Minoxidil side effect - collagen synthesis reduction?

[hairgrass]

I've been perusing hair loss discussion forums for several years and occassionally come across minixodil users claiming that minoxidil use has made their facial skin look wrinkled and aged. Having just started minoxidil myself I just thought I'd look into this a little further.

There is research out there that proves that Minoxidil does indeed inhibit collagen sythesis. However, I have not come across any studies or documentation that shows minoxidil use on the scalp causing side effects on the face.

I'm curious to know if anyone on this board has looked into this further or has experienced anything similar to this?

 

[live1]

i was on minoxidil for 2 months it gave me deep eye wrinkles ,i know it was the minoxidil cos i had no lines under my eyes before i checked my baseline pics ,and after wrinkled deep lines im gutted they have not got better.im never going to use it again,my choice is age 6 years in 2 months and maybe grow some hair .or stay with thin hair and look young.but the damage is done already

 

[hairgrass]

i was on minoxidil for 2 months it gave me deep eye wrinkles ,i know it was the minoxidil cos i had no lines under my eyes before i checked my baseline pics ,and after wrinkled deep lines im gutted they have not got better.im never going to use it again,my choice is age 6 years in 2 months and maybe grow some hair .or stay with thin hair and look young.but the damage is done already

How do you know it was the minoxidil and not something else? Maybe a change in diet or any number of things? And why are you so sure the damage is permanent?

I'm not here to judge whether its true or not, I'm just looking for more substantial evidence one way or the other.

 

[Jm0311]

idk guys.......i think i have wrinkles that came up fast as well : (

 

[live1]

im not 100%sure but 99.i dont have a wrinkle on my whole face before ,the weird thing it only wrinkled 1 eye.also when i googled minoxidil giving wrinkles lots had the same issues as me.i do think the wrinkles are defo permanent ,because once the skin is wrinkled it cant go back to normal without surgery of some sort.since quitting min ive been using wrinkles cream so far my eye still looks 10 years older

ps im a responder so its even worse for me.i wish i could prove if minoxidil really did this to me.anyway google minoxidil wrinkles and lots of people on have sudden wrinkles from minoxidil and they say there permanent

i drink 1 gallon water a day im healthy i train with weights eat 6 meals a day so itd got to be minoxidil ,but why its wrinkles on 1 eye only i dont know ,my left eye is the same as when i was 10 wrinkle free like the rest of me face

 

[hairgrass]

im not 100%sure but 99.i dont have a wrinkle on my whole face before ,the weird thing it only wrinkled 1 eye.also when i googled minoxidil giving wrinkles lots had the same issues as me.i do think the wrinkles are defo permanent ,because once the skin is wrinkled it cant go back to normal without surgery of some sort.since quitting min ive been using wrinkles cream so far my eye still looks 10 years older

ps im a responder so its even worse for me.i wish i could prove if minoxidil really did this to me.anyway google minoxidil wrinkles and lots of people on have sudden wrinkles from minoxidil and they say there permanent

i drink 1 gallon water a day im healthy i train with weights eat 6 meals a day so itd got to be minoxidil ,but why its wrinkles on 1 eye only i dont know ,my left eye is the same as when i was 10 wrinkle free like the rest of me face

Unfortunately I think its possible it is the minoxidil. I have a couple of wrinkles under my left eye that I swear weren't there before I started this stuff 3.5 months ago. And since minoxidil does inhibit collagen synthesis, it could be possible.

How old are you live?

 

[Defiance]

Anyone successfully couteract these sides?

minoxidil unfortunately is affecting my skin pretty bad but i dont wanna get off it because it works for me, so looking to counter by supplementing or something

Already have a good topical skin routine

aahhh catch 22

 

[TA45]

guys, yes the min wrinkles and bloats some peoples faces. It did to me big time (especially the bloating). I am going to try the 2% and if that doesn't alleviate it....i'm quitting.

 

[Fender89]

surely if it will only affect where you apply it? if you apply it to your scalp, your scalp wrinkles lol? considering it only causes hairgrowth where it's applied righjt?

