A plastic surgeon has revealed the hair loss drug beloved by presidents and celebrities like Donald Trump and Rob Lowe that he prescribes to patients fighting a thinning hairline.
Dr Gary Linkov, based in New York City, says finasteride is his go-to treatment for patients going bold.
While originally used to treat an enlarge prostate, finasteride is commonly used to treat male pattern hair loss.
The drug works by stopping the body from converting testosterone into DHT, a compound that causes hair follicles to shrink and fall out.
Dr Linkov said in a YouTube video he uses it as a ‘first line of defense’ for men, as studies suggest more than 80 percent of men have significant hair loss by the time they turn 50.
Dr Linkov said: ‘Most guys will lose the majority of their hair usually between 25 and 35 as far as accelerated hair loss, and then there’s likely slower hair loss still after that.
‘[Finasteride] is what I would recommend as the first line medical therapy for [hair loss] in men.’
The drug is taken by more than 2.4million men a year, possibly including President-elect Donald Trump, according to his longtime physician Dr Harold Bornstein, who revealed the president’s prescription list in a series of interviews with The New York Times.
Pictured above is the scalp of a man before (left) and after he took finasteride and minoxidil. Finasteride can help to slow hair loss, while minoxidil can help hair to become thicker
Dr Linkov dismissed other treatments such as lasers and micro needling, saying these can help to thicken existing hair but will not help to stop someone’s hairline from receding.
The plastic surgeon continued: ‘In their 20s, most people are trying to figure themselves out, they’re trying to improve their careers, and figure out what job they’re going to have and all of that.
‘And that’s not the time that they’re necessarily so fixated on their hair.
‘And when they start to notice, you know, big pockets opening up and the recession and the crown loss and all of this, well… then in a way it’s too late to get back to how exactly things used to be.’
Although finasteride will not bring back hair that has already fallen out, doctors say it can slow any further loss — and in young adults could delay age-related decline in their hairline.
Available by prescription, the drug — which costs $20 to $60 a month — is recommended to be taken once a day as either a pill or solution.
Dr Linkov mostly prescribes finasteride as a pill.
It is FDA approved for treating hair loss, and clinical trials on the drug involving 1,800 men showed after two years only 17 percent of the those taking finasteride lost hair, compared to 72 percent of those not on the drug.
However, it has been linked to undesirable side-effects such as chills, cold sweats and a loss of libido, but doctors say these only tend to affect one to two percent of patients.
Some individuals have come forward, however, to suggest the drug permanently damaged their bodies — including a 22-year-old man who said it made his testicles shrink.
The above images, from hims, show a man before taking finasteride and seven months after starting on the drug
In some cases, Dr Linkov will also prescribe Minoxidil at the same time, sold under the brand name Rogaine, which can help to thicken hair by boosting blood flow to hair follicles.
Minoxidil is also available as a pill or liquid, and costs around $15 per month. It became the first FDA-approved treatment for male hair loss in 1988.
Donald Trump’s longtime physician Dr Harold Bornstein suggested the President-elect was taking finasteride in 2017, and Trump, 78, has been previously linked to a number of hair transplants and other procedures to maintain his hairline.
Though the president nor his team have ever confirmed the speculations.
Rob Lowe admitted during a May 2019 interview with the UK’s Daily Telegraph that he started taking the drug as soon as he noticed hair loss.
In the interview, where he said that Prince William could have used ‘a pill’ to prevent his hair loss, he added: ‘Honestly, one of the great traumatic experiences of my life was watching Prince William lose his hair.
‘He’s going to be the f****** King of England! And… and there’s a pill!
‘The first glimmer that a single hair of mine was going to fall out, I was having stuff mainlined into my f****** veins. And that’s what I did for the next thirty years.’
Gary Linkov revealed his preference for finasteride in a YouTube video. He prescribes it to patients alongside Minoxidil, saying they can help to prevent hair loss
Nearly two-thirds of men have significant hair loss by the age of 35 years, and 85 percent have lost a significant amount by the age of 50.
Women can also suffer from hair loss, with about one third suffering from female pattern baldness at some point during their lives.
Female pattern baldness is thought to be linked to shifts in hormones related to menopause or other conditions.
Dr Linkov did not comment on how women may be treated, but doctors suggest minoxidil to help thicken hair on the scalp. Women may also use finasteride, although it hasn’t been approved for treating baldness in the group.
More than 2.4million prescriptions of finasteride are written in the US every year, although in some of those instances the drug may be prescribed to stop the prostate enlarging.
It was initially used to treat this condition, until doctors also observed that patients on the drug had thicker heads of hair.
Dr Linkov said a more potent version of finasteride is available, called dutasteride.
This works by blocking two enzymes that convert testosterone into a substance that causes hair to fall out — called DHT. Finasteride only blocks one.
This means that while finasteride reduces DHT levels by 60 to 70 percent in most patients, dutasteride reduces them by more than 90 percent.
But Dr Linkov said the more potent version also has more risks, with one small study finding more than three percent of patients had side effects like decreased libido.
There are other hair loss prevention drugs currently being tested which have names including KX-826, GT-20029 and RU58841.
But these are still working their way through clinical trials and have not been approved for treating the condition.
The doctors also noted that in trans women on hormone replacement therapy, their hair loss was also greatly reduced.
Derek said on the Peter Attia podcast: ‘Did you regain that hair you had lost with this protocol? Expecting yourself to get back to baseline, that would be unrealistic.
‘So thinking that you’re going to reverse it like 10 years, is usually not realistic, but trying to prevent further loss – and adding some degree of fulness… – can be helpful.’
