Hair dependencies on Rogaine/Minoxidil

[ProscarRules]

I am not sure if I understand when posters here on hairllostalk.com and elsewhere so commonly say that your hairs become dependent on minoxidil once you start. Does that mean even the thick/good hairs in the treated area become reliant on minoxidil for them to stay on your scalp? The derms that I met totally dismisses this "hairs becomeing dependent on minoxidil", as minoxidil is simply a growth stimulant, and if you stop, hairs will simply revert back to the way they were before you started minoxidil. I am also aware of claims be other posters that they go through massive shedding following stopping minoxidil so it seems like once you start there could be dangerous risks with stopping it. I am thinking about starting minoxidil maybe once every other day to reduce the chance of initial shedding and scalp irritation that drove some to stop and then go through massive post treatment shedding.

I'm not comfortable with Propecia for it carrying the risks of awardingtender breast or gyne, even though the risks may be small.

Please look at my crown in the attached pic. If I were to apply minoxidil, would I be applying it only to the part on the back of my head, and then into the area where the whirl (rear right side of my head)?

 

[Jockson]

It's only the hair that regrows that becomes "dependent" on minoxidil. From that pic, it looks like you don't even need minoxidil yet?

 

[Night]

Crown? You know what works good on the crown? Propecia.

 

[Beingbaldsucksass]

Nope healthy hair is not dependent on minoxidil, only hair grown by minoxidil Is depended on him

 

[Cob984]

what planet are you on man? wheres the hair loss?

 

[ladysmanfelpz]

So if you've applied hair loss to your entire scalp but your main areas of thinning are your crown and front/temples, what will happen if I stop rogaine now? Should I only apply to crown and front?

 

[Beingbaldsucksass]

So if you've applied hair loss to your entire scalp but your main areas of thinning are your crown and front/temples, what will happen if I stop rogaine now? Should I only apply to crown and front?

Nothing will happen, I used to apply it to all my middle and it just grow my hair faster there and I actually had shedding from that with irration and acne,

 

[Night]

So if you've applied hair loss to your entire scalp but your main areas of thinning are your crown and front/temples, what will happen if I stop rogaine now? Should I only apply to crown and front?

First of all,only apply it to where you are thinning. Your crown is not even 'bald' or anything. Its thinning a bit... tho I have seen people with the same crown and they have had it their whole lives.

I would not get on Min, just because its a pain in the *** to use 2x a day and most people just give up. Propecia is your best bet to keep your hair for as long as possible.

 

[macimate]

First of all,only apply it to where you are thinning. Your crown is not even 'bald' or anything. Its thinning a bit... tho I have seen people with the same crown and they have had it their whole lives.

I would not get on Min, just because its a pain in the *** to use 2x a day and most people just give up. Propecia is your best bet to keep your hair for as long as possible.

Sure it's a pain in the ***.... If you're a delusional idiot who thinks looks don't matter. If you're willing to lose your hair over spending 2x2 minutes/day applying minoxidil.....then you're a ****ing idiot and you deserve to lose your hair

 

[Jockson]

I'll rather be bald than deal with the minoxidil BS 2x a day just to delay the inevitable by a couple of years.

 

[IrishFella]

Sure it's a pain in the ***.... If you're a delusional idiot who thinks looks don't matter. If you're willing to lose your hair over spending 2x2 minutes/day applying minoxidil.....then you're a ****ing idiot and you deserve to lose your hair

lol, you always make me chuckle.

 

[WarLord]

It's only the hair that regrows that becomes "dependent" on minoxidil. From that pic, it looks like you don't even need minoxidil yet?

This is not true!!! Almost all hair that is treated with minoxidil will be affected after you quit it or switch to a lower percentage concentration. This is very apparent in all studies that have been done. People, who quitted minoxidil, subsequently experienced a sudden hairloss on the whole treated area, and were in a worse state than they would have been without minoxidil. A part of the lost hair then grew back - but only the hair that they wouldn't have lost without minoxidil.

 

[WillNotLetItHappen]

Crown? You know what works good on the crown? Propecia.

True that.

- - - Updated - - -

what planet are you on man? wheres the hair loss?

There is thinning, this is how it starts. Time to do something if you want to keep it.

- - - Updated - - -

I'll rather be bald than deal with the minoxidil BS 2x a day just to delay the inevitable by a couple of years.

With Min alone maybe..together with finasteride...some have kept it for 15 years plus...that's nothing?

