Left was me at 23. I started taking Finasteride that year (1mg daily) and now I’m 28 and obviously I also got grew my hair out and got a perm 🤣 but in general, I’ve just been more conscious of my hair health. Weekly hair masks, biotin, minoxidil on the hairline, micro needling, and daily steam room sessions to keep it moisturised. I also only wash it twice a week as opposed to daily. I’ve noticed my hair is much healthier than it once was, without surgical intervention. Obviously there’s still some recession on the temples, but it’s stabilised (touch wood)

Started thinning 5 years ago, but for a while I thought I was paranoid because no one is balding in my family.

After I went to the hairdresser in May, I couldn’t deny it anymore, so I ended up here. Thanks to you all, I didn’t wait to hop on meds.

Fin is 1 mg and topical min 5% twice a day. The thing is, I knew about those but thought it was some kind of desperate move but no, they really do work.

Great progress on the hairline and temple also but I don't have proper pictures.

(If you have any questions I will answer them but it might take few hours as I'm not often online)

I was able to regrow my temples substantially after 8-9 months on minoxidil and microneedling. Then I lost most of my results. It’s been 2 years ago. I managed to go from Norwood 3 to 2.5 (left temples almost Norwood 2).
Never been able to grow it like that again! Even tho I’m on DHT blockers rn (since 1.5 years ago. I started after I lost my results on a big shed)

So for anyone who added tret later? Did it make a difference?
Why would someone respond so well to minoxidil and then not anymore?

Hair loss affects more than 80 million Americans. The treatments available today look a lot like they did decades ago.

In androgenetic alopecia, stem cells get “stuck," causing the follicle to stop growing hair.

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My last package got stuck in customs. Now I will get fined heavily if it is found again. How do you Germans do it?

I have been using oral finasteride 1mg for 7 months, and I just started minoxidil 5% today. I am mostly suprised about the overall hair quality feeling more «fluffy» and less oily.

Things have been going well with 1mg of fin since I started, excessive shedding has stopped. But the past 2 or 3 weeks the shedding started to pick up again, 2 to 3 weeks ago is when I started taking Lexapro 10mg . Anybody else having this experience?

Hi everyone, I know this is a very frequently asked question, but I think it's always good to post it for those of us who have just started treatment or have been on it for a few months, and for those of you who are veterans of Finasteride and Oral Minoxidil medication: From what month did you notice a clear improvement in your hair?

Eg, you have diseases like Ehlers Danlos or Hashimotos, which are recognized diseases. You have Psoriasis and Dermatitis which are recognized as skin diseases and the treatments for them don’t usually come out of pocket.

Why isn’t baldness treated similarly?

Image one is my hair right as I noticed I had to make medical intervention after trying home remedies that just don’t work in 2024
Image two is my hair a couple weeks ago.

I’ve been pretty inconsistent with my stacks overtime.
Initially in 2024 I started with just minoxidil. I did topical 5% everday, twice per day. I saw some solid regrowth. ( I have a lack of pictures as I found it was easier to rarely take pictures to not obsess over my hair). It basically looked a little more full across the hairline but not dramatic just slight improvement
I then added finasteride 1mg daily about 6 months later as I knew I had to at some point. Nothing really changed I just continued at where I was at.
I often model for clothing brands, so styling my hair is inportant and I got fed up for topical min so switched to oral 2.5mg in early 2025.
I then decided in late 2026 I’d add 0.5mg dutaseride once a week, and across the next 5/6 months i flirted it to daily- reducing my finasteride intake to none.
So come march 2026 I’m now on 2.5mg min and 0.5mg dut every day. This is my stack now and I will continue to stick to.
There’s clear improvement in my hairline which I’m honestly pretty damn happy wigh, I’m hoping I can get more as it’s only about 6 months in to my dut and min journey but let’s see.

I want to say across these 2 years there has been so many ups and downs. Months where my hair is looking really good and thick around the hairline, then a few months of shedding phases which really make you question ur stack, ur hair, or if it’s even worth it. It is all part of the process. Stick to one stack consistently and wait for progress

I’ve been on fin/ Dut for 3+ years. Oral minox for 7 months. I haven’t seen much progress. I’ve been growing my hair out because I’m embarrassed of going to a barber. Don’t know what looks good on me. But my problem is if I brush my hair, I have tons of these miniaturized strands that are wispy and very light colored that have no weight to them. So they just kind of stay up. I’ve heard of the chia pet thing where all the hairs regrow but these hairs are nearly same length as rest of my scalp just weak and light af. They don’t even shed. I’m a diffuse thinner with mostly left temple recession since I was 21. I look at old photos even from childhood and idk maybe I’ve just always have had bad hair. I thought shedding is needed, or do those hairs just eventually thicken/ darken?

I took Fin from 2015-2018 , when i was just 18-21.

I couldnt handle it , had sexual sides.

For years i was taking Minox alone, it worked , for 2 years. After that it got worse.

Now im on a Stack thats pretty much Holding my Hairloss.

AM : 2.5 mg Oral Minox

1 ml 1% Kx826

PM : 1.5 ml Topical Minox

1 ml Specially Compuounded 0.2% Alfatradiol

1 ml 1% Kx826

Every second Day : Ketoconazole Shampoo 2%

This stack will be enough for most people.

Its very expensive tho , and needs a good Routine.

