Tell me if these thoughts on shedding are accurate..

[zil]

Just noticed my temples receding this year. Went on minoxidil as a precaution and will move to Propecia in a few months if I see any sort of reaction from the minoxidil (which I have) Looking at other people on NW3 from various blogs's, I'm not even close to that bad, but my dermatologist suggested rogaine to start (I'm 26). No history of balding whatsoever on dad's side (grandfather died with an NW2, uncles in their 50s still have an NW2). Grandfather on mom's side was maybe a 3 with a bald spot in back, but he had a HOST of serious health problems (leukemia, renal failure, etc) so it may not even have been 100% genetic. No other reference points on my mom's side to use.

My temples are shedding a bit after about 2 months on the 5% minoxidil foam. Not serious, but definitely worse than they were. The hair behind my temples is still strong and thick and my hairline is good. I've also noticed quite a few pigmented hairs popping up my hairline, but I have bangs past my eyebrows so I don't know if these new hairs are minoxidil related or just normal growth. Given that they're all the same length, though, and it's all about an inch long (about how long it would grow since I've been using minoxidil), I'm leaning towards minoxidil growth.

I want to be sure my perceptions of Rogaine are accurate, Given that there's so many unknowns as to how it works, I've decided to reason it out with a modified form of Pascal's wager, though I guess you could apply it to anything that makes you shed.

a.) Barring some sort of severe allergic reaction, you will not lose healthy hair to Rogaine.

b.) Rogaine only affects miniaturized hair. If you lose it to a shed, you were liable to lose it before long regardless, Rogaine only prompted it to fall out sooner.

c.) Without Rogaine, there is no possibility of regrowth, but with it, there is.

d.) If you shed and don't grow back, see A and B. You simply weren't a responder, and the fact that Rogaine prompted it to fall out is irrelevant, you were bound to lose it soon regardless.

e.) Therefore, you are never worse off for using Rogaine.

Am I on the ball here?

 

[LeesHair]

a.) Sort of, but "Healthy Hair" might not include everything you think looks fine
b.) Correct, Minoxidil causes a shift between phases, so all the hair heading towards falling out does so, all at once. Then it should stabilise.
c.) Wrong, there are reported cases of regrowth with Finasteride too.
d.) Correct
e.) Wrong.
You can not respond, in which case your hair loss has occurred a lot faster than it would have done otherwise (the hair lost during shedding would have gone, but eventually not in the courser of a month)
It costs money, so if you don't repsond it is wasted.

BUT this is the negative view, Minoxidil has a reasonable success rate, decent suppliers, FDA approval, and few side effects apart form the shedding.
I use it personally, and have to say that post-shed stage, my hair loss has definitely leveled out, and some of what shed has also gorwn back a little.

That's it, good logical way of asking the questions, I hope my answers met up to the standard!
:bravo:

 

[Aus]

Minoxidil has a reasonable success rate

Is there a known percentage (%) of people who have a decent (significant) cosmetic improvement using minoxidil?

What about the % of people who do not respond and end up worse off than before starting minoxidil?

 

[raptor]

Here is another question.

Is there a shedding period where you loose say more than 100 hair a day and a none shedding period where you loose less than 100 hair a day?

 

[LeesHair]

Aus, sorry but as a whole no, the people who make Minoxidil have done clinical trials, the results are publicly available, but as a product used by 1000's no, people tend to respond if they've had a problem, but as for an official count I don't think there is one, but look around here and see how many people use it and think it works compared to how many don't.

I've never heard of anyone becoming worse having stopped Minoxidil as you describe, if they use Minoxidil to prevent hair loss, and it works, then stopping it will cause it to return to whatever state they had before using it, but if they're problem has worsened whilst it was being disguised by Minoxidil then I guess it would look worse than before?

I don't know, sadly I don't make Minoxidil, so I don't know all the answers, otherwise I could get it for free! I know it doesn't work for everyone, but comparatively seems like the least threatening option there is that works.