When to stop using minoxidil?

[MPBisnotgood]

I have started using minoxidil and Nizoral shampoo and am on my 3rd week. I realise it can take up to 4 months before seeing results (if any), but looking ahead i was wondering after how long before i should stop using minoxidil if there was no visible regrowth.

 

[Bowser]

Minoxidil will always work IMO.
It may produce better results in some than others, assuming its used properly and everyday.
About a year should be a reasonable time to assess if you are happy with the effects, but be warned you may experience a massive shed upon starting AND stopping.

 

[MPBisnotgood]

Hi Bowser, i am using the foam twice a day. As you stated the varying results is the most frustrating part of this treatment. I have read so much about it from studies and monitored online 'minoxidil diaries' where people are noticing peach fluff sprouting up as early as 1 month into using minoxidil. I haven't noticed anything so far not even shedding although i shave my head every 2 weeks. I am 37 years old and have been suffering from slow all over diffuse thinning since i was 19 but i still haven't lost all of it.

Frustrating indeed but nonetheless i shall continue until I finish off these bottles of 8 months supply.

Another thing i'd like to mention is that i haven't experienced any of the common side effects such as dry flaky scalp, but maybe the Nizoral shampoo is preventing this, which btw. is an awesome shampoo and leaves my hair soft and clean.

 

[Bowser]

Minoxidil has produced bit of a roller coaster for me. I have been using it since 2007. Even in the early days year 1-2 my hair shed in cycles but overall produced amazing results. After this time my hair loss progressed and while I thought that maybe the minoxidil was losing its effect this was way off the truth as posters on here like Warlord have emphasised. The hair I have left is probably dependant on minoxidil now and I must take it for a life time. I am taking finasteride now which I should have taken from the beginning as I have lost ground significantly from those years using minoxidil alone.

I think flaky scalp is much less common with the foam. Not every body sheds by the way and this is not a sign that it isn't working.
I never knew about nizoral when I first started minoxidil, but it still worked just fine using an ordinary commercial type. I do use it now though.

 

[Kev123]

Never.

______________

 

[WarLord]

Minoxidil has produced bit of a roller coaster for me. I have been using it since 2007. Even in the early days year 1-2 my hair shed in cycles but overall produced amazing results. After this time my hair loss progressed and while I thought that maybe the minoxidil was losing its effect this was way off the truth as posters on here like Warlord have emphasised. The hair I have left is probably dependant on minoxidil now and I must take it for a life time. I am taking finasteride now which I should have taken from the beginning as I have lost ground significantly from those years using minoxidil alone.

I think flaky scalp is much less common with the foam. Not every body sheds by the way and this is not a sign that it isn't working.
I never knew about nizoral when I first started minoxidil, but it still worked just fine using an ordinary commercial type. I do use it now though.

I don't believe that minoxidil would lose its effect after such a short time, especially when you had "amazing results". You may have started to lose some of your regrown hairs, but I really doubt that you would be falling below baseline.

Again and again I encounter posters, who simply started to be undisciplined with the treatment, and they even often don't know, what blunders they are making, which is clear from sentences like "I went off minoxidil for 3 months" or "Sometimes I didn't use it for 7 days in a row" etc.

Oh, I forgot. Bowser is exactly the same example: "I seriously think my hair is heavily dependant on the minoxidil now as if I ever have upto 7 days without applying it (say on holiday etc)..."

Now we see why minoxidil "stopped working". LOL It is the same case, as usually. Seriously, guys, are you insane? It is making me gooseflesh. Seven days without minoxidil?! What do you expect with such a terrible discipline? After several months, your hair will become dependent on the minoxidil concentration and you must apply it everyday until the end of your life. Minoxidil doesn't forgive. During the last 16+ years on minoxidil, I have NEVER made longer pauses than 2 days (Yes, it was so reliable that I started to be so "sloppy" with the application, but the idea that I wouldn't take it for more than 2 days, is simply unimaginable.

