Quit minoxidil 5% after 3 years

[balanceguardian]

About 2 months ago i quit minoxidil as i finally figured it has over the 3 years of use made my hair worse.

We're scaremongered into keeping going with it but its been over two months and ive had no shed as of yet.

My hair now feels so much better than when i was on minoxidil but most importantly my lean facial good looks have started to come back.

I was really starting to notice my bloated face and it left me depressed. That was the main reason i decided to quit. I was willing to endure a nasty shed but so far it hasn't come.

I think minoxidil can make male pattern baldness worse. It must destroy the skin on some level including that of the face and scalp. Perhaps for some people in the short term it encourages some thickening of the hair shaft but in the long term i think it leaves the scalp and skin very unhealthy and ultimately speeds up male pattern baldness.

I wouldnt advise anyone to take up minoxidil as we all know that it has no real benefits in slowing down male pattern baldness. But as i said, i think it speeds it up. Any thoughts.

 

[Obsidian]

but in the long term i think it leaves the scalp and skin very unhealthy and ultimately speeds up male pattern baldness.

I wouldnt advise anyone to take up minoxidil as we all know that it has no real benefits in slowing down male pattern baldness. But as i said, i think it speeds it up. Any thoughts.

:shakehead:

 

[OverMachoGrande]

I have been on Minos for 6 years and my hair is WAY better than it was before I started. I only used minoxidil for the 2 two years I treated my hair loss and it gave me excellent results.

That being said, it does not work for everyone so I would say that you were not a responder and probably did not react well to minoxidil. In any case I am glad your hair is better now but I would not go as far as to say minoxidil speeds up hair loss because I gained ALOT of new hair as well as thickened my hair greatly since i have used it.

 

[Nashville Hairline]

About 2 months ago i quit minoxidil as i finally figured it has over the 3 years of use made my hair worse.

We're scaremongered into keeping going with it but its been over two months and ive had no shed as of yet.

My hair now feels so much better than when i was on minoxidil but most importantly my lean facial good looks have started to come back.

Ouch, wait til you get to 3-4 months ...you'll see the offset of growth you were getting from it.

The stuff works. Its a terrible product but it works.

 

[irishpride86]

Hey Nashville,

I see you on foam as well ( like me).
1) Have you found it to be pretty effective ?
2)How otter do you get sheds and how bad are they ?
3) Ever used liquid minoxidil and if so which do you find more effective ?

ThNk you , sir.

 

[Nashville Hairline]

PM'd.

 

[balanceguardian]

If im honest minoxidil did really well in the first six months and it still causes small hairs around my ears to appear. But i just got the feeling it left my scalp unhealthy and was damaging the skin on my face. For the amount of regrowth i achieved, overall i dont think its worth me continuing with minoxidil.

I can imagine that a lot of people respond well to minoxidil throughout its use. Im still anticipating a major shed but part of me is hoping it wont come.

If i didn't respond well surely ive got less offset hair to loose. And Even if i do shed from quitting minoxidil im sure it will grow back.

My hair is doing amazing after also quitting propecia after a year which had me in a state of Telogen Effluvium throughout. Its thickening with every day and its been almost 2 months since i quit. Im hoping this will allow me to not notice any minor minoxidil sheds i encounter.

 

[Mens Rea]

TS i made a similar thread to this after i went off minoxidil

after almost exactly 3 months i shed until i was pretty much bald. devastating.

shock loss really. it grew back but i did go back on it just to make sure. brutal times.

 

[balanceguardian]

Im Gonna brave it and if i have to im gonna buzz cut it. My hair is currently down to my ears and im really happy with it but most importantly i dont feel like ive got stuffy eyes and my facial skin looks 5 years younger than 2 months ago.

Fingers crossed the devastation does warrant a buzz cut a crop suffices. Im hopeful.

 

[Bukowski]

balanceguardian, did you experience a shed after stopping the usage of minoxidil?

