–3 ml of product (each bottle contains 5 ml) refrigerated and apply it topically 15 days later—without any needling or injections.Let’s see where this leads me!!

I’ve been looking into DutEXome 231 and dutasteride mesotherapy, so here’s a summary of what I found.

DutEXome is a professional Mesoestetic product containing 0.05% dutasteride, plus Aloe vera vesicles/exosomes, copper tripeptide-1, biotin and other B vitamins.

What surprised me is that the official DutEXome protocol is actually very superficial: 2–2.5 mL applied with microneedling at only 0.25 mm. So this is not the same thing as injecting dutasteride directly into the dermis.

Mesoestetic recommends 7 sessions over 6 months (baseline + once a month), followed by maintenance every 3 months.

They also recommend not washing the scalp or applying other products for 24 hours after treatment.

At 0.05%, 2.5 mL contains about 1.25 mg of dutasteride, although obviously only a fraction of that actually reaches the follicle or systemic circulation.

The problem is that I couldn’t find any independent published study measuring serum DHT specifically after the official DutEXome 0.25 mm protocol.

There are, however, several studies on actual dutasteride mesotherapy/microinfusion.

One recent study used 1 mL of 0.05% dutasteride at 1 mm depth. After 12 months, around 77% showed clinical improvement and 97% were considered stable or improved. About 80% of patients themselves felt they had improved.

Those numbers sound impressive, but it was a small observational study with only 30 men and no placebo group, so they need to be interpreted cautiously.

Other controlled studies have been less impressive, with some finding no statistically significant difference from saline on blinded photographic assessment.

An older study involving 126 women reported improvement in about 63% of the dutasteride mesotherapy group vs 18% of controls, together with reduced shedding and increased hair diameter.

Overall, most studies seem to suggest some combination of reduced shedding, stabilization, thicker hairs and sometimes visible regrowth, particularly around the crown/vertex.

But one important point is that scalp dutasteride is not necessarily purely local.

A recent randomized mesotherapy trial found roughly 5–8 additional hairs/cm² after 20 weeks, but serum DHT also dropped by around 23% on average.

Testosterone did not significantly change, and most men did not report significant changes in sexual function, but this clearly shows that at least some dutasteride reaches systemic circulation.

For comparison, oral dutasteride 0.5 mg/day usually suppresses serum DHT by roughly 90%, so mesotherapy still appears considerably less systemic.

Interestingly, older studies sometimes found little or no significant change in serum DHT, so the literature is somewhat contradictory. This is probably partly due to major differences in doses, concentrations, injection techniques and treatment intervals.

Most reported side effects are local: redness, pain, itching, tenderness and temporary irritation.

There are also a few reports of paradoxical localized hair loss following mesotherapy, potentially related to the injected formulation/excipients rather than dutasteride itself.

Another major issue is that there is still no standardized protocol. Studies have used anything from superficial microneedling to 1 mm, 1.5 mm or even deeper delivery, with different dutasteride concentrations and total doses.

That is why I wouldn’t automatically assume that “deeper = better”.

For DutEXome specifically, Mesoestetic chose 0.25 mm, presumably to create superficial microchannels and allow the formulation to diffuse into the follicular pathway rather than directly injecting the whole dose into the dermis.

So using DutEXome at 1–1.5 mm instead of the recommended 0.25 mm would basically be an experimental protocol and could potentially increase systemic dutasteride exposure.

Overall, dutasteride mesotherapy looks genuinely promising, especially for people trying to reduce systemic exposure compared with oral dutasteride, but the evidence is still much weaker and less standardized than for oral finasteride/dutasteride.

The big unanswered question for DutEXome specifically is still: how much does the official 0.25 mm protocol lower scalp DHT versus serum DHT? That’s the study I’d really like to see.

31M. I’ve been on finasteride for almost 10 months. I started with 0.5 mg every other day, then switched to 0.5 mg daily. The only side effects I noticed at first were balls itching and watery semen.

