neonman1212 said:
Mgdpublic I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Rogaine and Propecia are not a cure for hair loss, they're not going to save your hair. These drugs may slow down the rate of hair loss, but eventually your going to loose the battle, because Rogaine and Propecia aren't really capable of starting new hair growth cycles. I think the only way medical science is going to cure hair loss "is the hard way" and that's true genetics. It may take 20, 50 or 100 years until that happens. You were born too soon.
I disagree. Both minoxidil and Finasteride have been proven in clinical trials to literally turn dormant and/or vellous hairs into pigmented terminal hairs in a majority of users.
minoxidil especially has been very well proven to do exactly what you say it doesn't. Even bald areas have hair on them, which means that the hair there is undergoing a growth cycle, albeit a very short cycle. minoxidil is proven in a majority of users to lengthen this cycle in vellous hairs most recently made dormant and stimulate follicles into growing hairs in a cycle more comparable to hairs in full terminal phase.
To answer the original poster, 2.5 months is far from enough time to evaluate the effects of a hair regimen. Give it 4 months to really see if you are a responder to minoxidil (you will realize this probably NOT through obvious regrowth but probably instead through an improvement in existing hair quality in areas once thinning) and then give it another full year before making any conclusions about its regrowth properties on your scalp in particular.
For me, for example, after 5 months of minoxidil usage, the areas of my scalp where I HAVE hair but it was thinning to the point of looking different than the healthier areas of my scalp.... these hairs have responded magnificently! I have a widows peak hairline, and the center forehead hair was existent, but thin and brittle and curly. This hair is now of visibly equal quality to the hair behind it, and my frontal hair is immeasurably more stylable than it was before treatment.
As for regrowth, I have significant regrowth in my once bald upper temples. These temples were once sharply edged at the top, and now the new growth has somewhat 'rounded off' the high temple hairline if I pull my hair back. However, these new hairs are not very strong nor thick, and cosmetically are not much of an improvement... YET. The common knowledge I have gotten from this board is that minoxidil gives you 2-3 years of improvement in temple vellous hairs, so I am hopeful that in addition to the very nice improvement I have in thickness, length, and stylability of my existing hair that was once thinning (i.e. I saved my hairline!) there is a very good chance given my response that I might shave an inch off my once balding hairline if my regrown hair continues to profligate as it is now.