For those of you who've tried oral minoxidil

[Hah6788887]

Did you have any side effects and how long did it take to see growth? Did your thinner hair shed and regrow or just get thicker? 

[Gatsby]

I started on 2.5mg of oral minoxidil last year and after three months of no side effects I went up to 5mg of oral minoxidil. I still have not had any side effects that I am aware of over the past ten months on the drug. My hair and beard has become much thicker and I didn't experience a shed.

[A_4_Archan]

I did the same as gatsby mentioned above ..started with 2.5 for 2 months and thn 5mg...am taking since long without any side effects and it helped me very much..my hair strands got fuller and more thicker and that helps in providing good coverage....actually upto 5mg is considered as a low dosage for this drug..bt still you can consult your surgeon for this....

[samz_033]

2 hours ago, Hah6788887 said:

Did you have any side effects and how long did it take to see growth? Did your thinner hair shed and regrow or just get thicker? 

I have been taking 1.25mg of OM over the past 3 weeks. I had sides initially during the first week such as light-headedness but it subsided with continued use.

[Moazzam]

All right, I'll give you a somewhat detailed anwser as a person who has spent years researching hair loss.
 
Please stay away from oral minoxidil. Search for it's side effects- it can mess with your heart rhythm, there's a reason it comes with a big black warning label in EU. Stick to topical minox. If you're not responding to topical (40% or so dont do due to the absence or low availability of the sulfotransferase enzyme in the scalp) then add 0.1 or 0.5% tretenoin to your scalp directly by massaging it and leaving it for an extended period of time OR mix it daily into the minoxidil you use (dont mix it in the bottle, rather use a syringe with 1-2 ml of minox and add a dab of tretenoin. Another thing you can do is use 0.5mm dermaroller/microneedlie weekly OR 1 mm once every two weeks, OR 1.5mm once every month to improve minox absorption and to induce growth factors into your hair follicles.
add finasteride or dutasteride  too- without it the gains you will get on minox will be temporary and sooner or later you will lose your hair

if you get sides with fin, power through it, IT WILL GO AWAY. Many just try it and quit it, dont do that. You will doubt yourself but dont quit fin and in 2,3 months time the sides will be gone. if the sides still persist, then get 0.5 mg rather than 1 mg fin. If you can get your hands on ru58841 or better yet pyrilutamide (be careful as many are fake selling it, will be available soon) then add it to your regiment.

[Westview]

7 minutes ago, Moazzam said:

All right, I'll give you a somewhat detailed anwser as a person who has spent years researching hair loss.
 
Please stay away from oral minoxidil. Search for it's side effects- it can mess with your heart rhythm, there's a reason it comes with a big black warning label in EU. Stick to topical minox. If you're not responding to topical (40% or so dont do due to the absence or low availability of the sulfotransferase enzyme in the scalp) then add 0.1 or 0.5% tretenoin to your scalp directly by massaging it and leaving it for an extended period of time OR mix it daily into the minoxidil you use (dont mix it in the bottle, rather use a syringe with 1-2 ml of minox and add a dab of tretenoin. Another thing you can do is use 0.5mm dermaroller/microneedlie weekly OR 1 mm once every two weeks, OR 1.5mm once every month to improve minox absorption and to induce growth factors into your hair follicles.
add finasteride or dutasteride  too- without it the gains you will get on minox will be temporary and sooner or later you will lose your hair

if you get sides with fin, power through it, IT WILL GO AWAY. Many just try it and quit it, dont do that. You will doubt yourself but dont quit fin and in 2,3 months time the sides will be gone. if the sides still persist, then get 0.5 mg rather than 1 mg fin. If you can get your hands on ru58841 or better yet pyrilutamide (be careful as many are fake selling it, will be available soon) then add it to your regiment.

Sorry, but this is horrible advice.

RU58841 has not been approved by FDA for hair loss, and comes with even worse side-effects then oral MX.

And I would strongly suggest stopping FIN if/when your libido declines.

For some people libido never comes back to normal. Its called Post-finasteride syndrome.

Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7231981/

[Turkhair]

Puffy face, eye bags. Not really nice. I had to stop

[Westview]

3 minutes ago, Turkhair said:

Puffy face, eye bags. Not really nice. I had to stop

How many milligrams were you taking??

[Hah6788887]

On 5/17/2023 at 9:04 AM, Moazzam said:

All right, I'll give you a somewhat detailed anwser as a person who has spent years researching hair loss.
 
