Although a full hair transplant is the only way to stop baldness or a receding hairline, for some people this may be a bit too much and their hair loss may not be to such an extent that they require a full-blown restoration surgery. One type of hair loss medication, which is commonly sold worldwide under the brand name Propecia, is Finasteride which has been used as a method to treat the effects of hair loss since 1990.
Only available to men as a prescription-only hair loss medication, Finasteride belongs to a group of medicines known as 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors and is administered as an orally taken tablet used to treat male pattern hair loss in men and, although it is not considered as a cure for hair loss, can be used to prevent any additional hair loss and in some cases, can even begin to stimulate regrowth in affected areas.
How does Finasteride work?
Finasteride, when continually taken, is used as a long-term method of decreasing the effects of DHT on hair follicles. DHT stands for dihydrotestosterone and it’s the DHT that is responsible for genetic baldness. This baldness is caused by a chemical disorder that triggers individual hair follicles to become sensitive the DHT and because of this, the hair follicles begin to shrink, weaken and eventually die which in turn, causes the hair loss.
The hair loss medication itself has a very high success rate for those who are suffering from mild/moderate levels of hair loss, but before clear results will show it is required to be taken for several months. If you are suffering from more extreme levels of hair loss, then a transplant would be recommended.
Is it proven to work?
In short, yes, Finasteride is proven to work. In a clinical five-year trial to examine and test the effectiveness of Finasteride, the results gathered were shown to be extremely positive. Approximately 42% of the men that were involved in the trial experienced renewed hair growth in areas where they had started to experience balding and another 48% of those involved in the trial noticed that their hair loss had ceased and that the hair had stopped falling out. With 90% of the men involved in the trial experiencing these results, Finasteride was shown to be overwhelmingly positive.
When will I start to see results?
As with any form of hair loss medication or hair transplant surgery, it can take some time for any clear results to show with the greatest benefits showing after the three-month mark when it is taken daily, and the majority of men experience the largest amount of regrowth within the first two years of taking Finasteride. Any withdrawal of the treatment, however, will lead to a reversal of the hair gain within the next twelve months and for this reason, Finasteride is not a cure for any form of male hair loss but instead will slow and, in some cases, stop the effects of hair loss for the duration that the hair loss medication is taken.