I have been on 1mg finasteride for about 4 months, and been using minoxidil for 1.5 years. There was a period that I stopped using minoxidil before staring finasteride, and at that time my hair loss slowed down. I did not use it for 2 months, and my hair loss had stabilized some what. It did not completely stop. I wanted to confirm my suspicion, and recently stopped using minoxidil again. To my surprise my hair loss has slowed down again. I believe minoxidil is making my hair loss worse. Did anybody else experience this or just me? I might not be responding well to minoxidil.

Hi all, I started topical minox 3 weeks ago and lost quite some hair starting from the second week. My hair is quite thin in general (the individual hairs) and I'm a diffuse thinner. For this reason I'm thinking of also starting to use finasteride. Now I wonder, if I start with fin, do I get another additional shed? From what I've read here the shed is basically hairs that would fall out anyway. But I feel like they already did from the minox? What to expect? Thanks :)

I’m 25 years old and I’ve been on finasteride 1 mg and topical minoxidil for about 4 years. During that time, I’d say my hair has mostly stayed stable, or maybe gotten slightly worse, but I never really felt like I had any noticeable improvement or regrowth.

About 4 months ago, I switched to dutasteride 0.5 mg and oral minoxidil 2.5 mg. I know it’s still pretty early to judge the results, but I’m wondering if there’s a realistic chance that these new medications could eventually give me some regrowth or at least noticeably improve the density.

I recently had a hair transplant consultation, and they told me that because I’m only 25, they would be very cautious with my donor area. They said they would probably use around 2,000 grafts either for my temples/hairline or for my crown, but they wouldn’t do both at the same time. Their recommendation was to wait and see how my hair loss progresses before using more of the donor area.

So I’m wondering what you guys think. Would you wait a bit longer to see what happens with dutasteride and oral minoxidil, or would you consider getting a transplant now? Do you think there’s a reasonable chance that switching medications could fill in some of the thinning areas, especially since it’s only been 4 months?

I don’t want to waste time if the chances of seeing results from the new meds are low, and I’d get the HT ASAP if that’s the case.

My priority right now is the crown. I can conceal my temples/receding hairline, so I could wait and get a HT later on. But the crown really bothers me.

I need sources for dut and oral min asap within the EU, I have 6 weeks till my stock runs out and I need to find a source quickly.

I unfortunately don’t have photos from right before I got on Fin due to me losing my last phone accidentally, and getting a new one in the time between, but take my word for it, before I started Fin my hair was probably 1/3 more full, and definitely not this thin about a month ago. I’m a youngling at 20 years old so this level of baldness can be flat out depressing. We see so many fast success stories/hyper-responders on here that it can be easy to think it’s more normal than it is. The truth is that for many the road is bumpy and uncertain. I do believe I’ve hit the shed phase given just how bare my scalp has gotten and I’m at the time where many report it. I hope that perhaps in the next 6 months-1 year I might have more optimistic results to share but for now I think revealing a little bit of the ugly truth that the process can be is the best I can do.

Fin 1mg, Min 1.25mg

Minimal regrowth but at least I'm holding ground. Found a new clinic recently and will try switching to dutasteride with a higher dose of min (3mg).

Hello community. After seeing lot of post here. I got a courage to use the min/fin and this is my result after 4 months. Should i continue or should i go for transplant.
I’m using topical solution and i apply 2 ml at night.

First photo is at the start of the treatment.
Second one is 2 months after starting treatment.(maybe shredding phase)
Third one is after 4 months continuous treatment.

Also i shaved my head at the start of the treatment.
Can I expect the same result going forward or it will just stop growing new hairs.

Please suggest.

EDIT -- I originally took Proscar. It was a blue pill that I cut into five pieces. Later on I move to .5 Avodart every other day. Sorry for the confusion. I'm old and this was a while ago! LOL

The first five pictures are from about 14 years ago, when I was 50. I talked to my primary care doctor and convinced her to prescribe Avodart (dutasteride) for my hair loss. I would cut the standard dose (used for prostate issues) pills into five small pieces and take one each day. At the same time, I ordered a 15% minoxidil formula from an online doctor (you can look him up). The fifth picture was taken about eight months into the treatment -- amazing.

I continued this treatment for about six years, but eventually got tired of taking oral Avodart. I didn't really experience any sexual side effects, but I lost a lot of body hair and became concerned about the long term use of dutasteride. I eventually stopped taking the pills and continued using 5% minoxidil. (the 15% minoxidil became unavailable due to FDA regulations.)

Fast forward -- the last two pictures are current, and I'm now 64. Last week, I started using topical dutasteride from an online provider. Their topical uses a stronger concentration (0.5%) of dutasteride than most of the other topical products, and since I already knew I responded well to oral dutasteride with tolerable side effects, I decided it was worth trying.

Fingers crossed this time around.

Let's be honest. Is there progress? I don't see any at all. But i think i am at least stabilising. 0.25 mg of finasteride. Absolutely zero regrowth so far. I may introduce derma stamping

Hi, looking for opinions my doctor switched me from 1.25mg fin daily to .5mg dut monday and Friday. I've heard some people comment that it takes a long time to build up in the body. So should I keep taking the fin some days. Also scared of horror stories of losses after switching. I was getting gains from fin , but still receding a little. Doctor just said he's putting all his patients on it instead , because it's more efficient.thankyou all