What to Do When Minoxidil Stops Working?

Minoxidil, Hair Care

Your hair is falling out, and you have been using minoxidil to regrow it, but suddenly you find it’s no longer working.

Are you wondering – what to do now?

Minoxidil is not the only medicine that can stop hair loss and regrow your hair. But there are a lot of other things that can assist you in regrowing your hair, such as finasteride, saw palmetto, PRP, low-level laser therapy, and derma rolling. So, what to do if minoxidil stops working? Try using other medications with it or without it. Adding one or two more medications along with minoxidil is always a good idea.

This article will take a deep dive into it and show you all the possible methods you can use if your minoxidil is not working or is working very little.

What to Do When Minoxidil Stops Working

Why Does Minoxidil Stop Working?

There are a few reasons why minoxidil stops working. The most common reason is that your hair follicles have become insensitive to the chemical. Second, your hair follicles no longer contain the enzymes necessary for converting and activating the active ingredient to regenerate hair.

Your doctor may prescribe 10% minoxidil if your hair follicles become insensitive to 5% minoxidil. Though, this is not the best solution because even 10% minoxidil may not work after a few months.

Should I stop using minoxidil?

Nope! Because this could be even dangerous because the hair grew up because of minoxidil will fall out.

You should never stop using minoxidil. Even if it no longer grows your hair, it will certainly stop you from losing hair. It is just a matter of using it correctly and helping it to work for you again. Just make sure to take a DHT blocker with it as well. We will talk about DHT blocker in the later part of this article.

Now, how to help minoxidil to work for you again?

By microneedling!

One study shows that microneedling stimulates the growth of hair follicles, increases the collagen, and increases the number of growth factors.

There are many research that shows microneedling with a derma roller helps to stimulate the power of minoxidil by stimulation of collagen and growth factor in your scalp.

Now, if only minoxidil is not helping you to stop hair fall and regrow hair, the first thing you could try is a derma roller in combination with minoxidil.

And then you need a DHT blocker.

Which are some good DHT blockers?

Finasteride is only FDA approved medication to block DHT. You can only buy and use it with a doctor’s advice as it’s a prescription only medicine. The worst part of finasteride is its side effects.

So, if you want to use finasteride you have to visit a doctor and you can only use it with his recommendation as you can’t buy it over the counter like minoxidil.

But, there are some horror stories over the internet that how finasteride/Propecia ruin someone’s life.

These stories always kept me away from finasteride. Then, what is the other good option?

Saw Palmetto.

Among the two products, saw palmetto isn’t a pharmaceutical drug; it is a naturally occurring herb that has been processed into a tablet. Though, when it comes to treating hair loss, Propecia is the best-known drug on the market. In comparison, saw palmetto appears to work quite well, and its main side effects are quite mild compared to finasteride.

While saw palmetto is a natural product thus it’s not come without side effects. That’s why you have to make sure you don’t take higher dosage than recommendations also, take good saw palmetto brands only.

Final Verdict

What to Do When Minoxidil Stops Working?

Use a derma roller with minoxidil and to block the DHT, use finasteride or Saw Palmetto. Also, make sure you keep your expectations realistic. Nothing can happen overnight. That’s why using these for the next 4 to 6 months, even if you are not seeing any result, is very important.

keep taking your medication, and to keep your expectations realistic.

References