applying minoxidil MUST be hassle surely

[youngguy_uk]

hey

have been giving more thought to the matter of starting minoxidil recently. im not jumping on right now, i think il have to at least see a few months down the line as to how my hair is looking on finasteride (see my post **EXPERIENCED finasteride USERS PLEASE!!**) - hehe. but if it goes to sh*t who knows.

anyway, the minoxidil application thing. surely, it must be hassle? ok, maybe not if you have a shaved head, but those of us who havent opted to shave it all off yet...

firstly, youve got to apply in the morning and evening every day. what if you have a partner who lives with you? someone moves in with you and every morning and night you have this gunk in your hair? no going to bed with passionate sex, minoxidil comes first. or if you bring a girl back one night, no minoxidil for you. and in the morning. youve gotta wake up half an hour early to put it in so it can dry before you style your hair? (im talking about us who have some thinning, who would look sh*t going out with a minoxed head). i can only see minoxidil being really feasible if you have a shaved head, or really really short hair. dont you think? and what if your living with friends? the list goes on...

its enough to make one want to overdose on propecia proscar and dutasteride, and drown themselves in a minoxidil bath. what a way to go!

 

[pharoh]

you're right the list does go on...exactly why I don't use it. You always get two groups of people on this, the people like me and you who say its a hassle for obvious reasons. And then you get the people who say it is absolutely no hassle at all.

I am on finasteride and at the moment don't ever plan on using min, for the reasons that I am 21 and at uni, with a young girlfriend. I ahve lots of nights out, go clubbing, come home drunk, stay round friends houses, stay round my girlfriends, she stays round mine etc. There ain't no way I'm going to start whacking out the minoxidil in front of them and put the gunk on my head.

I suppose is you are happy to live on your own and stay home every night then its no problem, which is why it is a better choice for those lucky guys who are losing their hair after the age of 30

 

[Molecular Help]

It doesn't make your hair look quite as bad as you make it seem. After it dries (20 minutes later) the worst it can do is make the hair you got it on look greasy.

I'm going to try Dr. Lee's minoxidil for the morning application since its not as greasy. I assume using that would make it even less noticible after drying.

Also you get better at getting it directly on your scalp, but the attention to application is the real hassle I think. You have to concentrate pretty hard and take a very close unatural look at your hairloss when you do this, which really isn't a fun thing to remind yourself of twice a day.

 

[HairFarmer]

It's all about being stealth my man.

Just as if you were going to take a crap..you would not leave the door open or forget to flush. Plan each visit with a bit of thought. Miss a day? Who cares? minoxidil isn't going to stop working because you missed one session. It works because you're enabling it to have a constant supply.

Anyways...Here's what you do...

Sneak in during the morning for a 1-3 minute application to the troubled zones. Let stand...go back 15 mins later in & add some style normally.

Carry your minoxidil around in a visine container. Say your eyes have been buggin you. Never leave the bottle around for others to use though.

At night...do the old "i gotten freshen up technique"...shower, brush teeth, wash face and apply some minoxidil. Nobody will be able to tell whats going on.

 

[youngguy_uk]

yeh i am also young (18), at uni, and have had a few girlfriends or girls back this year, you know what i mean. quite a few nights out in the week. coming back yourself, ok, but especially when you have a partner, and youve got to "freshen up" every night and sneak out while youre in bed...somethings gotta seem suspicious?

and can you honestly carry your minoxidil on you all the time everywhere you go without losing it?

minoxidil will make your hair look greasy yeh, especially after youve just applied it - this is a MAJOR problem for us diffuse thinners, because when you come out the bathroom and your friends/girlfriend sees you without your drenched hair showing all your scalp it wont be a pretty sight. they can obviously tell youve got some gunk in your hair, or at least that youre going bald. great!

maybe its not such a big problem for receeders, but if/when they start to thin all over or at the crown, i think miniox will become a big hassle.

how is applying minoxidil to a shaved/closely buzzed head? i can imagine that being much easier...responses?

 

[HairFarmer]

Well ..we never question our women when they disappear in the middle of the night. So you have to pass it off as taking a pee or going to the can. Run the sink for a minute, flush the toilet..massage the drops into the scalp. You should be able to nail this routine down to 3 mins flat.

Have 2 containers and never put the entire supply into one bottle in case you might lose it..

I don't really notice the minoxidil being all that greasy because I only use the directed amount. I think if you put more on you might notice the greasy look. Also if you come out with a face cloth they will assume you just washed your face..

