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What's the use of minoxidil?


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What's the use of applying minoxidil for years when finally doctors need you to shed all gains before a transplant? The entire effort and money for minoxidil done for years becomes a waste. Why would someone start it if he knows that finally it would be useless when he undergoes a transplant?

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Minoxidil dilates the blood vessels in your scalp increasing blood flow to your hair follicles, more nutrients delivered by blood is probably what helps to thicken up the hairs, and an enzyme effect that increases hair growth cycles so that more hairs are growing at the same time also helps to give you a fuller head of hair look.

 

Docs generally say to stop 7-10 days before the procedure and you can restart about 5 days after. You may have a temporary shed but the result is not permanent, you are not 'losing' your overall results.

Its not like if you stop Finasteride for even days, which causes your DHT levels to go back up increasing the attacks and actual damage to your hair follicles.

 

 

 

 

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2 minutes ago, ciaus said:

Minoxidil dilates the blood vessels in your scalp increasing blood flow to your hair follicles, more nutrients delivered by blood is probably what helps to thicken up the hairs, and an enzyme effect that increases hair growth cycles so that more hairs are growing at the same time also helps to give you a fuller head of hair look.

 

Docs generally say to stop 7-10 days before the procedure and you can restart about 5 days after. You may have a temporary shed but the result is not permanent, you are not 'losing' your overall results.

Its not like if you stop Finasteride for even days, which causes your DHT levels to go back up increasing the attacks and actual damage to your hair follicles.

 

 

 

 

No they advice to stop it three months before procedure. They need to make sure that you dont end in a disastrous result should you stop or the minoxidil stops working, after transplant. Please someone correct me if I am wrong .people who were applying it for years and had hair transplants can give suggestions here.

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I had an allergic reaction to Minox.  My scalp became irritated and my ear lobes became chapped (not exaggerating)! 😵

But my friend's mother, who is in her 70's and experiencing hair loss, said it really helped her regrow her hair.  She was probably never going to get a hair transplant anyways.

So like all medications, it's different for everybody.  Don't assume what happened to someone else is going to be the same for you.

Regarding pre-HT minox, go with what your clinic suggests.  Like what @transplantedphil said, pretty much every rep from H&W has cursed the stuff.  Must mean something.

 

Dr. G: 1,000 grafts (FUT) 2008

Dr. Paul Shapiro: 2,348 grafts (FUT) 2009 ~ 1,999 grafts (FUT) 2011 ~ 300 grafts (Scar Reduction) 2013

Dr. Konior: 771 grafts (FUT) 2015 ~ 558 grafts (FUT) 2017 ~ 1,124 grafts (FUE) 2020

My Hair Transplant Journey with Shapiro Medical Group

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1 hour ago, NAVI said:

No they advice to stop it three months before procedure. They need to make sure that you dont end in a disastrous result should you stop or the minoxidil stops working, after transplant. Please someone correct me if I am wrong .people who were applying it for years and had hair transplants can give suggestions here.

 

I don't know who your 'they' are, but I have had procedures and taken topical minoxidil and currently take the oral version of it. My procedure instructions were 7-10 days before and 5 days after stop meds and vitamins that could effect bleeding. Since minoxidil enlarges your blood vessels that means more blood flowing, more potential bleeding during the procedure and in the days after the procedure that could damage the grafts.

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31 minutes ago, ciaus said:

 

I don't know who your 'they' are, but I have had procedures and taken topical minoxidil and currently take the oral version of it. My procedure instructions were 7-10 days before and 5 days after stop meds and vitamins that could effect bleeding. Since minoxidil enlarges your blood vessels that means more blood flowing, more potential bleeding during the procedure and in the days after the procedure that could damage the grafts.

Think what would happen if u leave minoxidil specially if you had transplant done with existing hair. All of a sudden , the dependent hair would fall should you leave minoxidil 3 months before and what would your hair look like immediately. It would require another transplant otherwise it would start looking horrible.to avoid that it's better to leave minoxidil and shed hair and get transplanted hair into place. And doing that brings .e to the point I raised initially, what's the use we have to shed it anyway.

Edited by NAVI
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Yes the meds only work for as long as you use them. If everyone knew how much hair they were ever going to lose over the course of their life, and that they would have plenty of donor hair to tranplant into those areas, then most people, at least the ones that could afford the transplant procedures, probably wouldn't bother with the meds. But the unfortunate reality is we don't know how much we are ever going to lose, and eventually even some of the hair in your donor area will minituarize as well.

And again with stopping minoxidil the shed is just temporary.

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I am currently a few days away from surgery, and as per doctors instructions I’ve stopped minoxidil for two weeks after using it for a year and a bit 2x a day. So far I have noticed no loss at all, mind you I noticed no major improvement on it either. So I’ll be asking the doctor if it’s something he thinks I should continue. I am also on finasteride so maybe that’s the main supporting factor behind the scenes. As per his post op instructions, they say you may resume minoxidil 2 weeks post surgery, so a month off it in total 

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Ideally I would want to quit minoxidil, but once you start this crap I think there's no turning back. I am sure I would lose my entire crown and hairline if I stopped, as I've been applying it there for years.

