STUDresearch · Non-peptide
Finasteride
Also known as
Propecia · Proscar · fin 1mg · fin · type-2 5-AR inhibitor · topical finasteride · finasteride 0.25% · Hims / Keeps fin · compounded topical fin · PFS
Community talk. May be wrong. Not medical advice. Not a protocol. Not for human or animal use.
Non-peptide
Lots of talk
Systemic
Oral / topical
Skin, hair & tissue remodeling
Systemic oral type-2 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor at 1 mg; topical solutions try to keep it on the scalp.
What people say
Finasteride is an oral type-2 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor. The 1 mg hair product and 5 mg BPH product share an ingredient but not an indication or interchangeable use case.
Doses people talk about
These rows preserve distinct product and discussion contexts; they are not a titration ladder or a claim that topical and oral exposure are equivalent.
How it may feel
Most users report no immediate sensation. Hair change is judged over months, while a minority report early sexual or mood effects; long-term posts also include stable hair, continued shed waves and conflicting side-effect experiences.
Labeled hair tablet1 mg oral once daily
Hair-loss product context in the source profile.
Labeled BPH tablet5 mg oral once daily
Different labeled indication; the profile explicitly warns against importing it into a hair log.
Lower-dose community talk0.2–0.5 mg daily or 1 mg every other day
Side-effect-motivated discussion with thinner hair-count evidence than the 1 mg program.
Split-tablet practiceAbout 1.25 mg from a quartered 5 mg tablet
Cost-driven community practice, not proof of dose precision.
Compounded topical range0.025–0.25% once daily; separate telehealth products around 0.3% finasteride + 6% minoxidil once daily
Unapproved compounded-product and vehicle context; systemic exposure is not necessarily zero.
Half-life & effect duration
- Half-life in the body
- Younger men · oral label studyAbout 6 hours
- Men 70 and older · same labelAbout 8 hours
- Felt duration people report
- Longer hair accountShedding slowed over 6 months and stabilized around month 10
- Early adverse accountSexual effects within 1 week
- Another accountMild early effects faded over about 3 months
Cycles people discuss
Hair-loss use is described as ongoing rather than a short cycle. Community every-other-day experiments and switches to dutasteride are separate decisions; stopping is associated with delayed loss of preserved hair.
Timing
The checked 5 mg label gives a mean plasma half-life of about 6 hours in healthy young men and about 8 hours at age 70 or older. DHT suppression and visible hair change follow different clocks and do not validate a community schedule by themselves.
Around the dose
Clock: Daily oral, same time is the adherence habit. Morning or night both exist.
Stacks
Minoxidil is the common co-treatment in hair reports, while later dutasteride use makes attribution and transition shedding harder to interpret.
Access talk
Hims / Keeps / Ro are the 2025–26 names people actually say for combo topical. Platform satisfaction posts exist next to the alert.
Labs people mention
DHT / T: 1 mg typically drops serum DHT ~70% in the old Merck story; T may tick up. People chasing “is my topical leaky” still draw DHT.
Watch for
April 2025 FDA topical alert: 32 FAERS cases (2019–2024) on compounded topical fin (± minox): ED, anxiety, suicidal ideation, brain fog, depression, fatigue, insomnia, decreased libido, testicular pain — several persisting after stop. No approved topical exists.
Tap a line to jump into the full notes. Research only — may be wrong.
Timing context & sources
Half-life in the body
The checked 5 mg oral label reports a mean plasma half-life of about 6 hours in healthy young men and about 8 hours in men age 70 or older.
The same label says serum DHT returned to pretreatment levels in about two weeks after discontinuation, demonstrating that pharmacodynamic recovery is not the plasma-elimination clock.
This is the 5 mg BPH tablet label, not a direct pharmacokinetic study of 1 mg hair tablets, compounded topical finasteride or scalp tissue. The 6–8 hour span combines age groups rather than within-person variation.
