question about minoxidil

[AleMB81]

I've been using minoxidil 2% (with some topic anti-dht) for 3 years with good results. Now I think I'm starting shading a little on my vertex. Do you think that increasing the percentage of the minoxidil from 2% up to 5% will permit me to stabilize the situation or should I switch to propecia?

Thanks

 

[Bryan]

...Do you think that increasing the percentage of the minoxidil from 2% up to 5% will permit me to stabilize the situation or should I switch to propecia?

The best available scientific evidence seems to indicate that topical minoxidil doesn't really interfere with the fundamental causes of balding; all it essentially does is buy you a little time, as balding slowly continues on its inexorable path. I'd strongly recommend using a treatment like finasteride which does interfere with the fundamental causes of balding. Finasteride (like Ben said in the previous message) is certainly one of those treatments. There are others, too.

 

[human]

I am getting to the stage where it is almost last throw of the dice for me, so I would really appreciate any advice: I have tried finasteride and it really doesn't agree with me, good luck to those who it does. I have never tried minoxidil. Is it recommended? Is it true that once you stop using it, your hair loss develops faster? Any advice is welcome, thanks all.

 

[human]

Thanks for the reply. Is it recommended to use minoxidil just with Nizoral or would I HAVE TO USE an anti androgen??

Thanks

 

[WarLord]

The best available scientific evidence seems to indicate that topical minoxidil doesn't really interfere with the fundamental causes of balding; all it essentially does is buy you a little time, as balding slowly continues on its inexorable path. I'd strongly recommend using a treatment like finasteride which does interfere with the fundamental causes of balding. Finasteride (like Ben said in the previous message) is certainly one of those treatments. There are others, too.

Blah blah blah... It doesn't interfere with the fundamental process of balding... but how does it regrow hair lost due to the process of balding? By magic? And all those people, who have been maintaining hair on minoxidil for 10-25 years are bloody liars, aren't they? It is just better to approach the problem from the scientific perspective, and make ultimate projections into the future from 1-2 years' studies. It is almost as accurate as forecasting weather, isn't it?

 

[Bryan]

Blah blah blah... It doesn't interfere with the fundamental process of balding... but how does it regrow hair lost due to the process of balding? By magic? And all those people, who have been maintaining hair on minoxidil for 10-25 years are bloody liars, aren't they? [...]

Nobody has ever maintained his hair for "10-25 years" BECAUSE of minoxidil.

 

[WarLord]

Nobody has ever maintained his hair for "10-25 years" BECAUSE of minoxidil.

Man, does both baldness and mental retardation run in your family? During the last years, you have been confronted with several examples of how people maintain their hair with minoxidil for many years. Do you remember names like Beach man or Cassanova? The former has been on minoxidil for 25 years already. Yet you repeat the same crap over and over again. Where do you have any 10-25 years' study that would support your claims? I will tell you: There is none. All you have are cherry-picked data and graphs from some 2,5-5 years' studies from late 80's, whose results differ like night and day, and bold future projections from 1-2 years' studies of Price and Olsen showing some very weird observations (The peak of regrowth after mere 4 months?!). But since minoxidil didn't work for Bryan, it can't work for anybody, right? And all the donkeys on internet forums repeat Bryan's pieces of wisdom: "Minoxidil doesn't interfere with the fundamental balding process!" (Although it somehow mysteriously regrows hair damaged by the fundamental balding process.) "Minoxidil stops working after 16 weeks!" (Although a subset of patients shows continued increases in hair counts even after 5 years.) "And then the hair loss continues at the same rate like in placebo!" (A claim that I would expect only in a being with the IQ of an ape.)

After my nearly 16-years' long experience, no obsessive bald wackoo from the internet will tell me, how minoxidil should work! Its long-term efficiacy is only a matter of dosage, which the big differences among patients clearly indicate. MINOXIDIL CAN WORK INDEFINITELY.

But most importantly, you should finally shut up and don't infect newbies on this forum with your science fiction theories that you made up in your bald brain damaged by sun radiation!

P.S.: I wrote to your beloved gods of male hairloss research - Koperski, Olsen, Price (all three are ladies, curiously) - and pointed out at striking discrepancies between their results and older studies. None of them replied.

 

[Bryan]

Man, does both baldness and mental retardation run in your family? [big snip] MINOXIDIL CAN WORK INDEFINITELY.

But most importantly, you should finally shut up and don't infect newbies on this forum with your science fiction theories that you made up in your bald brain damaged by sun radiation!

P.S.: I wrote to your beloved gods of male hairloss research - Koperski, Olsen, Price (all three are ladies, curiously) - and pointed out at striking discrepancies between their results and older studies. None of them replied.

If all you can do is insult people, it doesn't surprise me that they ignored you.

 

[WarLord]

If all you can do is insult people, it doesn't surprise me that they ignored you.

I will insult you very willingly, because I despise such frustrated scoundrels, who infect people's minds with negativism and their fabricated agenda. I can only guess, what a havoc you have created on internet forums with your 100.000+ posts during all the years. Your good friend Decade Two-Digit IQ falls into the same category.

 

[Bryan]

I will insult you very willingly, because I despise such frustrated scoundrels, who infect people's minds with negativism and their fabricated agenda...

I don't "infect people's minds with negativism", I just caution them not to use topical minoxidil ALONE. Always use it with something else that _does_ interfere with the fundamental cause of balding, like Propecia.

