July 6 2009, 12:32 pm PT | Posted in: Drugs
Hey doc, In your experience, do you feel that lots of guys tend to over analyze their hair after starting a treatment like propecia? For instance im 5 1/2 months in, for the last week i was convinced it was starting to see some hair come back, then today i look and it looks awful. I go through these mood swings all the time, since i started propecia. I should have listened to you and got a minuturization test done but my derm just gave me the meds, so now all I have to go off of is my memory of what it looked like when i started. Secondly between what months do most your patients see improvement in their hair, or become convinced that propecia is working in some form or another?
What was the phrase — a watched pot never boils? If you’re taking a pill to treat hair loss, of course you’re likely to watch your hair with an intense focus. It’s not unusual, but you shouldn’t stress yourself out about it. It generally takes 8 to 24 months to see the benefits of Propecia (finasteride). Full benefits may take the full 24 months.
The reason I suggest mapping the scalp for miniaturization is well defined by your comment. Our memory is not objective, but scalp miniaturization mapping is objective… so you do not have to rely on your memory.
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This post is so true.. It’s hard not to obsess about your hair once you realize you are losing it, and you are taking Propecia to try and save it. I’m nearly three months in, and I’ve gotten alot better about not worrying about it all the time, but for the first month or so, it was bad. I’d check my hair every 30 minutes (not sure what I was expecting to see). I basically started forcing myself to not worry about it.. Fix my hair in the morning, and then just go about my day as much as possible. I agree totally with Dr. Rassman… the more we obsess about our hair, the longer it will probably seem before we see any results… I started not really looking at my hair after I get out of the shower when it’s wet because I could tell I was starting to thin out when my hair was really wet. My hair looks fine when it’s dry. So now, I just wash my hair, get out of the shower, pat my hair down a bit with a towel, and then let it air dry without really looking too much in the mirror.
Totally agree..
Also when you say ‘how long it takes to see the benefits’ do you mean, seeing ’seedlings’ coming through or when the new hair is as long as the rest of your hair and looks normal?
Same here. I wonder if everyone goes through this phase?
I’m on month 7 and I’m starting to see fuzz, or baby hair more abundantly than I used to in some of the thinner areas.
I wonder though if these hairs will shed and regrow stronger, or will they always be a light fuzz? I can’t seem to find this anywhere. I guess it’s different for each person.
In any case, hang in there man. Don’t let it get the best of ya.
With ALL hairloss treatments, you must remember the big picture - hairloss is inevitable. Finasteride, Dutasteride, minoxidil, will only slow or temporarily halt your hairloss path.
The best you can do is take your chosen treatment, forget about hairloss, and get on with your life knowing you have done all you can for your hair.
And as Dr Rassmann puts, work out a “master plan” when the treatment does eventually fail ( which could be many years down the track ) - believe it or not you may not even care about hairloss quite as much by the time this happens.
Sometimes I log on to this site and am amazed by some of the questions I see, in that I thought about asking the very same ones.
This one is a key example in that I’m also 5.5 months, obsess over it, and was worried about it ever working.
And then there’s the one about the guy on TV wanting to get a transplant so as not to appear bald on TV. I’m in an almost identical position.
I guess I have two points. It’s a good reminder that we’re not the only ones going through things. And that this website is an invaluable resource.