my understanding is that minoxidil addresses half the problem and finasteride addresses the other half.. it's something like minoxidil increases the blood flow and finasteride thickens the hair (usually male pattern baldness is like just your hair is too thin to break through the skin or something?)

if you're gonna try, I'd say it's not worth it unless you're doing both at the same time. It works really well for some people, but I'm too worried about the side effects to try

plus, I save so much money just shaving my head 😂