SETTLE THIS NOW PLZ

[Guest]

Does minoxidil work or not? Yes or no???

Judging from recent posts it's crap, and useless.

Surely not?

 

[Bismarck]

One third of the patients see regrowth.
Now decide.

 

[The Gardener]

I guess minoxidil is the 'chain hype' frenzy du jour

 

[Axon]

Minoxidil works. It's much better at thickening thinning hair than at regrowing slick bald spots, however.

 

[Greg1]

With any topical type treatment you will have a great diversity of results as not everyone's scalp condition, genetics etc. are the same. It sure would be nice if there was something that we all could say worked for everyone but nix.

 

[Guest]

Yeha... Im using it at the moment but with all these 'minoxidil made me thinner' threads currently around am gettin second thoughts :-s

 

[Hotlegs]

Yeha... Im using it at the moment but with all these 'minoxidil made me thinner' threads currently around am gettin second thoughts :-s

Of the hundreds of thousands of people using it (maybe millions around the globe), there will be many who do not acheive satasfactory results, but there are even more for who minoxidil regrows some lost hair and thickens existing hair. And a few lucky ones that achieve significany cosmetic improvement.

It is mainly those who fail to see decent results that go looking for hair loss forums to ask advice on why their hair is not responding or becoming thinner.

Is is recognised that hair loss forums tend to have overly negative reports of medications, this goes with the territory. Go and find a slimmers website and you will see more "help, my diets not working" posts than is representative. People who go on a diet and loose a little weight, hit their target tend not to go searching for forums to post about it, people who read a little on Rogain or are advised it by their chemist and get reasonable results also tend not to go looking for websites to explore the issue further.

The only way to tell if minoxidil is a beneficial growth stimulator or a load of crap is not to take the word of 20 or 30 poor souls for who minoxidil is not returing decent results, but to conduct large scale, multi stage double blind placebo trials, have these peer reviewed and approved by the FDA.

These have been done.

Minoxidil works and works well (but not for everyone) it is the best growth stimulator we currently have.

 

[20sometingtoo]

All these "minoxidil made me thinner" are the ones who minoxidil didnt work for. For those that it did work for (and there are MANY) there is no reason to be on these boards. Therefore there will naturally be a negetivity towards a treatment because otherwise you wouldnt be here.

I say, do it. Or at least try it.

 

[SSM23]

Minoxidil works. It's much better at thickening thinning hair than at regrowing slick bald spots, however.

Now i am confused.

Some say that you should only apply minoxidil to bald spots

Some say you should not apply minoxidil if you are a diffuse thinner.

Some say that minoxidil is for maintenance others say its for regrowth. (minoxidil is making my existing hair thinner)

Even Rogaine say do not apply to areas which are not balding.

WHICH IS IT???

If nobody knows should we even be using Minoxidil???

Id appreciate an answer from someone who knows rather than speculating, because alot of people are having this same problem.

Thanks

 

[SSM23]

Yeha... Im using it at the moment but with all these 'minoxidil made me thinner' threads currently around am gettin second thoughts :-s

Of the hundreds of thousands of people using it (maybe millions around the globe), there will be many who do not acheive satasfactory results, but there are even more for who minoxidil regrows some lost hair and thickens existing hair. And a few lucky ones that achieve significany cosmetic improvement.

It is mainly those who fail to see decent results that go looking for hair loss forums to ask advice on why their hair is not responding or becoming thinner.

Is is recognised that hair loss forums tend to have overly negative reports of medications, this goes with the territory. Go and find a slimmers website and you will see more "help, my diets not working" posts than is representative. People who go on a diet and loose a little weight, hit their target tend not to go searching for forums to post about it, people who read a little on Rogain or are advised it by their chemist and get reasonable results also tend not to go looking for websites to explore the issue further.

The only way to tell if minoxidil is a beneficial growth stimulator or a load of crap is not to take the word of 20 or 30 poor souls for who minoxidil is not returing decent results, but to conduct large scale, multi stage double blind placebo trials, have these peer reviewed and approved by the FDA.

These have been done.

Minoxidil works and works well (but not for everyone) it is the best growth stimulator we currently have.

Ok, so can you confidently say that minoxidil DOES NOT make existing hair thinner quicker than it would of otherwise.

 

[too bald too furious]

whats the success rate of minoxidil?

I heard 4 out of 5 actually stop or slow hair loss.

And 3 out of 5 regrow...this is what Rogaine advertises on TV.

But i read some where that minoxidil is only effective in 10% of patients.

 

[Hotlegs]

Ok, so can you confidently say that minoxidil DOES NOT make existing hair thinner quicker than it would of otherwise.

Minoxidil extends the anagen (growth) phase of the hair growth cycle.

This improves hair count.

Minoxidil also increases hair shaft weight (thickness) of existing hair.

Minoxidil DOES NOT slow or stop the balding process. Using minoxidil exclusively will (in the majority of people) mean you will make some gains but eventually if you are not dealing with the DHT issue, the gains made from minoxidil will 'overtaken' by the balding process.

Minoxidil can (in a MINORITY of people) cause shedding, this is generally seen as evidence that the medication is working as the hair growth cycle has been 'pushed' into the growth stage which follows the shedding phase. Over the long term (6 months - 1 year +) I cannot see an obvious way in which minoxidil could have a negative impact on hair growth, unless you have an adverse reaction to either minoxidil or one of the carriers (alcohol or more commonoly PPG), if this applies to you then stop using minoxidil and your hair will eventually return to the state it would have been in if you had never used minoxidil (this may come a few months after an initial shed from stopping).

 

[Axon]

Minoxidil works. It's much better at thickening thinning hair than at regrowing slick bald spots, however.

Now i am confused.

Some say that you should only apply minoxidil to bald spots

Some say you should not apply minoxidil if you are a diffuse thinner.

Some say that minoxidil is for maintenance others say its for regrowth. (minoxidil is making my existing hair thinner)

Even Rogaine say do not apply to areas which are not balding.

WHICH IS IT???

If nobody knows should we even be using Minoxidil???

Id appreciate an answer from someone who knows rather than speculating, because alot of people are having this same problem.

Thanks

Some people are idiots who will come onto a forum screaming all sorts of negativity and hyperbole.

No learned individual will tell you to apply minoxidil solely to slick bald areas. That's pure crap and I don't know how they came up with it.

Diffuse thinning: What minoxidil is very good at is thickening and coarsening hair that is beginning to become thin. So diffuse thinners should have as much success with it as anyone else, as long as they're a responder.

Rogaine says to not apply it to areas that are not balding for two reasons: 1. people are panicy and moronic and they'll douse their whole head in Minoxidil, thus causing a product liability action. 2. There's no need to apply it to areas that aren't thinning.

Understand that Minoxidil is a stimulant. I know this is hard to grasp, but minoxidil making you lose more hair is akin to coffee making you fall asleep.

 

[Guest]

Axon you speak wise words. I feel more confident applying minoxidil on now!

 

[elguapo]

I still defend it. My hair is thick I tell ya.

It could just be due to the finasteride, though. But either way, with the big 3, my hair is thick. I love it.

It didn't really grow new hairs though. Just thicken the hell out of the existing hairs.

But even though I started using it only 4 months into using finasteride, I agree with the advice of sticking with just finasteride first, and then using minoxidil if the finast doesn't work alone in 2 years. I just don't mind the hastle of applying minoxidil in the morning and evening, and I don't worry about skipping a dose here and there. The combo is working for me, so I'm going to stick with it.

Hope that helps.