- DailyMed — Finasteride 5 mg tablet full prescribing information (opens in a new tab)Clinical Pharmacology: mean plasma half-life about 6 hours in healthy young men and 8 hours in men age 70 or older; Pharmacodynamics: DHT returned near pretreatment levels about two weeks after discontinuation.US 5 mg BPH product label; it does not measure 1 mg hair-product, topical-product or scalp-tissue kinetics.
Felt duration people report
Inspected reports do not establish one felt-duration window: one long-term user described shedding slowing over six months and stabilizing around month ten with no sexual effects but mild gynecomastia, while a one-week user reported sexual effects and stopped.
The long-term post included dose-frequency changes, intermittent breaks and a brief dutasteride exposure. A separate commenter described early mild effects on 0.25 mg every other day that faded over about three months while increasing the amount.
Unverified products, self-selected reporting, hair-cycle variability, changing regimens and no blinded outcome assessment prevent prevalence, causality or a universal onset/duration estimate.
- Reddit r/tressless — Finasteride after 4.5 years: results, shedding, and side effects (opens in a new tab)Original post and same-author replies: began 1 mg daily, later split 5 mg tablets and used them two or three times weekly; described six-month shed slowing, near-stop around month ten, later waves, stable density, no sexual effect, mild gynecomastia and a brief dutasteride trial.Single uncontrolled report with amount and frequency changes, occasional breaks, subjective hair counts and a brief second drug exposure.
- Reddit r/tressless — I took finasteride for a week, got sides and saw results (opens in a new tab)Original post described 1 mg daily for one week, erectile and semen changes, stopping and a later return of shedding; a commenter described 0.25 mg every other day, mild early effects fading by about three months, then increasing the amount.Unverified products and outcomes, very short exposure for the original author, no objective adverse-event assessment and multiple regimens across different people.
What people say
- r/tressless albums: The most-copied stack is still oral fin 1 mg + minoxidil. Attribution is messy; the DHT half is why people refuse to drop fin when minox is the photo star. forum
- Cheap 5 mg split: Quartering Proscar to ~1.25 mg is a perennial cost move. Same enzyme, louder “am I actually getting 1 mg?” fights. forum
- Topical as side-effect escape: 0.025–0.25% solutions (often with minox) for people who will not swallow a 5-AR. Systemic DHT still drops in some bloodwork threads. forum
- Hold after the second shed: 2025–26 albums still argue that a late dump after a year on 1 mg is a cycle tax, not instant proof it quit — and also the month people add dut. forum
- Hold vs grow: Long Japanese 1 mg data people paste: ~99% no worsening and ~91% some improvement over 10 years — that is “hold plus some grow,” not a transplant. trial
- Hair-count trials: 1 mg daily beat placebo on vertex/mid-scalp counts in the original Merck program; 0.2 mg already cut DHT hard, 1 mg was the hair-count pick. trial
- BPH side-benefit: 5 mg labeled flow story. Hair-dose 1 mg is not the BPH protocol. trial
Doses people talk about
- Microdose talk: 0.2–0.5 mg daily, or 1 mg every other day, for people scared of sides. DHT still falls; hair-count data is thinner than 1 mg. forum
- Proscar split: 5 mg tab quartered (~1.25 mg) as a cost hack. forum
- Topical: 0.025–0.25% once daily is the common compounded band; 0.1% + minox is a frequent combo bottle. forum
- Telehealth topical strengths: Hims-class 2025 bottles people name: ~0.3% fin + 6% minox spray/serum, once daily. Not the oral 1 mg tablet. forum
- Topical DHT still drops: Bloodwork threads and the April 2025 FDA note both undercut “it stays on the scalp.” trialforum
- Women: Oral fin is a pregnancy-category disaster in those threads — not a “just use less” story. Topical female use is a separate, contested clinic niche. trial
- Framing: Labeled and r/tressless ranges — not a prescription. forum
