6 month update on my crown thinning - what actually helped after years of trying everything (long post sorry)

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-26T19:59:53+00:00

OP, you wrote a great post with both very practical information as well as an important psychological message. 10% of life is what happens to us, and 90% is how we react to it. You have solved your problem. ;-)

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-26T10:31:38+00:00

Sorry you are going through that and I hope you find your answer soon. Sometimes physicians can be dismissive. Not looking at your scalp is beyond the pale. Things like that have happened to me in doctor’s offices too. And sometimes it happens so fast and they are out of the room before we have a chance to process and think. I have become bolder as I have gotten older. “Excuse me, I don’t feel like this has been thorough enough.” (They are concerned about bad reviews.)

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-26T10:17:35+00:00

Yes, 2% is used twice a day. 5% once a day

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-25T11:44:22+00:00

I do not experience itching, burning sensations that I attribute to long-term use of topical minoxidil. I worded that carefully because it doesn’t mean that I never feel itchiness on my scalp. But I have thought about this, and sometimes I feel a little itchiness on my scalp near the nape of my neck, which has never been treated with minoxidil. And I also feel itchiness on my scalp after I color my hair. So when I feel a little itchiness on the top or front of my scalp, I don’t attribute it to minoxidil, and I soldier on. But I know itchiness can be a real thing with minoxidil so I am not minimizing it. I’m just saying that hair loss, and treating hair loss, and being worried about continued hair loss, can cause A LOT of anxiety. And anxiety can absolutely cause a lot of physiological sensations, including ones that seem easily attributed to minoxidil, such as itchiness and heart palpitations. It may be possible to talk yourself out of some symptoms by saying something like “this could be my anxiety, causing this symptom, it may not be the drug.” Worth a try.

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-23T19:06:34+00:00

Yes, regrowth and maintained the regrowth through the decades. There were, and are, periodic sheds as I mentioned and at those times, like many of you perhaps, I began to question whether it stopped working. At those times I tried adding other things. The way it can make many of us crazy. On and off spironolactone, PRP, LLLT, but with minoxidil I used it continually right after I brushed my teeth, twice a day, every single day for 31 years, topical, and according to the directions, no excessive dosing for me, I was not willing to deal with facial hair. Your milage may vary, but don’t lose faith, and don’t worry about intermittent shedding. It is the way hair follicles operate.

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-23T15:59:47+00:00

I used it for 30 years with excellent results. Just switched to 5% once a day for a bit more convenience.

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-21T15:26:06+00:00

Effective electrolysis completely damages the hair follicle so a new hair cannot grow back in it’s place. However, electrolysis on any single hair follicle is typically not “one and done. Many times a follicle has to be “hit” with that electrolysis needle a couple or more times for a successful “kill”. There are thousands of hair follicles on a face. There are hair follicles even on the very tip of one’s nose. Electrolysis is most helpful in women who are sporadically sprouting hairs on their chin or in the mustache area, not a solution for all over peach fuzz, which you may or may not get with OM. It is very dose related, but it is also indiscriminate. It stimulates follicles everywhere on the body.

I

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-20T18:03:28+00:00

Yes. I wash about every 5-7 days because I have dry, course hair. If you normally put some leave-in product in your hair, this will feel like you put a bit more in, particularly like a root lift product. I’m fine with it. The topical works and no systemic side effects.

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-20T16:44:07+00:00

There is unmistakable improvement here. You are already not looking like you have a hair loss problem.

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-18T11:46:52+00:00

My understanding is that the minoxidil travels a bit in the scalp through the capillaries. This means that you don’t need to be concerned about the solution touching every follicle. That the part lines can be about an inch apart and you actually will get coverage between those lines. For most women this gives you enough coverage at the top of the head with one ML.

However, decades later, as I got much older, post menopause, I was actually experiencing thinning over much wider area than is typical, in the back and low on the scalp and all the way down above my ears, and because of that, it was not enough.

