Haha, minoxidil did things to me that it has never done to anyone else that I’ve ever heard of.
minoxidil was the only thing that ever regrew hair on my body, but it also increased my shedding x 10. The entire time I used it, I shed excessively. Also, it would only grow hair for 3 months at a time. So I went through cycles of growth for 3 months, then 3 months where it basically stopped working and all the hair on my body grew weaker, finer, and whatever I grew fell out and my hairline receded. Over and over for 3 and a half years. I tried every other conceivable treatment and nothing ever changed or worked. The reason I stopped taking it was because A: I wanted to see what WAY could do on its own, B: the cyclical growth would probably hinder any effects that WAY could have.
It was never a long term solution for me. In fact, the dose I was on (2.5mg) recently totally stopped working altogether, so I had to increase my dose to 5mg. All the awful side effects it causes for me (facial bloating, dizziness, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, fatigue, SYNCOPY.. YES) returned. At the end of the day, it was actually a total nightmare for me, but I otherwise grew 0 hair normally on my body without it. Every hair on my body. Before I I began using it I already tried HRT and a bunch of other things and I was balding all over my body like a post menopausal woman so rapidly that my dermatologist thought I had autoimmune hairloss. Yes I have Androgenetic Alopecia.
There is definitely a cyclical element to Minoxidil, I've noticed because it causes hairs on my fingers to grow supper long however occasionally the growth stops completely but the does not shed. My suspicion is that minoxidil causes some mineral/vitamin in body that is needed for hair growth to become depleted as hair grows which causes the hair to die and shed that allows them to recover restart the cycle again. I'm currently going through a shedding phase and I suspect that it is due to me stopping my supplement that contained zinc for a few months. I really need to do this properly next time round which would mean taking pictures with a microscope and at least a monthly full mineral/vitamin test to see if there is any correlation.