 

[Primo]

I'm sorry to hear that balanceguardian, Hope everything works out fine for you and I too think minoxidil may have had a slight effect on my skin, though nothing significant that anybody else would notice.

I'm so envious of people who can tolerate both finasteride and Min because it seems like most people on this forum get screwed over by one or the other.

 

[peter079]

I'm in the same boat as colin297. I was on minoxidil for 6 months. After quitting minoxidil (foam), my hair started to shed, and now I am waaaay below baseline. Infact almost sleek bald, when last May I could still easily hide my diffused thinning.
My theory is that if you have aggressive hairloss, minoxidil will not help much and when you stop it, the loss will accelerate.

 

[Primo]

I agree, by all accounts minoxidil is no good for diffuse thinners, but for receding hairlines it definitely works.

 

[gavney]

About 2 months ago i quit minoxidil as i finally figured it has over the 3 years of use made my hair worse.

We're scaremongered into keeping going with it but its been over two months and ive had no shed as of yet.

My hair now feels so much better than when i was on minoxidil but most importantly my lean facial good looks have started to come back.

I was really starting to notice my bloated face and it left me depressed. That was the main reason i decided to quit. I was willing to endure a nasty shed but so far it hasn't come.

I think minoxidil can make male pattern baldness worse. It must destroy the skin on some level including that of the face and scalp. Perhaps for some people in the short term it encourages some thickening of the hair shaft but in the long term i think it leaves the scalp and skin very unhealthy and ultimately speeds up male pattern baldness.

I wouldnt advise anyone to take up minoxidil as we all know that it has no real benefits in slowing down male pattern baldness. But as i said, i think it speeds it up. Any thoughts.

How are you scaremongered into keeping going? I don't know what minoxidil brand you are using. But with regaine/rogaine foam they say on the instruction leaflet to "discontinue use if you don't see any results after 4 months". I think they say something similar on Kirkland minoxidil. That's the opposite of scaremongering IMO.

If anyone is scaremongering it's you.

I'm sorry minoxidil hasn't worked for you, but it has had great results for other people (even if that just means maintaining what they have). And it's proven to work.

There's more scaremongering going on to discourage people from using minoxidil/finasteride than the other way around. It's one of the few products out there proven to work. Unfortunately it doesn't work for everyone, and it's not the nicest product to use. But I really don't think it's speeded up your male pattern baldness. It sounds more like you just aren't willing to accept that it hasn't worked, or that your male pattern baldness is a little more aggressive than other people for whom minoxidil has had a more noticeable positive effect.

I discontinued minoxidil, last June. Only in the last couple of months have I noticed a deterioration in my hair. I'm not 100% sure that that's due to discontinuing minoxidil, but I'm quite confident it has.

Am sorry if it seems like I'm being mean , but I think you need to think about whether your comments are 100% accurately telling the true story - as there may be other people who read your post and are discouraged from using minoxidil as a result - and what if those same people could have turned out to be great responders?

I'm also sorry to hear about your side-effects. I think you're right to be scare-mongering about that, if it did indeed happen. But scare-mongering about minoxidil accelerating your male pattern baldness is misleading

 

[sohiab]

Ive only been on minoxidil for three months and i just shed like 10+ hairs when i apply it..I really dont think its a good solution and its pretty expensive. If i use it for the next 30 years of my life...im sure a hair transplant would be better!

 

[hairhoper]

Shedding hairs when you apply it... that's not how hair-loss works dude. And even if you had a hair transplant you'd still need to be on meds to maintain your hair.

Minoxidil regrows hair. Fact. If it doesn't work for you then sorry, but don't come here and say it makes male pattern baldness worse, that's ludicrous.

And if you have face-bloat work out more, drink less alcohol and stop whining.

