Quitting minoxidil but won't ever quit finesteride

[Jdog]

Can I please have your opinion on below?

 

After beginning to use minoxidil after first hair transplant a year ago I find that it probably hasn't helped too much. I don't want to make my hair dependant on it for the rest of my life either. It makes my scalp dry and I really can't stand using it. I think I'm going to stop it.

 

I need a second hair transplant to fill in crown and thicken up front. I will have one soon.

 

I really think finesteride is a far better solution and am happy to take a pill each day, there's no effort involved.

 

Some surgeons don't like minoxidil and suggest patients don't use it. Although some do want patients to use it. Can I please get some advice/opinions?

Edited August 22, 2017 by Jdog

[mikeyhwk]

I had Drs Hasson and Dr Lorenzo both tell me they think Minoxidil sucks and patients only need fin. In my case Minoxidil made my scalp worse, I had a bit of regrowth but the inflammation it caused was a far bigger negative than any positives it had for my hair so I ended up stopping it and I'm happy I did. No more inflammation no more dry flaky scalp where I applied it, and im off the life long application train.

[Speegs]

Personally, Minoxidil has always been more trouble than its worth for me, but some people swear by it and can't use finasteride (women for instance) so I won't make any blanket statements about its usefulness.

 

But for me, and probably many men that have held on to crown hair while using finasteride, it's probably sufficient by itself in most instances.

 

If you get on finasteride before crown thinning becomes apparent, your odds of not needing to use Minoxidil seems to be higher in my anecdotal experiences.

[gillenator]

Well the fundamental difference between the two are that minoxidil does not inhibit DHT but finasteride does.

 

I used to use both but stopped using minoxidil several years ago because of the shedding it was causing.

[Melvin- Admin]

Minoxidil has worked great for me, I haven't lost any noticeable hair since getting on it in 2014, the whole making your hair dependent is a myth, treatment is treatment, and as such in order for you to reap the benefits you must continue the treatment, what has happened is that guys think that Minoxidil doesn't work, they get off it, then they lose the hair that minoxidil was maintaining and then they make up anecdotal myths like Minoxidil somehow "made" their hair dependent, when in reality they were going to lose that hair anyway minoxidil was just keeping it from being lost.

 

If you were to stop taking Finasteride you would also lose the hair the Finasteride is keeping, this doesn't mean that your hair is "dependent" on Finasteride, it simply means that you have to continue to take it if you want it to work. But its entirely up to you, I woudln't take anything that causes side effects, so if the minoxidil is causing scalp inflammation or anything like that, I wouldn't take it, but I do believe that Finasteride and Minoxidil work synergistic and two is better than one. Most doctors however agree Finasteride is more effective.

[TakingThePlunge]

I agree that finasteride is the most important part of an effective medical hair growth regimen. I still use minoxidil foam daily because it's cheap and simple enough to use.

 

Ultimately, the only way to really know the degree to which a drug has helped you is to stop it and wait for any catch up hair loss. Personally, I'd rather err on the side of caution.