 

[Breaking Bald]

Bryan, out of interest, what is your situation? I see you are an extremely dedicated poster, are you treating your hair loss? Or are you bald?

 

[Bryan]

Bryan, out of interest, what is your situation? I see you are an extremely dedicated poster, are you treating your hair loss? Or are you bald?

I'm not bald, although it's been several years since I seriously treated my hair loss. My interest in it is purely academic.

 

[WarLord]

I'm not bald, although it's been several years since I seriously treated my hair loss. My interest in it is purely academic.

In other words, Bryan is an embittered balding man, who didn't have much success with anti-hairloss treatments, and since that time he has been roaming about internet forums and ventilating his frustration by telling people that "minoxidil doesn't maintain hair".

- - - Updated - - -

I don't "infect people's minds with negativism", I just caution them not to use topical minoxidil ALONE. Always use it with something else that _does_ interfere with the fundamental cause of balding, like Propecia.

DHT is the fundamental cause of male pattern baldness, but it is only one part of a long chain leading to the miniaturization of the hair follicle. If you interrupt this chain at any point, you can achieve a comparably good result. The big disadvantage of minoxidil is that it affects this chain only at its end and doesn't prevent DHT from damaging the hair follicle. It only keeps it artifically alive by an unknown mechanism. Hence the process of damage is already started and hair saved by minoxidil can't be kept by any other treatment. It is a "zombie hair", as Mr Decade Two-Digit IQ rightly remarked. But we, who started to suffer from this curse in mid-90's, had no other option. I am glad that minoxidil was available. Otherwise my life would have turned into a nightmare. Furthermore, minoxidil is an excellent addition to anti-androgens, because it is a growth stimulant, while anti-androgens often don't guarantee hair regrowth.

 

[AleMB81]

I spoke with my dermatologist and he suggested me to take saw palmetto since my baldness it's still ok for being 31 years old.

Just two questions:

1) what do you think about serenoa repens?
2) WarLord: Did you mean you keep your hair by increasing the minoxidil percentage during years? Cause I'm still using quite low percentage (3%) and I've been keeping my hairs for 3 years since I noticed my hair getting thinner

 

[AleMB81]

Ehi after all your battles, nobody is answering me anymore?

I think that both Ryan and Warlord are right: If you a mild MBP you can survive with "minoxidil" only; if your hairloss is more aggressive you have to take some internal anti-dht...

However since, as of Today, my hairloss seems not so aggressive, I'd like to know if I can take something different before switching (if needed) to propecia..

In my opinion and as everyone knows, later you take propecia, better your body will feel

 

[Beingbaldsucksass]

Actually the sooner you take propecia the sooner you will save your hair

 

[AleMB81]

If so Beingbaldsuckass, tell me why after 3 years of minoxidil, I've still, more or less, all my hair. And you perfectly know that Propecia could have side effects so I'm not asking if it could a boost in my therapy but if I can keep my hair with something else

 

[nikemata]

Stick to one....

 

[WarLord]

I spoke with my dermatologist and he suggested me to take saw palmetto since my baldness it's still ok for being 31 years old.

Just two questions:

1) what do you think about serenoa repens?
2) WarLord: Did you mean you keep your hair by increasing the minoxidil percentage during years? Cause I'm still using quite low percentage (3%) and I've been keeping my hairs for 3 years since I noticed my hair getting thinner

I upgraded from 2% to 5% Kirkland in summer 2008. But not because it would lose efficiacy. I wanted to feel safer, and furthermore, the Kirkland generic version was even much cheaper than the Swiss 2% minoxidil I had bought before, so it was an easy decision. The 5% version was apparently more effective, because I regrew some intermediate hairs on it. In other words, the 5% minoxidil in 2008 was more effective than 2% minoxidil in 1997. This doesn't suggest that the stuff would be losing efficiacy over time.

Now I have been on 6% minoxidil since April this year, but that's another story... I am really screwed. After 13 months on 10-15% minoxidil in my temples, I effectively destroyed my hair wherever I had applied it. First, I lost hair due to apparent overdose, and then, after I quitted it definitely in February this year, I lost even more hair that became dependent on the high minoxidil concentration. Frankly, it is an ordeal. Whole groups of hair along my hairline disappeared without trace and now I am in a much worse state than before. After 5+ months, I cease to believe that they will ever regrow back. It doesn't make much sense, because the 5% minoxidil concentration kept the rest of my hair comfortably, so even if the dependent hair fell out, it shouldn't miniaturize... One month ago I already lost nerves and I jumped on 0.8 mg finasteride/day.

Ironically, I have been regrowing pretty solid hair in my right temple, where I applied it only on bald places. But I think that the regrowth is due to the dermastamp, with which I started in April.

- - - Updated - - -

If so Beingbaldsuckass, tell me why after 3 years of minoxidil, I've still, more or less, all my hair. And you perfectly know that Propecia could have side effects so I'm not asking if it could a boost in my therapy but if I can keep my hair with something else

It is a common knowledge that finasteride can't keep hair saved by minoxidil. If you quitted minoxidil, you would experience a devastating shed. Note my previous post. I switched from 5% minoxidil daily+10% minoxidil every other day to 5% daily - a change that shouldn't make much difference in my opinion. But it was terrible. My hair started to disappear everywhere, where I had applied the 10% version.

However, if you want to regrow some hair, the addition of finasteride could be beneficial. Look here:
http://www.bernsteinmedical.com/medical-treatment/patient-photos/

 

[Beingbaldsucksass]

Topical dht blockers are too weak to do something,