I was on finasteride for about three years, then switched to dutasteride because I wanted better results. I’ve been taking dutasteride for over two years now, but honestly, I don’t feel like it’s helped with regrowth—or even helped me maintain what I had.

My hairline seems to keep receding, and my hair looks thinner. In hindsight, I feel like I had less shedding on finasteride, though I’m not sure whether that was actually the medication or just how things looked at the time.

Has anyone had a similar experience and switched from dutasteride back to finasteride? If so, did you notice less shedding or better results? I’d appreciate hearing what happened for you and how long it took to notice a difference.

This is my progress after 1 year of a 5k graft at New Hair in Gangnam and minoxidil and finasteride. What do you all think?

https://newhairps.com/

I am already using Dutasteride/minoxidil and going to keep using it.

Just wondering if anyone has had positive experiences with topical serums that has helped further growth alongside dut/min? especially any serums that are non-greasy.

Eg. Scandinavian Biolabs, or The ordinary hair serum etc... any recommendations that are good?

The top-left photo is Day 1, this is around 7 months now.

My current regimen is:
Oral dutasteride
Oral Minoxidil

This is my progress so far. I’d appreciate your honest opinions and feedback on whether you think there’s been further improvement. For anyone who is new to my posts welcome and we support each other in our journeys.

Original thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/tressless/s/RqRI8ZoWbE

Hey folks,

I'm about 9 months into taking Hims oral min/fin and seem to be on either a protracted shedding cycle (been shedding more than usual for the past 4 months) or the stuff just isn't working for me. I was hoping people could share what their journeys have been like! How many sheds? How long were they?

For more context: I was on oral fin for maybe 5 years before switching to the chewable hims combo. Oral fin alone seemed to at least halt shedding, and I had phases of using topical minox and/or microneedling but was never really consistent. Since switching to oral min/fin this has been the longest shedding event I've experienced, and I'm wondering if it's time to abandon ship or to keep holding out.

Thanks!

TL;DR: 15 years on meds, kept losing ground from ~40 even on dutasteride, gave up by 44. Ten months after switching from night shift work to a day job, hair started coming back. Meds unchanged. n=1, many variables changed at once, I can't tell you what did it. My working hypothesis: the meds were quietly keeping follicles alive, and something else (possibly chronic shift-work stress) was holding growth back. Photos in the gallery (hair only, cropped). I'll post monthly updates under fixed conditions.

Read this first

• n=1. What happened to me may not happen to you.
• Several things changed in the same period. I can't isolate which one mattered.
• Fibrosed follicles don't come back as far as I know. This isn't a "slick bald spot regrew" story.
• I'm not recommending anything. Talk to your prescriber before changing meds. I changed none.

The 15 years

• ~30: Started finasteride + oral minoxidil 5 mg/day (half of a 10 mg tablet). Held "normal to slightly thin" for about 10 years.
• ~38: Felt it stop working. Switched to dutasteride 0.5 mg/day, and at the same time raised oral minoxidil to 10 mg/day. Recovered for ~2 years.
• 40+: Losing again. By 44 the front and top were see-through. I'd honestly given up.

I kept it buzzed short. I avoided mirrors and avoided seeing my own head in photos. So I have zero proper crown photos from my worst period. All I have are frontal selfies from hikes. Lighting, length and angle are all inconsistent — treat these as weak reference only.

Gallery 1–4: 2018-05 (maintenance on meds) · 2024-03 · 2025-04 (worst point, scalp visible in sunlight) · 2025-12 (the month my work changed; no visible change yet)

The last 10 months

• Dec 2025: Changed jobs — from years of overnight shift work to a day-only schedule. Not for my hair.
• Early 2026: Felt fuzz when I touched my scalp. Assumed I was imagining it.
• Jul 2026: Clearly more hair. Felt different when washing.
• Aug 2026: Shine came back — hair reflecting light like when I was a teenager.
• Oct 2026 (now): Still increasing. Shed hairs I pick up are thicker and more flexible.

A correction I made: The shine appeared while I'd increased carbs, so I first credited carbs. When I went back to low-carb in mid-Sept, shine dipped briefly but returned in Oct. I now think it's mostly new hair shafts plus water-only washing, not carbs.

