Balding Blog

As a clinical scientist, I am not clear about your results. I would suspect that if there is a change and you have been on finasteride for a long time until you switch to dutasteride 1 month ago, that the benefits you see are related mostly to the finasteride and not either the dutasteride or the spirinolactone. This is important information for the readers, listening to an expert address your results. I wish you had comparable pictures because the longer hair makes a huge difference in the appearance, and although it does look like there is hair where there was none before, the results may not be as dramatic as you may think they are.

My progress over the past year. Still thin in spots, but overall I am happy. from tressless

I have recently started oral minxodil, are there any adverse effects to combining saw palmetto and OM? Would I see no change or could I possibly see improvement with them in tandem?

Saw Palmetto has no value as a DHT blocker and, thus, in preventing hair loss.

The original study on Finasteride almost 20 years ago showed that the larger dose was not more effective than the 1 mg dose.

Anyone have experience taking doses of finasteride bigger than 1/1.25mg? from tressless

Dr. Paco Jimenez identified the eccrine gland in the upper part of the hair follicle. We discussed that when the surgeon creates chubby grafts in a hair transplant, the eccrine gland is included in the grafts, but when the grafts are very skinny, or stripped of their capsule as with some FUE grafts, this gland probably is not included in the graft. We have seen that chubby grafts produce the best long-term results, and skinny grafts may possibly be responsible for grafts that don’t continue to grow through many growth cycles. This is all speculation at this time, but Dr. Jimenez believes that he will hone down further on the value of the eccrine gland in the near future.

I have always believed that chubby grafts are better than skinny grafts and my results of seeing long-term growth has been very good. I also believe that chubby grafts reduce the risk of dehydration of the grafts during the hair transplant process. Dehydration of the grafts is the major cause of graft loss during a hair transplant surgery.

Here is picture of a woman who has probably lost 80% of all of her hair in a uniform manner. You could see through the hair and see bald scalp; however, this women learned that by using creative styling, she could actually look like she has almost no hair loss. It is wonderful to know that the old cliche applies here ‘where there is a will there is a way’

I’ve seen a lot of talk around dermarolling and topical minoxidil application. My question is if I am already on 1mg fin and 5mg oral minoxidil a day, is there a benefit to dermarolling without topical application?

Is there an argument to supplement oral minoxidil w/ topical minoxidil regularly? What about right after dermarolling say once a week?

The side effect and complications of oral minoxidil are not so much of a problem if the dose is kept low. Too many doctors prescribe higher doses and patients get blood pressure problems, even some cardiac complications. See article here: https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(19)30685-1/fulltext

Hey, so if i take just one pill of Finasteride 1mg, my body will need at least a month to get back my DHT to normal? So taking 1mg Finasteride like twice a week is good enough to maintain a low DHT (I only have very, very slow MPB, no shedding) ?

Yes, you are possibly correct. This dosage is less than the therapeutic dose as recommended by the drug company and will be less effective than the full dose but maybe enough to get you what you want.

This is a 33 year old male who I have been following for a year. His concern is that he is losing hair and he will consider a hair transplant once the hair loss is substantial enough. He is lucky because his hair is wavy, has salt and pepper color and it has a good weight. Because of these characteristics, the eye nor the camera shows the thinning that is certainly happening in his hair. From his HAIRCHECK measurements today, he has lost 50% of his hair in the front behind the hairline, 72% of the hair in the top of his head (imagine a line between the ears) and 50% of the hair in the crown. This is worse than it was a year ago. His frontal hairline shows some see-through as shown in the photos below.

The second patient is 18 years old, noticed that he was losing his hair when he was 16 but failed to see a doctor until today. HAIRCHECK measurements of his hair bulk show that he lost 78% of his frontal hair behind the hairline and 40% of his crown hair. Despite the huge amount of hair loss that was measured, the balding is barely detectable because of his sandy blonde hair which has a low contrast between his hair and skin color. Because he is 18, he has an excellent chance of reversing this hair loss (some or all of it) by using the drug finasteride. See his pictures below:

I heard shampooing everyday isn’t good so I am trying to space it out more and do twice a week or so. However, on the off days, I plan to use conditioner but not sure which one. Does conditioner help with hair loss? I never proactively used it in the past so I am not sure. Also how long do you guys keep the shampoo and conditioner in for?

One of the problems that make hair loss of fragile hair worse, it combing and brushing hair that pulls out miniaturized or weak hairs early. The use of good conditioners, solves the pulling problem because the comb and the brush glide through the hairs with less pulling.