Why do doctors keep saying that minoxidil does no damage to the hair when you have Male pattern baldness when it clearly does?

Question

Minoxidil sheds hair. Wen the hair is not strong enough it, and you need to quit minoxidil because of side-effects the hair wont grow back. So if you quit minoxidil, it will have done quite some damage. The hair was maybe programmed to fall put in a couple of years but it could have remained for quite some time. Minoxidil ruined my hairline a few years sooner.

Robert Nettles, MD · Answer

Technically minoxidil does not cause shedding.  We all lose about 100 hairs per day as part of the normal hair growth and replenishment cycle.  If more than 100 hairs come out every da

y on a consistent basis (ie: at least 5 days in a row) then something else is going on, like potentially telogen effluvium or alopecia areata.  The biggest problems I personally see with Minoxidil are as follows:

1. The alcohol bases needed to sustain it causes irritation and inlfamation to the scalps of a large percentage of people who use it.

2. It is only a mild hair growth stimulant and not strong enough to prevent the hair loss which is inevitable if you are a sufferer of androgenetic alopecia.

3. It is a hair growth stimulant only which means it does not STOP hair loss.

I would recommend seeing a hair loss specialist who can:

1. Correctly diagnose your true cause of hair loss - sometimes there are multiple.

2. Can treat that cause and prevent you from losing more hair

3. Regrow the hair you still have faster and thicker than it would on its own once you remove the hair loss cause.

Best of luck,

Robert Nettles MD

William Rassman, MD (retired) · Answer

Hairs that are grown from minoxidil are usually not the genetically impacted hairs but these hairs are dependent upon minoxidil so stopping it could be a real problem because of the dependency that is developed. If you feel that minoxidil is not good for you, then don't use it

Why do doctors keep saying that minoxidil does no damage to the hair when you have Male pattern baldness when it clearly does?

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Why do doctors keep saying that minoxidil does no damage to the hair when you have Male pattern baldness when it clearly does?

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Everything you need to know about Hair Loss Treatment

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