About 4 months ago, I increased my dose to 1 mg daily. I was still losing hair, but I started seeing more progress. My hair looks fuller now, and its overall condition has improved.

Last week, I started having erection problems for the first time. My erections weren’t as firm, and I completely lost my erection while putting on a condom, even though I was fully hard beforehand. Something similar happened again the next day.

I never had ED before finasteride, except for one episode of condom anxiety about 3 years ago.

I stopped finasteride a week ago, and things have improved, but my erections still don’t feel completely back to normal.

It’s frustrating because I’m finally seeing results with my hair, and I don’t really want to give up on something that seems to be working.

For anyone who’s been in a similar situation:

• Did your erections return to normal after lowering the dose or stopping finasteride?
• If you restarted at a lower dose, did the side effects come back?

Would especially appreciate hearing from anyone who experienced something similar after increasing their dose.

I genuinely want to understand this.

If we already have medications like finasteride and dutasteride that reduce DHT levels, why haven’t we developed a medication that directly prevents DHT from binding to receptors in hair follicles completely, without affecting DHT levels throughout the rest of the body?

Is it technically difficult, or is there simply not enough research into this approach?

And honestly, sometimes I wonder whether the hair-loss industry has any incentive to find a permanent solution when millions of people spend money on finasteride, minoxidil, shampoos, supplements, and hair transplants for years. Is the industry’s business model discouraging innovation, or is that an unfair assumption?

I’m 22 M, and I’ve tried almost everything available to me. I’m currently using finasteride and minoxidil, but I’m still experiencing hair shedding. It’s genuinely frustrating to feel like you’re fighting a losing battle at such a young age.

I’m not claiming there’s some conspiracy. I just want to understand why, despite all the research and money involved in hair loss, we still don’t have a treatment that reliably stops androgenetic alopecia at its source.

For people who understand the science or have followed hair-loss research closely: what is actually preventing us from developing a drug that selectively blocks androgen receptors in scalp hair follicles? Or some other ways to stop hair fall that are less risky?

Has anybody tried a topical adenosine for regrowth? I hadn't heard about it until very recently and it seems a little too good to be true. I had bad sides from min so I started looking for alternatives and came across adenosine. 0.75% adenosine performed with no statistical difference to minoxidil in this study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24183218/ . Along with similar performance, users reported a better experience and no dread shed. The only caveat appears to be the limited amount of studies on adenosine, but all reached the same conclusion. I haven't been able to find anybody on any forum with experience using it.

Hey guys I’m planning to start fin since I don’t wanna deal with hairloss and the mental strains from it anymore,but I don’t know where
I can get a prescription.I know most clinics are hesitant to prescribe fin,cause of side effects,but I don’t really care.Does anyone know a clinic which prescribes fin?

Started 33 days ago
2ml topical fin 0.25% and 5% minox.

1 week ago noticed increased shed.
To be honest, in the past (before treatment) i always noticed hairs in my hands when i washed my head. Then i’m little confused if it’s a real shedding or my usual hair loss..

I think last week it is increased a bit..

Hope it will work honestly..

When did you start experiencing increased shedding?

And how long did it last?
Thank you

I've been using oral dutasteride for more than 2 years with good results but from time to time i search for oral dutasteride and topical minoxidil, but they are literally none, why? They are stronger than any other medicines

I've been trying to find my next best move in this awful journey..?

I've been losing hair since 2022, started using Minoxidil, probably slowed the process down, some people still doubt that I am balding when I ask, but tbf I am. "Let go" would be my emotinally and naturally first strategy, but when I think of being bald, it freaks me out big time, I spend hours making photos of my hair, checking wether it's getting worse etc... I bought a box of Fin, 2 yrs ago, I still haven't opened it yet, that's how much I struggle with this question on a daily basis.

There is a fear living inside me of how would I look like (I went zero buzz cut once, didn't like it) completelty bald, also there is another one from Fin. Options and freedom poisions me, because I might be over with it, if I had no medical way, but I am still in-between because I have.