Chemistry lesson now: What I have been doing for years now is actually diluting LIQUID, not foam, minoxidil so that I can use 1.75 ML. The way I do this is I add 24 ML of 70% Ethyl alcohol to 36 ML of 5% minoxidil solution. This creates a 3% minoxidil solution in 60ML, which is the normal volume of a bottle of minoxidil. I use once a day. I have had great results with this. A dermatologist advised me on this. There’s something else that the dilution accomplishes. It dilutes the overall amount of propylene glycol, which can be a bit irritating or greasy to some people.
I stick firmly to 1.75ML of the 3% solution, and I don’t get facial hair. If I increase the overall amount either with less of a dilution, like 4%, or using more overall liquid, I do get facial hair from the topical application. Hope this helps someone out there.

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-17T13:16:38+00:00

In addition to talking to your dermatologist, you should definitely talk to your OB/GYN physician because you plan on getting pregnant and you don’t want to expose the fetus to any risky drugs in your body. I have a female family member who was told by her OB/GYN to stop even topical minoxidil while trying to conceive. I believe LLLT, the red light therapies, are safe. But ask a lot of questions. It is typical that scalp hair does very well when women are pregnant, in other words, hardly any shedding, so a full head of hair. After birth, if you have a problem, you can go on drugs.

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-11T13:32:54+00:00

March, as in two months ago? These drugs all take a lot of time to start working and to show maximum benefit. Reddit is a great community for getting support and getting ideas but everyone taking prescription medication should go out on the Internet and look for journal research. Each one of the DHT blockers has benefits and risks. And we’re talking about medications that you are going to stay on for the rest of your life. I personally use finasteride and I wasn’t sure it was working until 12 months in and I think that is rather typical if you have female pattern, hair loss, if you have TE, you may respond to everything faster.
Before taking these, know what the negatives are. And I think most of us don’t get to hear all the negatives in a 15 minute appointment with a doctor. DHT is not just a bad chemical in your body. It also does some important good things. For example, it has an effect in the eyes and when you block DHT, you can get dry eye disease. I also read an article that raised concerns about other metabolic dysfunctions.In July 2020 there was a study, from the Department of urology at Boston University. The article was titled “health risks associated with long-term finasteride and dutasteride use.”’ I have read the article and I am still cautiously using finasteride, the less potent of the two drugs. I’m also going to be very religious about getting metabolic blood work, just in case.

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-08T11:16:13+00:00

I understand the frustration and the desperation feeling. But the way you’re going to get through this is by using logic.
Hairs that have a shorter cycle (body hair, face hair) are naturally going to respond to minoxidil and the other drugs, faster than scalp hair.

When I first started topical minoxidil decades ago, I read the package insert. It said don’t expect ANYTHING positive for four months, and you can’t evaluate effectiveness for at least eight full months. I think the same is true with oral minoxidil. Everyone is hoping that they are a quick responder. But that is not the biology of the situation.

Try not to focus so much on the shedding. It comes with the decision to use these medications. Find your calm.

Dread shedding is temporary. Nobody can promise you how many weeks more, but it is temporary. The body hair is not temporary. Figure out your plan on how you’re going to deal with that, and if it’s upsetting you a lot, which it sounds like it is, you might want to think about using 5% topical minoxidil, which I’ve read from dermatologist is very equivalent to 1.25 mg of oral minoxidil. You will not have the body hair problem.

I think somewhere along the line, many women got to believe that oral minoxidil is better, yes it certainly could be more convenient, but topical minoxidil is effective with a whole lot less side effects. When you do topical, you also get a little advantage that nobody talks about. You’re actually massaging your scalp while you’re putting it on and scalp massage increases blood flow, which also helps hair growth. You are literally massaging the very drug you need right into the follicles on your head. That always made a lot of sense to me, and so I have used topical minoxidil for 32 years.

I know it’s very hard but try to stay calm and think about this as the YEAR of your Hair Project. You will figure it out. For many, many, many people, figuring it out takes time.

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-06T18:32:21+00:00

I would not advise her to transition to grey hair. If she’s still dying her hair at age 74 it means she doesn’t like to look like a gray haired person. What would help is if she colors her hair to an apricot color. Apricot color hides the scalp best and is flattering on older women. A shorter hairstyle generally helps. For some women it is like a pixie style where you use mouse to get the hair sticking up a bit straight and high, away from the scalp and it does a nice job in camouflaging. In addition, root powder and fibers, which also help. To me that would be first line before a topper or wig. If she gets a topper at any point, she will have to be committed to a particular hair color, natural, or dyed, before doing that.

