Quit Minoxidil

[mpb47]

I quit minoxidil about 4 1/2 months ago. As expected I have experienced a massive shed that started shortly after I quit. It is continuing for me and I wonder if it could be something else, as it has been so long. From those who have gone through this, or have heard, how long does this shed last? Thanks for the input.

I quit for 3 months and after a couple of months I started losing tons of hair. My crown grew quickly and new mpb areas started appearing as well.

It started in mid/late Feb and only in past 2-3 weeks has it seemed to slow- I might be getting hair back but not sure just yet.

You are doing what is called catchup loss. The good news is it means the minox was doing it's job. The bad news is it means you would be that much balder without medication. I got back on it in a hurry because I saw how much I had advanced.

[Pats]

Tizzle - Are you on 5% minoxidil? If so you might consider trying the 2% minox, less likely to have sides and shedding perhaps. If that works then maybe after some months work your way up to 5%. Worth a shot right?

MPB47 - Thanks for the reply. Yeah the minox quit shed sucked, a short time ago I honestly didn't think my hair would look like this for another 15-20 years, yet here I am. Hope yours grows backs, keep me posted.

[kanyon]

I started using Minox about 9 years ago. It worked for many years but 18 months ago I noticed I'd lost a heap of hair suddenly. I've still been using it constantly since that time and I can now say for certain it doesn't work for me anymore.

Not sure if I grew a tolerance to it or if I just wasn't using it as consistently as I should have. If it's the latter then I'm very annoyed at myself for being lazy. Worst thing ever.

[VictimOfDHT]

VictimofDHT or Victimofhysterical, please use your brain,don't just keep whining. I am really tired of this. Why would a company use zero minoxidil? Why did I receive the best results while on Dualgen-15? Why were there thousands of positive feedbacks on dualgen-15 without a single negative one at Ebay?

Don't tell me that I have only six posts then I can't say the truth. I know there are shills on forums for over 10 years with thousands of posts.

Listen ****head, who stuck a stick up your ass ? But why should I even bother talking to you? It's obvious you ARE a shill. A salesman for a bunch of crooks who sell snake oil. Wow ! So you appear out of nowhere and you just happen to stumble across this post! Really! Wait you son of a bitch. Did you say "thousands of positive feedbacks" !! Thousands!! You got me sold, mother ****er. I'm gonna head to ebay now and buy me some more dualgen. Scum of the earth.

[hairlossrxsucks]

Idiot, you need to think with your brain if it is not zero intelligence, not your ass. I don't hang around forums writting garbages. I come here once a while to look for good treatment. Unfortunately everytime I came here I saw you idiot whining dualgen has zero minoxidil.

[WarLord]

I quit for 3 months and after a couple of months I started losing tons of hair. My crown grew quickly and new mpb areas started appearing as well.

It started in mid/late Feb and only in past 2-3 weeks has it seemed to slow- I might be getting hair back but not sure just yet.

You are doing what is called catchup loss. The good news is it means the minox was doing it's job. The bad news is it means you would be that much balder without medication. I got back on it in a hurry because I saw how much I had advanced.

I wonder, why you stopped using it? You just must expect this reaction (if you bothered to inform yourself about some rules of minoxidil use).

[WarLord]

...or if I just wasn't using it as consistently as I should have. If it's the latter then I'm very annoyed at myself for being lazy. Worst thing ever.

This is a factor that often comes on my mind, when people complain about the loss of efficiency. Look, I am a very disciplined person, but I myself started to be floppy with everyday's use after some seven, eight years. I really don't expect that the vast majority of users would be as consistent as me. Which suggests that much of the complaints can be ascribed to the "laziness" of minoxidil users. The very fact that you are not much sure, if you were consistent or not, is quite telling.

Luckily, I am both disciplined and sufficiently paranoid, so I quickly realized the foolishness of my praxis, and I again started to use it regularly, once every day. I have been using it since January 1997 and with the exception of a short, unhappy experiment with natural extrats (spring 1998), I have been keeping all the hair I had then (Norwood 2).

The most important thing that you should realize is that even if your hair loss now continued despite constant everyday's use, it doesn't mean that minoxidil "stopped working". It still slows down the process. If you now quit minoxidil, you can get bald within 6 months, because you would lose all the hair that minoxidil was keeping during the whole 9 years. You must either upgrade it (to a higher concentration) or - which I would strongly recommend - to start using finasteride (either alone or together with minoxidil).

