Should I stop Oral Minoxidil before hair transplant?

Question

My op is scheduled for this today. I have been taking 5mg oral minoxidil and 1mg Finesteride, my pre op notes were silent on these drugs (just said no aspirin), so I took a minoxidil / Finesteride pill last night. Should I cancel my hair transplant procedure?

Kenneth Brito, MD · Answer

Minoxidil increases blood flow to the capillaries of your hair follicles while finasteride is a potent DHT blocker. Finasteride has a long half life meaning even if you stop it today, the effect could last for many weeks until it eventually fades away. Both medications help your current hair follicles thrive thus creating thicker hair.
Undergoing hair transplant will move your donor hair follicle to its new home (recipient). Stopping your minoxidil/finasteride will reverse all the effects it has done to your scalp, meaning you might have thicker hair density initially due to the new hair transplanted but eventually your current hair that were kept due to the medication (minoxidil/finasteride) will fade which may lead to appearance of thinned hair again. Depending on your clinical situation, most of the time, oral medications will need to be kept long-term even post hair transplant.

Jeff Donovan, MD, PhD · Answer

No, not a typical reason for most patients to stop. You’ll want to of course bring up all concerns you have before your surgery and make sure there are no outstanding issues. If you have not provided your surgeon with all your medical information, allergies, health concerns etc, you’ll want to make sure this has been properly relayed. But generally speaking stopping oral minoxidil is not needed for most young healthy patients undergoing surgery. Stopping Topical minoxidil may be a recommendation from some surgeons but certainly not all. The bottom line is you will want to ask your surgeon for his or her preferences. Provided he or she was made aware before the surgery, it’s quite likely that this was not part of the pre op instructions because it does not need stopping from his or her view. But be sure to have all questions answered before surgery.

Should I stop Oral Minoxidil before hair transplant?

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Should I stop Oral Minoxidil before hair transplant?

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Everything you need to know about Hair Transplant

Our mission is to create a world where every investment in modern beauty is Worth It.