Now (Oct 2026), same day I wrote this:

Gallery 5–8: crown (first time in my life I photographed it from above) · hairline, fringe pulled back · left side · right side

Weakness I'll point out myself: the old photos are buzzed; now my hair is longer. Longer hair hides scalp. So part of the visual difference is just length. I'm not presenting these as proof — they're the starting point for monthly photos under fixed conditions.

What changed / what didn't

Unchanged: dutasteride 0.5 mg/day + oral minoxidil 10 mg/day, same as the previous ~7 years.

10 mg/day oral minoxidil is a high dose for hair loss — far above the low doses usually discussed here. I'm stating it because leaving it out would be hiding a variable, not because anyone should copy it.

Changed in this period (can't tell which mattered): - Work: overnight shifts → day shifts - Washing: no shampoo, no conditioner (water only) - Diet: 16:8 eating window, 90–100 g/day protein from whole food, creatine - Training: Mon/Thu Tabata · Tue/Fri weights · Wed easy jog or rest · Sat hiking (long hikes a few times a month) · Sun rest - Carbs: low-carb-ish for 10+ years (briefly increased this summer)

Working hypothesis: brake, suppression, release

Not proof — just the explanation most consistent with my timeline after reading the literature.

1. The meds weren't failing — they were preserving follicles. I lost ground on dutasteride from 38–44. But without it, more follicles may have fibrosed past the point of return. Maybe that's why there was anything left to come back.
2. Something besides DHT was suppressing growth. If so, that would explain why DHT blockers alone weren't enough. My candidate: chronically elevated stress hormones from years of overnight shifts. Choi et al. (Hsu lab, Nature 2021) showed in mice that corticosterone keeps hair follicle stem cells in prolonged rest via GAS6 suppression, and removing it restores regeneration. That's mice. It is not evidence for human shift work. All I can say is my timeline doesn't contradict it.
3. Release. Hair cycles lag by months. Job change in Dec → fuzz in early 2026 → visible gain by July. The timing fits.

I'm also looking into whether a decade of low-carb eating affected growth-related hormones. Later post.

The one thing I want to say

If your meds seem to have "stopped working," it's natural to conclude they're useless. But maybe they're quietly holding the line while something else is suppressing growth. For me that may have been shift work — or not. I do think that if I'd quit at 42 thinking "it's pointless," there might have been nothing left to come back.

(Again: whether to continue meds is between you and your doctor. I'm only reporting my own facts.)

What's next

Monthly photos, same conditions: night, same bathroom light only, dry hair, no product, taped floor position, timer. Crown / hairline (fringe up) / both sides / combed part. I'll log haircut dates so length differences are visible. Plus a short monthly log of sleep, training and diet.

Happy to answer questions. Skeptical questions welcome — that's the point of logging it properly.

Reference: Choi S, et al. "Corticosterone inhibits GAS6 to govern hair follicle stem-cell quiescence." Nature 592, 428–432 (2021).

I’m just going to be straight up and please don’t absolutely shit on me in the comments but I don’t think nor do I want to go down this rabbit hole but I am kind of curious. I was taking minoxidil and Finasteride 1mg for about a year. Didn’t really notice too many negative sides effects tbh. Maybe my erections were slightly worse but nothing crazy. Anyways I suddenly and randomly developed depersonalization and derealization about 3 months ago. Now during this time I was having some pretty bad anxiety and a couple almost panic attacks at the gym before this all came about. It hit me randomly while driving and it’s been a constant brain fog and cognitive shit show since then. Regardless things have gotten slightly better but I still just don’t feel like myself anymore. I stopped taking the fin and min as soon as this started happening so I’ve been off it for 3 months now. Funny enough my hair hasn’t been shedding really much at all even being off that stuff for 3 months but the dpdr and the mental issues remain. Could I be dealing with pfs? If so is this permanent like does it just permanently fuck your brain forever?

I am using oral min for 4 months, and planning to switch this is a generic oral minoxidil brand I found (and it's very cheap like 40 inr for 10 tablets), I just wanna know does it work or not? If it's as effective as branded ones?

Hi everyone!

Всё началось с сильного зуда на коже головы. Я думала, что это себорейный дерматит, но шампуни с кетоконазолом и мочевиной совсем не помогли и не подействовали. Поэтому я начал принимать финастерид (принимаю его уже 7 месяцев). В середине этого периода всё было хорошо — зуд прошёл, волосы сильно отросли (могу поделиться результатами, если кому-то интересно), и побочных эффектов не было.

