reducing or elminating rogaine

[JaySizzle]

new to the boards and would like to say hello to everyone here!!!

i just had a questions about being on minoxidil and finasteride. couldnt you technically be able to go off of the minoxidil and just stick with the finasteride once you have achieved your ideal results? because, finasteride will at minimal retain the hair you have, therefore , wouldnt it retian the hair ou grew while you were on minoxidil? i understand that the best is using both to regrow hair. but to maintain, wouldnt finasteride alone work?

 

[Avery]

It doesn't work like that. Those hairs are dependant on minoxodil. If you stop applying minoxodil, they will shed.

 

[JaySizzle]

ok thanks. basically if you start treatment on both you will have to be on both as long as you want to keep your hair cuz you wont know which follicles are dependant on what?

 

[HT55]

Trust me if your one of the lucky ones who respond you will have no problem using foam twice a day and popping a pill. In fact you will look forward to it !

 

[JaySizzle]

i actually just used the min for the first time and the liquid isnt bad or greasy as i expected.. not as bad as some say at least. i dont mind it at all. neways. mIN can be used to retain old hairs too can it not? so hopefully i can only be on the Min

 

[Bryan]

couldnt you technically be able to go off of the minoxidil and just stick with the finasteride once you have achieved your ideal results? because, finasteride will at minimal retain the hair you have, therefore , wouldnt it retian the hair ou grew while you were on minoxidil?

Nope. It's been widely reported that finasteride alone isn't always able to retain hair regrown by topical minoxidil. Here's a scan of an actual case history of that reported in a medical journal (scroll down a bit to the second study):

http://www.geocities.com/bryan50001/finasteride-minoxidil.htm

Notice that they say near the end that EVERY ONE of their patients who stopped using minoxidil lost some hair, even though they continued to use finasteride.

mIN can be used to retain old hairs too can it not? so hopefully i can only be on the Min

Mmmm....not really. Not in my opinion. What you're suggesting has been the subject of a lot of discussion and debate on this and other hair loss forums. In my opinion, the best available scientific evidence suggests that all topical minoxidil does is just provide an extra "offset" of growth, without really interfering with the fundamental balding process. In other words, when you use topical minoxidil, your balding proceeds at essentially the same rate, it's just that you have a little more hair at any given time than you _would_ have had, had you never used the minoxidil at all. I hope you understand the implications of what I'm saying.

 

[JaySizzle]

Bryan, thanks for elaborating. I understand and totally appreciate the time you have taken to clarify.