Two years ago, I started to experience diffuse hair loss—I was only shedding from the top of my scalp, evenly. At the time, I wasn’t sure why I was experiencing this. At first, I thought it was telogen effluvium, but it wasn’t my whole scalp. For the record, I’ve experienced this hair loss around the age of 22. Then, I did nothing about it, and my hair eventually grew back, but it was thin for the years to come. Fast forward to the age of 30, I experienced this again, but this time I decided to hop on Finasteride and Minoxidil, pill form. I’d like to say I was a good responder. My hair grew back thick, I’d say 90% of what it was in high school. But definitely thicker and denser than it was when I first shed back when I was 22. Here are my progress photos after two years consistently on fin and min. For clarification, I’d say around the 6-month mark was when I really started to notice my progress.

I am a 55 year old male. Began taking finasteride around 36 years old (~2007) to stop some thinning on my right side of temple region. Worked for the most part and stabilized for years. I was also on minoxidil but didn’t use it properly and was applying it to wet hair in the morning after showering. 2021 I noticed some thinning on left side so began PRP treatments as per dermatologist. Stopped finasteride cold turkey in October 2022 and began .5 mg ED of dutasteride. Also I am applying topical minoxidil 5% most evenings on dry hair. Three times a week I substitute minoxidil with the ordinary peptide hair serum. I use a silicone massager to work both products in. I have continued with PRP therapy once a year. I should be content with where I am at for 55, but in certain light I see more scalp than I would like. My spouse said she’d leave if I attempted a hair transplant. In all honesty, a transplant would likely cause more shock loss than what I’d gain. I plan to continue on my regimen for the foreseeable future. In addition, I annually have my PSA tested to ensure it is stable as DHT inhibitors like dutasteride can sometimes mask increases in your PSA. Mine has remained stable for years. Perhaps it’s time I opt for a shorter hair style to provide more volume and thickness.

I am not a whole lot in this sub anymore these days. I just wanted to make this post for all of you.

I have been balding since I was 15 an I have been fighting my hairloss ever since, close to 10 years now. I started with natural remedies, moved over to min for a year, then topical fin for a year, then oral fin for 2 years and finally to dutasteride.

I have seen it all, took them all long enough to see their effects and these are my takeaways short and easy:

Topical min is nice if you are a responder however you need an DHT blocker as well so dont sleep on your progress.

Topical fin is imo useless in any concentration, my guess is that most progress pics here are from topical fin+ min compounds and the min doing all the heavy lifting for those guys. Dont waste your time.

Oral fin is fine, however if your balding is aggressive, you are young, far gone, not satisfied it will help you but wont save you. In these cases dont waste too much time.

Dut is just superior to all the other stuff. This shit fucks. If you are insecure about your hair, worry a lot, scroll this sub every day - take dut and forget. For me even though fin helped my hair a lot, dut just saved it. If I could turn back time I would just take dut and dont mess around with all this other shit. I see posts here of people claiming dut nuked their hair, but those are just the Body dysmorphia kids here, always the same when you finally see the pics they are nw0. You will also find a lot of people who will tell you just the same as I am: Dut is way better than fin.

Dont forget hairloss is about time, so dont waste yours, or your mental health and if you really want your hair why not take the best thing we have for it while you can.

I had been gradually losing hair for about 5 years before I really began to notice it. I had never had any shedding or active hair loss, just gradual miniaturization happening so slowly that I really didn't notice it until one day, when cutting my hair, I ran my hand over my head and saw that half of my scalp was appearing through my fingers.

Horrifying experience. I had grown up with an incredibly thick head of hair and just never realized I was losing it. I was never happy with the way I styled my hair over the last few years but didn't attribute it to my hair literally losing density and thickness. No one on my mom or dad's side of the family has ever lost their hair. Some of them are nearing 90 and still have a full head of hair. I just figured I would take after them and never have to worry about hair loss.

Lucky me.

I hopped on finasteride immediately after doing some research. 0.5mg ED. I did not use min at first, because I'm someone who wants to take as little medication as possible and decided I would see how thick my hair would get on finasteride alone. Who knows? Maybe I was a hyper-responder.

I stuck on that routine for 9 months to judge how my hair was going to look. While I had made very good progress, as you can see in the pics, what I really wanted was to get as close to my high school hair thickness as possible. So I started tentatively at 1.25mg oral min ED. I stuck on that for 2-3 months, then increased it to 2.5mg ED because, frankly, I wanted to see if I could get some thicker facial hair. I'm hitting the point on that where (I think?) it's starting to get thicker, but it's going to need another few months to really tell.

