shedding after switching from topical to oral minoxidil

[russelldawson]

Hi guys, thanks very much for reading this.

I've been using topical minoxidil for like 10 years, and it's worked pretty good for me i think.... about 3 months ago I switched over to 2.5mg oral minoxidil without any overlap of continuing topical for a bit simultaneously.

The reason I switched is because its just easier to take a pill than to apply the lotion on top twice a day.


anyway, my question is.... in the last 2 weeks , i've started to shed quite a bit. Is this normal ? should I stick with the oral, or just go back to topical which was working for me?

thank you for your responses if anyone has any experience with the switch.

i'm considering just going back to topical, or adding the topical as well as continuing the oral

 

[SadAndMad]

There are lots of people who switch to oral minoxidil and their hair gets decimated. I've taken 5mg for over a year and lost almost all of my topical gains. I even experienced really bad irregular heartbeats right before I switched back to topical. If you don't have some sort of irritation from topical, or you aren't a non-responder, there is really no need to use oral minoxidil. The chances are that you will most likely get worse results.

Why didn't it work for me? Well, it's probably because the amount that I apply topically (2.5ml once a day) is superior to what gets to the scalp with oral minoxidil. Plus, some of it - around 2.25mg, gets absorbed systemically.