frogger

So, I stopped using minoxidil a couple months ago after using it for a couple years. I stopped because I felt like it wasn't noticing any improvement, and felt it may be responsible for a lot of on again/off again sheds I had been experiencing since starting it that I never had pre-minoxidil, which aren't worth the stress. Since stopping and still currently going on a couple months later, I have been experiencing a ton of shedding, my hair looks worse than ever, and I am experiencing a lot of itching and irritation in these area's of my scalp that are shedding rapidly and starting to look much thinner. So, my question is do I just ride this out hoping it is just temporary from the shock of stopping minoxidil, and assume the shedding will stop all this hair that is rapidly shedding will grow back in a few months and I will return to at least close to baseline? Or do I assume minoxidil was doing far more than I had been giving it credit for, and jump back on it asap before I permanently lose any possible gains I had made from it?

Just a thought... Wheatgrass shots are a popular healthy superfood at the moment, wheatgrass being the richest source of chlorophyll in the plant kingdom. After reading the following about wheatgrass..."Chlorophyll helps to wash drug deposits from the body, purifies the blood and organs and counteracts toxins", I was thinking is there any chance wheatgrass could be eliminate finasteride and/or minoxadil from the blood, thus counteracting the drug?

I ordered name brand proscar for the first time from a legit online pharmacy months ago after previously being on propecia for about 6 years with success (been ordering propecia from same online pharmacy). The box of proscar I received was in another language, after googling some of the words it appears to be Turkish. Ever since switching from propecia to proscar I have had an insane amount of shedding similar to pre-finasteride, and no signs of the shedding letting up, and my hair looks thinner than ever. It has gone on long enough to where I highly doubt it is any kind of initial shed from it being a slightly different dosage amount. I have never heard of anyone not responding as well to proscar switching over from propecia. Is there any chance the proscar coming from Turkey could potentially be the issue? The box has the MSD logo on it, so it is name brand. Expiration date is fine. Not sure what to do. I would hate to throw away an entire years worth of proscar tabs in a panic just to have to buy more from a local pharmacy (USA) instead only to realize that was never the problem and it was something else.

I would recommend starting Fin. Not starting Fin earlier is my biggest regret. My hair loss looked very similar to yours at 24, starting at about that same area of the crown, by 26-27 it had expanded to about a baseball sized bald spot.

Been on finasteride for about 5.5 years now which has done a good job halting the excess shedding and stabilizing what I still had. Though for the last 2.5 months or so, my hair has suddenly been shedding at a drastic rate similar to (or even worse than?) pre finasteride and it aesthetically looks thinner than ever, a lot of the areas I had full coverage just a few months ago are suddenly noticeably thin and see through. I was told it is likely seasonal shedding and is only temporary. Though if anything, it just seems to be increasing. Wouldn't this be a bit long for a seasonal shed of this extreme to last? I don't recall even ever experiencing a noticeable seasonal shed in the past. I have made no other changes to my regimen. Is there any way to differentiate a seasonal shed from just a sudden rapid increase of MPB due to medication losing it's effectiveness or whatever other reason?

Thanks for the info. Though unfortunately that really only convinced me further I likely have the same thing. I will find out for sure soon enough.

I am actually really afraid I may have the same thing triggered by a recent HT. I currently have an appointment scheduled to have it looked at, but in the meantime do you mind if I ask you a few questions to help possibly self diagnose myself or put my mind at ease until I get it looked at professionally? Just curious what your symptoms were and how long long after the HT they showed up? Or anything else that may help me identify it as LPP?

I had 3 FUT's. Me personally, even after the 3rd one, I can't even find the scar when combing through my hair looking for it.

Everything I have read has said 0.25 - 0.35 mm for minoxidil absorption, and 0.5 - 1.5mm for hair stimulation (used only every 1-4 weeks). Might want to research more before getting a 3mm one.

Recipient area too. The transplant into my crown, redness for about 3 weeks. The transplant into my hairline, redness for about 3 months.

Is the transplant the cause or trigger of the LPP? Or is LPP something that person would already have?

Currently a little over 2.5 months FUT post op. I have had multiple strip surgeries in the past so I am already aware of the typical recovery period. In my previous experiences, my scalp always felt normal again by 3 months or so. Though, this time I don't see that happening any time soon. Still have a pretty significant amount of soreness, primarily in the scar and bottom/sides of crown area, but generally everywhere, even area's that were untouched are a bit sensitive. Is there anything that can be done to speed up recovery?

I decided to add a second shampoo into the rotation a couple times a week. It is marketed as an organic hair loss shampoo that claims it "reduces hair loss by promoting additional blood circulation around hair follicles, and restores lost proteins that increase hair follicle strength" and "improves scalp and hair health by encouraging hair follicles to remain in their growth phase". I have noticed higher than normal shedding a day or two after each use with this shampoo. Can this be a good thing similar to a temporary minoxadil or ketoconazole shed that sheds weak hairs that eventually grow back stronger? Or should I take this excess shedding as a red flag to stop use? Here is the ingredient list. Aloe Leaf Juice, Sage Leaf Extract, Calendula Flower Extract, Matricaria Flower Extract, Panax Ginsen Root Extract, Colloidal Oatmeal, Lemon Peel Extract, Sodium Methyl 2-Sulfolaurate, Disodium 2-Sulfolaurate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Lauramide MEA, Cetrimonium Chloride, PEG-150 Distearate, Polyquaternium-7, Citric Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Hexylene Glycol, Peppermint Essential Oil, Chili Seed Oil, Lemon Eucalyptus Essential Oil, Lemongrass Essential Oil, Cassia Essential Oil, Clove Leaf Essential Oil, Candelilla Wax, Cayenne Pepper Extract, Styrax Benzoin Essential Oil, Vitamin E (d-alpha tocopherol), Provitamin B-5 (d-panthenol), Vitamin A (retinyl palmitate)

1 scar. The previous scar is removed with the strip on future FUT procedures. I personally did not have any scar stretching and honestly have trouble even finding the scar once it was fully healed, though I don't wear my hair short either which probably helps. Everyone is different though.

