Restarting Minoxidil treatment, still using finasteride

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Ok this is my first post, so forgive me if it is not eloquent. Ill give you the low down on my regime prior to stopping minoxidil. When I realised I was losing hair I freaked out and blew my hard on cash on Ashely and Martins (australian hair loss business), I know how stupid of me. But i was ignorant at the time of any other hairloss treatments. Now i know better, So anyway I was on a quarter of a 5mg tablet of finascar (generic finasteride) and also applying 2ml of 7% minoxidil with 0.01% retinoic acid. This treatment did stop my hair loss, but as A & M dont like to give out information, I did not realize what a large part the minoxidil was playing in my hair regrowth... So I stopped it, and after about 2 weeks hair slowly started to fall out. I was still on the finasteride at the time though. so for about 4 and a half months I had stopped minoxidil only to see my hair fall out all over again. It sucked big time.

So I restarted 7% A & M minoxidil (I had 2 bottles left) but after about a month and half i changed to 5%generic minoxidil as it itches less on my scalp so all up 2 1/2 months now of minoxidil treatment, yes I am still on finasteride to. So like last time I have noticed an increase in hair between my head hair and eyebrows and a few stray hair follicles in front of my now again receding hair line. BUT and here is my worry I am still losing hairs in the shower and still finding them on my pillow, I do know that it is early but the stress and deprssion of losing hair again is killing me.

I am in great need of advice on the matter of minoxidil and whether once stopped will it work again or otherwise. If anyone else has experienced a similar story I would be grateful to hear of it.



I am still using both minoxidil 5% and 1/4 5mg finasteride today, I will keep you guys updated on any improvements.

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Ok so I took some photos 3 months ago, and then took some today. And well i dont think there has been a drastic change as there was before, rather if anything i may have a bit more hair in the temples (only a little bit if any). I can not really tell about my crown though.

I talked with my dermatologist about using dutasteride. And as i had no ill effects from finasteride we agreed that we might as well give it a shot. So im gonna see what happens with dut instead of fin, somewhat scared of the first shed... anyway dut is only like 50$ where im from (sydney australia) and yer thats aussie dollars, so I figure what ever might as well see.

Ill keep dropping little lines from time to time as I hope they can help somebody, I know how much the feeling of not being able to control anythings sucks. So heres to giving you a cheer up!

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So anyway its been awhile since i started this thread, and as I said i would keep updating it. So i took some more photos today and compared them and to be honest I cant see a major difference, but this may be due to the fact that i have changed cameras and lighting and that it is really hard to get the exact same photo everytime you try months apart for accurate comparisons.

Im still noticing miniaturized hairs though which is annoying so i guess I am still losing hair haha. So not sure if Dut in my case is much different from Finasteride. Anyway I am trying to get my dermatologist to prescribe 7% minox with 0.01 retinoic acid, as when i first started my exploration into hairloss drugs this combined with Fin actaully gave what i now know to be an amazing result.

So im going back to the start for the one thing that I know truly worked. My one worry is that perhaps it is just the my MPB is to aggressive and it wasn't the minox at all that stopped it but rather that it just eventually got through all the drugs anyway, which would suck.


Oh yer I almost forgot, my dermo is being really stand offish on prescribing me this minox/retinoic acid combo so I may just go to another one if he doesnt respond by this wednesday. I didnt have nay problems when i used it for 8 months before so i dont now what his problem with the drug is.

I hope this will help you in some way with your own hair related issues, but one thing I have learned is that if something doesnt work dont panic. Apparantly only a very specific combo worked for me first time around so just keep your chin up.
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I thought I would also add a little note on those (who I may be one) of us who none of this stuff works for and we just end up losing our hair. I talked to my older brother the other day, he is only 23 and by the end of this year will be very noticably balding as its pretty obvious now BUT he has a very nice and very attractive girl friend who doesnt give a **** about the hair haha, imagine that some girls dont mind a bloke to do whats natural and bald gracefully.

And another little side note is that I am currently seeing a Finnish girl who to enjoys what our culture sees ugly traits ie. hairy chests and legs or balding or scraggly beards or basically just masculine traits to our physical builds. She explained to me that at the end of the day any girl with half a brain knows most men lose their hair and that they too will lose their looks and that things like body hair or balding are just things that make us men (or eastern european women... im joking ;). )


Ill drop you guys a line again in future when some developments happen, if you have any questions feel free to post them here.

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SIDE NOTE : wow in my first post i said "hard on cash", not to mention how worried do i sound! its like it was testicle cancer or something

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quick note, so have gone back to minox and retinoic acid, now with an added 5% saw palmetto as my compund chemist is a coll dude and said **** it lets just give it a go no extra charge, and i think im seeing regrowth along my hair line, pretty much the same as when i first used this kind of minox blend.

oh and the minox im using is only 5% now and if in a few months the gear is still working then i ill be cheering.

I think it is important for any of you guys or girls out there dealing with hair loss to make sure that give everything a good go and not to lose heart to early. I mean just plain minox doesnt do anything for me and neitehr does fin or dut as i ahve put all these products through rigourus testing with my dermo and chemist and we all found that the only product for ME (it will be different i guess for everybody) that wrked was this specific compound of minox. so if you have the budget try it all out but make sure you stick with it for at least 6 months before you try something else.

till next time