Hey Doc,
This is my second post on this Blog. I’ll repeat my initial sentiments with regards to the first-grade work you do on this site. You can’t begin to understand how useful and good this blog is.
I’m 23, and spotted some thinning a few years back. I tried Minox 5% for about 4weeks, and stopped due to skin irritation. I’m convinced that using and then stopping minox has impacted my hair terribly. I’ve been on propecia for about 9months with limited success. It has always been my intention to at some point enquire about a transplant. My question is about the affect of stopping minoxidil on a future transplant.
I understand that upon stopping minox there is a shrinking of capillaries, and consequently blood supply to the scalp. If this is the case, and I were to go ahead with a transplant, would the new grafts be affected? Would it be possible to have a successful hair transplant, after having stopped minoxidil? Have you experience of patients in similar positions?
I hope that makes sense. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading.
The only problem with stopping minoxidil is from the dependencies on the hairs that have been benefited. I tell my surgical patients on minoxidil to continue using it up until the night before the hair transplant and then restart it 2 weeks after the procedure. The blood vessel impact from minoxidil on the scalp will not impact a hair transplant. I’ve had plenty of transplant patients that use minoxidil prior to surgery and have never seen any kind of issues related to using the medication.
If you stop minoxidil at the time of the transplant and decide to never restart it, the withdrawal effects of the drug I have discussed here before will become the risk. It won’t effect the transplanted hairs, but you will lose any benefits you had from the medication.
I like your way of thinking, but you can’t put together possibly disassociated facts to make them work. I suppose that is the first step to innovation, though. I suppose anything is possible in the not-so-near future, but I see an influx of angry emails whenever I poo-poo on any future technologies by telling them that if it ever were to become reality, that it would be many, many, many years away.
While I am fully trained in hair transplant surgery by Dr. Rassman and it has been my primary practice over the years, I am also trained in emergency medicine. As such, I keep up my skills as an emergency physician at local hospitals in the community a few times a month. This gives me a unique perspective in my professional and personal life. I see the best and worst in people.
Hey, I was hoping for flying cars, public space travel, and a cure for cancer by now. I’d even settle for a cure for the common cold. I would like to think of myself as an optimist… you know, a glass-half-full kind of guy… but the cure for balding is not as easy as you may think. Being bald is like the color of your eyes, the way your ear lobes fold, or how tall you are. It is genetics! And as much as gene therapy is the new buzzword in science, it is a long ways off.
For those readers who does not know about trichodynia, it is a condition where the patient experiences a painful, burning sensation on their scalp. From 
You can’t blame Joseph R. Garcia for gazing in the mirror and dreaming of luxuriant locks sprouting from his balding pate — if that was his wish when he strolled into a Park Ridge pharmacy in November and again in January. But did he really need 23 bottles of Rogaine?
Different physicians/clinics will likely have financing available, though some patients opt to pay cash or put it on a credit card. We do offer financing if you elect to have your surgery at New Hair Institute, and that info is available