Switching From Topical To Oral Minoxidil

[bibz]

Bibz,

Thank you so much for sharing your story!! it's very encouraging to hear that you had success with Loniten.

I hear you man, applying this thing on your head 2x daily is a big hassle, and that's why I used to only apply once a day before bedtime.

As far as growing hair in other parts of my body, I really don't care much about that because I am not that hairy to begin with. I usually shave every 3 days and I don't mind if loniten makes me shave every 2 days. Now for growing eyebrows and eyelashes, I think this a perk of using loniten not a side effect.

I monitor my weight every week, and I gained 3 pounds in one week of using Loniten, I will keep an eye on this one. Also, I don't wanna use any diuretics, so what do you think is the best way to get rid of excess water naturally?

Since you have been using Loniten for a long time, have you seen any side effects to your cardiac system? you said you play sports, did you experience any dizziness or shortness of breath while playing? and how long before you saw real results from switching to Oral Minoxidil?

As I'm half arabic, I'm already pretty hairy so it was a concern for me ahah.
I'm boxing since 3 years and when I was hitting the training hard, like 3 times a week hard sessions (and on 10mg Loniten/day without diuretic), I definitly had less retention since I was sweating and drinking water like crazy. So if you want to attenuate those side (you cant get ride of them fully without diuretic), just hit the gym or sports, drink a lot of water and try to dont eat too much salt too.
And for the cardiac concern, even during training, it never had an effect, except as I said the faster and more intense heartbeats after next hour of taking the drug during the first month, but it went away after my system get used of the drug I think. The last time I went to the doctor my heart rate was 71 heart beats per minute, my Doctor said it was in the normal range, so I don't really think about it.

But careful you might react differently, as the main purpose of this drug is to treat Hypertension, so having your heart rate accelerate is not a "side" effect, I just think that 5mg or 10mg a day was just not enough to affect me, or I have severe hypertension that I'm unaware of

 

[jamesbooker1975]

Topical did work and had some good regrowth, but the itch was my problem.

I never heard of Minoxidil sulphate before, what is it and how it's different than regular Minoxidil?

Minoxidil is converted in the scalp by an enzyme ( don't remember the scientific name now ) to minoxidil sulphate and this is the active minoxidil. Your boy need to "activate it " , Good minoxidil results scalp have more of this enzyme than bad minoxidil results .

 

[bibz]

Did your hairloss stop completely?

And no other sides than the ones you listed?

Yeah no more hairloss for the moment, but my hair loss stopped since I was on Rogaine. The difference is that I just pop a pill so I dont think anymore about my hair loss, thats why I prefer oral than topical.

No beside pilosity, water retention and accelerated heart rate in the begining no other sides

 

[Kev123]

yuo need to take it with a diuretic, it is a must !

What is a good diuretic you recommend?

 

[bibz]

What is a good diuretic you recommend?

I got diurin 40mg on inhousepharma, like 1000 caps for 50euros if I remember.
Be ready to pee like 90yo man this sh*t is no joke!

 

[LossNoMore]

As I'm half arabic, I'm already pretty hairy so it was a concern for me ahah.
I'm boxing since 3 years and when I was hitting the training hard, like 3 times a week hard sessions (and on 10mg Loniten/day without diuretic), I definitly had less retention since I was sweating and drinking water like crazy. So if you want to attenuate those side (you cant get ride of them fully without diuretic), just hit the gym or sports, drink a lot of water and try to dont eat too much salt too.
And for the cardiac concern, even during training, it never had an effect, except as I said the faster and more intense heartbeats after next hour of taking the drug during the first month, but it went away after my system get used of the drug I think. The last time I went to the doctor my heart rate was 71 heart beats per minute, my Doctor said it was in the normal range, so I don't really think about it.

But careful you might react differently, as the main purpose of this drug is to treat Hypertension, so having your heart rate accelerate is not a "side" effect, I just think that 5mg or 10mg a day was just not enough to affect me, or I have severe hypertension that I'm unaware of

lol!! I am half arabic too brother "Egyptian"... But I guess I don't have the hairy gene

Bibz, it's very promising for me to hear your success with loniten. I hope I will have the same results with little sides as you. I will keep updating this thread with my progress.

Thanks again!!

 

[Kev123]

I got diurin 40mg on inhousepharma, like 1000 caps for 50euros if I remember.
Be ready to pee like 90yo man this sh*t is no joke!

Oh damn, I already pee a lot. But thanks, I will check this one out.

 

[bibz]

Did you have any experience with fina?

Are you on something else besides oral minoxidil?

Yeah finasteride was my first shot in the male pattern baldness fight, but went on and off many times cuz of sexual sides coming back everytime, so I decided to drop it for good years ago.
Actually I'm on Loniten and nizoral like 2 or 3 times a week.
But hey when minoxidil power will start fading away I will have to think about going back to an androgen blocker, finasteride or I hope a side free one...

 

[bibz]

lol!! I am half arabic too brother "Egyptian"... But I guess I don't have the hairy gene

Bibz, it's very promising for me to hear your success with loniten. I hope I will have the same results with little sides as you. I will keep updating this thread with my progress.

Thanks again!!

I wish you all the best my brother!
Good luck

 

[charlie76761]

Hi LossNoMore,
I'm on Loniten since 2 years now, I was on rogaine 5% for 3 years before that, and I'm Norwood 1.5-2 but I'm a diffuse thinner.
I buy 10mgx30 caps Loniten online (qhi), and since 2 years I'm taking 5mg/day or 10mg/day it depends.