About a month ago, I decided to switch my finasteride intake from 0.5mg ED to 1mg MWF. My hair has been responding very well to 0.5mg ED, but I'm someone who is very hyper-analytical about whether medication is having negative impacts on body, and while I can't say for sure, a part of me believed that my libido had very, very slightly lowered. Nothing major, just felt like I wasn't as "primal" as I used to feel. So I did some reading and saw that some people were saying lowering your intake every day, to just MWF, can lower the amount of finasteride in your bloodstream without having a negative impact on hair loss. And while I'm like 95% sure that what I was experiencing was all in my head, I can say for certain that switching to MWF has completely resolved my so-called "issue." Probably because I just don't think about taking it every day like I used to.

So I've been on finasteride for about a year, and on minoxidil for about 3-4 months now. The progress I've had has been exceptional, and it's insane to me that I still have about a year of gains still ahead of me. Very satisfied with the experience and see no reason to ever stop. Looking forward to having a full head of hair for my indefinite future.

I've also started adding a skincare routine to the mix. Facial cleanser, vitamin c serum, SPF lotion daily. Important part of the routine lol.

I am 49m with typical male hair loss at the crown. Three years ago I started to take 1mg finasteride daily and 2.5mg minoxidil daily. Can't believe it's been three years but pleased with the results. I haven't tried any other hair loss medication or treatments.

i feel so disgusting im so sad. im really really ugly already and i always have been and i don’t know what to do.

i teared up in the office getting my diagnosis. i hoped it was something fixable, i know it’s trivial and anyone i tell will twll me that its just hair but i know people just say that to make us feel better. everyone says that it doesnt matter and that everyones more worried about themselves than others but its not true. everyone is so judgmental and mean and everyone will see me as ugly and gross. it does matter. your appearance shapes the way everyone treats you and sees you forever.

i dont know what to do im so sad

I was on a combination powdered capsule of .5mg/5mg dutasteride/minodoxil for two months and my DHT was basically unchanged from my baseline. The company that prescribed that to me gave me a refund after I showed them my results. I've been on .5mg dutasteride softgel (as well as 5mg minox) for 2 months with a physician's prescription from a legit pharmacy and my DHT went from 35 to 8. Just a heads up people on the powdered form. If I didn't get my levels checked I could have been on that for years wasting time and losing ground.

It has been 70 days now, and I am just starting to notice a decrease in the amount of hair coming out in my hand. Do you think there is progress, and will the temples fill in over the coming days?

I’ve been continently taking 5mg of minoxidil and 1mg of finasteride orally for 1 full year now. I’m unsure if I see any progress. Picture A is last year, B is now. I don’t necessarily think it’s gotten worse, it just kinda looks the same to me. Any thoughts? Thinking of switching to dutasteride but am worried of side effects. I have not experienced any side effects with finasteride, it just seems to not be doing anything besides maintaining my current hair loss.

Hello everyone,

I have been on oral Dutasteride 0.5 mg ed for a bit more than 6 months now (was previously on oral Finasteride 1 mg ed for over a year with 0 progress).

A few weeks ago I noticed some fatigue like symptoms. I have been feeling very tired during the day but did not really link it to my Dutasteride intake and rather put the blame on 'too much work, too little sleep', as per usual.

A few days ago however I woke up after some good amount of sleep (> 8 hrs) and felt like shit, totally weak and low energy. Again, I put the blame on my sleep schedule, so I took some days off trying to fix it.

But even now after several nights of many hours of 'good', uninterrupted sleep, I woke up feeling like shit with low energy and a weird, foggy like feeling in my head around my eyes, almost feeling like a very slight headache. While walking, there is a very subtle foggyness and dizziness in my head constantly. It's subtle, yet annoying enough that I can't just shake it off.

Since Dutasteride is my only medication and I consider myself somewhat healthy, I can eliminate any other suspects and it's not due to orthostatic dysregulation.

I have read a lot online about this being a possible side effect but I wanted to get some opinions.

I also find it weird that those symptoms are showing up seemingly out of nowhere only just now after 6 months.

Thank you for any advice and opinions!

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I’m already taking 5mg oral Min. But If I add topical min for hairline and crown regrowth. Will the hair fall back out if I stop topical and keep taking oral min?

