Should I Quit Minoxidil? And How Do I Do It?

[Yousef]

Thanks
am was thinking about Finasteride , but am bit worry about the side effects
specially that it may effect the sexual life?

 

[Yakitori]

This is gonna be kinda long. I've been lurking for a while and figured I could help.

Some background: In January of this year, I had been on finasteride for about 2 years and I was on minoxidil liquid/foam for about a year and 3 months. I was about a Norwood 1.5 at that time and my hair was pretty long - around shoulder length.

My hair loss seemed to have stopped at a solid NW2 after a year on finasteride, but still had lots of hair in the NW1 zone. I figure this would be considered an NW1.5, so that's what I'll call it. The right side of my hairline was in worse shape than the left, so I thought minoxidil could help me regrow the lost hairs on my hairline and get me back to a thick NW1 and/or even the hairline out. I wasn't one of those lucky guys who get a ton of regrowth on finasteride, sadly.

After a few months on the liquid, I switched to the foam simply because it was easier to apply and less greasy. I remember a pretty serious shed around that time, but I didn't think too much of it. My hair was pretty long and you couldn't really tell I was losing hair. For the year I was on the foam, I kept losing more and more hair. I was even dermarolling pretty hard with a 1.5mm roller every couple of weeks because I read that was supposed to be more effective than minoxidil alone. However, the hair loss kept progressing. All the hairs in that zone between NW1 and NW2 were thinning. The finasteride seemed to have been doing its job and holding my real solid hairline at NW2. However, everywhere i had applied minoxidil (the NW1 area), the existing hairs were getting thinner and thinner. I also started noticing heavy bags under my eyes like I had never experienced before. Even with a night cream, it looked like I hadn't slept in weeks. Sadly, things didn't seem to be getting better for my hair, so in early January, I stopped the minoxidil. Things got pretty bad at that point. It felt like minoxidil was making things worse, even after 1 year! I had enough, so I decided to shave my head. A huge decision, but I think it was the right choice because it just looked stupid.

So, I've been off the minoxidil for about 5 months now. There was a period of super heavy shedding after about a month off the medication. Only just now am I starting to see some recovery. I'm hopeful that some alternative treatments I'm on will help me, but that will take a little while to really know if they're truly working.

However, to your question: should you quit minoxidil? If you aren't getting any skin issues, I say no. At first, I was like you. I really didn't think minoxidil was doing anything for me. I really believed that it was making my hair worse the whole time I was on it. However, after couple weeks after I shaved my head and stopped minoxidil, I took two very high quality pictures of my hairline with flash (before any shedding occurred due to stopping minoxidil). My hair was a centimeter or so long at that point, but I was amazed at how thick it really looked. I could see a ton of velus hairs in that photo at the NW1 zone even on the worse side. I took a similar photo of my hairline now and compared them. The minoxidil shot was thicker and there were a lot more terminal and velus hairs. There was marked improvement and I think if I stayed on minoxidil for another couple months and suffered through another hair growth cycle, my hairline would have been even better. I lost a lot of hair in the NW1/NW2 zone after stopping minoxidil BECAUSE minoxidil was working.

Do I regret stopping? Surprisingly, no. My hair may be worse now, but it's starting to recover slowly. The skin issues it was giving me were also dealbreaker for me. I already look older than my age and my skin has always been pretty bad. My skin was just horrible on minoxidil. However, if it didn't give me skin trouble, I would have stayed on it for a few more months before giving up on it. Get some really high quality photos with your phone or a good camera (using flash) of the left, right, and middle of your hairline. In three months, do the same and compare them. It might surprise you. That will give you your answer of whether to quit or not.