 

[TA45]

No Fender. For me, it would go systemic and thus I would have the effects on my face....I never let it drip down my face. Everyone responds differently both positively and negatively. The stuff works, no doubt, but the sides get me darnit.

 

[Gizmo]

....There is research out there that proves that Minoxidil does indeed inhibit collagen sythesis....

please give a link to that research

 

[kehcorpz]

I was on Minoxidil liquid for a few years and it never really did anything to me. I was using 1 ml only at night though initially I started at 2ml per day. Eventually the store I bought liquid minoxidil stopped selling it so I had to switch to Foam.

When I switched to foam I thought I was really going to nip the problem in the bud and be very strict with applying it twice a day. The problem was foam required a full cap for me to get across my entire problem area. So I took it this way for about 8 months. I was so worried about my hair that i focused on it and ignored everything else. What I did not realize is what had happened to my face! I looked OLD! I'm only 30 and I would say I look about 45. Now I'm looking at pics from 7 months ago that are high quality and close up and I look 24-25. I've always been told I look younger than my age. My parents are in their 60s and my mom doesn't even have wrinkles. My dad does a bit. My brother is 3 years older and he looks way younger than me. Someone actually insinuated that they thought I have cancer. This stuff is destructive. I also have tiny hairs under my eye lids which I can see in the right lighting. So I thought maybe it's because I was using 4ml (2 capfuls). I started using only 1 capful for a while but it was still 2 ml but I saw some improvement. I then went down to 1ml by melting the rogaine and putting it in a dropper. But this stuff is so bad and has ruined my face so badly that 5 days ago I just decided to completely quit it. I noticed since the time I moved to 1ml using a dropper till now, with being off for 5 days, my wrinkles have greatly reduced. I don't have much under my eyes and my forehead wrinkles are less prominent. I can't say the same for the dark circles. I know that skin cells regenerate usually every 30-40 days for adults. So it's probably going to be a while before it fixes. But I will be doing at home facial peels to try to speed that process up. The black circles under my eyes are the worst. My right eye looks like I got punched. Even my brother said it looks like a black eye. He's usually very open/honest to me. The black circles are caused by leaky capillaries due to the vasidolating action of minoxidil. This stuff may not be fixable just like spider veins are impossible to get rid of. I never even had bad hair when I started minoxidil and all I had was a bit of a receded hair line. My hair got pretty messed up on it. And in the last 5 days it's like I magically saw a bunch of vellous hairs turn dark near the root. I'm not even kidding because I have been observing these hairs daily due to my obsession. I have also been extremely under weight and all of a sudden i'm putting on some weight. I have been working out extremely well and my nutrition intake is insanely high. I went up to 7200 calories/day at one point and still couldn't gain weight. People were amazed at how much I ate and still remained skinny. I was stick and bones and all of a sudden I notice some muscular tone in the mirror. I have also been sleeping a tonne the last 5 days. It's like my body is in repair mode. I even noticed I had really bad memory the last months where I can't really remember my past. Now I'm experiencing weird dreams where I dream about things from the past and I wake up with my memories coming back. I'm still pretty bad with the memories but I'm slowly getting them back. It's a really weird experience.

I think Rogaine foam is definitely absorbed systematically. As I mentioned, I never had these issues with the liquid. I'm not saying everyone will have this problem as thousands of people are fine on it. But it's possible that something in my body doesn't interact well with it and maybe I'm one of the rare people out there but this also means YOU could become one of these rare people. The chance is there, however small it is. Now that doesn't mean you shouldn't fly a plane because the chance of it crashing exists. But be very careful with observing your skin in the mirror and quit as soon as you notice any odd effects. Stretch your under eye skin and look for veins, that's a first sign as they begin to appear.

 

[kehcorpz]

There are tonnes: Search minoxidil and collagen on pubmed.

It has been proven to alter activity lysyl hydroxylase which is very important. Now, this would only happen at a systematic level so it could only affect those who actually absorb the substance into the blood stream. There are studies showing other impacts such as reducing triple helical structures during collagen synthesis.