Well, I will be clear with you, it was a game changer for me switching from topical to oral.
Firstable I got instant more regrowth moving to the oral version, but the most important and life changer for me was the fact that I was just poping the pill in the morning and in the evening, in 1 seconde it was done. In contrary, Rogaine was a REAAAAL PAIN in the *** to apply, I was waking up like 1 hour before, showering, waiting my hair to dry and apply this sh*t on my whole scalp, and then try my best to style my hair because it was greasy cuz of rogaine. The evening I couldn't chill normally with my girlfriend or party cuz I knew that I had to go back home to apply this sh*t cuz (making my hair 2x greasy) cuz I didn't want to miss a single dose.
Now I will talk about the bad side of Oral minoxidil. The topical one is great cuz you got regrowth where you would like to get it, In contrary with Loniten be ready have more pilosity, in my case, my beard, eyebrows, eyeleash and my facial pilosity generally grewth 2 times more, with 5mg a day you got less pilosity growth but as hair growth, so you choose.
A second (big) concern was weight gain. In the begening I was aware of that cuz it took me time switching to loniten since I made research about sides effects for month. So the first year I took it with a diuetic, Diurin 40mg, split onto 20mg, day and night with Loniten (InhousePharma), well no weight gain but omg I was peeing like f*****g crazy every f*****g time, when I was drinking beers with friends I was peeing every 10 minute ahah. So after the first year I decided to drop this sh*t and took Loniten only, undeniably I gained weight, at this time I was on 10mg loniten/day, and yeah I got bloated face and bigger thighs and hips, so I went back to 5mg/day with no change in hair but the weight gain side went away, not totally away but I handle that by doing sports, eating clean and drink water as much as I can.

If you have some questions I will be glad to answer you

Hi Bibz,

Great you found something that worked for you.

Did you find any impact to you undereye skin either darker skin or loss of fat that would make them look more sunken / hollow. Any one else?

Thanks

 

[bibz]

Hi Bibz,

Great you found something that worked for you.

Did you find any impact to you undereye skin either darker skin or loss of fat that would make them look more sunken / hollow. Any one else?

Thanks

Hey charlie,
Nope not with the oral minoxidil, but I was having red and dry eyes with rogaine cuz I was always getting liquid going down my face when I was targetting my frontal region.

 

[charlie76761]

Hey charlie,
Nope not with the oral minoxidil, but I was having red and dry eyes with rogaine cuz I was always getting liquid going down my face when I was targetting my frontal region.

Interesting - thanks!

 

[LossNoMore]

It's been a month now since I switched from topical to Oral Minoxidil 5mg/ day. That was the greatest decision I have made regarding my hair loss, and I do really regret not starting this earlier at least I could have saved my hairline. I will go over the positive and negative effects.

Positive effects -- The first thing that I noticed is my skin is much better on Oral. I didn't notice the bad effect that topical had on my skin until I switched. On the hair side, I haven't seen much of growth yet , but definitely less hair loss. Existing hair is much darker in color and thicker. I haven't seen any shedding because I think I was on topical before and I already had the initial minoxidil shedding.

Negative Effects -- that's the interesting part that I had almost zero side effects. The only thing that I noticed is weight gain, I gained almost 5 pounds in that month. I had increased heart rate when I first started, but that went away, and I don't get headaches anymore also.

My advice for anyone looking to start on Loniten is to use topical Minoxidil first for 3 months and then switch to Oral. In that way, you will have the initial shedding which could be really bad on Oral and also getting your body ready for Minoxidil. Another thing, never take Oral Minoxidil before going to bed, because when you sleep your blood pressure drops and if you take minoxidil it can drop to a dangerous level. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way, I took 5mg before going to bed and I felt I was going to pass out. Always take the pill in the morning.

I will keep the current dose 5mg/ day for the next month and if I don't see any side effects I will probably increase my dose to 10mg/ day.

Please let me know if anyone has any questions. I will update this thread with 3 month progress and I will probably attach some before and after pics as hopefully I will have more regrowth by then.

Thanks!!

 

[JamesTHair]

I can second that oral minoxidil works (at least for me)

I've been applying topical on my face for beard growth for about a year and 3 months. At the year mark my results were pretty good, maybe a 40% increase in hair density but at the year mark I did 1 month of oral minoxidil 5mg 2x/day followed by a month off followed by a month on again.

In these past 3 months (2 months with oral minoxidil) I've gained almost as much as I did in the previous year. I have almost double the beard hairs that I had about a year ago.

The reason I cycle on/off monthly is to avoid the body hair maturing and becoming permanent, I do have more though. It's too early to say if the body hairs will go away but my beard growth has been incredible on oral minoxidil.

I still apply topical twice a day, although I get lazier during my oral months (I probably miss 1/5 applications).

I would imagine the results would be similar on the scalp as on my face.

 

[JamesTHair]

My scalp has never had hair loss, I started minoxidil to grow a beard and have been applying on my beard/neck area.

The oral might increase my scalp hair but it would be hard to tell since it's already fairly thick.

This might not carry over 100% to scalp growth but switching from topical to topical+oral had huge results for my beard.

 

[RonRon7775]

Any update on this? Topical minoxidil has stopped working for me. Any update on this thread would be a great help. Thanks!

 

[JamesTHair]

not OP but I'm still having great results.

 

[Iah11]

Yeah ive been using oral minoxidil for exactly a year now because the foam lost efficacy. It gave me a 6 month reboost but it also lost effectiveness. Whilst its working, I respond brilliantly to minoxidil. Its the only treatment that works for me and without it, id be fully bald already. As it is, i started balding at 17 and im a norwood 2 now at 21, just hoping i can hold on until the next treatment. I keep using it just to avoid a big synchronous shed.

 

[TK421]

Does oral minoxidil cause the same infamous initial shedding as topical minoxidil?

 

[Iah11]

Does oral minoxidil cause the same infamous initial shedding as topical minoxidil?

dependent on the person, i didn't get much shedding but id already been on the foam.