Hello. I am new to this site but very thankful that i found it! Here is my history of hair loss: When i was 22, I noticed that my crown area was starting to dramatically thin. I panicked and ran to the store and bought Rogaine for women. I didn't even think to go to a dermatologist to have my scalp checked so I don't know if I have alopecia areata or anything like that. Thinking back now, I didn't even stop to think that maybe my crash dieting and being on the Atkins and eating a ton of greasy hamburger meat and cheese had anything to do with my hair loss at the time. My mother, aunts, and sister all had/have thick hair. BUT I have ONE uncle that had extreme hair loss. He started losing hair when he was VERY young (like mid-late 20s). I had REALLY thick hair throughout my high school years but did some damage when I was 17 when i decided to bleach my hair blonde. (I am a natural brunette). The front/center of my hair got really damaged and i started spraying Infusium 23 corrective hair stuff to restore it. I did that for about a year. My hair was fine after that. I didn't notice any thinning until I was 22. SO anyway, i've been using Rogaine since then I was about 22 and my crown really filled out. My hair looked great. I just turned 25 years old this past July and I just started noticing thinning in the frontal/center area of my scalp and the crown area losing the density that it had before. Now my scalp itches every now and then and I have a slight dandruff condition. I stopped using the ROgaine about 3 days ago because of the itchiness and dandruff. But now I am afraid that my hair will increasingly start to fall out if I don't go back on ROgaine. Has anyone had this same problem?? Now i am really starting to consider a HT for the frontal area. HELP!!!

Hi hello,

Im afraid the curse of rogaine (minioxidil) is that it must be used indefinately otherwise the hair that it regrew or helped maintain will shed in about 3 months. Nizoral is a great shampoo for dandruff and will help with the itchy scalp. I also use folligen therapy (copper pepptides) spray and conditioner to minimize the minioxidil itch. You may also want to try an anti-inflamatory like emu oil, I cant tell from experience but others have suggested it may help.

I would seriously reconsider dropping minioxidil as once the hair sheds it will be really hard to get it back the second time. Dr Lee of http://www.minioxidil.com fame mentions that after 2-3 years of use minioxidil is unlikely to grow more hair and you should be able to safely drop down to 1 application per day to maintain the hair you have.

Hope this helps!

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1344 grafts with Ron Shapiro - June 2006