As for application I start the drips at the back of the scalp and lean my head slightly forward still maintaining view of the mirror. The liquid will flow down the scalp naturally and once thats done you can massage the other areas. This allows for some excellent natural gravity coverage. The crown i do seperately. Several drops and some mild massaging to get the area covered. Works great and allows you to conserve the minoxidil.

Short hair is super easy using the technique above because you can watch the minoxidil beads running down your head..when the drips get low you catch them with your index finger and massage the frontal area..

 

[youngguy_uk]

but what about in the mornings..you cant style your hair for a while after just putting on minoxidil....if youre in a rush? youll have to leave 30mins or something to put on minoxidil and let it dry etc...

and im talking about those of use with quite bad thinning...putting on minoxidil and making the hair greasy is the last thing you want to do. especially before slipping into bed with someone. cant see a way round it apart from shaving the head..i guess that will come later anyway though.

 

[HairFarmer]

For the mornings..theres 2 solutions...

1) Get up earlier - shower, dry + apply minoxidil wait ...then style ..(tough i know)..
2) Get up earlier - shower, dry + apply minoxidil sleep again until you have to get up + style


As for the night...it's gonna be tough under those conditions. You need to try and sneak in a shower. Nothing wrong with being fresh for your partner. Dim the lights, head to bed as normal.

Ps Do you use gel or hairspray?

I wear a hat during the day because I can get away with it at work therefore, I sort of ignore the appearance of minoxidil-infested hair because it's covered during my shift. When i get home it comes off and i let my hair breathe. I'm doing this until my hair returns to a somewhat showable state..

 

[The shedder]

if your careful when you apply and try to wipe it off the affected hairs if you use a little bit too much carelessly it looks fine within a half hour. I don't really mind too much the finasteride has dimmed my emotions about petty things lol.

 

[KrazyK]

I'm kinda proud of using Rogaine. Especially my friends. I just graduated from university this past May. And have been using minoxidil since December 2003. I had 3 other roommates, they knew I used minoxidil. They always saw me applying it. But then again I was really open about my hairloss to a lot of people. And say bringing home a girl one night. If I'm going out already, while I'm getting ready to go out, I put on my nightly minoxidil application usually before I go out. And a night here and there or a "later" application doesn't really hurt as much. Like say if you got a girlfriend, you wanna have sex, have sex, when you finish and your both about to go to bed put the minoxidil on. So you can just let it dry while your in your bed waiting to fall asleep(just don't be shocked if you see your girlfriend growing a beard in 6 months cuz she sleeping on your minoxidil soaked pillow :lol: )

All in all though, if finasteride is working for you, which I'm not sure how effective it is for you and if you feel that uncomfortable using the minoxidil right now. (It does take time getting used to applying it correctly) just continue using the finasteride. If you feel you really need minoxidil, I'd say go for it. It's working great for me so far.

 

[kiwi1973]

Youngguy

if you got a girl why not tell her? i wouldnt tell a one night stand, but i girlfriend yes

if you use a quick dying minoxidil its no hassle to use at all no more truble then brushing your teeth
i tryed xandrox 15 and that made my hair look like it had coke poured on it, now i use hair-again(generic austrailia minoxidil) and 20 min latter its dry
the only way to find out is if you try it for a while

kiwi

 

[youngguy_uk]

hairfarmer - sneaking a shower, well you might be able to every now and then. but if youre talking about every day, which is the case if youre living with your girlfriend or someone, i dont think is really doable.

how can you sneak a shower, a minoxidil application, and a 20-30min waiting for it to dry every night without her noticing?

also, hairfarmer, you say that after you apply minoxidil in the morning you hide it under a hat when you go to work and you will do this until it becomes a showable state. well, say a 2 or more years down the line, if your hair, having had all the regrowth possible on minoxidil, goes downhill again and youre thinning worse than you are now, which will happen at some point in our lives, what then? and if you cant wear a hat to work? when youre really thin leaving the house for work or coming out of the shower to your girlfriend with a head of thin hair drenched with minoxidil wont be cool.

kiwi - i wouldnt feel comfortable telling a girl that i had hairloss issues serious enough for me to take medication for, as i am only 18. to most 18 year old girls i think this would seem weird. i may be wrong, but personally i just wouldnt feel comfortable with it.

sorry if this thread seems like im trying to knock minoxidil tonnes, im not. i just want to know how you guys can seriously keep up with a 2x a day minoxidil regime every day of your lives for the rest of your lives, because i will probably need to use minoxidil at some point if things dont start looking up and staying up a bit more.

how about those with buzzed/shaved heads...how is applying minoxidil?

