How do I discontinue 5% Minoxidil without losing hair?

Question

Regimine - 5% Minoxidil 50 drops (2ml) once per day for 7-8 months - 1.25 mg Finastride every 4th day for 7-8 months

David Deutsch, MD · Answer

Think of using Minoxidil as putting a "pause" button on hair loss.It is a maintenance medication and once you stop you will gradually lose the hairs that you would have lost had you not started Minoxidil("pause" button off). If you do stop the Minoxidil I would recommend increasing the Finasteride to 1 mg per day-you can consult a Dermatologist or experienced Hair Restoration surgeon about this.

Levent Acar, MD · Answer

You can change from %5 minoxidil to %2 minoxidil .And before stop minoxidil totaly,you can start 2-3 month before 1 mg finasterid.

Jay Goldstein, MD · Answer

Almost all hair treatments must be continuous or the benefits will be undone when you stop. This includes Minoxidil and Finasteride although if one is working you can quit the one that is not working. The tricky part is if you are taking both, there is no way to know which one is working (or both. They work differently so one can not predict).  If you want to find out, I would quit the Finasteride first as your dose is quite low. If your hair falls out, then go back on to it, but take it daily. Then you can stop the Minoxidil and see what happens. It may takes several months of stopping to know one way or the other.

Parsa Mohebi, MD, FISHRS · Answer

First you must decide if the Rogaine
and/or finasteride are helping you.  If
either or both have helped then you should not stop otherwise you will start to
lose more hair.  Tapering off makes no
sense for Rogaine because otherwise you may lose hair at a faster pace as soon
as your body realizes it is not on board anymore.  This phenomenon is not as well documented
with finasteride.

Ilhan Serdaroglu, MD · Answer

You  can not ..İf you stop it , benefits will disappear and you start to loose your hair again .beside, you should use finasteride daily , not once in a 4 days.

Jeff Donovan, MD, PhD · Answer

If minoxidil was helping you, you'll lose hair if you stop. You can add another hair growth treatment but there is really no other way around it without changing what you presently do. I suspect you'd benefit more from 1.25 mg daily than every 4th day but I'll leave that up to you and your hair specialist to decide.Finasteride and minoxidil are more effective than either one alone - studies clearly show that.

William Rassman, MD (retired) · Answer

If your hairs grew from minoxidil or you developed minoxidil dependent hairs, then withdrawing the medication will cause the loss of these dependent hairs

How do I discontinue 5% Minoxidil without losing hair?

Answers (7)

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