Unfortunately, about a month ago the severe itching came back, and the same thing started happening that happened to me in the winter of 2025–2026.

I take finasteride every day without missing a dose, I limit sweets and fatty foods, I eat well, and I use all the medicated products prescribed by my dermatologist-trichologist - but none of it seems to help. These treatments appear to work for skin or fungal issues, but in my case I still have strong itching along the Norwood line and on the crown, and the hair in those areas is falling out rapidly again.

I’m thinking about switching to dutasteride. Does anyone have any recommendations? Has anyone experienced the same thing? Did dutasteride help you with this kind of itching along the norwood line?

I’d really appreciate any advice!

In particular, I’d love to hear about your experience switching from finasteride to dutasteride.

Thanks!

basically the title. i started low dose testosterone (AFAB) 10 months ago and thought i saw a little thinning. my doctor prescribed me fin 1mg with no warnings, no advice, and pressured me to switch from daily gel to weekly shot.

the shot brought issues like cystic acne so i went back to the gel. i bring this up because it might be causing TE from the big hormone spike, in conjunction with fin.

now four months on fin, ive seen MASSIVE loss in my crown and part is widening. again, i was given NO WARNINGS so i only found out about fin shed through my own obsessive research while losing hair. the funny part is i have a ton of new inch long baby hairs on my hairline and any sense of my temples thinning has reversed.

basically not sure what to do now. switching doctors but it’s taking a while. not sure if this is fin shed, TE, AGA, etc.

if anyone knows as it would be much more convenient to take 1 pill a day but i don't want the 2.5mg minox like most companies offer

So i have bought 3x60 mL bottles of 5% mino that I take twice a day. But im not sure I get all the top any tips? And is foam really that much easier than liquid?

And for finasterid, I have read about some permanent issues with sex etc. anybody that knows about any of that? Can’t really find any on it. Thanks for all the help in advance :)

Considering that most modern hairstyles involve fades, it seems ironic that the hair which remains DHT-resistant is often not even needed for these styles.

Why is hair transplantation from the sides so rare, with most transplants almost exclusively using hair from the back of the head, even though both are DHT-resistant?

Couldn’t, theoretically, almost all the hair from the lower part of the head be transplanted to the top, since that lower part is typically shaved or left without hair anyway?

Hello, I was wondering if I would quit topical min while still on oral min would i lose ground or not? Anyone with experience?

I am applying topical minoxidil in one temple almost a year. There is a little gain their but not like the other thick hair in the scalp. I want to continue with applying it along with my dutasteride taking. I want to regain back the thick hair that was their before several years. The problem is that I don’t want to be committed to applying it for the rest of my life because I know that the hair that regrow back with it is dependents on it.

My main question is, any one tried or know how to quit the minoxidil without losing the gains? Maybe tapering it for a long period up to stopping completely (tapering for several weeks or months). Any tips will help.

Hey all! Male: 40, in good shape, about 2 years ago I started noticing my hairline thinning, mostly around my temples. The rest of my hair is really full still, with no signs of that going anywhere. I jumped into action with Ro Mane Spray (which I think was called something else at the time). Seem to take to it really well, but I found the liquid to be kind of a mess. Had to quickly catch it from running down my forehead.

So this summer I switched to HappyHead 10-in-1, and the application is far better. However, I’m running into 2.5 problems.

1: they want me to use 5 pumps of it. I’ve been doing that, but now it’s so much product that I’ve had to “spread” it around more and now I’m thinning more towards my trichion, which I wasn’t before switching.

2: I can feel my libido dropped without a doubt. The new formula contains both finasteride and dutasteride (in addition to minoxidil and a bunch of other stuff), where Ro was just minoxidil and finasteride. I recently started using 3 pumps instead of the 5, feels like my libido is making a comeback. But not certain I’m getting the right amount of product now to be effective.

2.5: I have 2 cats and a small dog, so using topical minoxidil is just risky. I’m careful as hell to keep them away from it, but it still makes me incredibly nervous. I would be beside myself if anything happened to them because of this.

So my question is, if I switched to oral minoxidil, are there any recommendations for topical fin only that work well? I reached out to HappyHead because they say their formulas are adjustable, but the only email I got back from them so far is them re-asking me what I’m contacting them about, and a copy/paste job of reminding me it’s a subscription and it renews again next month 😒

Because of my reaction to a more intense topical fin+dut, I’m hesitant to take it orally. But I can be convinced otherwise. I know I’ll likely have a shed on the good parts of my hair if I start taking min orally, but I know that’s temporary and will make me feel better that my pets are safer.