I think in a couple months I'll really see how much has changed since I've been off of minoxidil. I've read quite a few stories on this and other forums about people really only 'recovering' from minoxidil after about 8 months or so. Basically, the hair cycles should come back to normal and your 'true' hairline/crown/<wherever you applied minoxidil> should show within 6-8 months after quitting. However, as someone in the middle of that time frame, it's kind of demoralizing. I've kept up shaving my head and, when I'm too lazy to, I'm wearing a hat. It sucks, but hair growth is a slow process. However, my skin is noticeably improved and I'm on some alternative treatments that seem promising. We'll see.

I hope this helps.

Cheers for your input.

I can blame the hair loss on whatever really, the point is that it keeps getting worse. Times where my hairline got noticeably worse was during the two minoxidil sheds I've gotten, the hair never recovered in those areas... I just keep receeding and thinning out. My hairline is very uneven since I started minoxidil, it doesn't look natural at all. I can probably confirm that minoxidil doesn't even help me maintain based on the fact that I'm losing more hair when I'm on it than when I'm not on it and my hair keeps getting worse. Losing more hair would be fine and normal when on minoxidil if you actually recovered them, but I don't.

 

[rclark]

Thanks
am was thinking about Finasteride , but am bit worry about the side effects
specially that it may effect the sexual life?

It's probably between five and ten percent of people.

Odds are in your favor that you won't get PFS. Most men
do not.

Just half the dose initially, and gradually move it to one milligram\

 

[Retinoid]

I think the good thing about Minoxidil and Finasteride is that there are multimillion dollar clinical trials to show what happens and they have been around for 20-30yrs. It is VERY rare to lose 50% hair density caused by these medications yet a lot of people claim to have lost such amount on this message board (among other hysterical statistics).

That is A LOT of hair and I would like to see pictures of such. For me, Minoxidil literally causes a constant increase in shedding however it still works somehow. If you have noticed nothing from Minoxidil for 8-9 months and have just lost half your hair, then do not use it. There is obviously a problem.

 

[Yakitori]

I think the good thing about Minoxidil and Finasteride is that there are multimillion dollar clinical trials to show what happens and they have been around for 20-30yrs. It is VERY rare to lose 50% hair density caused by these medications yet a lot of people claim to have lost such amount on this message board (among other hysterical statistics).

That is A LOT of hair and I would like to see pictures of such. For me, Minoxidil literally causes a constant increase in shedding however it still works somehow. If you have noticed nothing from Minoxidil for 8-9 months and have just lost half your hair, then do not use it. There is obviously a problem.

I think you got me wrong.

I have lost 50% of density for the past couple of years, but I'm still losing a lot of hair, particularly around my hairline where I apply minoxidil.

Could my hairloss be worse if I wasn't on minoxidil? Highly doubtful... my hairline has taken a major hit since I went on it as I said on top of it being very uneven after the minoxidil sheds.

 

[Yakitori]

I'm thinking of just straight up quitting tomorrow. My 2 two sheds so far have not given me anything and I'm starting to experience dark circles and skin health around the eyes after 8 months. Was only exaggerated because of minoxidil with lack of sleep but now it's all the time. On top of that every once in a while I get a pimple or two on my scalp which I never got when not on minoxidil.

When do you usually start shedding when you go off minoxidil? and for how long does it continue usually(?), more just to get a feel of at what point can you see if more hair is dependent on it than you think.

My issue with quitting is that I'm paranoid I get some crazy shedding that I do not recover from and I am on that fine line between having below average hair to being that balding guy at work. I can handle a shed in the same vein as the two ones I had so far in that they stopped after 10ish days but would there be any reason for it to never stop if I get off it?

On the other hand when I look at where my hair was a month or so into minoxidil I'm thinking "hey did I have that good hair that recently?". It's not night and day difference but I cannot flat out run the same hairstyle has I did then which make Minoxidil seem like a culprit.

Minoxidil was my only shot at regrowth because finasteride just slowed it down a bit. I wished that Minoxidil could maintain at least and I could start that annoying path down to baldness when going into my 30s rather than mid to late 20s.

Life is sh*t sometimes... actually every day nowadays, haha.