I have seen varying accounts, of stopping a week before and re-starting a week to two weeks after, to some saying months. Further, some people quit, have a massive shed, and those hairs simply don't grow back to what they were.

 

 

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Even I am not a big fan of Minoxidil. Everything about its application, routine and the results: seem so unimportant. I know that it can be helpful but I'm not at all a big fan of it. Plus when you leave Minoxidil, the withdrawel effects include losing all the hair grown due to it.

Official representative of Eugenix Hair Sciences

Dr. Arika Bansal & Dr. Pradeep Sethi

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5crlGyTac2hlU1gHneADzQ

 

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all these minoxidil haters, it's enhancing the hairs that finasteride is protecting and this is the thanks it gets! :D I agree taking minoxidil alone is pretty much worthless long term, but if you take it with finasteride they work well together.

I've been taking low dose (2.5mg) oral pill minoxodil daily because the topical formulas irritate my skin and I've noticed it thickening up all my hair on my head and face.

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2 minutes ago, ciaus said:

I've been taking low dose (2.5mg) oral pill minoxodil daily because the topical formulas irritate my skin and I've noticed it thickening up all my hair on my head and face.

Any sides with the oral minox? 🤔

Dr. G: 1,000 grafts (FUT) 2008

Dr. Paul Shapiro: 2,348 grafts (FUT) 2009 ~ 1,999 grafts (FUT) 2011 ~ 300 grafts (Scar Reduction) 2013

Dr. Konior: 771 grafts (FUT) 2015 ~ 558 grafts (FUT) 2017 ~ 1,124 grafts (FUE) 2020

My Hair Transplant Journey with Shapiro Medical Group

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4 minutes ago, aaron1234 said:

Any sides with the oral minox? 🤔

Just a little light headedness the first week, which I got too when I did try the topical minoxidil years back- i was applying it to my crown and front hairline/temple area then.

Edited by ciaus
mispelled word
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9 hours ago, NAVI said:

Think what would happen if u leave minoxidil specially if you had transplant done with existing hair. All of a sudden , the dependent hair would fall should you leave minoxidil 3 months before and what would your hair look like immediately. It would require another transplant otherwise it would start looking horrible.to avoid that it's better to leave minoxidil and shed hair and get transplanted hair into place. And doing that brings .e to the point I raised initially, what's the use we have to shed it anyway.

I think this is one of the most meaningless statements I've ever read.
I've used minoxidil up to 10 days before the HT and started oral just a few days after HT and my hairs look great.

I was almost bald 3 years ago, I used minoxidil, fina and DR and my hairs looked great thus I had a very small HT (2000 FU) and my hairs look like 15 years ago.

 

 

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4 hours ago, Gabreille Nelson Mukhia said:

Even I am not a big fan of Minoxidil. Everything about its application, routine and the results: seem so unimportant. I know that it can be helpful but I'm not at all a big fan of it. Plus when you leave Minoxidil, the withdrawel effects include losing all the hair grown due to it.

I believe euginix requires patients to come off minoxidil atleast a month before. I feel if the patient stops minoxidil later after transplant and be on just finastride as advised by euginix , he can end in a disaster. His hair transplant would look like transplanted hair and gaps in between due to leaving minoxidil and losing gains.

Can you shed light on this?

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21 hours ago, NAVI said:

I believe euginix requires patients to come off minoxidil atleast a month before. I feel if the patient stops minoxidil later after transplant and be on just finastride as advised by euginix , he can end in a disaster. His hair transplant would look like transplanted hair and gaps in between due to leaving minoxidil and losing gains.

Can you shed light on this?

Well. We advise patients to leave Minoxidil at least a month prior to the procedure because Minoxidil causes increased blood flow and hence there is extra oozing of blood during the procedure.

Using Minoxidil or not after the procedure is completely an individual choice.

Personally I left Minoxidil after using it for 5 years and have seen no such gaps as mentioned by you. Also have not seen that in any of the patients. 

Monoxidil has withdrawel effects which means losing all the hair gained by it once you stop it. Also, leaving Minoxidil prior to the procedure gives a chance for the hair caused by it to fall off giving a clear picture of the empty areas.

Official representative of Eugenix Hair Sciences

Dr. Arika Bansal & Dr. Pradeep Sethi

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5crlGyTac2hlU1gHneADzQ

 

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Doctors need u to shed all gains before a transplant?

 

...uhh which doctor said this?

 

theres a lot of hate on minoxidil in this thread but the reality is that it’s one of the few effective medications we have which is thoroughly tested, easily accessible, and affordable. It works synergistically with finasteride as shown in studies. Our hair follicles have a certain number of programmed cycles before they miniaturize forever. Minoxidil extends the anagen phase thereby extending this phenomenon. Whatever we can do to extend these limited cycles is a positive. 
 

finasteride and Minoxidil are treatments NOT cures so if u want their benefit then you have to use them continuously. Of course, finasteride is easy as u just pop a pill rather then apply a topical 1-2 times a day but such is life.