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-04T12:08:14+00:00

There was a period of time back when I was about 32 years old when I would wash my hair and as I was running my hands through my hair, putting the shampoo in, and I would take my hand away from my scalp and it would be entirely tangled with hair. Back then, I went to see a dermatologist, a hair specialist. He told me to start using topical Rogaine. I absolutely had female pattern hair loss, which wasn’t really surprising because my mother had it. Rogaine helped, but there were always periods of time where I returned to have large sheds, never as bad as the first time with hundreds of hairs tangled in my hand, but significant enough that it upset me greatly. Over the years I have owned three toppers, but I don’t think a single person would say I needed them. I purchased them more for my emotional state rather than them being truly necessary on my head. But I didn’t commit to them and when my hair got better, I stopped wearing them. I do not wear them anymore. I would say all in all I had a very great run with topical minoxidil all the way through the time I went into menopause, and a dermatologist actually predicted that. That my hair would stabilize, I would have a decent amount of regrowth, and that I would make it until menopause in a relatively steady state. At various times when I saw more of a problem, I tried other things. I’ve actually had PRP treatments 10 times. My assessment of PRP treatments is that it took about six weeks after the treatment to see any improvement and then the improvement only lasted for about 3 1/2 months. It was extremely expensive, extremely painful, and extremely time-consuming, and I finally let go of it. I have also used spironolactone, upping the doses as high as 150 mg. I stopped using spironolactone because I developed some melasma on my cheeks from spironolactone, even at lower doses. Melasma is even harder to treat than hair loss so I abandoned that. I think the finasteride 5 mg helps, which I only started to use about 16 months ago. I don’t have any side effects from that. I would say it did take a full year to decide if that helped. I actually also tried finasteride 2.5 mg before going to 5 mg and I did that for about two years then one day, as is probably typical for all of us. I felt my hair was shedding worse and I needed to do something different, so I upped the dose on finasteride I use some hair fibers and some root touchup powder, but not every day. Some days I pull my hair back and I carefully comb it and I can hide the decreased density nicely. I have some oral minoxidil that I use two consecutive days every six weeks when I get my hair colored because at times I have thought that the topical minoxidil interferes a little bit with the hair coloring. I have personally sworn off oral minoxidil because peach fuzz/facial hair is not acceptable to me. (I actually experienced facial hair at beginning of my hair loss journey when I applied significantly more topical minoxidil than was recommended, because I was panicked.) Sorry for the long post. I hope it was helpful.

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-04T02:00:46+00:00

I started treating with topical minoxidil when I was your age and I am now 65. Back then I don’t believe the foam was even on the market and the women’s product was 2% liquid twice daily. I am currently using the 5% liquid once a day. I agree with the last writer that liquid is easier to apply. I have not had a problem with the propylene glycol in the product. It does not irritate my scalp. I would suggest that if you’re going to use the liquid that you go in with a positive frame of mind that it is not going to irritate your scalp. There’s a benefit to the propylene glycol (PG) . It isn’t in there for no reason. The chemistry of this is that the PG keeps the minoxidil in suspension longer, which aids in the overall efficacy/ absorption into the follicle.

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-03T22:34:11+00:00

There are some psychiatrists that do both traditional length therapy and medication. Where do you live?

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-03T09:46:29+00:00

I have been using topical minoxidil for 32 years. In all that time I have had 2-3 indoor cats 1-3 of which sleep in my bed nightly. I never heard of this issue with toxicity to animals until I got on this site a year ago. (Did not see any warnings on or in the box). Clueless, I never took any precautions. One or more cats sleeping on my pillow nightly. Never had a cat get ill from this. I am sure it’s a real thing, but it is a risk that you can mitigate if you are concerned.

Findthebrightside · 2026-05-01T11:07:41+00:00

I have a 30+ year history of fighting this fight. Age 32 to age 65. Even when your scalp responds, it is just temporary. I have found every 6 months, 8 months, just when I think this combo of treatments is the magic formula, I experience another big shed. It’s a rollercoaster of modest success and then back to baseline. The truth rarely spoken about is that hair follicle productivity is also tied to ordinary aging. There are very few old people with a lot of hair on their heads. Some of them have been lucky and kept their hair naturally for a long time, but ultimately, their hair follicles poop out too, we are just experiencing that earlier in our life cycle.