 

[anxious1]

:agree:

I'm sure u did shed those hairs. But they were probably destined to fall out soon anyway. Like people think shampooing makes them lose hair. It doesnt, its just since they have became disconnected from the root, theyre either going to fall out gradually over the course of time, or they fall out all at once when u shampoo, (or in ur case apply minoxidil). u see 10 hairs at once so u freak out a bit.

but in the long term, the amount u lose in 6 months is still the same.

Now... that shedding could be a shed after so many months of using minoxidil, but never the less, thats a result of the minoxidil affecting the hair cycle, and going through a shedding phase. Its not like applying the minoxidil is instantly making ur hair fall out, the same way shampoo isnt instantly making hair fallout. Its just removing hairs that were already disconnected from the root.

 

[balanceguardian]

Hey guys,

been lurking around for ages without posting as i had computer problems and also due to general laziness.

Just to update:

I quit minoxidil at the end of June 2010 and quit propecia at the end of August 2010.

Quitting propecia pulled me out of a state of Telogen Effluvium and it appeared my hair was doing better off all the the drugs than on the drugs.

However from the beginning of November through to the end of December i had a Devastatingly Monumental Supershed.

MINOXIDIL WORKS GUYS.

If you want hair then stay on it. It seems that the drug can stay in the system for upto 6 months though. Well pehaps less as it takes 3 months for the hair to actually fall out according to some people, but this is something id like to certainly know for sure if someone can help enlighten me.

It is easy for me to say that propecia also doesnt work for me but i think its more complicated than that. I think three hormones play a balancing game: Testosterone, DHT and estriadol.

For about 2 months half way through my propecia experiment, my hair done really good but that optimum balance of these hormones didnt stay like that and so my hair started to get worse again. At all other times i suffered symptoms of hyperandrogenicity.

I believe the secret KEY to hairloss is to somehow find an optimum hormonal balance.

My hair is sensitive to DHT AND Testosterone and i have started experimenting with RU to block the androgen receptor.

I dont want to go back on minoxidil or propecia as im not willing to endure the side effects of these drugs anymore.

 

[liljay]

About 2 months ago i quit minoxidil as i finally figured it has over the 3 years of use made my hair worse.

We're scaremongered into keeping going with it but its been over two months and ive had no shed as of yet.

My hair now feels so much better than when i was on minoxidil but most importantly my lean facial good looks have started to come back.

I was really starting to notice my bloated face and it left me depressed. That was the main reason i decided to quit. I was willing to endure a nasty shed but so far it hasn't come.

I think minoxidil can make male pattern baldness worse. It must destroy the skin on some level including that of the face and scalp. Perhaps for some people in the short term it encourages some thickening of the hair shaft but in the long term i think it leaves the scalp and skin very unhealthy and ultimately speeds up male pattern baldness.

I wouldnt advise anyone to take up minoxidil as we all know that it has no real benefits in slowing down male pattern baldness. But as i said, i think it speeds it up. Any thoughts.

Hi Balanceguardian, i been using minoxidil 5% for about 1 year and 2 months now (havent get into finasteride), and i had the exact situation as yours, it speed up the hair follicle cycle (i went to my dermatologists a couple days ago, and he told me what minoxidil does is basically damaging your hair follicle, bloody hell, he should've told me at the first place )and i seriously been thinking of quitting minoxidil. right now i reduce to half of the dose and apply twice a day, will reduce to once a day after a month. will seek more adivce from dermatologists for sure. but im curious how's ur hair overall situation now since u quite minoxidil? since minoxidil didnt really help me grew any new hair, and actually lose quite lot in density in fact. i wonder would i lose even much more or it just kinda bring my head skin to 50 years old state. or would some of the healthier grow back after i quite minoxidil? really need some help here.

 

[Yakitori]

Same boat as OP, was on Minoxidil for what... 9 months? I only get some increased shedding on two occasions during this time (cycled sheds I guess) but with 0 regrowth. It made my hair sh*t, some of it changed color and I got exaggerated dark circles/bags under eyes.

Since quitting my hair feels A LOT better and my eyes have gotten back to where they should be.