This is actually good for people who have diseases that produce too much collagen, but not good for the average person. This is completely reversible over time, so if you got wrinkles because of reduced collagen production your production should return to normal and you will fix the problem. The problem is that dark circles are not as easy to treat as the blood has already leaked. I'm still doing research on if this is reversible because it has impacted me quite a bit. I don't want to have to go to surgery to fix it.

Effects of minoxidil on cultured human skin fibroblasts.
Pinnell SR, Murad S.
Source
Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.
Abstract
Two important findings related to the effect of minoxidil on human skin fibroblasts in culture are reviewed. Treatment of cells with minoxidil is associated with a specific loss of lysyl hydroxylase activity; this loss occurs gradually and is reversed by removing minoxidil from the culture medium. Experiments with inhibitors of protein and RNA synthesis reveal that minoxidil may inhibit the synthesis of lysyl hydroxylase by acting at the transcriptional level. Treatment of cells with minoxidil is also associated with inhibition of proliferation, without any sign of cytotoxicity. This effect of minoxidil is accompanied by inhibition of DNA synthesis. Since collagen is the major product of fibroblast activity and lysyl hydroxylase catalyzes a crucial reaction in collagen biosynthesis, the combined effects of minoxidil offer the potential for its use as an antifibrotic agent. Thus, minoxidil may prove to be beneficial in treating skin conditions associated with collagen accumulation.

....There is research out there that proves that Minoxidil does indeed inhibit collagen sythesis....

please give a link to that research

 

[RP3X]

Well I was on the big 3 and minoxidil liquid per night and foam in mornings and nizoral shampoo and finasteride daily for almost 5 years before quitting the lot.

My skin under my eyes became very soft and almost like a gap it really does not feel firm or strong like it was say 5 or 10 years ago, I know with age it gets worser but at 34 and having had dark circles around my eyes for past 5 years it really make me look like 10 years younger.

I have been off the big 3 and any treatments now for almost 5-6 weeks and my dark circles are very slightly reduced but the skin around there is weak still.

Does not feel like eye creams and moisteriers are helping either have tried nivea eye creams and different moisteriers for past month with little success.

Considering my finasteride side effects went after a good week or 2, was hoping the minoxidil sides would go but it appears minoxidil causes my skin under my eyes alot more problems hopefully its not permanent!

 

[Timi]

minoxidil makes my face to a Monster
swollen face-swollen arround the eyes and red black and blue eyerings
my eyes burning-Pain in the Nose
swollen Hands and feeds
breathing Problems-Heartracing-Tinnitus
weigt gain-the Body full with water

i have take finasteride 14Years and all was good Hair top, and i was healthy
3Years minoxidil and Hair destroyed and daily ill !!!!!

minoxidil is more dangerous than finasteride

Timi

 

[Jack A]

Strange how there is no common known solution to minoxidil puffy face and dark circles, I have a puffy face from minoxidil and I want to stay on it as it works but damn it's making me look stupid.

 

[benjt]

Any success stories in terms of recovery? It also took me way too long to realize what minoxidil was doing to my face. I've seen some very minor improvements right when I dropped it 5 weeks ago. However, no more real visible progress ever since... so, anyone who got rid off the wrinkles and dark circles around the eyes? If so, how long did it take? I am 23 now but looking older than 33 probably even has bigger impact on overall looks than my NW3.

 

[Jack A]

Benjt, i've been on minoxidil in 2 spells now, firstly I was on it for about 1 and a half years, it destroyed my face with dark circles, puffy cheeks and terrible looking skin so I binned it off and my face returned to 80% normal in 4-5 months. I've recently just stopped it again having got back on it and am recovering again, so here's hoping...

 

[Minoxidil kills]

I used minoxidil for 1 year and now been 2 years since I stopped it.. and I still have the side effects.. palpitations, chest tightness, terrible skin...
I just want go back normal... I don't care about my hair anymore... it's been two years will I ever recover?
will the enlarged pores on my nose and cheeks ever recover? my forehead has small pimples that never go... Im still 23
red marks from acne takes months to disappear... Im depressed about my face

 

[benjt]

So one says he has recovered, one says he hasn't... So no clear situation here, but thanks a lot for your experience.

I'll report back in a few weeks/months.