Success on Finasteride. Terrible results on Minoxidil 5% foam

[CanadianGuy]

Good day everyone,

I started on Finasteride at the age of 24 and, 21 years later, at the age of 45, I still have most of my hair, no noticeable bald spots, and no side effects whatsoever due to Finasteride. I was still losing an average of 10 hairs when washing it, but Finasteride absolutely slowed the hair loss significantly.

In August 2020, I noticed I lost more hair on top of my scalp and started Minoxidil in October 2020. However, I stopped on April 2021 (5 months and 11 days later) as it only got worse due to shedding and no improvement whatsoever. Rogaine website recommends to stop after 4 months, if no improvement.

Unfortunately, three months (July 2021) after stopping Minoxidil that never worked, I am still shedding more than usual. I can understand the hair sheds when stopping minoxidil IF IT WAS WORKING FOR YOU, but that was NOT my case.

My questions are directed to former minoxidil users who have hereditary male-pattern baldness and never saw an improvement from minoxidil:

1) For how long were you on Minoxidil before you gave up due to no improvement noticed?

2) How many months it took for you to regain what you lost, AFTER stopping minoxidil?

3) How much did you recover?

4) Were you on Finasteride? Not being on Finasteride increases your chances of never seeing the density prior to start using minoxidil.

I continue on Finasteride 1mg and will let you know IF and WHEN I regain the hair I lost due to minoxidil.

Thanks

 

[justbeconfident]

Man, that is some scary sh*t, cuz finasteride didn't work for me at all and my last chance to save hair was rogaine, and i was about to start foam applications, but i didnt even believe minoxidil can not work for some people, completely fucked up

Are you sure it didnt work?
Did you use right amount? Did you massage it into the scalp?
Did you have any sides from foam?

 

[CanadianGuy]

Man, that is some scary sh*t, cuz finasteride didn't work for me at all and my last chance to save hair was rogaine, and i was about to start foam applications, but i didnt even believe minoxidil can not work for some people, completely fucked up

Are you sure it didnt work?
Did you use right amount? Did you massage it into the scalp?
Did you have any sides from foam?

I am sure Minoxidil didn't work because I was worse off after 5 months. Not a single gain. However, I am 45, and I have been losing hair, although slowly, for 2 decades. I still have 70% or more of my hair, when compared to what I had when I was 24. Other than shedding more hair, I didn't experience any other side effect from Minoxidil.

I think it's worth trying it. It has worked for a lot of people in this group. But you need to try for at least 4 months, as per Rogaine's website recommendation. If it does not work for 4 months, they recommend to stop it.

I only try FDA-approved products (i.e., finasteride and minoxidil). Challenge any website who screams at you to buy their products. Especially if there's no hard evidence, no statistically significant trials and/or peer reviews.

 

[Jpw1999]

I am sure Minoxidil didn't work because I was worse off after 5 months. Not a single gain. However, I am 45, and I have been losing hair, although slowly, for 2 decades. I still have 70% or more of my hair, when compared to what I had when I was 24. Other than shedding more hair, I didn't experience any other side effect from Minoxidil.

I think it's worth trying it. It has worked for a lot of people in this group. But you need to try for at least 4 months, as per Rogaine's website recommendation. If it does not work for 4 months, they recommend to stop it.

I only try FDA-approved products (i.e., finasteride and minoxidil). Challenge any website who screams at you to buy their products. Especially if there's no hard evidence, no statistically significant trials and/or peer reviews.

How did you find out about finasteride 20 years ago? I only found out about finasteride because of this forum and certain youtubers. My doctor who is balding had no clue there was anything to combat hair loss.

 

[CanadianGuy]

How did you find out about finasteride 20 years ago? I only found out about finasteride because of this forum and certain youtubers. My doctor who is balding had no clue there was anything to combat hair loss.

My dermatologist told me in 2000. Accordingly to Wikipedia, it was approved for medical use in 1992.

