Role of Medicines
As we know Hair loss can be progressive and even after Hair Transplantation your existing Hair can thin out. Even the transplanted Hair can acquire the characteristics of recipient site, though these hair are relatively resistant and it takes longer time for them to thin out as compared to existing non transplanted hair. To sustain the results we need medicines, there are 3 time tested medicines that are used
- Topical Minoxidil
- Oral Finasteride
- Biotin
Out of these, finasteride is the strongest and most consistent medicine as it is a DHT blocker which directly blocks 5 alpha reductase enzyme and reduces production of di hydro testosterone from testosterone. Thus it can help in hair regrowth, reduce hair loss, can make miniaturized hair thicker thus helping the hair growth.
The Crucial Role of Medicine in Hair Growth
If you start taking finasteride after transplant as recommended by most of the doctors across the globe, there are a lot of miniaturized hair that are present even in apparently bald areas. There are some thin hair which improve in thickness and contribute to the density of result so sometime this can be mistaken as a Hair Transplant result which might not be true and can create false impression. One has to be very careful while observing the results and this is patients right to know whether this result is on finasteride or off Finasteride. So if it is on finasteride then that means when the patient is going to stop the medicine then all the hair contributed by medicine would fall and only the transplanted hair would remain so the duration of the medicine is also important.
Hair loss – Diagnosis and treatment
You must ask your doctor that how long you should be taking the medicine and then ask yourself that how long you are ready to take it. As we know there are potential side effects of these medicines which include Erectile dysfunction, Impotency etc, so one has to be very careful while choosing the duration of medicine and this medicine should not be prescribed to all the patients irrespective of their age, grade of baldness, previous response to treatment so it has become a fashion to prescribe Finasteride to all patients to show good results but this comes at a premium cost as every medicine comes with a shelf life and you cannot take medicine for forever as your body would develop tolerance for it but it deprive the patient an opportunity to see the actual transplant result and finasteride can be kept as reserve but early introduction of finasteride would make them dependent on Finasteride would make them dependent on medicine though they may not be needing it.