[WarLord]

Warlord, I think you need to go back and read AGAIN and you WILL see that I have used Minox 15%, yes, dr. Lee's -when he was in business- I was on it for 2 months or so but didn't feel it was any better than 5% and didn't see a justification for the higher price and that's why I dropped it, but at the same time it DIDN'T cause any shedding.

Read what I'm saying. It wasn't minox 15% that was causing the shedding. It was that specific garbage (Dualgen) that was. The ONLY explanation : SNAKE OIL. It contains ZERO% Minoxidil, let alone 15%. I have used 3 different products over the years (Rogaine, Kirkland, and for 2 months dr. Lee's 15%) and sometimes I switch between Rogaine and Kirkland and aside from the initial temporary shed, they all worked. I switch to these SOB's shit and my hair starts falling out like crazy and like NEVER before. I was shedding daily a minimum of 170 hairs even though I was using that shit. Like I said, I was on it for 3 months or so but my hair kept getting thinner and thinner.


"There are simply too many guys who experienced good results on it". I'm not sure what you're referring to by 'it'. If you mean Dualgen then I don't believe there are any, unless you want to believe the so-called "testimonials" by Dualgen. If you mean minox 15% by 'it' then it is possible that some people do experience better results.

I had HTs done but if you read my posts you'll see what area was done but I'll tell you again- the front quarter of the head. You'll also see that I was never bald to begin with. I had lots of hair in the hairline and temples -and behind that area my hair was 80% thick -but I just wanted to fill in the corners a little because I was too horrified of hair loss that I wasnt going to sit and watch it get worse before I did anything. Of course I continued to gradually lose more hair in the front and that's why I had more HTs. But even after 4 HTs I still had native hair left in the hairline and temples and I'm positive that's the hair I lost while I was on Dualgen. But I also lost probably 25% or more of my hair all over. The doctor says I was losing my transplanted hair or some of it but what about the rest of my head (the non-transplanted area) which was pretty thick before I got on that garbage (dualgen)?

"it is also possible that I didn't reveal everything" !! What the ****? What are you talking about ?? The only one here who doesn't make sense is you? Only 5 posts and you decide to write to defend Dualgen !!

You are true that I forgot your experience with 15%Kirkland. But as you see, your transplanted hairs constitute a variable that can play some role. I really don't know, how to evaluate your experience. I also had a mixed feeling from the use of 15% Kirkland - it regrew some thick hairs on places that have been bald for 14 years, but simultaneously, it burned out my hairy areas like some acid. It's been almost 1 year since this experiment (January-June 2011). Subsequently I tried to use only 10-15% minoxidil every other day, but I think that my hair still hasn't stabilized from this shock. I stopped using all high minoxidil concentrations only 3 months ago.

By the way, I also wonder if you used minoxidil consistently, even shortly after your transplantations?

[mpb47]

I wonder, why you stopped using it? You just must expect this reaction (if you bothered to inform yourself about some rules of minoxidil use).

I had health issues and needed to see if minox was the culprit. And yes I knew I would lose hair but it was a lot more than I expected as new areas appeared as well. Also about 4 years I was able to taper down for awhile without rapid balding. Not sure what the difference is between now and 4 years ago.


Many people think Minox doesn't work very well or it wears off in a couple of years, but my 3 month vacation is living proof that it keeps working for a long time-15-16 years for me.

[mpb47]

Tizzle - Are you on 5% minoxidil? If so you might consider trying the 2% minox, less likely to have sides and shedding perhaps. If that works then maybe after some months work your way up to 5%. Worth a shot right?

MPB47 - Thanks for the reply. Yeah the minox quit shed sucked, a short time ago I honestly didn't think my hair would look like this for another 15-20 years, yet here I am. Hope yours grows backs, keep me posted.

Pats- How long where you on minox? I think longer you are on it, the worse you get when you stop unfortunately. I think I am getting some of it back but it's thinner hair so not sure if it's going to stay around or just keep getting worse.

And yes you are right about 2%. I went to that a few years ago to avoid eye puffiness. Because I lost so much hair I am starting to use 5% again , just not all the time.

Good luck getting yours back as well...

[WarLord]

I had health issues and needed to see if minox was the culprit. And yes I knew I would lose hair but it was a lot more than I expected as new areas appeared as well. Also about 4 years I was able to taper down for awhile without rapid balding. Not sure what the difference is between now and 4 years ago.


Many people think Minox doesn't work very well or it wears off in a couple of years, but my 3 month vacation is living proof that it keeps working for a long time-15-16 years for me.

