Minoxidil...periodic Shed (not Dred Shed)

[hairblues]

I am doing pretty well with my treatments so far..I have pretty good regrowth with minoxidil..I am on topical spironolactone with some other stuff blended in, and I am trying still to get my ferritin up to 70 since 3 reputable Doctors have told me this aids the hair treatments working better i was technically ferritin anemic for at least 5 years if not longer which is when my hair loss really increased.

So I am noticing that this week my hair is shedding the small hairs like crazy..my long hairs the shed is fine--my long and short hairs shed like crazy before treatments...both shedding had slowed down once treatments kicked in..I am on like month 7 or 8 of my treatments...and these small hairs started to shed again.

I am a great responder to minoxidil as my facial hair had darkened (have to get threading 1x a month now) my eyebrows even grow back super fast when i wax or tweeze--so I know for sure this is a major player in what is working..

Just curious of others experience with periodic shedding..a lot of the hairs are like 1-2 inches long. some are okay healthy looking but most sickly frail looking.

Of course I am a little nervous. I am going to wait it out because really what else can I do?
I did screw up my Iron pills the past few months..I have to take 4 x day on empty stomach (Dr monitors me) its very hard for me to hold the ferritin up to a good number...last check i was at 60 but I am sure it dropped..i started at 10 about a year ago..the goal is to get it to over 70 and keep it there for months.

I am thinking to do rogain 2x a day on some days as I tolerate it very well and I am not very petite, I am 5'6 normal proportionate build.

 

[Grasshüpfer]

Dunno about the periodic shedding, but I will start minoxidil next week.

 

[Nano123]

Hi, let me tell you what I'm doing maybe this will answer some of your questions.

I have been on minoxidil several times through the past 4 years, it never caused any initial shedding phase, my hair just sheds as it usually does then after a month or two into the treatment it subsides and regrowth starts appearing, but well during the past 4 years I would go off minoxidil under the impression that whenever I choose to commit minoxidil will regrow all my lost hairs and I was unaware that follicles become dormant and basically never wake up.

Starting Feb 2017 I used 5% minoxidil solution one application per day, my hair was shedding as it is however I noticed loaaaads of minituarized hairs falling, ranging from one cm to two inches, I was freaking out but I think since I wasn't losing as much tiny hairs before treatment then maybe minoxidil was making them shed to replace them with thicker hairs, two months in and I stopped shedding as much miniature hairs and I just wanted faster results so I upped my dose to twice per day and apply 2 mls per application since lots are wasted on the hair shafts since I have long hair, from middle of month 3 till now which is beginning of moth 5 I'm losing around 50 hairs per day of terminal long hairs (mostly) but I am seeing hairs growing on top that are thick, so this supports that miniature hairs fall to be replaced by thicker ones, and as you know the hair can't thicken through the same growth cycle, it has to be shed then restarts a thicker growth phase.

So I advise you to just hold on and try not to freak out, because you are responding to minoxidil the most probable thing is that they're being shed to be replaced with thicker hairs. I crushed aldactone pills in a herbal hair cream for hair loss that smells nice and is sold OTC and made a concentration of 3%, it smelled nice until it sat on my hair for a few hours and I couldn't stand it so I stopped it. I have low BP so my doctor told me that taking oral spironolactone would make it even lower. but if it's working for you then definitely keep on using it.

Now about ferritin, mine was 7 back in feb, I started supplements of capsules that eventually around 20 mgs of it would be absorbed per day and I took it once daily for 3 months. I did blood tests again and it came up to 33 last week, so the GP advised me that in order to get it up quickly that I can take iron injections or get iron injections in IV solutions once every 15 days for only 2 times and then I can maintain with a balanced diet or multivitamins that have an adequate amount of iron. in order to get ferritin up by capsules or tablets it would take time because it's poorly absorbed from the intestines and is affected by food, so multi dosing each day on empty stomach isn't easy.

 

[DoctorHouse]

I think people can go thru different amounts of shedding during different seasons. Also I think the weather can influence shedding. Its getting hotter now so maybe your body is shedding to cool the scalp off more. I think if you stay in the normal shed range of 50 to 100 hairs per day, you should be fine. However, I wonder how many of those hairs you shed will come back? I really think some don't when you are balding. Supposedly the process is they are replaced with a new hair that will be thinner if its miniaturization but I really think they just don't come back. Telogen effluvium vs male pattern baldness is very confusing sometimes for me. They look so similar so how do you know which is which really?

 

[hairblues]

I think people can go thru different amounts of shedding during different seasons. Also I think the weather can influence shedding. Its getting hotter now so maybe your body is shedding to cool the scalp off more. I think if you stay in the normal shed range of 50 to 100 hairs per day, you should be fine. However, I wonder how many of those hairs you shed will come back? I really think some don't when you are balding. Supposedly the process is they are replaced with a new hair that will be thinner if its miniaturization but I really think they just don't come back. Telogen effluvium vs male pattern baldness is very confusing sometimes for me. They look so similar so how do you know which is which really?

I had two biopsies and then I consulted for a second opinon with Dr Mckay Wiggans--she is one of the researchers for Jax inhibitor at Columbia Pres (she is speaking at the conference in Fall Hellrouser is going to)..She is a leading dermatologist for alopecia so I do trust her opinion when I took biopsy results to her and she examined my head.
I think its either a periodic shed/regrowth thicker (this happened before) or its just periodic hair loss of DHT. OR It could be my ferritin dropped because I messed up my pill dosage..I slacked off.

 

[Armando Jose]

Hairblues, the best of luck.

Stay inform us of your progress.

Sheding cycles are not uncommon with minoxidil, not in my experience because I never used minoxidil, but I did read many commentaries in this issue.