Finasteride impacting beard growth

Here to ask a question I’ve never seen asked, or at least never answered on this subreddit or anywhere else on the internet despite my effortful and differently-worded google searches.

I’m 20. I started balding at 14, and I started fin at 17. Switched to dut at 19. Now I’m 20, and I still don’t have beard growth despite having the genetics for insanely aggressive baldness and insane beard density. This makes total sense because I’m taking a DHT blocker but my question is- will I never be able to grow a beard if I continue with my DHT blocking regimen? Am I blocking myself from ever being able to grow a beard, or am I just blocking it for the time being while I’m taking the DHT blockers? The idea of never being able to grow a beard terrifies me and I think I’d rather go bald and have a beard than never ever have facial hair as an option, but if I can wait until I’m 25-30 and then grow a beard after ceasing dut/fin, I’d rather do that. Thanks for any and all responses this gets.

Dr. Robert Bernstein answered this question as follows:
As you suggest, it would be reasonable to assume that since DHT stimulates beard growth, blocking DHT (with finasteride) would tend to inhibit its growth. In practice, this does not seem to be the case, i.e. we don’t find that Propecia has any effect on facial hair. The reason is not clear.
It is interesting to note that testosterone stimulates growth of axillary and pubic hair, but not scalp hair. Scalp hair growth is not androgen dependent, only scalp hair loss is.
DHT stimulates terminal hair growth of the beard, trunk and limbs, external ears and nostrils. Of course, it also is responsible for the bitemporal reshaping of hairline as one passes into adulthood and causes male patterned baldness (androgenetic alopecia).


2021-04-25 11:04:46Finasteride impacting beard growth

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