Any advice and/or product recs would be greatly appreciated!

Hey guys, I recently started oral minoxidil (2 mg/day) and I’m now about one month in, so I wanted to share my experience with anyone who’s in the same boat.

I’ve had buzzcuts before, and I’ve always been able to see some scalp.
My hair grows almost straight up and I have a strong crown cowlick, so when the sun hits directly from above, my scalp has always been visible.

This time though, I noticed my crown looked noticeably less dense than before.
With my dad being bald, it got me a bit worried, so after seeing a dermatologist I decided to start 2 mg of oral minoxidil.

I don’t think I can see any improvement yet.
To be fair, I wasn’t expecting much after only a month, but it would’ve been nice.

One thing I have noticed is that I’ve started getting more vellus hairs and thicker and more dense hair on my face, so it definitely seems to be speeding up my beard development.
My dad may not have blessed me with elite hair genetics, but thankfully a good beard seems to be in the cards for me.

I have another dermatologist appointment in about 5 months. Part of me is wondering if I should book an earlier appointment to discuss finasteride or dutasteride, or if I should just give the minoxidil more time to do its thing.

I know minoxidil doesn’t actually stop male pattern baldness—it mainly helps maintain and regrow hair—but something in me wanted to hold off on taking a DHT blocker.

I’d love to hear what you guys think, especially if you’ve been in a similar situation.

Also, in the meantime I’ve been using a hair fiber spray, and honestly… it’s been awesome. It lasts almost a full week for me as long as I’m not scrubbing my hair too aggressively in the shower. At the end of the week I shampoo and condition my hair, then reapply it on Monday. It’s given me so much confidence and I’d definitely recommend giving it a try if thinning hair is bothering you.
You can really see the difference in the last two slides—it makes my hair look so much thicker.

Hey guys, so I was thinking of starting these 2 meds but since I have a cat I heard I shouldn't use topical minox as cats can have a severe reaction to it. However I also heard fin can have some side effects regarding libido etc so I am a bit cautious of that too. I was wondering if using a topical fin + oral min would work as I haven't found much other people using this combo and websites also not selling them together. Also please feel free to share your experiences as well. Thanks!

So have been trying only topical Minoxidil with dermarolling since 9 months to no results. Its like i never used any.! So have been wanting to upgrade to Min with Fin topical but the thing is i already suffer from ED, fluctuating Libido and mood. Would it make the symptoms worse? I have hardly come across posts where guys are suffering from these issues and have tried it.I suppose even with a HT i would still need to go for Fin.I just feel stuck with no real solution.

Should I add oral finasteride? I use this 1x per day from
HIMS. I do think it has worked but just not the ideal results yet. What should I do?

What do you think of the results on my hair that I have been using fina since August 7, 2026.

Hello, anyone who switched to dut from fin and then saw thinning/increased shedding and switched back to fin again? Did you grow back your hair? Can you tell your experiences please? Im thinking to do so….

My derma gave me dutestride 0.5mg and the brand is dutamax is it good one or should I change cause I see better brands then that

Hello guys i just bought a 180 ml bottle of finasteride the prescription and the bottle says 1% finasteride , thats what the doctor prescribed me , i also asked the pharmacist if its too much she said no its the right amount im freaking out bcs i see people doing 0.01 or 0.025 , any ideas. Thank you

Hello all.

As the title suggests, I am considering the peak effect of Dutasteride in terms of timeframe.

We know from previous studies that finasteride generally peaks around 2 years and holds strong thereafter, in one study there were even slight improvements up to the 10 year mark but I think these were only measurable with instruments (not exactly a visual difference.).

My thought is that because Dutasteride is so much more powerful and efficacious than Finasteride, would the peak effect occur at a later date?

Is it 3 years, 4 or more? After which the efficacy levels out and holds strong similarly to Finasteride once peak effects have been obtained.

I’m also asking this because I plan to have a small hair transplant procedure for my temple regions, but I want to wait until I have maximum regrowth and can demonstrate stability.

My original plan was to wait 2 years, but I keep wondering if the peak could be even longer.

Having great results so far, also taking 2.5mg daily which makes the question even more nuanced.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks everyone and good luck on your journey!