Please stay away from oral minoxidil. Search for it's side effects- it can mess with your heart rhythm, there's a reason it comes with a big black warning label in EU. Stick to topical minox. If you're not responding to topical (40% or so dont do due to the absence or low availability of the sulfotransferase enzyme in the scalp) then add 0.1 or 0.5% tretenoin to your scalp directly by massaging it and leaving it for an extended period of time OR mix it daily into the minoxidil you use (dont mix it in the bottle, rather use a syringe with 1-2 ml of minox and add a dab of tretenoin. Another thing you can do is use 0.5mm dermaroller/microneedlie weekly OR 1 mm once every two weeks, OR 1.5mm once every month to improve minox absorption and to induce growth factors into your hair follicles.
add finasteride or dutasteride  too- without it the gains you will get on minox will be temporary and sooner or later you will lose your hair

if you get sides with fin, power through it, IT WILL GO AWAY. Many just try it and quit it, dont do that. You will doubt yourself but dont quit fin and in 2,3 months time the sides will be gone. if the sides still persist, then get 0.5 mg rather than 1 mg fin. If you can get your hands on ru58841 or better yet pyrilutamide (be careful as many are fake selling it, will be available soon) then add it to your regiment.

My guess would be if the oral minoxidil messes with your heart rhythm, you stop taking it and you'll be fine? I mean, Im just doing my research. I know most drugs that are ingested come with sides so just trying to ask people who've tried it. Have you personally tried it ?

[AlexMeister21]

I've been taking oral minox for about 3 months now. I started with 2.5 mg every day and recently began taking 5mg every day. The only side effect I've noticed is that I would get some weird pulsations in my left arm. I don't know if it's connected with the oral minox, but it would go away if I stop taking it. I noticed the pulsations started again after I upped the dosage to 5mg. As for hair growth, I don't think I've noticed any improvements yet.

[BearsFan88]

Oral minox 2.5mg for a month now.  No issues.  
 

[Moazzam]

20 hours ago, Hah6788887 said:

My guess would be if the oral minoxidil messes with your heart rhythm, you stop taking it and you'll be fine? I mean, Im just doing my research. I know most drugs that are ingested come with sides so just trying to ask people who've tried it. Have you personally tried it ?

Yeah, it goes away with discontinuation. sometimes may take 3-5 months, in some cases you may be stuck with the sides for a long time, but in vast majority of the cases they're gone. Other non serious side effects like body hair etc will not go away. let's say, you grew hair on your back or your hair increased on your hands or thighs etc- they will not go away. the only hair that return to baseline are your head hairs, the rest wont. that's why many people with patchy or no beard use topical minoxidil+ microneedling/dermarolling on the areas of facial hair to grow beard and once it grows it's forever.

I've tried it personally but got the irregular heart beats, so reverted back to topical+microneedling+tretenoin and DUT as a 5AR blocker. 

Edited May 20, 2023 by Moazzam

[Hah6788887]

56 minutes ago, Moazzam said:

Yeah, it goes away with discontinuation. sometimes may take 3-5 months, in some cases you may be stuck with the sides for a long time, but in vast majority of the cases they're gone. Other non serious side effects like body hair etc will not go away. let's say, you grew hair on your back or your hair increased on your hands or thighs etc- they will not go away. the only hair that return to baseline are your head hairs, the rest wont. that's why many people with patchy or no beard use topical minoxidil+ microneedling/dermarolling on the areas of facial hair to grow beard and once it grows it's forever.

I've tried it personally but got the irregular heart beats, so reverted back to topical+microneedling+tretenoin and DUT as a 5AR blocker. 

What doesage did you try it at? The irregular heart beat started after how long of taking it? And after discontinuation, how long till it went away? The other hairs I'm not concerned about as I'm already very hairy and I don't mind getting laser hair removal if needed. I'm just concerned about the heart stuff potentially 

[Moazzam]

Don't get hair removal laser; you might need all those hair if you run out of grafts in future FUE. 
started Loniten at 2.5 mg for a month, then upped to 5mg, got sides within a week or two, then tapered down, the sides didn't go away. used it for 2-2.5 months total, I had low BP, puffy face and light headedness too. I guess if you're going oral for the sake of convenience rather than being a non responder to topical (that can be offset by things I mentioned earlier (i.e tretenoin+ microneedling) and by using the liquid rather than the foam) i suggest to stay topical. like I said, it doesn't cause issues in the majority of the people but the people getting sides aren't uncommon.

 

Edited May 20, 2023 by Moazzam

[Hah6788887]

1 hour ago, Moazzam said:

Don't get hair removal laser; you might need all those hair if you run out of grafts in future FUE. 
started Loniten at 2.5 mg for a month, then upped to 5mg, got sides within a week or two, then tapered down, the sides didn't go away. used it for 2-2.5 months total, I had low BP, puffy face and light headedness too. I guess if you're going oral for the sake of convenience rather than being a non responder to topical (that can be offset by things I mentioned earlier (i.e tretenoin+ microneedling) and by using the liquid rather than the foam) i suggest to stay topical. like I said, it doesn't cause issues in the majority of the people but the people getting sides aren't uncommon.

 

Did all your sides go away after discontinuation? And u had no issues until you upped the dose?. I personally would not up the dose from 2.5 

 

Yeah I'm not doing topical because one , the shedding and because how inconvenient it is. I won't be able to stick to that. I fully understand thar some people can get sides. My plan if I do start is do the lowest possible dosage and still to that. 

 

Did u see any improvement in your hair thickness when u took it?

 

 

 

[Hah6788887]

On 5/17/2023 at 5:56 AM, Gatsby said:

I started on 2.5mg of oral minoxidil last year and after three months of no side effects I went up to 5mg of oral minoxidil. I still have not had any side effects that I am aware of over the past ten months on the drug. My hair and beard has become much thicker and I didn't experience a shed.

How long till you noticed a change in hair thickness?

[Hah6788887]

On 5/17/2023 at 6:02 AM, A_4_Archan said:

I did the same as gatsby mentioned above ..started with 2.5 for 2 months and thn 5mg...am taking since long without any side effects and it helped me very much..my hair strands got fuller and more thicker and that helps in providing good coverage....actually upto 5mg is considered as a low dosage for this drug..bt still you can consult your surgeon for this....

So it did make a significant impact. How long till u saw the improvement?

[Hah6788887]

On 5/17/2023 at 2:42 PM, Turkhair said:

Puffy face, eye bags. Not really nice. I had to stop

Qhat

 

On 5/17/2023 at 7:29 AM, samz_033 said:

I have been taking 1.25mg of OM over the past 3 weeks. I had sides initially during the first week such as light-headedness but it subsided with continued use.

Any improvement in your hair thickness?

[GoliGoliGoli]

55 minutes ago, Hah6788887 said:

 

Yeah I'm not doing topical because one , the shedding and because how inconvenient it is. I won't be able to stick to that. I fully understand thar some people can get sides. My plan if I do start is do the lowest possible dosage and still to that. 

 

 

Shedding is going to happen with oral or topical

[Turkhair]

1 hour ago, Hah6788887 said:

Qhat

I noticed my face looking weird but would dismiss it, I thought I was getting fat. But one day I realised it’s because my face is swollen, have eye bags and was surprised. Learned that it’s caused by minoxidil and it’s due to fluid retention or something and I should drink sodium water or take some supplements

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9478873/

Then stumbled upon some video where it said minoxidil causes collagen loss and you should use trinetoin(spelling?) to counter that.

 
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03008207.2020.1816992#:~:text=Conclusions%3A Minoxidil exerts an in,are associated with clubfoot fibrosis.

 

I stopped immediately and never looked back. Decided I would get a hair transplant one day if I lost my hairs

Edited May 20, 2023 by Turkhair

[A_4_Archan]

7 hours ago, Hah6788887 said:

So it did make a significant impact. How long till u saw the improvement?

May be after 2 or 2.5 months i started seeing good result 

[samz_033]

9 hours ago, Hah6788887 said:

Qhat

 

Any improvement in your hair thickness?

Nothing yet

[Gatsby]

It takes minoxidil one year to see it's best results.

[djkillab]

I'm just over 6 months in to taking 2.5mg oral Minoxidil daily. Shedding lasted quite a while and no sign of improvement yet

[Moazzam]

On 5/21/2023 at 3:02 AM, Hah6788887 said:

Did all your sides go away after discontinuation? And u had no issues until you upped the dose?. I personally would not up the dose from 2.5 

 

Yeah I'm not doing topical because one , the shedding and because how inconvenient it is. I won't be able to stick to that. I fully understand thar some people can get sides. My plan if I do start is do the lowest possible dosage and still to that. 

 

Did u see any improvement in your hair thickness when u took it?

 

 

 

You will get shedding no matter which route you take. It could be i had no issues b/c it wasn't built up in my system and would've had once I reached that point. I'm was on fin for 4 years and then dut for 1 and used topical minox with microneedling and tretenoin so any gains on oral wouldn't have been noticible but hair on other parts got thicker which meant it was working. i switched to oral for the sake of ease of use.