Any reason to ever stop rogaine?

[blondeguy]

That, coupled with the side effects I was having, are the reasons I stopped using it. It just seems like an uphill battle putting off the inevitable. It didn't seem worth it.

 

[Artista]

not to sound silly but on the side of the minoxidil case it says regrowth dosent last more than 48 weeks aka less than one year , this completely contradicts what ive been reading here...

Well, I think that's actually TRUE, but you have to understand the scientific context in which that statement is made. If the "offset of growth" theory of topical minoxidil is correct, then once you achieve the peak of regrowth after about a year or so, balding then continues and haircounts start going down again at about the same general rate that they were going down prior to starting minoxidil. So in that very specific sense, yes, I think they are correct in saying that regrowth doesn't last more than 48 weeks for the average user.

This means the non-minoxidil dependent hairs continue to shed at that rate as in balding continues-- and not the ones that are now minoxidil dependent for the rest of your life? I'm confused.

 

[Nathaniel]

When taking minoxidil you will always lose hair to the normal balding process, minoxidil will only add (regrow) more hair but will do nothing to stop the process of losing hair.

So when you start, you will initially be above baseline but over time, since the process of balding continued you will be back to where you started.

 

[needs_help9245]

I'm still a little bit confused about minoxidil effectiveness over time. If I grew substantial minoxidil hairs in 1 year would I expect to keep this 'minoxidil hair' if I continued to apply minoxidil over the years?

 

[Bryan]

I'm still a little bit confused about minoxidil effectiveness over time. If I grew substantial minoxidil hairs in 1 year would I expect to keep this 'minoxidil hair' if I continued to apply minoxidil over the years?

Depends on your rate of balding. If you're balding fast, you'll obviously lose that extra "offset" sooner than if you're balding slowly.

 

[needs_help9245]

I'm still a little bit confused about minoxidil effectiveness over time. If I grew substantial minoxidil hairs in 1 year would I expect to keep this 'minoxidil hair' if I continued to apply minoxidil over the years?

Depends on your rate of balding. If you're balding fast, you'll obviously lose that extra "offset" sooner than if you're balding slowly.

Thanks, so if you are losing hair relatively slowly you could potentially keep the minoxidil hair for a good many years?

 

[TheOliviaTremorControl]

Hrmm,


Say you are using Finasteride, and you add minoxidil to that routine... And you are only applying minoxidil to the "balding" areas (in my case, just the sides of my forhead).
And say minoxidil regrows these hairs, while Finasteride keeps doing its job of halting/slowing baldness for the rest of the head.

But after the "48 weeks" rule of minoxidil comes to an end (maybe even longer, since it was coupled with finasteride), would these regrown-hairs fall out again? even with Finasteride blocking the DHT?

Furthermore, if these hairs have indeed become minoxidil-dependant, would any other future hairloss products have no effect on these hairs?


One more hypothetical situation:

I've only been on finasteride for about a year... And they say you get peak results are the 2 year mark.

Lets just speculate that finasteride was working miracles for me, and in one more year I would experience a little regrowth on the front hairline.
(Say Finasteride would take me from a NW2 to a NW1)
BUT, I'm not aware of this (as I cannot predict the future).
So, lets say I go on minoxidil now, and minoxidil fills in those hairs from a NW2 to a NW1, but after a year it becomes ineffective and these hairs fall out again. But hypothetically, just the Finasteride alone would have given a NW1 in about a year. Are these minoxidil-dependant hairs immune to the effects of Finasteride now?

Eg; Where in the first situation, if I only took finasteride, it gave me a NW1 that probably would have lasted as long as I took finasteride.

And in the second situation, I'm left with a NW2 that can't develop further because those "minoxidil-dependant" hairs only respond to minoxidil now (which is no longer effective)?



Is this the situation? eg; Why won't finasteride maintain minoxidil-grown hairs?

 

[asa846]

I never knew about this. So minoxidil will only work for 1 year only and then the hairs will fall out? Why is it so popular if this is the case? I presumed that people could be taking minoxidil years from now and still maintain minoxidil hairs - or does it mean that you won't grow any 'new' minoxidil hairs after a year? Apologies if I've got some of this info wrong I'm new to this and trying to work out which products to start using.

 

[haunted-ballroom]

I never knew about this. So minoxidil will only work for 1 year only and then the hairs will fall out? Why is it so popular if this is the case? I presumed that people could be taking minoxidil years from now and still maintain minoxidil hairs - or does it mean that you won't grow any 'new' minoxidil hairs after a year? Apologies if I've got some of this info wrong I'm new to this and trying to work out which products to start using.

Im pretty confused about all this too now..... The way im understanding this thread is, you regrow some hair with minoxidil for a year, then keep it for a year, then start to lose it again.....?

 

[beaner]

You guys just gotta forget these friggin numbers....48 weeks, one year....they don't mean sh*t. I was using minoxidil for 4 years before I started finasteride and grew hair the whole time.....never once did it appear that I had less than when I started. Everyone responds differently and these numbers are just an average...and I believe that 48 week figure is only because the trials lasted that long and of course once the trials are over no one is going to be counting hairs. The box claims it also is not intended for frontal baldness but we all know that is bullshit.

 

[chino20]

'48 week rule'! You scare me with that kinda talk!

So I went and researched, and no, it says that 'hair regrowth has not been shown to last longer than 48 weeks in large clinical trials', and I researched that and yeah, the trial conducted was 48 weeks long, that's all it means, they can't claim its longer as theyre not allowed. Really can hear a lot of scary crap on this forum lol.

 

[beaner]

'48 week rule'! You scare me with that kinda talk!

So I went and researched, and no, it says that 'hair regrowth has not been shown to last longer than 48 weeks in large clinical trials', and I researched that and yeah, the trial conducted was 48 weeks long, that's all it means, they can't claim its longer as theyre not allowed. Really can hear a lot of scary crap on this forum lol.

Thank you for researching.

 

[beaner]

Another thing...I understand the theory that minoxidil doesn't effect the underlying cause of male pattern baldness so it will continue regardless of minoxidil....I'm now tending to disagree with this statement simply because no one knows exactly how minoxidil works and also because:

male pattern baldness(DHT)

A: causes hair to miniaturize

B: causes a shortening of the anagen phase of hair.

minoxidil

A: enlarges shrunken follicles

B: lengthens the anagen phase of the hair.

While this may not actually effect DHT levels, how can it be said that it doesn't effect male pattern baldness when it clearly does?

Maybe not to the extent that we would wish, but I think there is a lot of misinformation in saying that minoxidil does not effect male pattern baldness simply because no one knows exactly HOW minoxidil EVEN WORKS!!!

 

[beaner]

bump for a rebuttal.......Bryan?

 

[seeves]

minoxidil def works against male pattern baldness..i dunno but wouldnt u think they would be outta business by now if it didnt??? o yeah i dont wanna jinx it but my hairline has some new growth knocj on wood

 

[tembo]

FYI -- I ended up getting electrolysis to permanently remove a lot of my Rogaine induced forehead hair growth. I tried an Nd:Yag laser first, but my skin is type III and the laser hair removal caused hyperpimentation that lasted for a few months :-(