Thank you for your question.
You submitted a question without a photo. You describe in your question that you’re
22-years-old, you’ve lost some hair in the temples and you’re currently on finasteride.
And you’re asking whether or not you can use minoxidil with finasteride and whether
it will regrow some of the hair in the temples. And essentially, you’re asking whether stopping
the minoxidil will result in hair loss.
Well, I can certainly share with you my counseling with patients like yourself in my practice.
A little bit of background, I’m a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon and Fellowship-trained oculofacial
plastic and reconstructive surgeon. I have been in practice in Manhattan and Long Island
for over 20 years. I am also the founder of TrichoStem™ Hair Regeneration Centers, a
system we developed evolving from the work we did with hair transplant to non-surgically
help men and women with androgenetic alopecia or pattern genetic hair loss like what you’re
describing for yourself. And patients come to us from around the world for this treatment.
It’s an injection treatment and I’ll discuss that in more detail further along.
So to begin with, I think it’s very good that you’re on a DHT blocker. I think you’re
recognizing the value of the reality of the age of onset in the young and the fact that
there is potential benefit in reducing DHT levels to prolong the lifespan of the hair.
Now as far as whether or not it is safe to use minoxidil with finasteride, well the answer
is it is safe. And it is routine for patients to come to me having been on both. It is essentially
the two drugs that actually have a well established clinical benefit in treating hair loss.
Now the mechanism in how minoxidil helps hair growth still remains unknown. But it is well
established that the perception that we as physicians have is that it prolongs the growth
cycle and may stimulate some hair growth. What often is a frustration is that sometimes,
there is skin irritation which means that a person has to stop the use of the drug or
if someone stops using the drug, then the hair sheds. So it does follow the pharmaceutical
model that if you use the drug, the effect of the drug is there. And when you stop using
the drug, the effects goes away.
Now a lot of our patients have come to us who are still on both minoxidil and finasteride.
And when we treated them with our treatment, Hair Regeneration, we saw significant improvement.
So to just give you a little bit more information about Hair Regeneration, Hair Regeneration
evolved from when we were doing transplants and we would want to see the grafts heal better
as well as the donor area to heal better. We use a stem cell technology, Acellular matrix,
which recruits your adult stem cells for wound healing and found that a lot of the patients,
the thinning hairs became thicker.
Well, I took it upon myself to try to develop a system that would predictably result in
stimulating hair growth. And the mechanisms still remains not fully defined but essentially,
what we’ve been able to do is see that we can reactivate hair that wasn't actively growing,
thinning hair can become thicker and the hair growth cycle can become longer which means
ultimately, more coverage. So it’s from a different mechanism that the injection works
that can work in synergy with the DHT blocker and minoxidil. And if a patient comes to me
who hasn't been on minoxidil, I simply tell them not to bother because the treatment that
we’re doing with Hair Regeneration has been shown to be sustainable for years depending
on an individual’s hair loss profile.
When you have been doing this for as long as I have and I have been treating patients
from around the world since 2011 for this particular treatment, Hair Regeneration, I
ultimately developed not only an algorithm that optimized treatment based on a certain
categorization of the hair loss profile but further, I also developed an optimal treatment
strategy also based on hair loss profile that factors in gender, age of onset, degree of
progression, rate of progression, the other hormonal issues and medical issues as well
as other previous treatments. And ultimately, we’ve developed a treatment plan for our
patients. Generally speaking, the injection has been able to be sustained for years after
treatment but it is dependent on the person’s hair growth cycle and the longevity of their
hair growth cycle and the relative aggressiveness of their hair loss pattern.
So for people like yourself who are young, essentially, you want to use all the tools
you can. So in a patient like yourself, if you’ve been on minoxidil or you started
minoxidil, I’ll keep you on it. If you haven't started minoxidil and you were only on finasteride,
then I would probably just say hold off on minoxidil. I don't see minoxidil adding any
unique benefit separate from Hair Regeneration which really works at the source and doesn't
require daily application. And it’s an injection that we generally do at one point and then
do a booster injection somewhere at 15 to 24 months again depending on the patient’s
hair loss profile and what my anticipation of the hair growth cycle longevity is.
So I’d say that, to answer your question again, can we use minoxidil with finasteride,
the answer is yes. I want to also help you learn more about this new age of treatment
which we can certainly in our practice can take a lot of credit for in addition to other
doctors who are also exploring the same area around the same time in this regenerative
medicine technology to help manage hair loss. And I would also remind you as I remind all
my patients that hair loss treatment is treatment. It’s not a cure. It’s management. So as
a physician, I am always compelled to use maximally all the tools we can to help our
patients manage their hair loss and effectively prolong the lifespan of their hair and get
the maximum coverage for as long as is genetically permissible.
I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question.