I took finasteride tablets for hair loss on and off from December 2018 and stopped them for good in 2022 because of side effects. This is what the side effects were, what happened to my hair in the months after I stopped, where it settled, and what I kept using instead. One person, no doctor involved, so take it as a diary and not as advice.
Why I was on finasteride
Minoxidil alone had not been enough for me. In 2018 I started finasteride 1mg a day with minoxidil and within about eight months my hair came back. Then the tablets gave me sexual side effects: lower libido and trouble finishing. I stopped them, and about eight months later the hair fall came back hard. That is what pushed me to restart on 30 November 2019, this time at a low dose, and to start this diary.
The dose I actually took
I kept changing it, which I do not recommend. The diary has the exact numbers: 0.25mg on alternate days on day 1, 0.5mg a day in the first week, and 0.25mg a day from day 54. At 0.25mg I had no sexual side effects for the first months, only a small pain in the testicles in the first days, and my hair was the fullest it has ever been. I also wrote a post on why taking more finasteride for more hair is a bad idea.
The side effects that made me stop
They came slowly. A dull pain in the testicles that did not go away. Lower libido. And something I did not expect: a loss of drive to work, a flatness, like the willpower had been switched off. I had told myself in 2019 that I would be one of the people who do not get side effects on a low dose. I was, for a while. Then I was not.
I stopped the tablets in 2022. I did not taper and I did not ask a doctor. In hindsight I should have asked.
What happened in the months after
- Side effects: they went away completely. The pain, the libido, the flatness, all of it. I want to say that clearly because it is the thing people are most afraid of.
- Hair: a shedding phase, then it settled. With the tablets my hair had been noticeably fuller and thicker. After stopping, the overall thickness went down and stayed down. Today I lose five to ten hairs on a normal day, which is fine, but the fullness of 2021 did not come back.
- What I kept: Morr F 5% twice a day, which I did not realise at the time still had 0.1% topical finasteride in it. More on that below.
The part I got wrong for four years
After stopping the tablets I was still on Morr F 5%, and Morr F contains topical finasteride. I assumed topical would not do anything to me. It did not give me the pain, but by my own judgement it kept my libido 30 to 40 percent lower than before I ever started finasteride. It took me until 2026 to connect those two things and switch to a plain minoxidil solution. The shedding after that switch was bigger than the shedding after stopping the tablets. I wrote that up in what happens when you skip minoxidil, and when you switch brands.
Would I take finasteride again
I have not gone back, and I do not plan to. The tablets gave me the best hair of my life and the worst I have felt. For me the trade was not worth it. Someone else, with a dermatologist watching, might land somewhere different. That is their call and their doctor's, not mine.
Questions people ask me
How long after stopping finasteride does hair fall start?
For me there was a shedding phase in the months after stopping in 2022, not in the first days. It then settled at a lower fullness than I had on the tablets.
Do finasteride side effects go away after stopping?
Mine did, completely. Testicular pain, low libido and the loss of drive all went away after I stopped the tablets in 2022. The topical finasteride in Morr F kept my libido lower until I stopped that too in 2026.
Does topical finasteride have side effects?
In my case yes, milder than the tablets. No pain, but a lower libido that I only recognised after years. Morr F 5% contains 0.1% topical finasteride, so check the label if you think you are on minoxidil only.
Can you stay on minoxidil after stopping finasteride?
That is what I did. Minoxidil kept the hair fall down on its own, with less fullness than the two together.
Your turn
If you stopped finasteride, what happened to your hair and how long did the side effects take to go? Your comment helps the next person who is sitting where I was in 2022.
Related: one photo from every year, 2019 to 2026.
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