 

[Jpw1999]

My dermatologist told me in 2000. Accordingly to Wikipedia, it was approved for medical use in 1992.

It must have been very expensive back then, I kind of feel lucky about losing hair nowadays compared to my grandfather in the 60s because we actually have things to combat hair loss and finasteride is so cheap.

 

[jazz1]

Two things to check and congratulations Finasteride working for a huge time, did you changed medication brands with Finasteride? We’re you stressed during the period you started shedding prior to minoxidil? Also have you had a blood count to check for vitamin and mineral deficiency?

 

[justinbieberscombover]

I just started minoxidil foam 5% two weeks ago, maybe shed a few hairs here and there, but nothing special happened so far.

 

[CanadianGuy]

Two things to check and congratulations Finasteride working for a huge time, did you changed medication brands with Finasteride? We’re you stressed during the period you started shedding prior to minoxidil? Also have you had a blood count to check for vitamin and mineral deficiency?

Used general brand of finasteride.
I was not stressed out before Min, but got stressed out 4 months after.
Havent done blood test in 2years, but my nutrition is very good and I am pretty sure I am not deficient on that.

Went to see my dermatologist this week who told me it will take up to 2 years to recover the hair I lost due to min.

 

[DoctorHouse]

I just started minoxidil foam 5% two weeks ago, maybe shed a few hairs here and there, but nothing special happened so far.

I get facial bloating with minoxidil foam but if I use Lipogaine liquid, I don't. I am wondering if maybe the liquid is not as good as the foam. No facial bloating?

 

[jamesbooker1975]

Good day everyone,

I started on Finasteride at the age of 24 and, 21 years later, at the age of 45, I still have most of my hair, no noticeable bald spots, and no side effects whatsoever due to Finasteride. I was still losing an average of 10 hairs when washing it, but Finasteride absolutely slowed the hair loss significantly.

In August 2020, I noticed I lost more hair on top of my scalp and started Minoxidil in October 2020. However, I stopped on April 2021 (5 months and 11 days later) as it only got worse due to shedding and no improvement whatsoever. Rogaine website recommends to stop after 4 months, if no improvement.

Unfortunately, three months (July 2021) after stopping Minoxidil that never worked, I am still shedding more than usual. I can understand the hair sheds when stopping minoxidil IF IT WAS WORKING FOR YOU, but that was NOT my case.

My questions are directed to former minoxidil users who have hereditary male-pattern baldness and never saw an improvement from minoxidil:

1) For how long were you on Minoxidil before you gave up due to no improvement noticed?

2) How many months it took for you to regain what you lost, AFTER stopping minoxidil?

3) How much did you recover?

4) Were you on Finasteride? Not being on Finasteride increases your chances of never seeing the density prior to start using minoxidil.

I continue on Finasteride 1mg and will let you know IF and WHEN I regain the hair I lost due to minoxidil.

Thanks

"Unfortunately, three months (July 2021) after stopping Minoxidil that never worked,"
well, how do you know it was not worked ? And 3 month is nothing, you must give at least 6 mont. Once you start minoxidil , you should never stop. How actually works is unknown so it can be replace it by other drug . And yes, once you stop it, you got worse and even if you are on finasteride, it will not help .
If you stopped and you got worse, it means it was working.

 

[jamesbooker1975]

How did you find out about finasteride 20 years ago? I only found out about finasteride because of this forum and certain youtubers. My doctor who is balding had no clue there was anything to combat hair loss.

Hahahhaha, Well , may be cause it was approved for androgenetic alopecia back in 1997 ?! Jesus dude, the world was already alive before you born .

 

[justinbieberscombover]

I get facial bloating with minoxidil foam but if I use Lipogaine liquid, I don't. I am wondering if maybe the liquid is not as good as the foam. No facial bloating?

No bloat as far as I'm aware of yet.. doesn't Proxiphen already contain minoxidil anyway? Do you still want to apply it separately?

 

[DoctorHouse]

No bloat as far as I'm aware of yet.. doesn't Proxiphen already contain minoxidil anyway? Do you still want to apply it separately?