 

[Jockson]

With Min alone maybe..together with finasteride...some have kept it for 15 years plus...that's nothing?

I'd say those who manage to maintain it that long, do it mainly thanks to finasteride. You pop a pill and that's it. minoxidil on the other hand is a joke of a product IMO.

 

[Night]

I wouldn't say a joke, some people have amazing results on it. I thinking using it should depend on how long you been on finasteride. If you start both at the same time you won't know what is working and be forced to use rogaine for years, not knowing if it even gave you gains.

 

[Bowser]

i agree with the Lord of War! anywhere we apply the minoxidil be it balding or relatively dense hair will also become dependant on it. beingbaldsucks says that when he applied it to healthy hair areas it grew longer quicker. surely this is a sign that it is affecting these follicles too. same happened to me. if you stop using the minoxidil after applying everywhere you risk a sudden shed everywhere, some possibly permanent.

 

[WarLord]

I'll rather be bald than deal with the minoxidil BS 2x a day just to delay the inevitable by a couple of years.

"Inevitable"?! Even if you only delayed the process by a very long time, it means that you will never get bald! Such a negativist crap really drives me crazy. There exist no 25 years' studies on minoxidil (since its introduction in 1987), yet almost everybody on this forum claims that it stops working after few years. How can you know it? Do you think that people coming to this forum are a representative sample of minoxidil users? In the longest studies that have been done, at least 30% patients were regrowing hair even after 4-5 years. And that was on 3% minoxidil.

Based on the experience on this forum, you could also say that finasteride works for only 5 years, but we already know that this is an utter bullsh*t and 86% people have maintained their hair even after 10 years (Rossi et al. 2011). In fact, it seems that a reversal of the positive trend on finasteride is a very rare thing, because it occured only in 4 out of 102 people during those 10 years! Yet on this forum, it is practically taken as a rule. (Because it's those 4% unfortunates, who are almost exclusively posting their frustrated effusions here.) I myself will soon start my 17th year on minoxidil and I have never observed any signs of decreasing efficiacy. Actually, before I started to visit internet forums several years ago and read all the posts of various hysterical coconuts, it never occured to me that something like this could ever happen. (I added finasteride only in June this year, after a disastrous shed following a switch from 10% minoxidil to 5% minoxidil in my temples.)

 

[Dr Tom]

I agree with Warlord here (the Rossi et al review was a good paper).

Minoxidil and finasteride have different mechanisms of action. I think minoxidil is a worthwhile treatment for everyone with hair loss.

 

[Philly78]

I think minoxidil is a worthwhile treatment for everyone with hair loss.

I agree 100%. Maybe minoxidil is only buying me time, or maybe not. Let's all look at Warlord's story: 17 years on minoxidil and it's still working.
I'm in my mid 30's....if minoxidil is giving me another 10 years with a decent amount of hairs on my head (Norwood 2-3) then i'd be more than happy! (considering my father was completely bald at age 30)

 

[WarLord]

I agree 100%. Maybe minoxidil is only buying me time, or maybe not. Let's all look at Warlord's story: 17 years on minoxidil and it's still working.
I'm in my mid 30's....if minoxidil is giving me another 10 years with a decent amount of hairs on my head (Norwood 2-3) then i'd be more than happy! (considering my father was completely bald at age 30)

I think that you should view it positively. Even if your current minoxidil concentration started to lose efficiacy one day, you shouldn't panic. It is only a matter of dosage. I used 2%, 5%, 10% and 15% - and everytime I increased the dosage, the effect on regrowth was better (Although it is true that even in the case of 15% minoxidil, it was not anyhow stellar, and it destroyed more hair than it regrew.) But in any case, it was a 100% reliable stuff for maintenance. Absolutely. I observed no problems even during two cycles on stanozolol (a much feared steroid with regard to hair-loss).

I only regret the experiments with 10-15% minoxidil. It brought me much more harm than good. I had only a marginally thinned left temple, and after 17 motnhs of these experiments, I ended up with almost no hairs left. Now I see what a silly idea it was, because everytime you increase the dosage in hairy areas, you must reckon with that you will experience a shed after you go back down. This means that even if I had regrown some hair on it, I would have lost much more, after I had gone down. Yes, in theory, the hair should grow back - but it doesn't happen in me so far, unfortunately. It's been 4,5 months since the catastrophic shed stopped, but the lost hair still isn't completely back. And even the hair that is back is probably back only due to finasteride that I added in June. This should be a warning for all people, who would want to experiment with high minoxidil percentages.