Why isn’t my hair getting thicker with finasteride? Finasteride is one of the
most prescribed drugs for the treatment of male pattern hair loss worldwide I
routinely prescribe finasteride as well as dutasteride for male pattern hair
loss many patients express their concern of continual hair loss and lack of
significant hair growth while taking finasteride they ask if it’s really
worth taking or they believe the drug just doesn’t work for them I’ll discuss
my experience with managing male pattern hair loss with patients who’ve been on
finasteride before even seeing me as well as my strategy for its role in the
management of male pattern hair loss I’m Dr. Amiya Prasad I’m a
Board-certified cosmetic surgeon and Fellowship-trained oculofacial plastic
and reconstructive surgeon I’ve been in practice in New York City and Long
Island for over 25 years throughout my career I managed hair loss with surgical
hair transplantation as well as finasteride since 1997 optimizing hair
transplant outcomes was my core objective for many years since hair
graft yield was frequently diminished by the survival of the transplanted hair
imagine the pain and frustration for the surgeon technicians and most importantly
the patient if 30 to 90 percent of transplanted hair just doesn’t grow I
experienced a significant revelation in 2011 when I used extracellular matrix by
the company a cell and platelet-rich plasma for the improvement of hair graft
survival and donor area healing I observed that one year after surgery
even in a patient with advanced hair loss that thinning hair became thicker
I made it a mission to determine the potential of this observation over the
next several years to develop a predictable and highly effective
non-surgical treatment for male and female pattern hair loss based on the
development of customized formulations and treatment plans using specific
characteristics such as age age of onset gender rate of progression and degree of
hair loss I created the TrichoStem Hair
Regeneration system I was able to help patients non-surgically
with long lasting results using one to two treatment sessions with the duration
of effect of 3 to 5 years that exceeded the effective scalp coverage of not just
one but two hair transplant surgeries at a fraction of the cost of two surgical
procedures and the convenience of having a treatment in less than one hour
patients have come to our offices every week from around the world to make
TrichoStem Hair Regeneration system more accessible I built a free-standing
center for TrichoStem Hair Regeneration in Northern Virginia separate from our
two locations in Manhattan and Long Island during the early development of
TrichoStem Hair Regeneration I question what the difference would be for someone
who was on finasteride before coming in and having their treatment finasteride
is a DHT or dihydrotestosterone blocker which works by blocking an enzyme called
5-alpha reductase this enzyme is responsible for the conversion of
testosterone to dihydrotestosterone in male pattern hair loss hair sensitive to
DHT is subject to hair thinning and eventually disappearing
an important point is that finasteride does not stop hair
progression but rather it slows down hair loss progression so to use an
analogy imagine a train going 100 miles an hour
being slowed down to 30 miles an hour it’ll still reach its destination
but much later I’ve had the unique opportunity since 2011 to observe hair
growth behavior in a wide range of men and women of all ethnicities and ages
this continues to be a unique and unprecedented perspective attributable
to the fact that I see patients after trichostem hair regeneration treatment
every three to six months and annually for five years and beyond
based on these long-term observations I concluded that there is a range of DHT
sensitivity among men that directly affects the effectiveness of finasteride
and trichostem hair regeneration for example I categorize men who start
losing their hair and their late teens and their early 20s as having high DHT
sensitivity men whose age of onset of hair loss is much later and slower I
classify as having lower DHT sensitivity based on these observations I have
customized treatment plans for different categories of male pattern hair loss
I’ve generally observed that men who are on finasteride whether they perceive
progression or stability of their hair loss trichostem hair regeneration
treatment has helped them have improved scalp coverage through the reactivation
of hair growth and thickening of individual hairs I’ve come to the
conclusion that finasteride helps to preserve the longevity of your hair
follicles lifespan but the nast right does not stimulate growth or max
my’s your potential scalp coverage essentially there’s an opportunity for
synergy combining a DHT blocker with trichostem hair regeneration with
patient data starting in 2011 the TrichoStem Hair Regeneration treatment
has shown visible improvement in hair thickness and scalp coverage in over 99%
of male and female pattern hair loss patients although there is finally in
the general community acknowledgment of the benefits of PRP or PRP with a cell
in the management of hair loss the current standard of practice amongst
medical retailers is to require patients to have scalp injections every three
months as a much more advanced system TrichoStem Hair Regeneration treatment
is typically only two treatments 18 months apart with sustained benefits for
3 to 5 years and longer so while a drug like finasteride is important to slow
down hair thinning in male pattern hair loss
it appears that finasteride alone does not maximize hair coverage particularly
in men who’ve experienced hair loss progression while taking finasteride the
unparalleled results from the synergy of finasteride with trichostem hair
regeneration makes this an optimal strategy in my practice I hope you found
this information helpful thank you for your question