Stopping Minoxidil after 1 Month

[g0910]

Hello. I'm glad to be a member of this forum! I'm very desperate and anxious for some friendly advice.

 

Over a month ago, I started 5% Minoxidil 2x/day mostly on the crown. At day 5, the initial shed began and now it's quite disturbing. I'm presently up tot 200+ hairs a day and it's going up! Seems extensive for a NW3v/4! I also experienced side effects like edema, eye burning, scalp peeling, and I don't feel right. Therefore, I would like to stop Minoxidil treatment now. I skipped the last 1.5 days and I feel so much better already. I pee'd-out all of the excess water I was retaining.

 

If I stop Minoxidil now after over a month, roughly how bad will the shed get and for how long? Will the hair lost in shedding grow back? Should I wean myself off or just stop suddenly?

 

I'm 50YO NW3v/4 and started Propecia 10 years ago. As a result of side effects (muscle loss, body hair loss, ED) in the last 4 years I have slowly weaned down my Propeca to 2x/week where I'm at now, and as a result, I experienced some thinning. Hence starting the Minox a month ago. Reason for this history: Do you think increasing my Propecia to 3x/week or more help or hurt this initial Minox shedding?

 

Any advice what-so-ever will be greatly appreciated, Thx!

[ex-minoxuser]

Can't help you with all your questions but perhaps a few. I started minoxidil begin august 2013. (i had a very bad tellogen effluvium after the death of a relative, no aga) I had a terrible shed almost immediately after starting minox (within a week i think), it lasted till begin october and then stopped. I lost then about 5 to 10 hairs a day and had a lot of regrowth. Unfortunately i am only 26 and would like to have children.... so i stopped half februari 2014. The quit shed was as bad as the initial starting shed, i think it has improved a little within the last month but i'm still losing at least 100 hairs a day... (i stop counting after that...)

So, from my own experience combined with reading tons of these kind of posts i would say the initial shed is inavoidable and takes a few months and then stops. I does't seem to make a difference if you stop using minox during the shed. Once the shed starts you have to sit it out (on or of minox). It does make a difference for the speed of regrowth i believe... On minox the hairs start growing back much quicker than without minox. (i am comparing wit my current regrowth plus i read this in a scientific article: something to do with a shorter resting fase of the hair follicle when on minox)

As for the quit shed... i can only speak from my own experience there and i was on it for more than half a year. Maybe if you stop during the start-shed, you shed longer because the quit shed comes right after? Or maybe there is no quit shed at all? I read on a lot of fora that you only shed the new hairs you grew from minox which would mean that you don't have a quit shed after such a short period of use because there was no regrowth yet. I am pretty sure though that during my quit shed i am losing not only the new hairs but also my old hairs from before starting minox. I can say that very objectively because my old hairs are a lot langer than the new ones (max 8cm considering periode of minox-use) and since i am counting them i also see the lengths... Ofcourse there is no certain way to say if all of the shed is the 'quitshed' or a part, perhaps the long hairs, are my own shed...

Anyways, i do see hairs growing back so i suppose patience is the keyword. In theory: for every hair that falls out, a new one comes back... (although slowly...)