In my experience with a few FUT surgeries, my scalp was sore for at least a few months each time.

Sweet baby organic baby shampoo. I bought it because I thought it would be a good idea to have a mild, organic shampoo to use for a month or so post-op. And now I don't want to use anything else. Adds more volume than any other shampoo I have used, and seems to hold that volume for a long time. I have also noticed far less shedding since starting that shampoo, though I suppose that could also be attributed to the vitamin supplements I started taking around the same time, not sure.

I am in the same boat. Have had almost 4000 grafts into the crown over 3 procedures, I have very good donor hair, and it still looks bad.

1. Roughly 6 years 2. 1 MG daily 3. 33 4. No side effects 5/6. N/A 7. I should note I have developed Irritable bowel syndrome over the past 5 years or so, increasingly getting worse last year or so. Never heard of that as a finasteride side effect, but I guess I can't rule it out as the cause either. Could just be a timely coincidence. I just don't know.

Is this actually possible? I was under the impression after a couple weeks, it would be nearly impossible to stretch the scar with physical activity more than how much it was already predetermined to eventually stretch based on that person's physiology.

Regarding mFUE vs FUE...How would you compare the aesthetic difference of the donor hair afterwards once grown back in? I know the video mentions mFUE would have the same donor damage as traditional FUE, but I would imagine there would be some kind of noticeable difference in appearance of the donor hair afterwards between individually plucking out donor hair 1 by 1 with FUE, and a bunch of "mini strips" with mFUE.

Hair loss has been stabilized and stayed the same since starting Fin 5 years ago. Started using minoxidil roughly 6 months ago. Experienced the expected "dread shed". The problem is I still have not seemed to recover aesthetically. Night and day difference between what my hair looked like before minoxidil and presently, with not really any sign of it improving. I know the shed can last months, but is it normal to still look considerably worse from the initial shed 6 months later? I am on the fence whether or not I want to continue using it fearing I may just be doing more damage. The only reason I even began taking it is because I have a transplant procedure coming up soon, and I thought getting on minoxidil 6+ months in advance may strengthen up any weak hairs to protect against shock loss.

If someone has thinning going on at the bottom of the crown all the way down to slightly above where you would typically see a strip scar, can that be an early indicator of eventually progressing to a norwood 7? Personally, I have about a norwood 2 hairline, norwood 4 crown, and some thinning but full coverage and some decent density in the mid scalp after about 12 years of hair loss overall (on fin last 5.5 years). Though over the past 4 or 5 years, the thinning in the crown has been moving lower and lower down the back of my head just below the crown, even on fin. Don't only norwood 6-7's get hair loss in that specific area?

I have been using that for the last 4 months. No idea if has had positive effect for slowing down hair loss or regrowing hair, but I can say it gives my hair much more temporary volume than any other shampoo I have used, which is good enough for me. And it could be in my head, but I have always felt like my scalp feels really clean after using that shampoo, kind of tingly in a good way. Be careful using it every day though, when I first purchased it I was using it every day and after about a week straight of use, my scalp became incredibly irritated and took several days to go away. Now I use it 1-2x a week, and that seems to be fine at that frequency of use.

Been on 1mg propecia for roughly 3.5 years. No problems, seemed to stop the shedding and appeared to be helping keep what I have. About 6 weeks ago, the pharmacy I normally purchase name brand propecia at switched to stocking only generic. I started receiving 'finpecia' from them as the generic alternative. About a month into taking this generic, I feel like the shedding has increased dramatically, and over the last week or so I have felt constant itching over my entire mid scalp and suspect it has started to thin further in that area. The same itching sensation I had in my crown as that was aggressively thinning before I started propecia. The only other change I have made during this time is started to take a multivitamin made specifically for hair health. Not sure what to do now. Still have 3 months supply of finpecia. Throw it away and find the name brand elsewhere? Or is that panicking too early? Anyone else have a similar experience?

Well, the pimples only occurred in the small area of my crown I had a transplant just over a year earlier every time, which I felt was convincing evidence it was helping speed up some lagging grafts from the transplant. Maybe that is not the case at all and just a coincidence. Maybe I should of worded the initial post better. I am not trying to prevent hair loss, or even regrow hair via the onion. I would not expect that to work. I was mainly looking for insight on whether it could possibly aid in growth/growth time following a transplant which seemed like a plausible theory based on the little research on onion and hair growth I have read. I just had transplant #2 last week. I would be willing to be try this once everything heals up and see if I notice any difference from post op #1 if I could be assured it is not possible to damage the new grafts by doing this which is the answer I was most looking for from this thread.