Should I Start minoxidil or Wait til Later?

[SwagDaddyMooney]

So im on finasteride, and i still have a relatively thick head of hair. I was wondering if it would be beneficial to start minoxidil now, or wait until I need it? I’ve heard that minoxidil typically only works for a short period of a few years. So i dont want to “waste” those years when it works while i still have a good head of hair. On the contrary, it could be the fact that min continues working those years, and all your min dependent hairs stay, its just the miniaturized hairs that die off leading to the illusion that “min stopped working”. Does anyone have any guidance/literature i could read regarding this topic?

 

[Justheretohelp3]

So im on finasteride, and i still have a relatively thick head of hair. I was wondering if it would be beneficial to start minoxidil now, or wait until I need it? I’ve heard that minoxidil typically only works for a short period of a few years. So i dont want to “waste” those years when it works while i still have a good head of hair. On the contrary, it could be the fact that min continues working those years, and all your min dependent hairs stay, its just the miniaturized hairs that die off leading to the illusion that “min stopped working”. Does anyone have any guidance/literature i could read regarding this topic?

I don't think there's any truth to that... I don't think there's a time limit that minoxidil works for. It all depends on the person and the general consensus is always starting earlier is better. It won't impact how long 'it'll work for'. If you start earlier, it'll likely work longer is my opinion.

With that said, if you have thick hair and the finasteride is helping, I wouldn't bother starting with minoxidil personally. I used finasteride for 10 years and only stopped last year. 9 months after stopping, my hair loss has resumed and I noticed more thinning in the temple area. finasteride clearly helped me (didn't lose any hair while on it) and I would say I have semi-aggressive hair loss but while on finasteride, didn't lose any hair. So finasteride might work just fine for you and minoxidil might not be necessary. finasteride is seen as the stronger of the two treatments and unless you have aggressive hair loss, you might not need to bother with minoxidil.

Good luck.

 

[SwagDaddyMooney]

I don't think there's any truth to that... I don't think there's a time limit that minoxidil works for. It all depends on the person and the general consensus is always starting earlier is better. It won't impact how long 'it'll work for'. If you start earlier, it'll likely work longer is my opinion.

With that said, if you have thick hair and the finasteride is helping, I wouldn't bother starting with minoxidil personally. I used finasteride for 10 years and only stopped last year. 9 months after stopping, my hair loss has resumed and I noticed more thinning in the temple area. finasteride clearly helped me (didn't lose any hair while on it) and I would say I have semi-aggressive hair loss but while on finasteride, didn't lose any hair. So finasteride might work just fine for you and minoxidil might not be necessary. finasteride is seen as the stronger of the two treatments and unless you have aggressive hair loss, you might not need to bother with minoxidil.

Good luck.

Thanks for the inspiration bro

 

[WaccWaccWacc]

So im on finasteride, and i still have a relatively thick head of hair. I was wondering if it would be beneficial to start minoxidil now, or wait until I need it? I’ve heard that minoxidil typically only works for a short period of a few years. So i dont want to “waste” those years when it works while i still have a good head of hair. On the contrary, it could be the fact that min continues working those years, and all your min dependent hairs stay, its just the miniaturized hairs that die off leading to the illusion that “min stopped working”. Does anyone have any guidance/literature i could read regarding this topic?

Im in the same boat as you. Heres the run down.

If you like your hair now, just stay on finasteride. Odds are it wont get worse and you’ll be “good” for a long time (as the user above mentioned).

If you do not like your hair now then consider adding minoxidil. The thing is, minoxidil is not as easy as simply popping a pill everyday. It is time consuming messy and just like finasteride requires you to be consistent. If you cannot meet these demands, I would not bother with minoxidil. Just wait it out and get a hair transplant after stabilization to fix anything you do not like about your hair (my current approach).

It is worth noting that you will see better results from mixing the two (finasteride and min). Monotherapy is not as effective as appying both. However, if you are to choose the monotherapy route, finasteride > minoxidil.