What happens after you quit/stop using minoxidil?

Justheretohelp3 · Nov 1, 2020

I was a finasteride user for 10 years. I stopped using it just over a year ago cause didn't want to take pills for something so superficial. I can see mild continued thinning at the temples (my recession there was pretty significant before starting finasteride) but since stopping but nothing major has happened which I'm happy about since had I not taken finasteride I think I would have been bald by now or at the very least seen significant losses at the crown... my hair loss was more extreme than my twin brother's and he's lost a lot of his hair.

I'd like to get ahead of my hair loss again and thinking about minoxidil since it is topical and less risk. What happens when you quit though? I talked to my doctor last week and he said that hair loss just resumes at the pace it would have before starting. Most sites (including Rogaine's site) I'm reading seem to reaffirm this and I think this makes sense to me, but there are posts/pages here and there that basically say that your hair can go to hell after, lol.

Don't want to take any chances and if that's the case, I'll just continue on with my hair loss and accept it because don't want to deal with that when I quit. But also hesitant to be asking this on a forum cause I feel like people rely on anecdotal reports. There were people that made me think I'd have 'catch up hair loss' after quitting finasteride and that clearly never happened.

So thoughts?

Thanks

J

fauxhawk · Nov 2, 2020

I mean you kind of answered it yourself man. If you going to consider minoxidil then its a life time maintenance just like finasteride. Hairloss could either shed worse or not much at all .
One thing i will say personally, min aged my face with wrinkles under my eyes for months afterwards i dont give a f*** what others say about it being placebo

Justheretohelp3 · Nov 2, 2020

fauxhawk said:
I mean you kind of answered it yourself man. If you going to consider minoxidil then its a life time maintenance just like finasteride. Hairloss could either shed worse or not much at all .
One thing i will say personally, min aged my face with wrinkles under my eyes for months afterwards i dont give a f*** what others say about it being placebo

Well finasteride wasn't a life time commitment and I came out unscathed. It just delayed my hair loss. I'm just asking if minoxidil is the same if I stop using it.

Oh really? Do you have before/after pics? Are you sure it wasn't stress, lack of sleep, dehydration, not using sunscreen, etc.? Did the wrinkles go away?

fauxhawk · Nov 3, 2020

If you came out unscathed from finasteride then you have barely anything to worry about if you quit Min. I dont really have any before and after photos that focus on the eye area but i do have very sensitive skin, and the skin under my eyes became very puffy or weak for lack of a better word. My sleeping habits hardly changed during the time i took Min + dermarolling