I started dutasteride 0.5mg 3x/week + topical minoxidil in July 2025. By December, I had regrown a lot of hair. Thickness improved. Crown was filling in. I was genuinely happy with results.
Then I got a DHT blood test: 0.55 ng/mL (normal range 0.25-0.99).
I saw that number and thought "I'm still within range, maybe I can suppress it more." So in early 2025 I increased from 3x to 5x per week.
January: Heavy shed. Thick mature hairs falling out. I thought "this is the medication working, clearing out weak hairs."
March-April: Another big shed. Same thing—thick hairs. I thought the dose increase was just resetting my hair cycle.
Now at 5 months: My hair is noticeably thinner everywhere. Diffuse density loss. Not just one area—my whole scalp looks wispy. I lost a significant portion of the gains I made from July to December.
The worst part? I had already achieved what I wanted. The 3x/week was working. My DHT was normal. I didn't need to increase. I just couldn't stop myself from trying to optimize.
Now I'm monitoring for another month to see if things stabilize before deciding if I need to go back down to 3x/week or try something else like microneedling.
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