Long time Rogaine user - immune?

[kanyon]

Hello all,

This is my first post on this forum and would like to share my tale/ask some questions.

In the early 00's I started losing my hair at the age of 20. I went to see a specialist in 2003 and he prescribed me with Propecia. I used them for a few months and they didn't seem to work. He said if they didn't work then I should try Rogaine. I used Rogaine twice daily for the first year very diligently and never really missed an application.

It worked a treat! My hair started growing back thicker and I was delighted. I started using it only once a day and did that for a couple of years and it kept working. Then I became lazy and also travelled a bit and would go several months without at a time which didn't seem to stop or reverse the growth.

Over the past year I've been sort of lazy - using it a few times a week and therefore worse than when I started using it but more frequently than when I'd travel for months without using it at all.

I should say that I didn't take it for granted. For 7 years I was so happy and recognised how great the product was.

Then I got my haircut 2 months ago and I literally noticed at that time, wow my hair looks so thin again. It was as if it happened while I was in the chair getting it cut. The hair loss must have mostly happened between September and October 2010 so that most of the hair I grew back just fell out. I'm not sure if my lazyness caught up with me (even though I was using it more than when I was travelling in 08-09 but still not daily) or more frighteningly - if I've built an immunity to it.

I have been freaking out and started using Rogaine with more commitment than previously, applying it twice a day for the first time since 2004. I've been doing this for about 2 months. The situation is no better. I'm worried that the stuff no longer works for me and I need an alternative solution. Perhaps trying the pills again and the very last resort - some kind of surgery.

Hopefully if I'm just more strict on my usage it will start to work again and I won’t need to take such drastic measures.

So could I have built an immunity or could it be that I was using it infrequently? And do you think it would be likely to work as it once did if I continue to use it twice a day or would such intermittent use over the years mean it wouldn't work anymore?

Thanks very much for reading!