I know 1mg finasteride daily is recommended but is 1.25mg 4x per week still beneficial?

This needs an in-person evaluation. I suggest seeing a hair loss expert now to evaluate and go over your condition and provide you information about your best treatment options. There are great non-invasive options like prp/progesterone and/or hair transplantation. See an expert. Best, Dr. Emer

Finasteride can be similarly effective as 1mg every day or 4 times 1.25mg or even 5mg once a week some experts suggest. I am using at the moment 0,3mg per day and works just fine.
DO NOT STOP your medication. keep as much hair as you can with drugs and add whenever an area is becoming too thin besides taking your meds, THEN only have a transplant session.
Stay away form the doctors who tell you that they CAN implant where other say they cannot! They will say anything to get your money and you will regret it. Be conservative and trust more conservative doctors, they have a reason to say NO and you should trust that, they are denying your money, that should tell you a lot!

Great question. No, I won't suggest you to stop Minoxidil. Finasteride and Minoxidil are the only two medications for hair loss approved by the FDA, both medications have different mechanism of action and I usually recommend the combination treatment to my patients. You need to contact the doctor who prescribed Finasteride but I will suggest you to take Finasteride 1 mg daily for 6 months, see your doctor for evaluation then you can take Finasteride I mg every other day. The main objectives with the combination treatment are: stable the hair loss and some regrowth. The before and after photos during the treatment are very valuable too. Good luck.

Thanks for your question. You sound like you are “burnt out” and frustrated that your hair loss is progressive while on your medical regimen. My advice would be to stay on your hair meds as you still have a ton of hair. The meds are slowing your loss.  A hair transplant (even 6 of them) is fundamentally limited by your donor volume. You will have less hair if you stop your meds. Best of luck. 

If you truly have diffuse thinning, you are not a hair transplant candidate at all. However, that said, I am well aware that many times when the term diffuse thinning is used, the individual truly does not fit in that category. But strictly speaking if you have diffuse thinning, you are not a surgical candidate. You may become a level 4,5, or more down the road. It’s a huge lead to say you will. We can’t predict that accurately in the present day. You are not a surgical candidate at present. Whether you should use medical treatments or let it fall out is highly individual. Finasteride 1.25 4 x per week can help many.

Dear Porterj89,Hello and thank you for your excellent question. I suggest that you continue Finasteride and Minoxidil as they are the only two medications for hair loss approved by the FDA. Both medications have different mechanism of action, and I usually recommend the combination treatment to my patients. Other adjuncts include low-level laser light therapy, PRP, stem cell, or other regenerative medical treatment. Also, you will want to ensure that you are not taking any medications that could be contributing to your hair loss. The main objectives with the combination treatment are to stabilize your hair loss, increase your existing hair fiber diameter, and possibly some regrowth. It is best to answer your question during a face-to-face evaluation, when you can discuss your goals and expectations for the procedure, and you can have a physical examination to evaluate for that procedure. I recommend that you find a board-certified, or board-eligible plastic surgeon with whom you are comfortable. Be sure to have all of your questions answered during a face-to-face meeting with your surgeon, and review before and after pictures of similar patients whom have had this procedure. If you have any questions, call our office for assistance. Good luck!

Best,

Jon Ver Halen, MD FACS

Harvard educated plastic surgeon

Texas “Top Doc” 2017, 2018

RealSelf100

America’s Top Plastic Surgeons, Consumer’s Research Council, 2010 - 2018

From the picture you showed, it certainly looks like you have a great deal of hair. What are you planning on treating?  Is your hairline normal?  What is your age?  These three things plus more photos are critical bits of information for me to render an opinion