Minoxidil (liquid and tabs) is a vasodialator that opens potassium channels and widens blood vessels bringing nutrients to your hair follicles, stimulating them into thickening, accelerating growth and elongating the growth phase. Min is taken with fin to restore your hair to it's original hairline, thickness and vigor when hair loss is caught early enough, (pre-NW2). Can be taken orally or topically.

Topical min does not work in 1/3 of men because they lack the required enzymes in their scalp, all men have this enzyme in their liver so the oral route is a good fallback.
The FDA formulation for 5% liquid minoxidil is food safe (vape juice, ethanol and water) and can be safely taken orally if oral min tabs are expensive or rarely prescribed where you live. As a general rule, ~4 drops (0.1ml) = 5mg minoxidil.
There's a 1-2% risk of fluid retention with higher oral dosages, start with the lowest dosage possible and work your way up when you're sure it's well tolerated.

Ketoconazole is an anti-androgen and antifungal that inhibits DHT on the scalp and used to treat fungal infections of the scalp that may be making your hair loss worse such as seborrheic dermatitis, a condition where you exhibit severe greasy, flaky large dandruff flakes with dried yellow crystals (blood plasma) embedded in the scalp. Some people may only have traction alopecia (hair loss from scratching or friction), but it will not cure androgenic alopecia alone. Can only be taken topically.

Do not use spirolactone. Spirolactone is a diuretic which, in large doses, inhibits testosterone and, by extension, DHT.
It is regularly prescribed as an anti-androgen for male to female HRT, and thus, comes with an astronomically higher risk of sexual side effects in men including ED, gynecomastia, and can cause potassium toxicity.

We got pushed off the catalog by the insane spiro spammer!
Previous: >>18359754

>>18369610
I'm just going to buzz and get lean untill I can afford to get multiple transplants no matter how much it costs. I will NOT take troon drugs no matter what.

Feels weird having stuff like tret and fin be marketed as lifestyle medications but I won't complain about $14 fin prescriptions you can get filled for like $7 at costplus, don't fall for the keeps meme, their fin is literally $1 per pill.

>>18369646
>lifestyle medication
It's an actual term describing medication that treats things that don't really harm you. I'd say the quit smoking one is the odd one out here.
>don't fall for the keeps meme
Is that the one where you send them photos of your head and they send you finasteride? It sounds like they're just taking advantage of people too insecure to see a real life doctor.

>>18369610
If you use fin for two years with no sides, can you reasonably expect to be side-free with dut? It's basically fin but even stronger, right?
Conversely, if someone was a wreck on fin, they shouldn't take dut, right?

fin and minox gave me sides and didn't work, but spirolactone fixed all my problems with no sides.

>>18369610
you will all look like me its only a matter of time

Low T is a symptom of schizophrenia.

Man there's some fucking shit going on with my scalp. Fin min tretinoin for months and absolutely nothing.

Look at the red inflamed zomes on the scalp. Something is wrong beyond the AGA. Gotta find a derm to investigate. Maybe clobetasol helps me.

>>18369656
>men might not want to talk to their doctor about their embarrassing hair loss problem
>men might not have insurance
>men might have shitty insurance that doesn't cover cosmetic shit like dermatologists and fin consultations

Even if you have good insurance, you still have to wait weeks to months for a derma referral in the US and by then you're already running the clock on your hairline.

Keeps is one of many telemedicine sites where you talk to a chatbot and upload pics of your head and get a fin prescription right away, it's way more convenient.
Keeps sucks because they force you to get the fin straight from them and their shit is like $80/3mo supply, transferring your prescription out is also pretty hard but doable.
But in their aggressive marketing, they're also finpilling unaware men.


Of course this is the US centric view, getting fin in person is probably easier in countries that don't have shitty healthcare like US.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emhyp4J_sSQ

qrd / tldw
>former U.S. national guard soldier
>bodybuilder for 15 years
>has everything going in life, educated, successful career, spouse, etc.
>no prior mental health issues

>starts taking (((finasteride))) and experiences...
>brain fog
>insomnia
>anhedonia
>slurred speech
>motherfucking SKULL SHRINKAGE
>feels zero emotions
>lost the ability to sweat
>perpetually zoned out

>quits finasteride
>severe muscle loss
>can't get gym pumps anymore
>rest of the problems persist for over 2 years and continue to this day

Finasteride basically took everything away from him.
And yet there are disgraceful dipshit zoomers here who claim that post finasteride syndrome isn't real, you must feel really proud of yourselves.

>>18369871
Go take your disability fraud welfare queen and shove it up your ass.

