Author: Dr. William Rassman

I have been seeing my hair go back every year since I was 17. I am scared that I will lose all of my hair. What can I do?

I would go on the drug Finasteride for a year and see if you can stop or reverse the loss. You have lost the frontal corner hairline as it is going up and the temple peaks are also gone. If this does not work, then a hair transplant would solve the problem very nicely.

Can Finasteride help recover my hair loss?

I was wondering if fin restores pre-thinning hair, if caught early. Will it give you the hair you had as a teenager, for example. Is this possible? I’m 21 years old.

Sometimes, if you catch the hair loss early, finasteride can restore it to pre-loss levels. This occurs only for the mature hairline, not your juvenile hairline.

My dermatologist is offering me to take fin. Im 22 and have a receding hairline, but it doesn’t look too bad yet. I wanna maintain my hair and be proactive, but I’ve been reading stories of fin accelerating their balding and not always regrowing what was lost from fin. I’m scared that this will happen to me. What are your guys experience with this?

Not a problem. Putting the side effects to the side, the only problem with finasteride is that in some men it doesn’t work well, but most men see a slowing of their hair loss or a complete stop of their hair loss. A 70 year old patient of mine was prescribed finasteride by his doctor for his prostate and he came to see me to show that he regrew much of his lost hair, with a big smile telling me that I won’t get any money for a hair transplant on him. Ha Ha I said.

If you are having hernia pain it is probably due to the hernia and you should see your doctor. Finasteride will not effect the hernia

Yes, some people get changes in mood on finasteride. That is a problem for men with depression as it could exacerbate it.

yes, finasteride can regrow hair in the front and mid-scalp, especially in the younger male.

After stopping minoxidil, have u seen a story where someone maintained these hairs with finasteride?

If the hairs that grew are minoxidil induced, then they are minoxidil dependent hairs that will disappear when stopping minoxidil. Finasteride will not hold those minoxidil dependent hairs.

Dr. Robert Bernstein wrote this up here: https://www.bernsteinmedical.com/answers/propecia-and-beard-growth/ The answer is that finasteride doesn’t impact beard growth.

There seems to be a lot of different opinions floating around regarding it’s long term effectiveness … With consistent use, does it maintain it’s therapeutic effects, or does your genetically predetermined Norwood level eventually develop as you age despite taking it? I’ve seen some people state that it continues to have it’s effects for as long as it’s taken but then others state that it only delays the inevitable and if you are let’s say genetically programmed to be Norwood 5, that you are going to eventually go there despite finasteride use? What is the actual case? (I know there’s different variables and there’s a small percentage of people who are non responders, but I just mean in general).

Finasteride always works to (1) slow hair loss (2) stop hair loss or (3) reverse hair loss. The aggressiveness of the body’s genetic hair loss is a variable. Apoptosis (cell death) occurs with genetic alopecia. We believe that each hair on the head is programmed to grow only a certain number of hair cycles. Once those cycles are reached, the hairs die. Finasteride seems to alter the duration of these cycles, possibly the number of hair cycles you can achieve, but this is just a guess. Good question.