Hair Thinning, Want To Start Minoxidil

[DrizzyD]

Hey everyone! Fairly new to the hairloss forum and was following the brotzu thread for quite a while. With the recent announcement that no production plans are to begin until 2018 i decided it's probably wise to do some maintaining now until better treatments planned to launch in 2018. Just a few questions for those with experience.
1. What is a good brand of minoxidil to buy? Does rogaine get the job done or are there better brands I should be looking in to?
2. I know there is an initial shed once staring but how long does this normally last and does the hair shed generally grow back?
3. I know this obviously varies but how often does it normally take to start seeing results?
4. Besides the skin aging, are their any other known side effects?
5. Foam or liquid? And how does one generally apply it? Do you apply and let it dry then style your hair or can you not do anyhthing to your hair after applying?

Thanks for anyone who replies and offers any feedback!

 

[rclark]

Foam - Stick with five percent.

You should definitely take an anti DHT medication with it. Otherwise, it's probably
a complete waste of time, and the effects of Minoxidil will only be temporary.

Recommend starting with one milligram Finasteride. Then add Minoxidil later.

 

[DrizzyD]

Foam - Stick with five percent.

You should definitely take an anti DHT medication with it. Otherwise, it's probably
a complete waste of time, and the effects of Minoxidil will only be temporary.

Recommend starting with one milligram Finasteride. Then add Minoxidil later.

I appreciate the feedback. I've seen plenty of people however on other forums say that they've maintained and regrown with just minoxidil and that they believe it to be very effective. What's your take on this? My hairloss is not extremely aggressive and loads of people claim they maintain great hair with minoxidil alone for years.

 

[rclark]

It's different for females. More females respond.

The thing is basically this. You will probably get results. And they can last for years, sometimes.

But in the end, DHT will eventually kill the follicles. And once their dead, there's practically nothing
that can be done. We can really only save dying follicles, not dead ones.

Finasteride is a different story. Even microdosing (.5 milligrams) has some benefits. And when Minoxidil
is combined with either Finasteride, or Adrovart (Dustasteride), the success rate is higher, and faster to.
It goes from around sixty percent (finasteride alone), to eighty five percent. And results are much quicker.

There's only so much time before there is no longer any benefit. Once that time as passed, without
medication, follicle death will happen.