Warlord, while i agree with the things you have written i cant agree with them all. i have applied minoxidil pretty consistently since 2007, twice a day everyday except some days where i have had to miss one of the daily applications due to circumstance, occasionally longer say on holidays as which sad man doesn't want to go into the beach or pool cause he got minoxidil on his head!. the thing is that when i started on minoxidil i was much poorer at applying it, occasionally missing days altogether but it pretty dam worked amazing until the two year mark. but then after this mark things went downhill even tho my applications became more consistent. Im pretty sure most hair doctors will also tell you that minoxidil and finasteride both lose their effectiveness with time as i have read several times. i think you have been one of the lucky ones!
ps warlord your hardly a role model in this as you only apply minoxidil once a day yourself.
"Most hair doctors" with a drop of honesty can't tell me this, because they have no representative data that would support such claims. There is no long-term 5+ years' study on minoxidil, and in the only 10-years' study on finasteride that we have, 86% people had persisting positive results. But on this forum, it seems that 90% people can't keep their hair on finasteride after 5 years. And a certain well-known hair chirurgist told me that the treatment in his patients loses efficiacy after 3-5 years. What a load of bullsh*t! The largest studies on finasteride incorporating hundreds of men showed that 90% people had been at or above baseline after 5 years!
Apparently, we can't put much weight on the experience of "most hair doctors" and whining guys from internet forums. You are here and you visit "most hair doctors", because you were a bad responder and you are looking for help. If the stuff worked for you, you wouldn't be here and you wouldn't visit "most hair doctors". Do you understand? The 10-years' finasteride study nicely shows, how rare actually such cases are, and that we must separate the real effectiveness from a heavily skewed internet fiction. In fact, only 4 out of 102 guys on finasteride experienced a reversal of the positive trend during 10 years!
And don't tell me that you are very disciplined. The quoted sentence is in the present tense! If you don't apply it regularly for as much as 7 days in a row, then you should have packed it up since the very beginning. You can't really be a role model for minoxidil users.
Minoxidil can work for eternity, as not only my, but also other experiences show. There are guys using this stuff for 20+ years with success. I have been using it for nearly 16 years and it never showed any signs of decreasing efficiacy. In fact, I learned that the effect was clearly dose-dependent and I can manipulate the dosage according to my needs. I don't think that I could ever lose hair on it, considering that there are already very high, 15% concentrations available (and they are so strong for me that I can't tolerate them). If you can't keep your hair on minoxidil for mere 2 years, then you are either undisciplined or there must be something wrong with your body.
Apparently, we would need some long-term, well-controlled study on minoxidil effectiveness, otherwise we won't get rid of all the myths spread by "most hair doctors" and various hysterical guys on internet forums. Luckily, we at least have one such a study on finasteride.
P.S.: The once-daily application is rational, because the half-life of minoxidil in the skin is 22 hours. The older recommendations were based on the minoxidil's half-life in the blood that is only few hours. Naturally, if you start with the twice-daily application, you will experience a shed after a switch to the once-daily application. Hair dependent on minoxidil will always fall out, if you lower the dosage, irrespectively if the lower dosage were otherwise sufficient.
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WarLord: My hair loss story goes back to 8 years ago when I was 20 years old. during these years I have never stopped my treatment and I've kept using Minoxidil and Finasteride. Also I believe that by this treatment I was successful to maintain my hair so far. But the point is I could never experience that significant hair growth anymore. I have seen people around me with the same issue. For example one of my close friends started his treatment with success and then he lost his all grown hair and then he continued his treatment and one more again the same happened to him!
WarLord: I've always been so optimistic to my treatment and believe me this is a true story. For me, minoxidil lost its effectiveness after a period of time.
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Rogaine Foam: 2x daily
finasteride: 1mg daily
You speak about 6 months of treatment and suddenly you write about 8 years. You write that you are using minoxidil, but then we learn that you are also using finasteride. Or not using anymore? I don't understand, what you mean by this.
The story of your friend is also confusing.