 

[Guest]

I have to agree with youngguyuk to a certain extent. I use minoxidil and fina. I am a diffuser up top and have receding temples. For my diffusing up top I rely on the finasteride. I only use the minoxidil on my temples. It would be truly a hassle to put that gunk all over the top of my head. I'm glad I don't have to do that. minoxidil is awesome at regrowth, i've grown nearly all of my temple back and the fina is working up top. I'm a little lazy when it comes to minoxidil applications though; a lot of days i only use it once a day. I even skip a day here and there. It's no hassle as long as you don't have to use it all over the top.

 

[youngguy_uk]

well im a diffuser and would have to use it all over the top.

wouldnt it be quite easy if you shaved/buzzed your head, and sprayed it on then rubbed it in?

any input from people who put it all over the head? how long does it take to drop it all over the head then rub it in? if your hair is relatively short, can you spray it on, then rub it into the scalp? (i know some will be wasted on the hair but it would be much easier and probably mean more even coverage).

yeah, thing is if youre using it all over the head your hair will look like gunk..

 

[kiwi1973]

I am i defuse thinner too
and i shave my head now about a no.2 and i spray it all over my haed and rub it in, takes 30 seconds

I undstand why youre Apprehensive to try the stuff, you think that it will make your hair look greasy and thin, which some minoxidil will a bit, but if you get a quick drying one its no problem

i have been losing my hair for 8 years now, and never used
minoxidil for just that reason

I wish i had kept on finasteride and started minoxidil 8 years ago

kiwi

 

[youngguy_uk]

what kind of quick drying minoxidil versions are there? is this only the generic stuff? and how long does it take to dry, as opposed to standard minoxidil?

maybe quick drying minoxidil would be an option. i guess its easier for you to apply though, having buzzed hair. my hair will probably be buzzed/shaved some way down the line anyway, but until then..

il definitely be staying on finasteride (or switching to dutasteride), but i think for me its better to stay on finasteride and keep minoxidil saved for later. i dont want to apply the stuff for some years to come if i dont have to. and its nice to know there is stuff in back up that will probably boost my hair quite a lot, so its something to fall back on. i just dont want to use all options at once and then have nothing, and see my hair just get worse and worse from then on.

 

[Molecular Help]

i just dont want to use all options at once and then have nothing, and see my hair just get worse and worse from then on.

Yeah, that would certainly suck, but isn't that totally a mental thing? Just because you're holding back to give yourself some sort of peace of mind you're aren't doing your hair any favors. Depends on how bad your hair loss is I guess- if you're fine with how it looks now then don't bother with minoxidil. But if you want improvement, minoxidil can give you that and maintain it for years. 5-7 years is a long time.... we'd be old enough for a hair transplant or maybe a big new treatment to give us that extra kick.

The only reason I'm posting is because I'm having this dialogue with myself right now as well :lol:

 

[Guest]

youngguy_uk,
It's a good idea that you are exploring your next option other than finasteride, but I would hold off on the minoxidil. Wait until the full year on finasteride is over before you add anything to your regimen. WHat is that, another 5 months? Many people really begin seeing good results in the later part of their first year so just kick back and cruise through the rest of this year before you even think about adding minoxidil.

 

[youngguy_uk]

hey basass, not 5 months away im afraid, just 3...im at the 9 month mark. i probably dont just want to maintain the hair i have now, but id be happy maintaing the hair i had at baseline, and the hair i had at about month 7, etc. im hoping what im in now is a dip, and it will come good. but im exploring minoxidil because my hairs been worse now for about 1 1/2 months which seems like quite a long dip.

but having heard stories about people whos hair got better later in year 1, or even in year 2 (right guys?) i think il hang on with finasteride longer unless my hair absolutely goes to sh*t. i dont want to have to use minoxidil until i have to. if finasteride comes up again and stabilises me, il be happy for a few years. im just finding out more info just in case my addition of minoxidil isnt that far ahead.

 

[Vampa]

Wow, I can't believe minoxidil takes so long to dry. I'd only be applying it to my temples, but still....

Fluridil seems to dry right after I put it on (well, after I rub it in). I don't know well how it handles for an entire head, but I do think it would dry faster there too. Plus, as far as I can tell, it doesn't leave any greasy-looking residue. Good stuff if it works well.