4 Proven Methods to Accelerate Finasteride Results

There is no shortage of lotions, potions, vitamins, and supplements that manufacturers claim will prevent your hair from falling out. But currently there is only one MHRA approved therapy that actively fullfills that promise. We’re talking about: finasteride.

All the rest, including saw palmetto, caffeine shampoo and biotin do absolutely nothing

Everything else, including saw palmetto, caffeine shampoo and biotin But only three therapies are MHRA approved to treat androgenic alopecia (male pattern baldness). Of them, finasteride is the gold standard.

What is finasteride, and does it work?

Finasteride, known here in the UK under the brandname Propecia, is a medication that blocks the hormone DHT (dihydrotestosterone). DHT attacks the hair follicles, causing them to shrink and produce smaller, thinner hairs. Finasteride stops hair loss by reducing DHT by almost 70% which is enough to stop hair loss in more than 80% of men.

if you want to stop hair loss, you need something that lowers you DHT and finasteride is the only MHRA-approved medicine that does that. All the rest, such as saw palmetto, biotin, caffeine shampoo, viviscal etc. do not. Their ability to lower your DHT is non-existent.

Finasteride results in timeline

Like with many other things in life, good things take time. Right after taking Finasteride, it immediately starts lowering your DHT-levels and increasing your testosterone (yes, it really does that). However, it takes a few months before the drop in DHT becomes noticable on your hair follicles. This is because hair grows in cycles.

Right after taking finasteride, the decrease in DHT triggers a reset in your hair growth cycle. This reset causes old hair follicles to fall out and to be replaced by new, thicker and stronger hair strands. The hair growth cycle takes a few months and it is with this reason that results become noticable only after the third or fourth month.

Overall, you can expect new hair growth around the third or fourth month of treatment, with more noticeable results by month six and the full effect within a year.2 To get an even bigger bang for your buck, there are some things you can do while taking finasteride to increase its effectiveness (keep on reading to find out how).

How to speed up finasteride results

It can be exhausting to wait for your hair to grow in. But don’t worry. Here are the four things you can try to speed up the results.

Combine finasteride with minoxidil

Minoxidil, known in the UK under the brand name Rogain, is a solution, lotion or foam that is applied to the scalp. After finasteride, minoxidil is the best next thing. It does not lower your DHT but it does stimulate hair growth by increasing blow flow and nutrients to your hair follicles.

A study that researched the efficacy of this combination found that it’s better at stopping hair loss than using finasteride alone. In this study, combining finasteride with minoxidil stopped hair loss in 91% of males while using finasteride alone stopped hair loss in 83% of males.

That means that it might be usefull for 7% of men that don’t respond to finasteride alone. So it might be worth a shot for small percentage of non-responders.

Take vitamin D

There’s very little scientific evidence that any of the vitamines or supplements help with hair loss, except for vitamin D. Vitamin D is naturally produced by the body when the skin is exposed to the sun.

In one study, supplementing with vitamin D improved symptoms of androgenetic alopecia (AGA) and telegen effluvium (TE). Unlike AGA, TE is a temporary form of hair loss caused by trauma or stress. Increasing your vitamin D levels by supplementation doesn’t stop your hair loss altogether, but it’s cheap and has many other benefits and is therefore recommended to all.

Use Low Light Laser Therapy

Instead of using finasteride with minoxidil, you can also try using finasteride with low level laser therapy. LLLT is a method in which a device, either a wand or a cap, emits red LED light. Studies show that using an LLLT device causes in increase in hair thickness and hair density. It must be said however that almost all studies done on the efficacy of LLLT on hair loss, had ties with the commercial industry.

Scalp massage

Does massaging your scalp improve hair growth? Well, it might. One study found that nearly 69% of men who tried a scalp massage experienced hair growth. On average, it took over 36 hours of total massage time to see results5. So going this route requires some patience.

Speak to your healthcare provider

The bottom line is that finasteride is a helpful tool to slow down hair loss, but if you want to boost its efficacy, there may be other things, like the above, that you can try. Ask your healthcare provider to help you decide whether these options work for you.