- - - Updated - - -

I have started using minoxidil and Nizoral shampoo and am on my 3rd week. I realise it can take up to 4 months before seeing results (if any), but looking ahead i was wondering after how long before i should stop using minoxidil if there was no visible regrowth.

If we speak about the 5% version, minoxidil is not especially effective for regrowth. Let's face the truth. It may produce excellent results in a certain percentage of people, but it is far more useful for maintenance. But this applies for finasteride as well, after all.

If you want to achieve a really good regrowth, then I would recommend either dutasteride or the combination of minoxidil with finasteride/dutasteride. Then the results can be really amazing.
http://www.bernsteinmedical.com/medical-treatment/patient-photos/
In fact, I have never observed the magic of regrowth, before I added finasteride to my minoxidil regime (Although now I know that the regrowth was not only due to finasteride, but also due to SARMs that I was simultaneously taking.)

Furthermore, if minoxidil works, your hair will become dependent on it, and you must use it till the end of your life. There is no way, how to substitute the effect of minoxidil.

 

[MPBisnotgood]

Thanks for your insight warlord, yes it is the 5% which i am using. I shall continue with the regaine foam until the 8 months supply has run out and then assess the results. I shall then decide whether or not to take finasteride. I am really hoping for small regrowth with minoxidil, nothing major and if i achieve that then i will be happy.

 

[SDK]

I just placed an order for Kirkland foam. The liquid version gave me a terrible rash, apparently I'm allergic to some chemical in the ingredients. Been using Nizoral for the past four weeks with a bit of a shed. I hope the two together will help save what I have left.

 

[WarLord]

Thanks for your insight warlord, yes it is the 5% which i am using. I shall continue with the regaine foam until the 8 months supply has run out and then assess the results. I shall then decide whether or not to take finasteride. I am really hoping for small regrowth with minoxidil, nothing major and if i achieve that then i will be happy.

My opinion is that everybody should start with dutasteride - to jump on the most effective stuff. This applies especially for young men below the age of 30 years. It is often stated that finasteride has 90% efficiacy, but in young men, this number is rather closer to 80%. Remember that mere 3 dutasteride pills a week are stronger than megadoses of finasteride.

The success rate of dutasteride is not known, but it can be assumed that it would be close to 100%. Actually, I am aware of only two cases, when dutasteride can't work: In people, who don't have androgenic alopecia, or in hyperandrogenic people with excessively high testosterone levels and very sensitive follicles.

If you start with minoxidil as the first treatment, you must reckon with that it is a life-long commitment. Even if you didn't experience any regrowth, it can actually work very well for maintenance.

 

[Kirby]

Explain what you mean by 'life time commitment' - surely if there are sufficient advances in future treatments, particularly in growth stimulators, then minoxidil will be obsolete and can be withdrawn.

But if using minoxidil once really means you must use it even with whatever improved treatments become available in future, then I'm glad that I have never touched minoxidil and will make sure I never do.

 

[talmoode]

I just placed an order for Kirkland foam. The liquid version gave me a terrible rash, apparently I'm allergic to some chemical in the ingredients. Been using Nizoral for the past four weeks with a bit of a shed. I hope the two together will help save what I have left.

May I ask you how much it cost you? I mean Kirkland foam? I thought that it would be much cheaper than Rogain foam on ebay but they are about the same price here in Australia!!!

 

[WarLord]

Explain what you mean by 'life time commitment' - surely if there are sufficient advances in future treatments, particularly in growth stimulators, then minoxidil will be obsolete and can be withdrawn.

But if using minoxidil once really means you must use it even with whatever improved treatments become available in future, then I'm glad that I have never touched minoxidil and will make sure I never do.

I am glad that I touched it, because when I started my treatment (in December 1996), there was nothing else available. And I know that it can't be substituted by anything else. At least, it seems to be so.

At present, you already have a much wider choice of options. But remember that these mostly consist of anti-androgens. Minoxidil works by a different mechanism and can greatly potentiate their effect.