10% for 3 months thoughts

[GoldenMane]

I started on 10% minoxidil in mid June and as of writing it is September 7th. Prior to this, I had been using 5% minoxidil 1x per day for 18 months. 5% minoxidil 2x per say for 3 months and now 5% minoxidil at night and 10% minoxidil at morning.

The reason why I upped my minoxidil dose was to attempt to grow a little more at my hairline, and in particular my temples. Going from 1x per day to 2x per day resulted in no significant increase in hair count, and certainly had negligible regrowth in my temples and hairline. Same goes for 10 minoxidil. It looks like it may have regrown some hairs at the hairline, still short, not sure if vellus, but they do have pigmentation, and the odd hair a cm below my hairline, but nothing too significant, probably no cosmetic difference. Likewise for my temples, I haven't noticed any hair regrowth at all there.

I'm considering one of several things now.

1. Upping dose to 10% 2x per day.
2. Trying 15% minoxidil
3. Going back to 5% minoxidil 1 x per day.
4. An experiment to determine if I am a minoxidil responder at all. My early gains may be entirely down to finasteride and minoxidil may just be a waste of money.

These are just my results, other people may find significant regrowth with higher minoxidil concentrations.

 

[Wolf Pack]

I would give it 6 months in total. 3 months is a bit early. I wouldn't bother with higher % like 15% or more. Mainly due to safety. I think you had quite a lot of diffusion, I doubt finasteride would have grown it all. It's dangerous to come off Minoxidil from a hair perspective after a certain amount of time. It's probably doing a lot more than you think it is. There was a guy who came off after 15 years as felt it wasn't doing much, he went pretty bald within a few months. It was on youtube.

 

[warner8]

im in a similar boat as you.

i was using 5% generic liquid minoxidil since i was 23. it worked wonders, and grew all my hair back. I would stop and start it, and it would always grow my hair back.

then at 27, the minoxidil stopped working. i was using the foam at the time, went back to generic liquid, and then to the rogaine brand name liquid. what i thought was just minoxidil shedding was actual shedding. i eventually added to finasteride to the regimen 1mg a day.

i was on the finasteride and the 5% for about 7 months, didnt getting any regrowth. i decided to up the minoxidil to 12% with additives such as Azelaic acid, retain A and hydrocortisone from march 2015 to june 2015 with the finasteride 1m everyday. didnt see any regrowth at all, now I'm using a 15% min with the same additives and the same dose of finasteride since july of this year . i lost a lot of frontal hair and temple hair i the last two months, which could either be a minoxidil shed, or just natural shedding.

its disappointing bc i was such a great responder to minoxidil for 3 years, and now even with finasteride, i cant get the same results that i use to and cant figure out how. i thought upping the percentages would help me, but I'm losing faith.

i just bought a derma roller to see if i can increase the absorption of the minoxidil that way. i think its either an absorption issue, or maybe the body stops responding to the drug issue, or maybe if the DHT is just too strong, the minoxidil cant even work issue. i thought the finasteride would solve that latter issue, and is making me think of trying RU in the near future..

 

[GoldenMane]

@ Wolf Pack,

Yeah I didn't mean quitting minoxidil altogether, just trying to leave one spot minoxidil free, a control area. Though systemic absorption may make that impossible as would the fact that it works a bit beyond the area it is applied. I wonder is there any tests to see if I am a minoxidil responder, it doesn't work for everyone, some people get great thickening from finasteride alone, maybe finasteride restored my diffusely thinning terminal hairs? There has to be some test.

@ warner, sounds like it may have been a DHT issue for you, have you considered dutasteride? I don't think derma rolling works some people report RU is as effective as dutasteride though...

 

[Wolf Pack]

You can measure sulfonyl transferase activity to gauge minoxidil response. I don't think anyone in UK/Ireland will do it, maybe Japan? Are you getting tired of using Minoxidil or genuinely thinking if you are responding to it? I suppose you could try and keep a spot minoxidil free.

 

[jjarna]

I started on 10% minoxidil in mid June and as of writing it is September 7th. Prior to this, I had been using 5% minoxidil 1x per day for 18 months. 5% minoxidil 2x per say for 3 months and now 5% minoxidil at night and 10% minoxidil at morning.

The reason why I upped my minoxidil dose was to attempt to grow a little more at my hairline, and in particular my temples. Going from 1x per day to 2x per day resulted in no significant increase in hair count, and certainly had negligible regrowth in my temples and hairline. Same goes for 10 minoxidil. It looks like it may have regrown some hairs at the hairline, still short, not sure if vellus, but they do have pigmentation, and the odd hair a cm below my hairline, but nothing too significant, probably no cosmetic difference. Likewise for my temples, I haven't noticed any hair regrowth at all there.

I'm considering one of several things now.

1. Upping dose to 10% 2x per day.
2. Trying 15% minoxidil
3. Going back to 5% minoxidil 1 x per day.
4. An experiment to determine if I am a minoxidil responder at all. My early gains may be entirely down to finasteride and minoxidil may just be a waste of money.

These are just my results, other people may find significant regrowth with higher minoxidil concentrations.

The minoxidil that you use is it liquid or foam?

 

[CliffLee]

Golden, from what its worth I think that minoxidil has had no effect on my hair and all my gains have been from finasteride. However, it is difficult to say whether minoxidil is helping with maintenance and therefore I worry about reducing/stopping minoxidil.

I also feel the same about adding any additional treatment, whether it be spironolactone or RU, since it would be impossible to say whether the treatment is helping with maintenance. Therefore, you would always worry about stopping!