Tony Huge’s guest, Steven, spent about a decade on finasteride before a hair transplant, and when Tony asks whether it worked, the honest answer is that he does not know. He never took a photo. That uncertainty is the spine of this conversation: what DHT does to a hairline, why transplanted hair behaves differently, what Tony actually uses to protect his own, and why he now tells most men they will never need to inject testosterone because enclomiphene exists. The libido thread runs through all of it, because the same hormone that thins the crown is the one that drives the rest.
Video: The Real Reason You’re Losing Hair & Killing Your Libido (And How to Fix Both). Published May 4, 2026. Watch on YouTube.
What the video covers
- 00:00 Finasteride and drive: Steven was still “horny” on it, so it did not kill his libido, but he cannot say what it did to his hair.
- 01:00 A decade on the pill: Seven to nine years of 1 mg a day from age 30, including a stretch of cutting 5 mg tablets.
- 01:46 Did it work? He believed it did, took no measurements, and his father and grandfather had the same pattern.
- 02:27 The 2,000-graft transplant: Double what the clinic said he needed, and the night out afterward that cost him some of it.
- 05:30 Why the crown thins and the back does not: DHT sensitivity is local.
- 05:50 Why donor hair lasts: The root travels with the graft.
- 06:23 Tony’s minimal approach: Ketoconazole shampoo, and a DHT reducer only when testosterone is high.
- 06:54 Tony’s testosterone level: About double the typical range, well under bodybuilding levels.
- 07:52 The three tiers: Longevity, performance and physique dosing described in relative terms.
- 08:31 Enclomiphene changes the question: Why Tony thinks most men will never need injections now.
- 09:26 The word “synthetic”: Why it triggers fear, and why Tony thinks that fear is dated.
Ten years of finasteride, zero photographs
Steven’s story is the one most men on finasteride could tell. He started around 30, took roughly 1 mg a day for the better part of a decade, and at one point could only get 5 mg tablets, which he quartered. He believed it worked. He also concedes it could have been placebo, because he never measured anything, and his father and grandfather went bald in the same pattern. When Tony asks whether a photo ten years apart would show significant loss, Steven cannot answer. What he can say is that his crown was definitely thinner before the transplant, and at times looked exactly like his grandfather’s.
The finasteride and libido question gets a clearer answer. Steven describes going through phases, either extremely driven or not, which he attributes to hormonal imbalance from his lifestyle. But on finasteride specifically he was still active. It did not, in his words, kill his libido. Tony notes the significance of that: a decade of the drug without the collapse in energy or drive that some men report.
Why the crown goes and the back stays
Tony gives the mechanism in two sentences. Hair on the top and front of the head is lost because of DHT, and finasteride works by blocking DHT. Hair at the back and sides is not sensitive to DHT, which is why the same scalp can be bald on top and full behind. The transplant exploits that difference. When grafts are taken from the back, the root comes with them, and that root keeps its low DHT sensitivity in its new location. That is why a heavily transplanted head no longer has to worry much about hair loss, and it is the reasoning behind Steven’s decision to take 2,000 grafts when the clinic said 1,000 would do.
Steven’s cautionary detail is what he did afterward. Instead of resting, he went out drinking the same night, and when the clinic removed the dressing the next day the graft site was, in his words, carnage. He almost certainly lost some of the new hairs. Tony’s own transplant was only at the front, where his hairline had receded, and he still runs supplements to protect the rest.
“Five years ago it made sense most men should probably be on testosterone, but now we have enclomiphene, and so most men will never need to inject testosterone.”
Tony Huge, 08:31
Tony’s minimal approach
Asked what he takes, Tony says there are around 20 options and he uses the minimum. Ketoconazole shampoo, a cheap antifungal, which he says cleans out the follicle and removes DHT from it. And a DHT reducer, finasteride or saw palmetto or similar, only when his testosterone is high enough that the conversion to DHT becomes a hair problem. His testosterone, he says, is kept around double what most men run, which is nowhere near bodybuilding levels of five times or more. He injects it.
When Steven asks how to step up from an oral testosterone product he has used for libido and sleep, Tony describes the tiers rather than prescribing one. A single standard vial per week would already be a high dose. Bodybuilders run several of those per week. The longevity community on TRT runs a fraction of one at intervals of several days, which he calls the balance between performance and longevity. Then he undercuts the whole question: nobody needs to take testosterone unless their own has dropped, and enclomiphene raises natural production without injections.
Why enclomiphene changed his advice
This is the turn in the conversation. Tony says that five years ago it made sense to put most men on testosterone. Now, with enclomiphene available, most men will never need to inject. Steven asks whether it needs liver or kidney support, and Tony says no, because they have not found side effects from enclomiphene yet. It is synthetic, but it works by making the body produce its own testosterone, which is why he compares it to a natural booster with a synthetic origin.
The word “synthetic” is where Steven flinches, and he names why: the first thing it brings to mind is a notorious synthetic opioid. Tony’s answer is historical. Many early drugs delivered benefits with heavy side effects, and people carry that memory. But the technology has moved, and there are now compounds with more benefit and fewer side effects. The fear is a response to old stories, not to what is on the table today.
Cheat Sheet Pivot
What Steven reported and what Tony described about his own routine, not instructions.
- Steven’s finasteride history: about 1 mg daily for seven to nine years, no measurable record of whether it worked, no libido collapse.
- Steven’s transplant: 2,000 grafts to the crown, double the recommendation, with some lost to skipping post-procedure rest.
- Tony’s own protection: ketoconazole shampoo as the constant, a DHT reducer only when his injected testosterone runs high, and a front-only transplant.
- Tony keeps testosterone at about twice the typical range, and describes longevity, performance and physique dosing in relative tiers rather than as recommendations.
- His current position for most men: enclomiphene to raise natural testosterone rather than injections, and he reports no side effects found so far.
Enclomiphene, finasteride and the DHT pathway are in the Miracle Molecules Cheat Sheet. For the DHT-per-testosterone comparison across gel, injections and enclomiphene, read Does TRT Cause Hair Loss? Gel vs Injections vs Enclomiphene, and for why enclomiphene is not simply clomid, see Enclomiphene vs Clomid: Same Molecule, Opposite Effects.
Where the evidence stops
Steven’s account is a single unmeasured case, which he admits. Nothing in the video establishes whether finasteride slowed his loss. Tony’s statement that no side effects of enclomiphene have been found is his claim from experience and reading, not a citation, and it should be weighed against the clinical literature rather than taken as settled. The testosterone tiers are descriptive of what different communities do; the video does not recommend any of them. The mechanism claims, DHT-driven loss on top, DHT-insensitive donor follicles at the back, are the standard explanation for why transplants work, and the strongest part of the conversation.
Keep going
For the full stack Tony has written up for hair, read The Full Hair Loss Reversal Stack, and for the enclomiphene protocol itself, see Enclomiphene: The TRT Alternative That Keeps You Fertile. Companion articles go out first to the tonyhuge.is email list, and the archive is on tonyhuge.is.