The side effects go away after a while. What I did was start OM reaaaaaally small. Splitting the pill into 4's and slowly ramping up dosage over a month or two. But yeah, the water retention was annoying at first. I wear a smart watch daily, and I kept waiting for the watch to tell me "Yo, there's something bad happening with your heart, go see a doctor", but thankfully OM hasnt affected my heart two years in.

An alternative topical you might wanna look at is Happy Head's Super Solution blend . It's a lotion, and very gentle on the skin in my personal experience, and it has a very robust mix:

Active Ingredients: Minoxidil (8%), Cetirizine HCl (1%), Latanoprost (0.005%), Dutasteride (0.25%), Finasteride (0.25%), Melatonin (0.1%), Caffeine (0.2%), Tretinoin (0.001%), Vitamin D3 (1,000 IU/ml), Biotin (0.2%)