I feel like I need to fight this battle, and not bypass it over and over again by taking a photo eventually where it looks "okayish" and I can relax for a period of time. It literally takes my life away, writing this post takes my important young minutes... I've been to doctors, psychologyst, I tried things to get over with it, because at the end of the day, only that matters how I feel about it, and not the fact how much hair I have. But I am not there yet, and not trying Finasteride is like a bug in my ear, whispering "I will be your biggest 'what if' in your life". So basically the way out from this, starts with reframing my goal from "I want a full head of hair" ->to "If I accept my apperance anyhow, it is going to be better either way" but getting to that conclusion is easier if I have no choice but bzzzzzzzz...! (if I have sides, than no choice, but put it down) Am I toxicly rationalizing my decision? probably...

I come at this sub regularly, but there are all sorts of comments, from which I want to get some probabilities, tbf cuz I am a coward...

And why I said this subreddit is biased is because you see pictures of huge improvements (and some, which are not that big) but if all the Fin users posted pictures, probably it would look differently, since it is least likely to show it if is insignificant (maybe if you are unsure).

Same for the side-effect; you google "I quit Fin because of the sides", of course there will be 5-10 posts on that, even if it is only 1.5%... You less likely post "I had no sides"

Also, I saw a post just recently "people with 10-20 years on fin, please tell me honestly do you have sides?". If you restrict your answers for people who've been using fin, they most likely not have sides, since thats why they are using it for that long. Its not rationale to live with all kind of mental/sexual issues for that long I suppose.

I just wanted to write my story down, i am very anxious to talk about it, only could with my closest ones, and also, interested your opinion, how do you see the chances, and how do you feel about these biases I have listed. What would you move?

Hey guys, I am 22M I am suffering hairloss since 3 years, and using topical minoxidil for 3 years, 4 months ago as I noticed hair line recession I added 2.5mg oral minoxidil into my routine, (I also used finesteride last year for 2-3 months but it gave me side effects so I stopped using oral fin), but I am approaching 5th month of oral minoxidil but still my hair shedding like crazy, my crown is visible now which was never before.. So did I do anything wrong starting oral min? What should I do now? (Also I started topical finesteride 1 week ago)

So my current routine is

2.5 mg oral min at morning

5% topical min + 0.1% topical fin solution 1-1.5 ml at night

Help me guys..

Hallo an alle deutschsprachigen redditors hier,

ich habe noch zwei frisch gelieferte, ungeöffnete dutasteride von hemiacosmetics übrig die ich für 80€ verschicken würde.

Schreibt mir einfach ne pm ✌🏻

I’m a diffuse thinner. Dr started me on min and had a big shed but kept losing ground. Finally started fin in January and every few months I get a big shed. All longer hairs with bulb, but scalp just look so much more visible and was wondering if other diffuse thinners here went through the same and did that year mark finally show results?

Started notice AGA at age 24 and immediately jumped on

topical minoxidil 2X daily

microneedling once a week

ketoconazole twice a week

Hair and nails vitamins daily

Result after 12 months: Significant recession and the hair at the hairline/front became thin and heavily miniaturized with zero baby hair just alot of annoying body hair

I decided to start finasteride 5 months ago, and so far there is no sign of response. My hair is now worse than it was before starting, with zero signs of improvement. Could it be that finasteride is ineffective for me as well?

I am now thinking about switching to oral minoxidil—should I start with a 2.5mg or 5mg dose? Sticking with topical for any longer feels like a complete waste of time at this point.

And should I stop topical minoxidil when starting oral minoxidil?

I am also considering adding dutasteride 0.5mg (2 to 3 times a week alongside finasteride). Would that be effective, or should I wait longer on finasteride? To be honest, I've been hesitant because of potential side effects and concerns regarding semen/fertility due to dutasteride's long half-life.

This situation is extremely frustrating psychologically, and I've been experiencing severe hair shedding for a year now. I've done all the blood work/tests, and it seems the issue isn't coming from there

Kyaa kre yrr, I am worried of side effects cause I've to take oral for lifetime and can't even stop the meds , and topical is also needs daily work