It contains only about 2 percent now. He tweaks his formula alot. I sometimes don't use the Proxiphen every day. But in your case, you should.

 

[CanadianGuy]

"Unfortunately, three months (July 2021) after stopping Minoxidil that never worked,"
well, how do you know it was not worked ? And 3 month is nothing, you must give at least 6 mont. Once you start minoxidil , you should never stop. How actually works is unknown so it can be replace it by other drug . And yes, once you stop it, you got worse and even if you are on finasteride, it will not help .
If you stopped and you got worse, it means it was working.

I said I was still shedding 3 months AFTER I stopped using it. I did not say I use it for 3 months.

I tried for 5 months and 11 days (not 3 months) and it did not work because the shed got significantly worse and there was no improvement within 5 months and 11 days. Rogaine recommends to stop it if no improvement within 4 months, accordingly to their website.

 

[20YearsOnFin]

Used general brand of finasteride.

Hi, Yes, but have you on the ''exactly'' the same brand for the last 2 or 3 years or have you sometimes been supplied a different one?

 

[20YearsOnFin]

I am sure Minoxidil didn't work because I was worse off after 5 months. Not a single gain. However, I am 45, and I have been losing hair, although slowly, for 2 decades. I still have 70% or more of my hair, when compared to what I had when I was 24. Other than shedding more hair, I didn't experience any other side effect from Minoxidil.

Its not that it hasn't necessary worked, hair grows in cycles so essential if it works it can cause you to shed more hair (look worse) and if it doesn't work, it can also cause you too shed more hair (and look worse), this is the reason your derm has stated it may take 2 years of cycles to recover the hair you lost to Minoxidil, but equally this may well be the length of time that you would need to stick with Minoxidil when you are in your mid to late 40's,(+long time finasteride user) to see an actual noticeable difference.

I think it's worth trying it. It has worked for a lot of people in this group. But you need to try for at least 4 months, as per Rogaine's website recommendation. If it does not work for 4 months, they recommend to stop it.

Alot of the people in this group who have had good results from Minoxidil, wont necessary be in the same position or as you or I, I used Minoxidil in the mid to late 90's and then like you have spent the last 20+ years on finasteride. The difference is after 20 years of using finasteride your hair is essentially fake, there is no way of Knowing how much of the hair on your scalp it is artificially held in with finasteride and how much of your hair is safe and would still be there even if you dropped the drug. These are the kind of variables you need to take into account when making modifications to your regime, because when Rogain states ''try it for 4 months'' i don't think that is a catch all statement that is intended to included finasteride users of 20+ years because I'm fairly certain they haven't extensively tested their product to include this scenario.

I said I was still shedding 3 months AFTER I stopped using it.

Again this is kind of a conundrum, like I said there is no way of Knowing if its a positive shed though the Minoxidil trying to work or a negative shed, due to the action of Appling it?.... at this point if you have already stopped you kind of just have to ride it out or research if there's anything you can add to halt the shed (usually there isn't). there's a high probability that your hair will recover as long as you maintain the finasteride though as I have had some pretty bad sheds and touch wood it has always recovered.

 

[20YearsOnFin]

It must have been very expensive back then

Not really, Propecia has always been pricey, anyone who was trying to save money on finasteride in the late 90's and early 2000's would having been splitting Proscar.

 

[Robertabooey]

I am in a similar situation as you @CanadianGuy. I have been on propecia for over 15 years. The past 3 years or so I have really started to lose ground. I had hoped things would stabilize and they never did, so I hopped on rogaine in late January of this year. I have only been applying it once a day and exclusively on my temples being that this is the area that is really thinning. Unfortunately things are getting worse and I have been debating what to do. Most likely I will continue on it for at least a year. Has anyone had a similar situation where it took rogaine a little longer to start being effective?

 

[20YearsOnFin]

I have been on propecia for over 15 years

Hi, Have you been on proper Merck branded Propecia all that time?