- Labeled hair: 1 mg oral once daily. trial
- Labeled BPH: 5 mg oral once daily. Do not copy this onto a hair log. trial
How it may feel
- Days 1–14: Most feel nothing. A minority get watery semen, softer morning wood, or a flat mood in week one — the posts that feed PFS panic. forum
- Weeks 4–12 shed: Classic “fin shed.” Hairline can look worse than baseline around month 2–4. r/tressless treats this as a tax, not instant proof it failed — and also as the month people quit. forum
- Months 3–6: First honest mirror window. Density change is slow; vertex often shows before hairline. forum
- Months 6–12: Album season. People who held through the shed argue this is when you actually know. forum
- Year 2+: Hold culture. Some plateau and shop dut. A loud minority reports late sexual sides and posts “I should have listened.” forum
- Quit-at-week-3 sides, then the dump: People who stop for watery semen / libido in the first month still post a delayed shed. Stopping is not a freeze. forum
- Second shed (~month 8–12): 2025–26 tressless cluster after a good first year — crown/mid-scalp volume drop with “I changed nothing.” Elders say wait it out; others book dut. forum
- Late-year “worst it has ever been”: Month-6 panic posts still mix first shed, second shed, and actual progression. Photo lighting fights are half the thread. forum
- After you stop: ISHRS-style warning: gained and preserved hair usually sheds. Not next-day; weeks to months. trial
Around the dose
- Clock: Daily oral, same time is the adherence habit. Morning or night both exist. forum
- Hair habits: Months of consistency. Pairing with minoxidil is common; neither is a one-week test. forum
- After: Don’t judge at day 10. Shed talk is why people panic-quit in month one. forum
- Second-shed months: Don’t call a year of 1 mg a failure during an 8–12 month dump that looks like the first one. Photo same light, wait, or talk dut — not a weekend pulse. forum
- Oral ↔ topical switch: Overlap talk exists (same as minox). Cold-turkey topical drop while staying on oral, or the reverse, is its own shed thread. forum
- Handling: Don’t crush 5 mg tabs on a bathroom counter pregnant people use. That is still the household rule. trial
Cycles people discuss
- Daily, not a blast: Hair people run it like a lifestyle drug. There is no “8-week cycle” that holds the hair. forum
- EOD experiments: Every-other-day 1 mg is a side-effect bargain, not a reset. forum
- Switch to dut: Common after a fin plateau. Switch-shed is its own tax — see the dutasteride card. forum
- EOD as a sides bargain, not a shed skip. 1.25 mg Proscar every other day still sheds; it is the libido-fear chart. forum
- If you stop: Expect a delayed dump, not a clean freeze of the new hairline. trial
Timing
- Missed pills: A day or two is usually framed as nothing. A week-off panic-shed is mostly psychology plus whatever was already shedding. forum
- Plasma half-life: The checked 5 mg oral label reports about 6 hours in healthy young men and about 8 hours in men age 70 or older. Longer enzyme and DHT effects are pharmacodynamic and do not turn the plasma half-life into an every-other-day dosing recommendation. trial
- DHT timing: Serum DHT is down within days; scalp/photo change is months. trial
- Blood donation: Not the 6-month dut wait. Still: pregnant people should not handle crushed tabs. trial
More on what it is
- Why people talk about it: r/tressless default. Almost every hair album still starts with fin 1 mg ± minoxidil. The other half of the board is PFS-fear and “I will never swallow it.” forum
- Not the same as: Dutasteride (both 5-AR types, ~5-week half-life), pyrilutamide / RU (receptor blockers), minoxidil (growth, not DHT). forum
- 2025–26 shed talk is not only minox. Fin monotherapy still gets a month-2 dump and a later “second shed” around month 8–12 after a good stretch. forum
- What it is: Propecia-class 1 mg pill — blocks type-2 5-AR so less testosterone becomes DHT. Proscar is the 5 mg BPH tablet people split. Not a peptide, not RU, not KX-826. trial
- How it works (plain): Type-2 5-AR in the follicle and prostate makes DHT. Fin occupies that enzyme. Serum DHT typically falls ~70% on 1 mg, not the ~90%+ dut story. trial
