Start minoxidil in 1 spot now...years later add it to the rest?

[genki21]

Well I'm a diffuse thinner. I finally decided to cut my hair really short. I did it myself just now. I did a 2 guard on the sides and back, with a 3 on top. I have to say I'm really pleased with how this looks. My hair looks thin but you wouldn't really know I'm balding...except....

I discovered a totally bald spot at the top. Maybe 1/2 centimeter circle that is totally bald, and the area around it thinner than the rest of my thinning hair on top. Not quite at the vertex, a little more forward.

I've been on finasteride for 4 months now, and I'm holding out for a year to see if I recover from my nasty shed and see a little regrowth. I planned on adding minoxidil if it wasn't enough at that point. If it was looking good I was going to put off minoxidil until I started to lose again.

But now this baldspot is bugging me. I'm thinking of starting minoxidil on that one spot now, and then wait and see after a year before applying it all over the top. However, if I just start now on that one stop will I be starting the minoxidil dependence for just that area or all over? Basically, am I going to be building a tolerance for all my hairs so when I start with the rest of my head it'll be more "resistant"

If that were the case I figure I should jsut start all over anyway right? Someone straighten me out...is the minoxidil dependence localized or does it apply all over?

For now, I'm going to use couvre to hide that little spot. Surprising, it did hide it pretty well. I still put couvre all over the top, as it makes my hair look even thicker. I was afraid with my hair this short the couvre wouldn't work well, but it still rocks! I'll make another post for diffuse thinners to go this route, it's made me a lot happier.

 

[genki21]

anyone?

 

[DAC21]

anyone?

Start the minoxidil.

 

[too bald too furious]

Hi Genki,
finasteride should be enough to take care of the diffused thinning you got. minoxidil is a must if you want regrowth on the bald spot. You have better chances of success with minoxidil, since your bald spot is on vertex and minoxidil is known to work there. Start 5% application twice a day at that spot.
As far as life long dependency is, its the same with any hair loss treatment until a cure is found out.
As for the minoxidil having localized effect, minoxidil mostly works at the site of application and may effect some of the surrounding hairs, but that would not be so strong to make those hairs dependent on minoxidil.
Also if you ever quit minoxidil, you will lose the hair minoxidil grew or was holding off. But you will not be worse off than what if you did not start minoxidil at all.
Hope this helps.
Good luck :hairy:

 

[genki21]

Thanks, I was hoping to put off minoxidil as long as possible. The dependence thing as well as a possible shed are a bit of a turn off. It's still up in the air for me. Maybe I'll give finasteride another month or two for recovering the tiny baldspot.

For now, couvre does hide it well.

 

[Bryan]

Thanks, I was hoping to put off minoxidil as long as possible. The dependence thing as well as a possible shed are a bit of a turn off.

Sorry, but I've gotta say something here: this whole thing about "minoxidil dependence" is rapidly starting to get on my nerves! That concept seems to mean different things to different people. I'd like to hear what YOU think is meant by that term!

Bryan

 

[genki21]

Thanks, I was hoping to put off minoxidil as long as possible. The dependence thing as well as a possible shed are a bit of a turn off.

Sorry, but I've gotta say something here: this whole thing about "minoxidil dependence" is rapidly starting to get on my nerves! That concept seems to mean different things to different people. I'd like to hear what YOU think is meant by that term!

Bryan

I think of it as sort of a tolerance. Using it now would mean it would lessen the effect later when I need to use it all over.

 

[Bryan]

I think of it as sort of a tolerance. Using it now would mean it would lessen the effect later when I need to use it all over

I don't know of any sound evidence that we develop a "tolerance" to topical minoxidil, in the sense that I think you mean (of course, I reserve the right to change my mind if I ever see any evidence to the contrary).

But in the meantime, my own assumption is that minoxidil works for as long as you use it. Of course, the fundamental balding process itself continues at the same rate, so results from minoxidil usually slowly decline; however, that's not what I would call "tolerance".

Bryan

 

[Petchsky]

Bryan,

Would you say its realistic to think that you will be able to maintain all your hair while taking Minoxidil, Proscar and Nizoral over a long period of time?

 

[Wezz]

one spot ? how you manage to squeeze all that minoxidil into one spot ? with 1ml its more then enough to cover the whole head. And i dont think putting it all in one spot affects more :roll:

 

[Bryan]

Bryan,

Would you say its realistic to think that you will be able to maintain all your hair while taking Minoxidil, Proscar and Nizoral over a long period of time?

I would expect that most people can maintain their hair with those items for several years...

Bryan

 

[genki21]

one spot ? how you manage to squeeze all that minoxidil into one spot ? with 1ml its more then enough to cover the whole head. And i dont think putting it all in one spot affects more :roll:

Well I'm guessing I wouldn't put the whole 1ml on that tiny spot, I'd use less. When my diffuse hairloss gets really bad I guess I could use more. :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: