Dropping Minoxidil After 8 Months Of Usage

[DoctorHouse]

i NEVER heard or read this and i have been on this site religiously and i have consulted with some of the leading alopecia and hair loss Drs in NYC.

what actual evidence of studies do you have supporting this that you are so sure?

You cannot go by anecdotal stories of people.

scientifically it makes no logical sense that you hair would get 'worse' than if yo never used minoxidil at all.

and please don't write your opinion in long posts..

I want to see scientific evidence of this.

Hairblues, I think is trying to say when you stop using minoxidil you will go back to the point where you would have been if you did not use minoxidil. They call it "catch up" loss or balding. Same thing can happen with finasteride. Basically these medications act as "time machine" and offset your balding pattern speed. So if you have a NW2 who started minoxidil and he maintained for 2 years. He just bought himself 2 more years of being a NW2. If he did not use anything in 2 years he might advance to a NW3. So if someone buys 2 more years with minoxidil and stops using it, then they could easily revert to a NW3 very fast.

The point is we have no idea to actually predict our Norwood level advancement each year. No one does. In my case, I could be taking these medications and I still might be exactly where I would be if I did not take anything. The only way I could prove my theory is to stop the medications cold turkey and see if I experience some "catch up" loss or balding. If I go to a NW3 or Norwood 4 after one year, I would then be positive the medications were indeed effective.

 

[hairblues]

Hairblues, I think is trying to say when you stop using minoxidil you will go back to the point where you would have been if you did not use minoxidil. They call it "catch up" loss or balding. Same thing can happen with finasteride. Basically these medications act as "time machine" and offset your balding pattern speed. So if you have a NW2 who started minoxidil and he maintained for 2 years. He just bought himself 2 more years of being a NW2. If he did not use anything in 2 years he might advance to a NW3. So if someone buys 2 more years with minoxidil and stops using it, then they could easily revert to a NW3 very fast.

The point is we have no idea to actually predict our Norwood level advancement each year. No one does. In my case, I could be taking these medications and I still might be exactly where I would be if I did not take anything. The only way I could prove my theory is to stop the medications cold turkey and see if I experience some "catch up" loss or balding. If I go to a NW3 or Norwood 4 after one year, I would then be positive the medications were indeed effective.

correct but the poster is saying it will accelerate hair loss in good responders in addition or even further to the 'catch up' hair loss.

 

[DoctorHouse]

correct but the poster is saying it will accelerate hair loss in good responders in addition or even further to the 'catch up' hair loss.

Don't think English is his primary language. Minoxidil and finasteride work best together. That is the take home message. However, they both can cause side effects too.

 

[hairblues]

I don't even use Minoxidil, not sure what he is talking about lol.

his post to you was so long i could not even read whole thing

 

[CharAblaze]

Just wait til you see your scalp in a security TV in a shop after 1 year, then like me you will be convinced that it works. Just because hairline is turning to sh*t that does not mean that minoxidil does nothing.

 

[worm]

Personally I was on finasteride for 7.5 years and started and stopped minoxidil too many times to count.

I had gains while on it, but never lost ground by stopping. finasteride in my opinion is enough to prevent you losing more than your baseline.

 

[Vesemir]

Personally I was on finasteride for 7.5 years and started and stopped minoxidil too many times to count.

I had gains while on it, but never lost ground by stopping. finasteride in my opinion is enough to prevent you losing more than your baseline.

That's very nice to hear. It's only been acouple days and my scalp already feels better.

 

[Favorable]

You shed hair, hair grows back thinner.
That's a proven fact if you have male pattern baldness. Shed hair from minoxidil, stop minoxidil, hair grows back thinner. It's a simple fact.
You lose ground.

You try to ignore this hairblues.
You shed hair, hair grows back thinner if you have male pattern baldness. The body doesn't give you a break because it's a shed from minoxidil.

 

[br1]

Im not gonna apply it anymore. It dries out my scalp, my hair is dirty etc...... Maybe it worked to some degree but i feel like it didn't do much. I will stay on finasteride of course.

Hey, was reading through this thread since I am thinking on dropping minoxidil in the future (maybe next year). Right now I am trying to figure out if I will get the massive shed (Tellogen Efluvium) and (more important) if I do shed a lot, will it regrow?

I am curious to know what happened to you, if you don't mind sharing.

Thanks.

 

[Kev123]

I hope this helps any slow responders out there, sorry if it's long:

I've used minoxidil throughout my whole hair loss ordeal, but stopped and started many times. Never lasting even a year.

I started using minoxidil again in Feb 2016 2ML 2X a day to cover vertex, hairline, and temples, started finasteride 1.25mg everyday and keto shampoo (3x week) in March 2016. I saw vellus hair growth in about 3-4 months, as well as halted hair loss within weeks of starting minoxidil by itself.

These vellus hairs apparently disappeared (maybe shed?) at about 6 month mark, hair loss was still halted though. This was with lipogaine 2ML in the day, kirkland's 2ML at night. Small thickening happened, not enough to say i'm a good responder though or make a nice little success thread.

I never got off finasteride/min til this day. I did kicked lipogaine and went strictly with kirkland's.

So it's been roughly 16 months on the treatment. Now, with nothing added except an extra 2ML a day of kirklands to make it 1ML for vertex, 1ML for right side of hairline/temples, 1ML for left side of hairline/temples for the past month, i'm seeing better hair thickening than I did 4 months into treatment. I am seeing the corners that had receded from my temple, visibly closing back in closer to my forehead but as faded but visible hairs (cosmetically significant). These hairs were so miniaturized that I didn't know they were there.

My hair loss is overall better than it was even at the 1 year mark. Now 5 months into my 1 year anniversary it looks like i'm a bit of a better responder. I purchased a dermaroller and will use that for better absorption because where the scalp was clear with little bit of hair, it's thickening to the point that it's becoming harder to apply minoxidil.

tl;dr: I'm a slow responder too. It's been 1 year and 5 months and now is that am starting to see consistent results on big 3.

 

[hairblues]

I hope this helps any slow responders out there, sorry if it's long:

I've used minoxidil throughout my whole hair loss ordeal, but stopped and started many times. Never lasting even a year.

I started using minoxidil again in Feb 2016 2ML 2X a day to cover vertex, hairline, and temples, started finasteride 1.25mg everyday and keto shampoo (3x week) in March 2016. I saw vellus hair growth in about 3-4 months, as well as halted hair loss within weeks of starting minoxidil by itself.

These vellus hairs apparently disappeared (maybe shed?) at about 6 month mark, hair loss was still halted though. This was with lipogaine 2ML in the day, kirkland's 2ML at night. Small thickening happened, not enough to say i'm a good responder though or make a nice little success thread.

I never got off finasteride/min til this day. I did kicked lipogaine and went strictly with kirkland's.

So it's been roughly 16 months on the treatment. Now, with nothing added except an extra 2ML a day of kirklands to make it 1ML for vertex, 1ML for right side of hairline/temples, 1ML for left side of hairline/temples for the past month, i'm seeing better hair thickening than I did 4 months into treatment. I am seeing the corners that had receded from my temple, visibly closing back in closer to my forehead but as faded but visible hairs (cosmetically significant). These hairs were so miniaturized that I didn't know they were there.

My hair loss is overall better than it was even at the 1 year mark. Now 5 months into my 1 year anniversary it looks like i'm a bit of a better responder. I purchased a dermaroller and will use that for better absorption because where the scalp was clear with little bit of hair, it's thickening to the point that it's becoming harder to apply minoxidil.

tl;dr: I'm a slow responder too. It's been 1 year and 5 months and now is that am starting to see consistent results on big 3.

Wait so you shed at the 6 months? then regrew? or you just maintained after that?

Been shedding short hairs for two weeks like 1 inch long..I am 8 months into treatment and i am (was?) a good responder...these small hairs shed not sure what is going on. If good, bad or no difference.

 

[Kev123]

Wait so you shed at the 6 months? then regrew? or you just maintained after that?

Been shedding short hairs for two weeks like 1 inch long..I am 8 months into treatment and i am (was?) a good responder...these small hairs shed not sure what is going on. If good, bad or no difference.

The thing is I didn't even shed my terminal hairs, just the vellus hairs that had grown. Those disappeared. I couldn't wrap my head around it but they've come back starting 1 month ago. I guess it's just the hair cycle doing its thing maybe but i'm not too sure.

 

[Mikebr]

Old thread but i just wanna say that "favorable" is absolutly right in everything he said and who disagrees its because didnt stop minoxidil yet.
I used for ONE month and drop ir after the inicial shed because i noticed health hair shedding like crazy(not in my crown where i have bald spots) and i was getting even more anxious/depressed.
And now when my hair was coming back(not even close to baseline yet) started to shed again, exactly 3 months after i stop the minoxidil. My hair is 50% as bad as it was after the shed on minoxidil and way way below baseline. And from what i heard its not going back to baseline and it did not stop shedding yet, probably one more month or so.
And my baldness was not even that bad. So if you can live with your hair and people cant see any bald spots in you hair unless they look from above and with a big light above it then DONT USED IT. You will regret for the rest of your life.
And NO it is not my normal baldness that progressed and caused this situation below baseline in the period between the first time i used minoxidil and now because everything happened in 4 months and i didnt have any hairs shedding before minoxidil.
Not everything is about studies and cientific research.