Anybody with regrowth success? How long does it take?

Almost 2 years ago, I was devastated by hair loss after a big surgery and hopped on finasteride for about 50 days. Hair shedded constantly through those 50 days (the infamous fin shed). I was suicidal and stopped fin. As soon as I stopped fin, the shedding reduced dramatically for about 2 months and I saw a tremendous amount of regrowth. The regrowth was so dramatic that I could literally see my frontal hair filling in week by week. Please keep in mind that I was using minox at the same time, both while I was on fin and off fin. I only lost more hair even with minox when I was on fin, but as soon as I took off fin, the regrowth/hair thickening kicked in. However, this magical period only lasted 2 months and I was on a downhill journey again.

For those of you who have experienced regrowth, did it happen in a short period of time or over a prolonged period? I doubt that without using minox, the former is not possible to accomplish. I have a diffuse thinning pattern and even side burns are affected. I would love to know any successful stories on thickening and regrowth. I would appreciate your response.

For me, nothing has ever happened slowly like it does many other hair loss sufferers. I went from NW1.5 to NW4 in about 9-10 months and yeah, I was having suicidal thoughts too. When I tried minox, it acted as weed killer to my hair, and when I got off of it the hair that shed rapidly regrew. So...much like your experience with fin.

I did end up going on fin and the painful itch I always had went away. I'm now NW 2.5-3 and am able to style my hair to where people don't even really notice. I had an awful shed on fin too and almost gave up but stuck to it... Now, people can't tell how old I am. The only sides are reduced facial hair growth, and nipples tend to be more erect throughout the day but they go down after awhile. I'm careful with my bf % to make sure estrogen doesn't take over. I also think the Fin somehow cleared up my complexion. Anyway, I'm happy for now but, this could change at any moment. The drastic results I achieved I believe were due primarily to how fast I lost the hair. It was all very recent loss, and hair loss drugs tend to work better the earlier the loss was. I also loosened my scalp with DT, but this techniques come under a lot of fire lately on the forums.

It took me about a year to see full results with Fin. Right now I'm on month 13. If you got regrowth after stopping fin, maybe it was behaving like minox was to me... or maybe you didn't give it enough of a chance. I got a lot of shedding too when I first began fin and went into full panic mode. It wasn't until someone mentioned toppik to me, that I felt comfortable enough leaving my house. I used it as a disguise until my real hair regrew enough to where I could go without. Maybe try beta sis if you're willing to go down the DHT route again. Fin is extremely dangerous and so I couldn't recommend it to anybody, only share my results.

Sonofodin did you ever try changing your diet to calm the itch/pain in your scalp?

I get it too, but I've noticed I only seem to get it after I eat certain foods. Unfortunately, so far the only foods I can definitely say do not make my scalp itch at all are green veggies, and I don't think I could survive off them.

I tried beta sitosterol for about a week and my head itched like crazy. I also shed like crazy too, and this scared me enough to stop taking it completely.

No regrowth for me... But following various stories online 9 to 12 months seems to be the magic mark for regrowth when sticking to a regime (dermarolling, or lasers, or fin, or manual methods, or supps, etc)

Regrowth in bald areas is very difficult but I do feel that thickening of areas with thinning/miniaturization is possible. I've tried just about everything over the past 13-14 years and still go through periods where I can't tell if I'm maintaining or slowly losing ground.

I've reached a point now where after many many hours of research I tend to find myself more interested in overall health and longevity and have realized that when the body as a system is functioning well, hair health tends to improve. At the very least you're in a better mental state to cope with the loss. I also believe that with recent improvements in cellular technology companies like Replicel may provide an effective way to treat the problem better in the not too distant future.