I think that many people in the internet spread rumours that are depressing - and blatantly untrue. Not a long time ago, people thought that finasteride worked only for ca. 5 years on average. Now, this myth was eventually debunked: 86% users of finasteride (without any other ancillaries) have kept or improved the state of their hair after 10 years. Only 14% experienced some loses.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21910805

This means that people spreading these misinformations make up only a small minority of users. They simply disproportionately concentrate on internet forums when looking for help, and here they meet unfortunates with similar experiences. Subsequently, they erroneously conclude that their experience is universal.

Apparently, the reaction to a particular stuff is very individual and there exist no rules. Someone doesn't react well, someone experiences a gradual loss of efficiency after several years, but someone can be successful almost indefinitely. I have been on 2-5% minoxidil since 1997 (15 years) and I have comfortably kept my Norwood 2 hair. Actually, it would never occur to me that it should stop working. But after visiting internet forums during the last years (when I was looking for some advice, how to regrow my temples back), I became paranoid and nervous, because many frustrated guys were basically telling me that my hairs were heretics and I should have been bald for at least 5 years already. It's...disgusting.

[tizzle]

Tizzle - Are you on 5% minoxidil? If so you might consider trying the 2% minox, less likely to have sides and shedding perhaps. If that works then maybe after some months work your way up to 5%. Worth a shot right?

You are right, it might be beneficial. But i really dont have the nerve to apply it twice a day or even at night. I am going to hope that finasteride will help me until good treatments hit the market. Thx for the responses

[VictimOfDHT]

You are true that I forgot your experience with 15%Kirkland. But as you see, your transplanted hairs constitute a variable that can play some role. I really don't know, how to evaluate your experience. I also had a mixed feeling from the use of 15% Kirkland - it regrew some thick hairs on places that have been bald for 14 years, but simultaneously, it burned out my hairy areas like some acid. It's been almost 1 year since this experiment (January-June 2011). Subsequently I tried to use only 10-15% minoxidil every other day, but I think that my hair still hasn't stabilized from this shock. I stopped using all high minoxidil concentrations only 3 months ago.

By the way, I also wonder if you used minoxidil consistently, even shortly after your transplantations?

Warlord, I'm not sure if you meant dr. Lee's 15% and not Kirkland 15% since Kirkland doesn't have 15% Minox.


I always try to use Minoxidil consistently but there have been days when I missed a dose, and sometimes I miss a whole day without using Minox but I'd say less than 2 days in a month.

I was told by the doctor to stop using Minox 10 days prior to the HT till a few days after.

What really sucks is that the hair you lose if you stop using Minoxidil will not grow back if you get back on minoxidil. I don't understand why. What the hell happens that causes the hair that was there with the use of minox not to grow back even though you start giving it the life-giving minoxidil once again.

[tizzle]

thats exactly what i was asking myself too.
my doctor said a follicle takes a decade to miniturize to the point where it dies. so a few months off minox should not be enough for it to die. So restarting minox should basically work

I hope my hairline will fully recover from my initial shed (i stopped minox after a month in the middle of the shed) since im in the early stages of mpb and additionally taking Fin

[mpb47]

I think that many people in the internet spread rumours that are depressing - and blatantly untrue. Not a long time ago, people thought that finasteride worked only for ca. 5 years on average. Now, this myth was eventually debunked: 86% users of finasteride (without any other ancillaries) have kept or improved the state of their hair after 10 years. Only 14% experienced some loses.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21910805

This means that people spreading these misinformations make up only a small minority of users. They simply disproportionately concentrate on internet forums when looking for help, and here they meet unfortunates with similar experiences. Subsequently, they erroneously conclude that their experience is universal.

Apparently, the reaction to a particular stuff is very individual and there exist no rules. Someone doesn't react well, someone experiences a gradual loss of efficiency after several years, but someone can be successful almost indefinitely. I have been on 2-5% minoxidil since 1997 (15 years) and I have comfortably kept my Norwood 2 hair. Actually, it would never occur to me that it should stop working. But after visiting internet forums during the last years (when I was looking for some advice, how to regrow my temples back), I became paranoid and nervous, because many frustrated guys were basically telling me that my hairs were heretics and I should have been bald for at least 5 years already. It's...disgusting.

Yea I have seen a well known poster, someone that has been around since the 90's, swear it will only work for 5 years or less because all these articles say so. He is on a lot of boards saying this same basic message. Well I have no doubt mpb will eventually win out as I can see it slowly happening to me. But 15+ years is a heck of a lot longer than 5 years. I am backed into a corner as I can't take fin so this is basically all I can do so I am sure glad I did not listen to this guy as otherwise I would have just given up.