>>18369612
>The FDA formulation for 5% liquid minoxidil is food safe (vape juice, ethanol and water) and can be safely taken orally if oral min tabs are expensive or rarely prescribed where you live.
No it fucking can't be taken safely you cunts, drinking minoxidil is like BEGGING for a heart attack. The pill is for treating hypertension but rarely gets prescribed because it's dangerous as fuck too.
DO NOT DRINK MINOXIDIL!

>>18369964
nah, it's safe. shits been studied. 5mg minoxidil is nothing. only ultra high doses nobody would take are bad.

>men on moms side: no facial hair but nw1 hairlines
>dad's side: bald, but excellent facial hair as a compensation
i somehow inherited the lack of facial hair AND the balding. well fuck what nature gave me, ill hang onto every follicle i can with dutasteride.

>>18369985
You can't properly control dosages with a dropper and even at low doses it causes pericardial effusion (fluid buildup around the heart) which can lead to heart failure. You're gonna kill someone with these stupid bro science threads, why they are even allowed on /fa/ baffles me, fuck off to /lgbt/ or /fit/.

>>18370019
yes you can. youre just a bitch.

>>18370019
There's like 2 case reports of oral Min low dose causing effusion and neither case report ended in heart failure (tamponade)

Zero studies on ldom shos heart failure in any patients

Haircafe simps need to calm the fhck down. That faggot takes ru58441 and it's easily more dangerous than ldom

>>18370086
They would have had heart failure if they didn't stop. Minoxidil turns your heart into a ticking bomb.

>>18370105
Why don't you go to the skincare threads and make up random shit like tretinoin triggering rapid skin turnover and increasing your risk of cancer, it's the same shit as what you're doing.

Started fin today. Around 1 to 1.1/1.2mg orally cause topical is not available in my country. Left testicle started hurting within 30m. Went away after maybe 30 min tops. Doctor said i should quit. What do you guys think?

>tfw first signs of finasteride induced metamorphosis are starting to show up
How much do I have left

>>18370142
zero. You're going to look like this in record time. Your hair is mine. You became baldy I become chad. You become reddit I become chad

>>18370137
getting ant sort of effects 30 minutes after swallowing a pill if fin is MENTAL. you are gaslighting yourself.

Anyway i did get real testicle pain, lasted for a day or two agter i had been a week on fin. then it went away. everything has been just fine since. ofc your doc says to quit asap because he fears getting sued.

>>18370178
Not everyone lives in muttland, you mutts NEED to stop thinking that. You cannot sue for that here. Least off all because i pushed for fin. And no, no its not mental. I get my effects from taladafil and a bunch of other meds within 30m too

my hairline is so fucked. im only receding at the temples but its so narrow and deep. cant wait to get a hair transplant should have started fin 2 years ago.

>>18370205
sorry to blackpill you but most surgeons dont do transplants to the temples. temple hair is such a different texture than donor hair that it almost always looks like shit.

>>18370137
Its literally impossible to experience side effects from fin in that time frame without being allergic, which you are not. You need to wait at least a month and any you do get will be directly from increased estrogen levels which your doctor should monitor for you if you are worried

>>18370137
>>18370182
I also experienced sides on the same day that I started. I got shortness of breath, dry mouth and lost my sense of taste. /fa/ and tressless told me to try and power through it so I did, and it almost cost me my life.

On top of the aforementioned side effects I also became severely depressed. 6 months has passed since I stopped taking finasteride and I'm still depressed (slowly getting better) and my taste buds are still dead.

>>18370249
Something similar happened to me, I took my first finasteride pill and after about 3 hours I lost an inch of height. /fa/ told me I was crazy but after a week of 'treatment' I was 2 and a half inches shorter.
Never again, I consulted a doctor and he said while it was rare, he could conclude that the finasteride caused it. He told me the effects were permanent tho.
Since then I'm on no fap and cold showers hopefully with that I could recover maybe an inch of height

>>18370137
I got my first real effect of fin doing anything about 3 weeks in, you're imagining it.

>>18369610
>Reminder that if you can clearly see your scalp when your hair is wet, your hair is thinning, lots of small new hairs sprouting around the hairline or crown is a sign of recession.

I have been taking propidren for two years now and my hairline has not receded and has even recovered. However, I have noticed that my longer hair has remained thin, and the scalp is a bit visible when my hair is wet, but recently I have noticed a very dense layer of smaller, downy hairs growing. When I run my hand through my scalp it feels like I have two separate layers, my longer, thinner layer and this new thick, soft layer. Is this just me coping or is this a restorative process caused by the medication?

>>18370460
fucked up image hold on

I'll also add that two years ago when I felt a fan on my scalp I could feel the air rushing through my hair and blowing directly on my scalp, now I don't feel that.