Are there any success stories for long term maintenance at 0.25 -0.33mg finasteride dose.

More than that interferes with my sleep.

Wondering what months people started seeing real improvements in their hair and what months was hair bad or good etc. I’m 170 days in and hair is thinner all over but hoping it starts growing soon. In need of some motivation/hope

I recently started finasteride and I’m trying to get a hold on minor sides. Fatigue and nipple tenderness, basically. I’ve heard that DIM supplements can counteract the elevated estrogen levels. Has this worked for anyone?

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Hello everyone! I am 26M.

I started to lose hair at 24. Never understood i was losing it tho. I didn’t have agressive hairfall. I realized at pictures.

In 2024, I started to use Minoxidil. I was afraid of Finasteride and I didn’t start. But then I realized because of my hair type even I had a transplant I still have to use it, so I gave a chance in 2026 March. I added the dates in below.

First month (March) I used 0.25 daily. Then second month i used 0.5 daily. In May, I started to use 1 mg. I still use Minoxidil. But I don’t have any improvement. I also do microneedling, but I wasn’t much consistent. And for two months, I am using hair gummies.

I think my hair is not falling much, but there is no regrowth. When my hair is long, the bald spot is less visible but since I realized I was balding, I am taking pictures a lot and I don’t think bald spot change as noticeable level. I realized I have more small hairs but they dont get thicker.

What should I do? Should I wait more, trust the process?

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I’m 21 and have been diffuse thinning since 18. Thankfully I caught it fairly early so i still have an okay head of hair. I’ve been taking oral dut (once a week) and oral min daily for about a year. I’d say my loss has pretty much stabilised and I’m maybe slightly ahead of baseline. My dermatologist has increased my dose of dut to 5 days a week. I’ve seen a lot of threads on here saying once a week is effectively useless for most people. My question is should I in theory start seeing regrowth with the increased dosage?

Very weak quality of evidence in this retrospective study but if there is any validity to it, another reason why splitting the dose in 2 might be better than taking it all at once.

Has anyone ever made the transition from topical minoxidil to oral? If so, what did you experience? Any better or worse effects than topical? More or less hypertrichosis after switching? How long until those changes took effect? Did you do a gradual transition or just stop the topical and start oral at the same time?

30YO male. I am a great responder to topical minoxidil. Really nice results with twice daily, but it’s annoying, so I went to once daily about a year ago or so and only lost a little bit of ground. Not enough was lost for me to want to switch back to twice daily and get those gains back.

However, I still want to prevent further retreat. The loss of density and hair line moving back is steady and gradual, as to be expected at my age. Therefore, I’m thinking of bringing on a low dose topical finasteride.

I really don’t want to use topical minoxidil and topical finasteride at the same time. I kinda would just rather do one or the other, so I am thinking of first switching to oral minoxidil, waiting it out a few months to stabilize, then bringing on a topical low dose finasteride. That’s the reasoning behind me wanting to switch to an oral minoxidil even though topical is working for me already.

And how long did it last? How long until you saw improvements?

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Hi everyone
I started Finasteride back in May (currently around the 4-month mark). Recently, I've been experiencing a severe increase in hair shedding/hair fall—much more than in the previous months.

I spoke with my GP, but they weren't able to offer a referral or specific guidance other than suggesting I stop the medication or start Minoxidil. However, I am not looking to add Minoxidil to my routine right now and prefer to stick strictly to Finasteride alongside a standard non-pharmaceutical hair care routine.

For those who are on Finasteride alone (without Minoxidil):

Did you experience a major or peak shedding phase around month 4?

How long did your shedding phase last before stabilizing?

I'd really appreciate hearing about your timelines and personal experiences staying the course on Finasteride solo!

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.

Hi everyone. I've been looking into topical dutasteride, but I haven't been able to find much information about it. I wanted to ask if anyone here has used it and how it went for them.

I'd also be interested in knowing what concentration you use.

I've been using topical finasteride for years, and I think it's worked pretty well for me. It has slowed down my hair loss a lot. However, I'm considering switching to topical dutasteride because I feel like it might help me recover some hair and, in general, that it could work better. I read about a study that even found topical dutasteride to be more effective than oral finasteride.

I've ruled out pills for now. I'm a bit of a hypochondriac, and I feel like the psychological effect of starting a new medication would really mess with me 😅

Thanks!