Minoxidil for Thinning Hair (Female)

It's been about 18-19 months now and I'm still using 5% minoxidil every day: 1ml every morning. I generally use half on each side around the temples where it's thinnest.
I said in my original review that I would stop after a certain point to see what would happen, but to be honest, I'm too scared to stop because I'm pretty sure I will go back to how it was before (I was hoping I might keep some results and wanted to test that, but nope: too scared to go backwards :)).
My hair loss is up and down but nothing like the scary handfuls before (I've been monitoring it, nothing scientific, but I know when it's more or less). I comb it into the sink morning and night and see how much is there, and there is that thing where you feel hairs falling out onto your arm or neck and if I comb through with my fingers, I go through periods where I get quite a lot coming out that way vs hardly any.
But whatever hair I'm losing, the growth or retention is making up for it so the overall amount and look of the hair isn't being impacted which is great.
Very pleased with the results.

I was going to quit using Minoxidil (1 ml of 5% once a day in the morning) at about 6 months to see what happened, but after I stopped for a couple of weeks, I started shedding again and it scared me, so I started again.

In the last two months, I have started shedding again with a vengeance. I wonder if interrupting the use may have caused that. I've also been fiddling a little with biotin & zinc and thought that might have had an impact. I googled and found that other users have also reported periods of (re)shedding at 9-12 months on Minoxidil and it's normal, so I'm trying not to worry too much about it.

A new hairdresser yesterday complimented me on my 'great head of hair'. I was all 'what? me?' She said it was strong and there was a lot of it. No-one has EVER said that to me, so yay. Though after she washed it she ALSO asked if I usually shed a lot in a bit of a worried voice. So yeah, it's some pretty serious shedding for her to ask about it. Probably not as bad as my WORST, but still :(.

The 'side effect' hair growth has disappeared. That means no more lovely long lashes, but also no more noticeable peach fuzz on my face or other body parts. Not sure if that's a good sign, really. Maybe things are just 'settling'. Hoping I'm not going backwards.

As for how my hair LOOKS, I'd say that the hair at my temples (the primary areas I wanted to address) looks lighter than at 4 months, which is pretty disappointing. I do seem to have MORE hair overall (I put it up in a comb pretty frequently and there definitely seems to be more bulk).

Tempted to go back to applying it twice a day (stopped it because of excessive hair growth elsewhere), but will stick with this until 12 months and see what happens.

A quick update to say this:

While I saw marked improvements over the first 3 months (per the photos), I was still shedding like a walking hairball. That was pretty normal to me from a pretty young age: My hair would fall out around the house, when I ran my fingers through it, on my favourite spot on the couch, and always a handful in the drain when I washed it. The issue in the last few years is that it obviously wasn't growing BACK as fast.

So the improvement I saw in the first three months was new growth and it was DESPITE the fact that I was still losing as much as ever.

In the last 3-4 weeks, my hair loss has slowed to almost nothing. I'm not sure if this is just part of the normal hair growth cycle and the shedding will pick up again, but just pointing it out to say that if this is part of minoxidil doing its thing and my mad shedding is done for real, it's taken 3.5 to 4 months for the hair loss to slow.

So now I'm getting a double whammy of new hair growth PLUS no shedding. Looking forward to seeing what that actually looks like (though honestly, I'm really happy with where my hair is at now, so anything more is a bonus).

Pics are before starting vs now (wow!), and then last month vs now. I'm still seeing visible improvement around the hairline in the last month. In particular right at the top where my hair looks thicker and less 'peach-fuzzy'.

Hair growth elsewhere is okay: I imagine it's slowed, but I can't be sure (maybe I'm just getting used to it). None of it is noticeable to others, and I've not felt the need to deal with any extra hair on my face since last month, so it's obviously nothing I'm worrying about.