>>18370464
that pill is almost worthless, itll block maybe 10% of your scalp dht.

Question for all those actively partaking and lurking these balding threads.
Why are you balding?
What made it so that you decided to begin balding?
When did you start, what motivated you and what do you hope to achieve by the end of this?

>>18370531
umm this is the anti-balding thread

once theoretically my hair grows back and I just stay on fin can I drop min? my head's usually itchy so I might just keep buying keto and use it once a week or so

>>18369612
miku is so cute bros

>>18370531
It's hard to say for sure, but I want to say my age, muh genetics, and perhaps my starting a heavy lifestyle and supplementation routine a few months back, several of which are likely to increase testosterone levels.
In that last part, my hair may well have become a victim of my own success, however resounding it may otherwise have been.

>>18370487
I've been having good results, but maybe I should up the ante. It could be I'm a weird genetic mutant but it has done wonders for me, specifically so maybe my scalp is receptive.

>>18370531
thankfully im not balding, but if i was i would probably go for a hair system or hair transplant. taking drugs with many documented side effects is not in the card for me, i don't care what the use case is. i even read a post years ago about a guy claiming fin permanently curved his dick in a bizarre angle (L shape)

do even a cursory search on the side effects (testimonials, not information on the insert) and see for yourself

>>18370677
that would require insane fin regrowth to safely drop min. you can always try i guess maybe you are a hyper responder but probably not

>>18370799
Nta and English is not my first language so please forgive any mistakes
>thankfully im not balding
Then why are you here? There's a big chance you are but haven't noticed it yet, unless you're one of those nw1 with no family history of hair recession, then sure.
>Hair system
I don't care too much if a man is wearing a wig, but the whole idea doesn't appeal to me and it's also too expensive where I live, not to mention the social stigma around it. I spend approximately 5~6 dollars a month on dut and min. I used to spend way more than that when I smoked cigarettes.
>hair transplant
A transplant won't stop your hair from falling. It's a cosmetic procedure in which a surgeon pretty much rearranges your hair follicles to make your midscalp or hair line look fuller when in reality it isn't. It also doesn't tackle the root cause, which is androgens, and you'll continue to bald after the transplant without meds.
>i even read a post years ago about a guy claiming fin permanently curved his dick in a bizarre angle (L shape)
It could be peyronie's disease for all I know, which has nothing to do with androgens or how 5ar inhibitors work.
>testimonials
See, that's my problem with the anti-fin crowd. You'd believe me if I told you fin curved my dick, but you won't if I told you fin made my hair thicker and that my dick works just fine? They're both testimonials/self-reports with no credibility. Why believe the negative and disregard the positive?

>be perfectly healthy
>take fin and min
>suffer multiple cardiac arrests
nice "wonder drug" you have there.

>>18371275
can't oral min make you literally retarded

im sick of waiting for regrowth, ill ask the doctors to induce a medical coma, apply min+fin every day and wake me up a year from now

how do I know if my hair's growing from min

>>18371064
>. Why believe the negative and disregard the positive?
Because there is monetary incentive to post positive comments if you work to market a drug while there's no incentive to post negative comments about it, nobody gains anything from it thus it -might- be more truthful
>See, that's my problem with the anti-fin crowd
Your problem is that people don't want to take a drug with heavily documented side effects? Hmm that's a bizarre thing to have a problem with, almost like you have something to gain from it.

>>18369610
Does finasteride cause gyno?

>>18371310
finasteride inhibits the conversion of testosterone into dht. this means your body has more T to use for different stuff. If you have high aromatase activity, this means your estrogen levels might rise a bit. for most men this isnt an issue, but if your E was high to begin with, then finasteride might push it over the line and you get bitch tits.

>>18369610
Is 0.5 mg daily dutasteride enough to get better returns that 1mg daily finasteride?
I heard here that you need to taper off fin/onto dut, what kind of interval are we talking here? Can I go straight to like 3x weekly fin, 4x weekly dut, then after 2 weeks, 6x weekly dut, 1x weekly fin?

>>18371302
>there's no incentive to post negative comments about it, nobody gains anything from it thus it -might- be more truthful
Are you a paranoid schizophrenic by any chance? I'm not getting paid by anyone to promote anything.
>Your problem is that people don't want to take a drug with heavily documented side effects?
No, I don’t have a problem with that. In fact, I don’t care whether you take it or not. It’s a drug that can have side effects for some people and none for others. Would I believe a random person on an obscure forum if he said it curved his dick into an L shape, shrank his skull, etc.? No. Do I believe it can cause ED, gyno, low libido, brain fog, etc. for some people? Yes.
>Hmm that's a bizarre thing to have a problem with, almost like you have something to gain from it.
But there is something to be made from being anti-fin and making up random side effects. You do know groups sue pharmaceutical companies all the time and there's some decent money to be made from that, right? I could say the same thing about you and call you a pfsfoundation shill.

