Could Oral Minoxidil Be As Effective As Finasteride?

[OralMinOnlyMaybe]

I’m wanting to try 5mg of oral min. Is this as effective as taking finasteride, in terms of long term sustainability? I’ve done my research on sides and everything. Please let me know your thoughts, thanks.

Edit: I’m talking about using this as a mono therapy.

 

[lonelypanda]

Maybe. This is conjecture, but I imagine that it probably depends on how aggressive your hairloss is, and how far along you are. If you are already an NW6 finasteride probably isn't going to do a whole lot. If you are an NW2 I'd say finasteride will be more effective long term. My 2 cents.

 

[Equal Rights]

Minoxidil should work well for a couple of years. But you gotta remember that dht will continue miniaturization of your hair follicles and min does nothing about it. Eventually (time depends on your rate of loss) the loss will outweight the gain provided by min and it will quickly go downhill from there, and if you stop min you will lose the hairs you gained with it as well. If you are responsive to finasteride, it is a better choice in terms of hair preservation 100%.

Have you tried topical finasteride btw?

 

[joeblack2017]

Using oral/topical minoxidil without a dht blocker like finasteride is useless in the long run. I experienced it and lost my gains on minoxidil. The perfect combo is oral minoxidil + oral finas. This is the regimen that works best for me included

And talking about oral minoxidil, yes that sh*t works. Had lots of vellus hairs on temple. I had grown hair on my arms, eyebrows, eye lashes, leg hair, facial hair with it even in 2.5 per day dosage. Though I experience heart palpitations when I start at 5mg which is kinda scary. But it all went away now and I'm good. I just lowered the dosage and take it before sleeping at night

 

[RecoveringMinoxAddict]

Using oral/topical minoxidil without a dht blocker like finasteride is useless in the long run. I experienced it and lost my gains on minoxidil. The perfect combo is oral minoxidil + oral finas. This is the regimen that works best for me included

And talking about oral minoxidil, yes that sh*t works. Had lots of vellus hairs on temple. I had grown hair on my arms, eyebrows, eye lashes, leg hair, facial hair with it even in 2.5 per day dosage. Though I experience heart palpitations when I start at 5mg which is kinda scary. But it all went away now and I'm good. I just lowered the dosage and take it before sleeping at night

Do you keep taking oral minoxidil now?

 

[OralMinOnlyMaybe]

Minoxidil should work well for a couple of years. But you gotta remember that dht will continue miniaturization of your hair follicles and min does nothing about it. Eventually (time depends on your rate of loss) the loss will outweight the gain provided by min and it will quickly go downhill from there, and if you stop min you will lose the hairs you gained with it as well. If you are responsive to finasteride, it is a better choice in terms of hair preservation 100%.

Have you tried topical finasteride btw?

I’m worried about beard development so don’t want to affect my DHT levels. I want to make sure my beard develops to its natural potential. I have not tried any drugs.

 

[OralMinOnlyMaybe]

Using oral/topical minoxidil without a dht blocker like finasteride is useless in the long run. I experienced it and lost my gains on minoxidil. The perfect combo is oral minoxidil + oral finas. This is the regimen that works best for me included

And talking about oral minoxidil, yes that sh*t works. Had lots of vellus hairs on temple. I had grown hair on my arms, eyebrows, eye lashes, leg hair, facial hair with it even in 2.5 per day dosage. Though I experience heart palpitations when I start at 5mg which is kinda scary. But it all went away now and I'm good. I just lowered the dosage and take it before sleeping at night

Does your beard still develop while on finasteride? I’m 23 and need my beard to continue developing like it naturally would, and need to know that if I end up dropping treatment it will still develop. Thanks man

 

[Equal Rights]

@OralMinOnlyMaybe From a quick google search, it seems like once you hit your early twenties your beard development is over. Whatever you have now is the finale from natural development, though again this was literally a 10sec google. I will tell you this though, when i took oral duta for 8 months, for some reason during the last month i very suddenly gained water weight in my face and my beard density halved! I went back to finasteride and everything back to normal now, full beard, slim face. OM probably helped me recover the beard as well and made my face fater again. From what I assume it was most likely a spike in E that follows a spike in T that you often get from duta.

Now I don't think you are likely to get that from finasteride as it wouldn't spike E as much. Additionally, as it happened to me, your beard will return back to normal if anything does happen. Also hair > beard. I am 22 btw, for reference. Take OM see if you get beard gains. Still, as joe said, your hair will keep rapidly deteriorating even on min, it will simply mask the effect for some time. You are only making it harder for yourself by prolonging the process because you will be much further gone if you mask the loss with min. DHT blockers are a must, look into it further, maybe try it out and see how you tolerate it. The vast majority of people can tolerate it just fine and it helps them prevent further loss.

