Will my hair recover after quitting minoxidil?

Question

I've been using minoxidl at 5% for a year and quit recently. Now I'm taking vitamin supplements and have cleaned up my diet and exercising. I do not have any history of hair loss problems in my family and I am 27 years old.

Sanusi Umar, MD · Answer

If you have genetic pattern baldness, quitting Minoxidil will not result in the automatic recovery of hair loss. The drug basically stimulates certain conditions within the scalp that help limit pattern baldness or even grow hair. This includes blood flow, the activity of certain prostaglandins and support for longer hair growth cycles.Stopping the medication would also stop these processes. Therefore any gains would diminish after quitting. Pattern baldness is not always linked to family history. But if you were examined by a doctor and found that you don’t have androgentic alopecia, but rather telogen effluvium (hair loss from stress, causing hairs to enter the resting phase much sooner) there is a chance that your hair could grow back even after you’ve stopped using Minoxidil.

Jack Fisher, MD · Answer

If the minoxidil was saving fragile hair, it is possible that the hair will not recover after stopping the medication. The best test is to restart it and see if you can tolerate it.

Will my hair recover after quitting minoxidil?

Answers (2)

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