>>18371318
0.5mg dut decreses your scalp dht by 50%, 1mg fin decreases it by 40%.

>>18371321
Both fin an dut have hard diminishing returns, right?
iirc 5 mg fin is literally 2% better than 1mg fin and the curve is basically flat past 5.
What's the curve like for dut?
Fin didn't work for me and I'm a nonresponder to min, so I'm thinking I'll hop on dut + microneedling and fully embrace every meme that looks even slightly legit, i.e. topical caffeine, saw palmetto, peptides, melatonin.
My bar for "looks even slightly real" is "I can link an NIH study that I can use to cope".

>>18371325
dut has way better returns. you get more complete dht blocking all the way up to 2.5mg dose, which inhibits 70% of your scalp dht. you can google that, im not making shit up. its expensive to take 5 pills per day tho.

>>18371326
>ts expensive to take 5 pills per day tho.
>half-life of at least two weeks
Can't I do a "loading phase" where I accumulate dut in my system then do 2.5mg like twice a week?
That's 10 pills a week instead of 35.

>>18371379
im not great at pharmacokinetics but that doesnt sound the same as 2.5mg per day to me

I AM OFFICIALLY FOMOING INTO MINOXIDIL

Bros is my hairline salvageable? Only serious replies

>>18371310
Yeah, among other things like shrink your skull, permanently bend your dick into an L-shape, and give you heart attacks.

>>18371489
dont forget it makes you multiple inches shorter too.

>>18371486
I'd cum all over your hairline if you let me anon :3

i went to a dermatologist last year and he diagnosed that i have telogen effivium after i told him i sleep 3-4 hours every night only and this would be the cause for the thinning.
he said my hair should stop thinning and come back to normal after the stress is removed around 6 months after it.
it's now over a year that i can sleep normally and my hair is a bit thicker but i still have thin hairs in the middle of my scalp.
did this dude lie to me or is it normal that it takes that long?

>>18371602
Unfortunately you just might have both

I don't know if it's the finasteride or something else but my dick shrinks, turtles, the glans gets cold and I leak pee. The sides of my torso/obliques also hurt sometimes. I've been taking fin for 2 years and these started in the past year after trying dutasteride Dec 2023 and stopping/going back to fin. I went to the urologist summer 2024 and he made me stop fin and get on darifenacin for a month. He also suggested to try topical fin btw but I can't be consistent with that it's a hassle. I felt a change but I started taking fin again 1 month after that to escape the norwood reaper and everything returned. What the fuck can I do? I'm almost 21, I've been taking 1mg fin since 19th birthday. Why are there hundreds of thousands of people taking 1mg fin and not having problems like these while I have to?

>>18371614
Those symptoms can all be induced psychologically. Get blood work done and if it comes back normal then you are simply placeboing yourself

>>18371608
idk if u can see but the hair in the middle are thinner.
will probably wait another 6 months and go again.

>>18371620
saaaaaaaar

>>18371630
kek, why would you think im indian

>>18371620
And everywhere else is thick besides the midscalp? Its a possibility that you are diffuse thinning now and the TE was masking it. I wouldn't wait 6 months, I would get a second opinion asap

>>18371642
i basically had thinning over the whole head, but the most affected area was the middle of the scalp. the other parts recovered fully more or less. only mid is not back to before.
currently i have new thinner hairs around the mid area, not sure if they will shed and come back strong. but they were not there couple months ago tho.
both sides of family have no acute balding, father nearly full head of hair at 60's. mothers side 1 uncle has full hair at 50, not even norwooding. other uncle lost front part tho.

>look at mirror
>see tiny vellus hairs growing in
we're so back
>look at mirror again
>lose sight of the vellus hairs
its so over

my life is like this on repeat. i wish fin and min worked overnight rather than over months or even years.

>>18371662
Like I said get a second opinion. If you are balding in conjuction with TE then 6 months could do some serious damage as a diffuse thinner

>starts finasteride because MPB
>6 months later, gets gynecomastia
>end up enjoying it
Welp

>>18371688
You're gonna be like that on and off the first year on fin because the hair cycle is slow and hair doesn't get thicker mid-cycle.

>>18371701
did you become a femboy or something

>>18371617
leaking pee in my pants when im not even aware is psychological?

>>18371703
Nah my nipples just started puffing, beside that I just look the same as when I started taking it (my face doesn't seem more rounded or "boyish" than before).
I can definitely feel I've lost libido tho, dick still works fine for now.
As a bonus I can tell new hair is growing where I was worried about and it's well worth it from my point of view.

>>18371704
You are certainly not getting incontinence from finasteride even more so as a young person. Sounds like some kind of anxiety thing.

another day another vellus hair cope. these small strands are only visible under a harsh light and when wet.
grow grow grow already, turn into proper hair for fucks sake.

>>18371847
Buzz it while you wait

might be a silly question but do I rub min around with my hand?
they gave a comb so I've just been combing it around my head
I get it's for the scalp but I'm not sure how to maximize that

>>18372112
I think you're supposed to apply it directly with the dropper, a comb will work it into the hair and away from the scalp due to capillary action.

The holy fucking grail.

You WILL regrow hair with 2.5mg.

Which future treatments seem good?

>>18372470
idk estrogen and t-blockers gives pretty good results

What are some /fa/ hats to wear now that you have an excuse?

>>18372112
Part your hair and apply it directly to the scalp. Then use your hand or the comb to spread it around

>>18372493
Noice, stylish.
>>18372489
Very comfy and traditional.

>>18372481
im taking the wiggerpill

You niggers need to save up some cash and go book your flight with the turkish hairlines and get that sweet manliness back, all this schizo babble with the finas and minox wont give you fuck all apart from making your peter fall off and have tranny side effects

There is a solution for baldness, its called a hair transplantation.

>>18372634
ye and it looks horribly fake

>>18372634
its amazing how retards who dont know shit always appear to drop these incredible pieces of advice time and time again

GODutasteride.

>>18372634
what good is 3000 grafted hair follicles when the rest are going to fall out? you going to transplant your entire back of your head to the top and just be bald back there instead?

>>18371302
>post positive comments if you work to market a drug
by who?

>>18372865
Please link the study this is from, I'm extremely interested in escalating to dut and if I can seriously get results like this with it I'm foaming at the mouth for it.

>>18372406
nigga went from bald to bald

i posted here a couple of threads back cause i started losing a lot of hair suddenly after being on fin for year and was freaking out but it was in fat just a shed that stopped after 3 weeks and now my hair is well above baseline again

>>18372493
i'd get the shit kicked out of me in my city for wearing that lol

>>18372865
I'd have to fire my doctor and shop for one willing to go off-label before I get to play with dut.
>>18373083
https://doi.org/10.1111/1346-8138.17138 , but I can't find a free full PDF of the study.

this is the new meta for balding cunts. looks cool as shit.

I'm in the process of balding, right? I'm currently 32 years old.
I can't recover what's lost and only slow down the process right?

>>18373426
why doesn't anyone read the OP?

>>18373426
Looks like diffuse thinning. Get on fin and oral min and you can probably get regrowth as well. Diffuse thinners usually respond well to meds.

>>18373426
Get on the holy trinity you greasy fuck

>>18373444
Yeah my bad. I immediatly posted and then I read the OP and feel more educated. But then I got scared by some of the other anons in here talking about all the potentially really bad side effects so I got kinda scared.

>>18373445
I'm glad to hear. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow due to other reasons. How difficult would it be to get a prescription?

>>18373470
This picture was taken after a shower, dried with towel and then combed it for a clearer picture.
I skipped the conditioner today.

>>18373551
>How difficult would it be to get a prescription?
Very easy.,

>>18373583
Great!
I'm also reading that Finasteride actually increases testosterone in the body as less is converted to DHT. Is that right?

>>18373043
By shills and marketers? Are you actually retarded?

Disregard faggot ass hair products. Im waingromaxxing like a fucking boss

>>18373591
The finasteride patent expired a long time ago, retard.

>>18369766
do you take hot showers? you may just be scalding yourself bro

This is my current stack

What's the best way to use these?

>>18370531
>started diffuse balding at 18
>was only somewhat noticeable at 24
>started buzz cutting at 25
>looked good because of god tier skull shape
>at 34, buzz cutting isn't enough anymore as there is a clear difference of thickness between top and sides
>start taking topical min
>3 months later and I have a renaissance of hair growth
>grew out hair for the first time in a decade, still looked off and still had much less density up top especially the crown
>still get compliments from everyone
>5 months in and get a heavy shedding out of nowhere, to the point of finding my own hairs on my office desk
>hair looks disgusting
>buzz cut again, still on min for a total of 7 months
I already got a prescription for fin pills but I'm still being a pussy and I'm also not sure it will even help. I don't mind my hairline, I care about the thickness and density of hair wherever there IS hair.