should I stop minoxidil? itching and no improvement after a year

[thomas040]

headline says it all, but I've been taking minoxidil on my hairline for 12 months or so, and nothing more than increased receeding has occured. On top of that, my hairline continues to itch during the day.

I've also been taking finasteride, and that seems to work fine on my crown-area where no worsening has occured. It's still pretty much the same.

I was just thinking that since minoxidil, apparantly doesn't improve anything, maybe I should stop.

But would I suffer a great shed, If I do? Keep in mind, that I haven't gained any regrowth during....

 

[HH]

I can't suggest you what to do, but you need to be careful about this, and really need to make sure minoxidil surely did nothing(I mean nothing!) to you.

Of course, on the other hand, I remember Dr Lee once answered a patient's question and said that if Minoxidil truely did nothing to her, quitting minoxidile won't cause normal hair to shed.


Another post might be informative to you:

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.bald ... 4f93edef1b

 

[g8trguy]

Hi,

If your taking over the counter minoxidil it probably is doing little to the front of your hair line, most if not all brands state it is effective in treating hair loss at the crown. If that is what your using you may want to use a product by Dr. Lee or other doctors who formulate products using minoxidil with other components that allow absorbtion over the entire scalp not just the crown. I used to use Dr. Lees products and have been using an similar less expensive one for the last few years or so with great success on the front of my head. However, I have or had thining hair not a really a receeding hairline.

 

[Thinneritgoes!]

g8terguy, you should have done more research. The only reason they state that is because that is where the minoxidil has been tested. Many people get regrowth over the whole top of the head (including front) with minoxidil

 

[beaner]

g8terguy, you should have done more research. The only reason they state that is because that is where the minoxidil has been tested. Many people get regrowth over the whole top of the head (including front) with minoxidil

I definitely agree with you on this one. I've had more regrowth on the hairline/temples/front than I did on the crown with minoxidil.

 

[CCS]

the hairline is hard to save, even with propecia and minoxidil combined, at least in people who started balding young. first try nizoral 1% before giving up due to itching. minoxidil does not cause hair loss. if a large shed occurs after quiting, those are just the hairs that have genetically become weeker over time and were kept alive by the minoxidil this whole time. Minoxidil does not make healthy hairs dependent on it. Rather, increasingly unhealthy hairs become stay alive because of it. A simpler example is propecia. Propecia does not reduce 5ar production or androgen receptor production. It just reduces DHT to 30% what it would be in its absence. This is enough to keep many hairs alive, but as with all men, hairs gradually become more senitive and eventually some are sensitive even to the reduced levels that exist with propecia. that is why hair counts decline after two years. If you take away propecia, then all the extra hairs that have been kept alive at the low levels but are very susseptible to the new levels will shrink very fast. The speed that follicles shrink is related to how sensitive they are compared to what the DHT levels are. getting on and off propecia does not make you loose more hair than you would have without it at all, and the same is true of minoxidil.