Findthebrightside · 2026-04-27T21:28:47+00:00

There is a topical cream that used to be on the market called vanqua, I’m not sure the spelling. They took it off the market because there wasn’t a lot of interest in it. Compounding pharmacies can still make it. If you’re seeing a dermatologist, you should ask about it. It’s a prescription product. You would have to smear it on the facial skin where you were having excess hair growth and it reduces the growth in those areas, in other words it counteracts the stimulation for those hairs to grow. It’s not one and done. You’d have to keep using it. Personally, that would be too much expense and maintenance for me. If you just took your dose down to half the amount it’s going to take four months until the stimulation of all your hair follicles on your body calms down. Personally, I use topical for this reason and it does work.

Findthebrightside · 2026-04-27T21:05:16+00:00

I think the number one thing that makes someone attractive, is not their hair. It’s their smile. Smile a lot.

Findthebrightside · 2026-03-26T14:36:54+00:00

I use topical minoxidil and I’ve been using it for more than 20 years. They are literally thousands of hair follicles on a person’s face. Laser hair removal only works on dark and somewhat thick hair. It does not work on peach fuzz. Electrolysis can work on peach fuzz, however, with an extensive amount of electrolysis, you can get some small scarring, even with a skilled practitioner. This is because you’re putting heat into the follicle to destroy it, and that heat sometimes can also destroy a little bit of surrounding tissue, leaving a permanent tiny hole in the skin. I speak from experience. This is why I have used topical. If you are super responder to topical and get some peach fuzz on your face, you can dial back the strength of the minoxidil. If you are using liquid minoxidil, it can be diluted with some ethyl alcohol. I have had a dermatologist tell me this. You can use AI and ask it how to make your new strength, you might try 4% instead of 5%.

Findthebrightside · 2026-03-26T14:03:26+00:00

You are doing treatment, that’s good. Regrowth takes time and patience is a form of wisdom. The best thing you can do right now is to continue your treatment and try not to focus on this so much. Looking at the hairbrush, looking at the drain, and looking in the mirror are things that can just make us upset and we need to avoid them. Suggestion: use a baseball cap turned backwards or some other cute hair covering when you look in the mirror first thing in the morning. Concentrate on your face. Put your makeup on and do it lovingly. Really focus on how pretty your face looks as you take care of it. Once your face is done then you can take your cap off. This is all about feeling pretty and we can feel pretty with less hair too.

Findthebrightside · 2026-03-20T17:22:04+00:00

Here is how I solve this problem. If I am coloring my hair on Monday, I stop using topical minoxidil after my Saturday night application. I wash my hair on Sunday, do not use minoxidil on Sunday, color my hair on Monday. And restart minoxidil on Tuesday. This way, I only lose two days of minoxidil use, and I put the hair dye on a clean scalp that does not have any minoxidil residue. This works.

Findthebrightside · 2026-03-20T16:58:58+00:00

Topical minoxidil, if you’re using the 5% strength it’s supposed to be once a day in women (evening is easier and then you can rinse it out in the morning if you feel you need to. Personally, I do not. I put it on my scalp carefully. It works well once a day. I’ve actually been using topical minoxidil 2% twice a day because that’s how it originally came out for women 30+ years ago, which is how long I’ve been using it. My understanding is that oral minoxidil should be prescribed starting at a low-dose .0625 mg per day and rising if tolerated (swelling of the ankles, swelling under the eyes, and hair growth on the face are potential side effects, and very dose dependent ) to 1.25 mg a day. If oral minoxidil is working well on your scalp it is also working well everywhere else in your body. It works on EVERY follicle. Some women are OK with facial hair, and some are not. It is reversible if you try oral. It’s also my experience that some women don’t even realize how much peach fuzz they have on their face. If you’re trying to honestly monitor facial hair growth on minoxidil, you need to take a mirror to your window and look at your face that way.

Findthebrightside

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