PSA: To those starting Minoxidil

[jnx]

Hang in there...

I've gotten on it, had the most phenomenal regrowth one could ask for. All of a sudden, life became worth living. 

Got off hoping finasteride would keep all my gains. Lost EVERYTHING in 2-3 months.

Got back on telling myself I'd never get off. Regrew everything, confident as hell. Ran out due to being stuck abroad from COVID travel restrictions. Lost EVERYTHING in 2 months.

Back on now for 1 month. Hair looks awful, depressed as hell.

The last two huge regrowth periods, I was on offshore oil contracts making cash surrounded by 20 men. Never really thought about my hair or how I looked. When I finished the contract, my hair just looked great as hell. 

Now, I'm confronted with being in real life while going through the regrowth phase. It's a whole different animal, mentally.

Huge new respect for those of you going on about your day to day life on this regimen in the early stages. It's brutal as hell.

Only way I'm getting through is that I know for a fact in 2 months I'll be on top of the world again, as it's statistically the most probable outcome. It's the same for all of you just starting out.

Hang in there!

 

Edited August 11, 2020 by jnx

[TorontoMan]

This confuses me so much. Are you a diffuse thinner by any chance and do you apply it throughout your entire scalp?

I got on it a year ago and although my problem currently is only at the front, I applied it throughtout my entire scalp. It didn't do much to thicken back anything but it may be serving as maintenance, although I can't tell because I'm also on fin. 

Recently got to a point where I considered coming off minoxidil because of the hassle and the belief that finasteride will maintain. 

 

SO my main question to you and anyone who reads this, at this point are even the good terminal hairs "dependant" on minoxidil after a year? Is it a big risk to come off?

[jnx]

1 hour ago, TorontoMan said:

This confuses me so much. Are you a diffuse thinner by any chance and do you apply it throughout your entire scalp?

I got on it a year ago and although my problem currently is only at the front, I applied it throughtout my entire scalp. It didn't do much to thicken back anything but it may be serving as maintenance, although I can't tell because I'm also on fin. 

Recently got to a point where I considered coming off minoxidil because of the hassle and the belief that finasteride will maintain. 

 

SO my main question to you and anyone who reads this, at this point are even the good terminal hairs "dependant" on minoxidil after a year? Is it a big risk to come off?

My best guess is that since you've been on so long, if you get off you'll have noticeable diffuse loss. It won't be permanent, as you got on finasteride before the diffusion started stopping any further androgenetic alopecia. In addition to losing the minoxidil dependent hairs, you'll put the surrounding ones into a state of telogen effluvium. While I haven't stayed off long enough to let my hair normalize again, I've read accounts of this condition lasting up to a year. It'll look significantly worse until the condition passes. 

Here's my first run of minox + fin so you have an idea of the state of my loss before 

3 months after stopping minoxidil only. It looks worse than the first before picture, even though the further loss is unlikely permanent AGA due to being on finasteride the whole time  

Edited August 11, 2020 by jnx

[ciaus]

damn that's impressive. I didn't mess around when I first noticed a little receding in the front and crown and got on fin, never stopped so no dramatic pics of my own. Started with minoxidil too but stopped shortly after due to skin sensitivity issues. Looking at my family history its keeping me ahead of the curve and I've learned about low dose oral minoxidil recently thinking I'm going to give that a try since it won't cause the itchy red skin.