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And if you can use finasteride and minoxidil without any health side effect issues and get results/maintain, I'd be suspicious of anybody in the hair transplant business telling you these meds are not really worth it, etc. There are particular cases where that can be true, but never forget these are the very people who make their living by surgically transplanting hair. At the end of the day these medications cut into their bottom line profits.

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2 hours ago, ciaus said:

 

And if you can use finasteride and minoxidil without any health side effect issues and get results/maintain, I'd be suspicious of anybody in the hair transplant business telling you these meds are not really worth it, etc. There are particular cases where that can be true, but never forget these are the very people who make their living by surgically transplanting hair. At the end of the day these medications cut into their bottom line profits.

That's a pretty big jump - and I don't think these meds interfere with the hair transplant industry in the slightest as they do completely different things. The overwhelming consensus seems to be (on this forum at least) that hair transplants and medication each have a role to play in combatting hair loss, and more often than not, they're recommended to be used together for maximum impact. There's no doubt that medication works for most guys (specifically Fin and Minoxidil), but the fact of the matter is that using meds to treat hair loss is a lifetime commitment - and I think it's extremely reasonable for many guys to consider that and think "Nah, not for me." I would say that's the main reason you may find people not recommending them at all from time to time. 

I am a patient advocate for Dr. Parsa Mohebi in Los Angeles, CA. My views/opinions are my own and don't necessarily reflect the opinions of Dr. Mohebi and his staff.

Check out my hair loss website for photos

FUE surgery by Dr. Mohebi on 7/31/14
2,001 grafts - Ones: 607; Twos: 925; Threes: 413; Fours: 56

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14 minutes ago, pkipling said:

That's a pretty big jump -

 

I didn't do any jumping, and I qualified my position in the next sentence that there are cases where taking the meds wouldn't be worth it.

 

14 minutes ago, pkipling said:

and I don't think these meds interfere with the hair transplant industry in the slightest as they do completely different things.

 

Come on, in the slightest? We are talking about different means to the same end -approximating the appearance of a full head of hair as closely as possible. And yes ethical doctors recommend doing both to help achieve the best overall results. -And that's the catch, ethical doctors, which are unfortunately so rare that forums like this need to exist in the first place.

The testimonies on this forum clearly demonstrate some guys will need less overall procedures thanks to the meds, or even no procedure at all for the foreseeable future, go check out Shifty's big thread on his success with just the meds.

And that means more money can go to better and more important things in our lives! Thank you again minoxidil and finasteride. And bah humbug to all the guys that are too inconvenienced to take the time to apply you daily! :D

 

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8 hours ago, ciaus said:

 

 

I didn't do any jumping, and I qualified my position in the next sentence that there are cases where taking the meds wouldn't be worth it.

 

 

Come on, in the slightest? We are talking about different means to the same end -approximating the appearance of a full head of hair as closely as possible. And yes ethical doctors recommend doing both to help achieve the best overall results. -And that's the catch, ethical doctors, which are unfortunately so rare that forums like this need to exist in the first place.

The testimonies on this forum clearly demonstrate some guys will need less overall procedures thanks to the meds, or even no procedure at all for the foreseeable future, go check out Shifty's big thread on his success with just the meds.

And that means more money can go to better and more important things in our lives! Thank you again minoxidil and finasteride. And bah humbug to all the guys that are too inconvenienced to take the time to apply you daily! :D

 

All I know is that in 5+ years on this forum, I've never seen any surgeon or rep tell people not to take meds as a blanket statement - in fact, it seems like not taking meds at all is the less popular decision... ;) All good. Probably pretty much saying the same thing tbh. Glad you had such great success with the meds. 

I am a patient advocate for Dr. Parsa Mohebi in Los Angeles, CA. My views/opinions are my own and don't necessarily reflect the opinions of Dr. Mohebi and his staff.

Check out my hair loss website for photos

FUE surgery by Dr. Mohebi on 7/31/14
2,001 grafts - Ones: 607; Twos: 925; Threes: 413; Fours: 56

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I stopped using minoxidil because it did not appear to be making any significant visual improvement to my hair.

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Gillenator

Independent Patient Advocate

I am not a physician and not employed by any doctor/clinic. My opinions are not medical advice, but are my own views which you read at your own risk.

Supporting Physicians: Dr. Robert Dorin: The Hairloss Doctors in New York, NY

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On 9/9/2020 at 2:01 AM, Gabreille Nelson Mukhia said:

Also, leaving Minoxidil prior to the procedure gives a chance for the hair caused by it to fall off giving a clear picture of the empty areas.

With regards to this specific point only i.e. allowing hair to fall out which has been caused by topical 5% Minoxidil (excluding the point with regards to increased blood flow), how far in advance of FUE/DHI should someone come off Minoxidil to allow hair created by it to fall out?

Is one month sufficient, or would it be better if it were several months e.g. 6 months?

 

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