Possible to be worse off adding minoxidil?

[Daytrader]

Hi,

I am on propecia started last week and thinking of adding minoxidil 5% to the mix. I have thinning in the vertex where minoxidil is supposed to due its best work. I would like to see more thickness in that area but don't know if propecia alone will do the trick. Would prob order Dr Lees eventually but start off w/ Rogaine.

My concern is how risky is it to add minoxidil? If I don't see any regrowth in 6 months or so can I assume minoxidil is not working for me? The Rogaine box i have says after 4 months if I see no results I can quit. I guess I'm worried if I try it and it doesn't seem to work I would like to quit but afraid that somehow the remaining hairs are dependent on minoxidil and I would lose extra hair on the vertex. Also what are the chances are that minoxidil would just simply make my male pattern baldness worse off? It seems like there are some horror stories w/ minoxidil but don't know how isolated these cases are.

How :freaked2: should I be?

 

[iamnaked]

As far as I can see, minoxidil's problem is the initial shed and the addiction problem. The initial shed will make your hair look like sh*t for the third and 4th weeks, and thereafter, every 6 months you will probably suffer a similar (though less pronounced each time) shed which will make your hair look rubbish. It also requires application at least once a day, or you will experience a very horrible cold turkey shed, and the new hairs recruited will gradually wither away till you reach the state where you would be if you had not used minoxidil.
On the plus side it seems to work, and I am happy with the above commitment.

 

[Melbs]

I really dont like it personally. Im 25 however, and am not necessarily ready for the commitment it will take for the rest of my life if i start... being 41 i think is different. I used it for 6 weeks in the frontal region and had a horrific shed and was more depressed than i have ever been in my life... Literally. So i stopped (about 1 month ago) and im recovering... small hairs seem to be growing back in place. I sometimes wish i had kept going, but for me, the twice daily application was too much... the thought of making other healthier hairs minoxidil dependant was too much, the quality of my hair was highly reduced, the thought of continuing for 6 months and getting worse and worse was too much also.

Im now applying it once a day only 5mm in on the frontal hairline and temples to see what it will do, this way the thinning behind my hairline i know will not continue from the minoxidil... it really did have a bad effect on my density... no doubt. Sure it may have been that "initial shed" but it was getting worse and worse and i wasn't prepared for total devistation.

Others like it however... its up to you... its a long term commitment.

 

[jfhawk06]

it's like brushing your teeth -- do it once a day if you can't handle twice.