- Label jobs: 1 mg daily for male-pattern hair (Propecia). 5 mg daily for BPH (Proscar). Hair users who cheap-out quarter a 5 mg tab. trial
- Timeline people quote: Label and ISHRS-style write-ups: three months before you judge; photo windows at 6–12 months. Stop and the gained hair usually dumps. trial
- No FDA-approved topical. Compounded 0.025–0.3% sprays (often + minox) are the Hims/Keeps/telehealth product. April 2025 FDA alert said topical still goes systemic. trial
Stacks
- Default pair: Minoxidil (oral or topical) next to fin 1 mg — that is the album stack. forum
- + Microneedling: Weekly 1–1.5 mm is the add-on in album threads. forum
- + Dutasteride later: Step-up after fin plateau — not a day-one stack for most. forum
- + RU / pyrilutamide: People who will not swallow more 5-AR add a topical AR blocker. forum
- + Tadalafil: TRT rooms run daily Cialis next to hair fin — separate jobs. forum
- Topical fin + minox in one bottle: The 2025–26 telehealth default so people are not running two routines. Sides still get blamed on “the fin half.” forum
Access talk
- Hims / Keeps / Ro are the 2025–26 names people actually say for combo topical. Platform satisfaction posts exist next to the alert. forum
- Not a peptide PCAC story. Finasteride access is Rx generic vs compounded topical vs gray “research” liquids — not the July 2026 peptide panel. forum
- Labeled oral is the pharmacy path: 1 mg Propecia-class for hair, 5 mg Proscar-class for BPH (and the split-tab hack). Generic oral is cheap. trial
- No FDA-approved topical. All 0.025–0.3% sprays/serums are compounded 503A (patient-specific) or telehealth kits — not a labeled bottle. trial
- April 22, 2025 FDA alert named compounded topical finasteride (± minoxidil) after FAERS sexual/mood reports, including some that lasted after discontinuation. trial
Labs people mention
- DHT / T: 1 mg typically drops serum DHT ~70% in the old Merck story; T may tick up. People chasing “is my topical leaky” still draw DHT. trialforum
- No PFS lab. Sexual/mood complaints on-drug or after stop do not have a named blood marker in those threads. forum
- PSA: 5-AR drugs lower PSA — labs need the context or the number lies. trial
Storage notes
- No mix chart for the pill. Pharmacy tabs, dry, original blister. forum
- Topical liquids: Alcohol/PG vehicles sting; fridge vs room-temp is a compounding-pharmacy label, not a peptide BAC protocol. forum
Watch for
- PFS-fear: A loud set of posts describe sexual/cognitive sides that did not quit after stopping. Contested medically; treated as a real watch-for in hair boards, not a joke. forum
- Mood / anhedonia: Flat mood and “emotional blunting” threads exist next to the sexual ones. forum
- Shed months 2–4: Looks worse before better. People who quit here never see the 6-month album. forum
- Gynecomastia (uncommon): Estrogen-balance talk when DHT is down and T ticks up. forum
- Topical is not zero-systemic: Bloodwork threads still show DHT drops on some 0.25% liquids. forum
- PFS-fear did not get quieter in 2026. r/tressless still splits “sides are rare, stay on” vs propeciahelp-style persistence stories. Both rooms are loud. forum
- Shed is the #1 panic quit, sides are the #1 never-start. Month-2 dump and week-1 watery semen are different exit ramps. forum
- Sexual sides (on-drug): Lower libido, softer erections, watery semen show up in a minority of trial and forum logs. Dose-drop and EOD are the first community moves. trial
- Pregnancy / handling: Crushed 5 mg tabs and semen-exposure lore — keep crushed powder away from pregnant people. trial
- PSA: 5-AR drugs lower PSA; labs need the context or the number lies. trial
- April 2025 FDA topical alert: 32 FAERS cases (2019–2024) on compounded topical fin (± minox): ED, anxiety, suicidal ideation, brain fog, depression, fatigue, insomnia, decreased libido, testicular pain — several persisting after stop. No approved topical exists. trial
Evidence mix
Mostly community / anecdote tags
Full: every bullet (trial + community). Use Scan for a faster bro-science read.