 

[OralMinOnlyMaybe]

@OralMinOnlyMaybe From a quick google search, it seems like once you hit your early twenties your beard development is over. Whatever you have now is the finale from natural development, though again this was literally a 10sec google. I will tell you this though, when i took oral duta for 8 months, for some reason during the last month i very suddenly gained water weight in my face and my beard density halved! I went back to finasteride and everything back to normal now, full beard, slim face. OM probably helped me recover the beard as well and made my face fater again. From what I assume it was most likely a spike in E that follows a spike in T that you often get from duta.

Now I don't think you are likely to get that from finasteride as it wouldn't spike E as much. Additionally, as it happened to me, your beard will return back to normal if anything does happen. Also hair > beard. I am 22 btw, for reference. Take OM see if you get beard gains. Still, as joe said, your hair will keep rapidly deteriorating even on min, it will simply mask the effect for some time. You are only making it harder for yourself by prolonging the process because you will be much further gone if you mask the loss with min. DHT blockers are a must, look into it further, maybe try it out and see how you tolerate it. The vast majority of people can tolerate it just fine and it helps them prevent further loss.

If the google search returned a quora post, then I don’t trust that at all lol. But regardless, it is absolutely untrue that beards stop developing that young, and I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I have several new chin hairs that just came in this year but aren’t long yet. That’s crazy about what dutasteride did to your beard, yeah I’ve heard dutasteride is very powerful.

 

[joeblack2017]

Do you keep taking oral minoxidil now?

Yes

Does your beard still develop while on finasteride? I’m 23 and need my beard to continue developing like it naturally would, and need to know that if I end up dropping treatment it will still develop. Thanks man

Yes, shaving it every 3 days helps it thicken too

 

[OralMinOnlyMaybe]

Yes



Yes, shaving it every 3 days helps it thicken too

Awesome. Do you think oral min alone and weekly head microneedling and daily face microneedling is a sufficient regime? Would that maintain my hair for long?

 

[RecoveringMinoxAddict]

Yes



Yes, shaving it every 3 days helps it thicken too

What sides from taking oral minoxidil? What gains? Did your hairline regrew?

 

[OralMinOnlyMaybe]

@OralMinOnlyMaybe From a quick google search, it seems like once you hit your early twenties your beard development is over. Whatever you have now is the finale from natural development, though again this was literally a 10sec google. I will tell you this though, when i took oral duta for 8 months, for some reason during the last month i very suddenly gained water weight in my face and my beard density halved! I went back to finasteride and everything back to normal now, full beard, slim face. OM probably helped me recover the beard as well and made my face fater again. From what I assume it was most likely a spike in E that follows a spike in T that you often get from duta.

Now I don't think you are likely to get that from finasteride as it wouldn't spike E as much. Additionally, as it happened to me, your beard will return back to normal if anything does happen. Also hair > beard. I am 22 btw, for reference. Take OM see if you get beard gains. Still, as joe said, your hair will keep rapidly deteriorating even on min, it will simply mask the effect for some time. You are only making it harder for yourself by prolonging the process because you will be much further gone if you mask the loss with min. DHT blockers are a must, look into it further, maybe try it out and see how you tolerate it. The vast majority of people can tolerate it just fine and it helps them prevent further loss.

Are you saying OM made your face fatter? I missed that part. Lastly, do you think 2 years on 2.5mg OM and 3ml oral castor oil a day will develop my beard to full potential, while preserving my head hair? After that, I could hop on finasteride.

 

[Equal Rights]

Are you saying OM made your face fatter? I missed that part. Lastly, do you think 2 years on 2.5mg OM and 3ml oral castor oil a day will develop my beard to full potential, while preserving my head hair? After that, I could hop on finasteride.

Again the hair you maintain/gain on min will be lost once you stop it. Cant stress this enough lol. I think OM will help with the beard as it helps with all hair growth, even if you apply it topically, castor oil should also help. And yes one of the common sides of OM is water retention, meaning you face will get noticeably fatter if your beard sucks it will look ugly. I went down to 2.5mg daily because i hate the chubby cheeks. It subsided but not entirely, still very much there.

 

[OralMinOnlyMaybe]

Again the hair you maintain/gain on min will be lost once you stop it. Cant stress this enough lol. I think OM will help with the beard as it helps with all hair growth, even if you apply it topically, castor oil should also help. And yes one of the common sides of OM is water retention, meaning you face will get noticeably fatter if your beard sucks it will look ugly. I went down to 2.5mg daily because i hate the chubby cheeks. It subsided but not entirely, still very much there.

i understand about the oral min, or topical, needing to be used forever, and I’m okay with that. What I am planning is to take the oral min alone (actually with castor oil) for two years, then *add* finasteride and keep using the oral min. I’m not sure if the oral castor oil should be dropped when I add finasteride, as I have heard that those gains stay if you get off of it and are on finasteride. And do you think I’d get water retention if I start with 2.5 mg only?