Hi Doc,
I’ve been on Propecia for 5 1/2 months now for a receding hairline. I’m currently a NW2 and I am moving slowly to a NW3. However, the propecia does not seem to be slowing or stopping the recession at all since I started, so I’m assuming it won’t work past this point anyway. However, the interesting thing is that the propecia has made my hair much coarser than it was before. Prior to taking it, my hair was fine, now it is coarse and curly. If I stop the propecia since it’s not working for the recession, will my hair go back to fine again? Thank You

Propecia does not generally reverse recession or frontal hair loss. At best, it slows it down. At 5 months, you should not expect much change. It does thicken the hair as you are noticing, because it strengthens miniaturized (thinner) hairs. I would assume if you stop Propecia it would make your hair fine again and probably even cause shedding as those “fine” hairs were likely the ones that were going to fall out eventually. This is called “catch up” hair loss. Is it reasonable to say that the coarser hair you are talking about matched the hair on the back of your head? Check that out.

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