What is Finasteride?
Finasteride is a tablet treatment for men experiencing hair loss, which is often called male pattern baldness. It works by preventing a hormone conversion in the body that causes hair follicles to shrink. The tablets are also used to treat men with an enlarged prostate, also known as benign prostate enlargement (BPH).
Finasteride can’t permanently cure hair loss, but it can sometimes halt its development. For some people, it can even trigger hair regrowth.
Hair loss, or male pattern baldness, is usually easy to identify. You can start to lose hair from your scalp, the top of your head, or from the front of the head, which is widely known as a receding hairline. The most common cause of hair loss in men is male androgenetic alopecia (MAA).[1] This progressive condition damages hair follicles and causes hair thinning on the scalp.
Studies have shown that using Finasteride for between 1-2 years can significantly improve the appearance of hair, encourage hair growth, and slow down hair loss.[2]
How does Finasteride work?
There’s an enzyme in the body called 5-alpha reductase. It converts the hormone testosterone into another hormone, dihydrotestosterone, or DHT. DHT can make hair follicles shrink, and trigger hair loss, if your body is sensitive to it.
Finasteride stops the enzyme from converting testosterone into DHT, reducing the amount of the enzyme in the blood and the scalp. This helps to bolster hair growth, and prevent any more hair loss.
How long does Finasteride take to work?
It starts working in the body immediately, so it’s likely that your DHT levels will be lower as soon as you’ve taken your first dose. Generally speaking, Finasteride reduces DHT in the body by around 70%.
But it can take longer before you see any results. Because male pattern hair loss is a condition that develops slowly, it may take between 3 and 6 months before you see any improvement in the thickness of your hair, or any reduction in hair loss, with Finasteride. And it may be up to 12 months before you see the best results.
It’s easy to stop taking Finasteride if you’re not noticing any improvements relatively quickly, but you should keep taking it as prescribed. Your DHT levels will return to normal if you interrupt your course of treatment, and you may start to lose hair once more. Patience can be the key with it.
It’s also important to note that Finasteride doesn’t always trigger hair regrowth. It’s a treatment that’s often taken to slow hair loss, rather than as a means of getting hair to grow back.
Your hair will still fall out when you’re using Finasteride as part of its natural growth cycle (stray hairs being replaced by new hairs), so you’ll continue to see stray hairs in the shower or the bath, on your comb, or in your hands. This is totally normal and nothing to worry about.
