People who are looking to regrow hair on their scalp or folks who are looking to grow a beard are most likely familiar with minoxidil as a hair growth/regrowth drug.
One of the questions that regularly pops up is what if I stop using minoxidil and then start again? And will I lose my hair gains doing this?
Let me explain why stopping and restarting minoxidil usage is generally a bad idea.
What happens when you stop using minoxidil?
So what happens when you stop using minoxidil?
If you stop using minoxidil for an extended period of time, your hair will start to fall out again. But we must make a distinction between the hair on the scalp and facial hair.
With the hair on your scalp, you must continue to use minoxidil indefinitely, or you will start to lose your gains over time. With facial hair, you can quit minoxidil and keep the terminal hairs, but you will still lose the vellus hairs.
How fast will my hair start falling out if I stop using minoxidil?
Your hair may start to lose its thickness and falling out as quickly as in 2–3 months. For some people, they won’t have noticeable hair loss for the first few months, and it will only be detectable to the bare eye between 6–9 months.
What happens if you stop using Rogaine for a week?
Since hair loss takes multiple weeks to months for it to become noticeable, quitting Rogaine for just a week will most likely not cause significant hair loss, if any at all.
Quitting for an extended period of time such as a couple of months and then restarting using Rogaine is not recommended. You will lose your previous hair gains just like you would with any other brand of minoxidil.
If I stop using Rogaine will I lose more hair?
What happens if you stop using Rogaine indefinitely is that your hair will start falling out. Eventually, to the point that you will lose all the hair you’ve previously regained due to using minoxidil.
It is possible that you will lose even more hair than you had before starting your minoxidil journey, since hair loss tends to be progressive.
So if you stop using Rogaine and notice that you’ve got less hair than before, then it has nothing to do with the minoxidil usage, but rather with the progressive hair loss that occurs.
How to stop using minoxidil without losing hair
It is not possible to stop using minoxidil without losing hair. At least not permanently. It’s only a possibility in regard to facial hair.
Quitting for a few days to a couple of weeks will not result in noticeable hair loss. But quitting minoxidil for months or forever will result in losing all the hairs that you’ve regrown thanks to the minoxidil.
It is however possible to stop using minoxidil without losing your beard if the hairs are in the terminal phase. Beard whiskers that are still vellus hairs will nevertheless be lost over time. The key in this case is to use minoxidil consistently for a long enough period of time in order to evolve the vellus hairs to the terminal phase.
That means that you will lose all the hair gains you’ve made so far if you quit minoxidil after a month. All the while probably having little to no noticeable results since that time period is too short to gain any noteworthy amount of new hair.
Will I lose my beard if I stop minoxidil usage?
In regard to using minoxidil to grow facial hair, if you stop using minoxidil, only the vellus hairs will fall out while the terminal hairs are there to stay.
So, to answer the question, “will I lose my beard if I stop minoxidil usage?” It depends on if your beard hair follicles are still in their infantile vellus hair stage or if they’re int their mature terminal phase.
What happens if I stop using Rogaine on my beard?
If you stop using Rogaine on your beard for just a week, then it’s unlikely to cause any significant facial hair loss, if any at all.
If you stop using Rogaine on your beard for multiple weeks or months however, the vellus hairs on your face will start falling out while those that transitioned to the terminal phase will remain there indefinitely.
That’s why it’s recommended to use minoxidil for facial hair growth for a prolonged period of time before quitting. Most success stories advise at least 6-12 months of continues minoxidil usage before quitting.
Is stopping and restarting minoxidil possible?
Stopping and restarting minoxidil usage is possible, although not recommended.
If you stop using minoxidil and decide to start again at a later date, you could very well have lost a small to great amount of the hair that you regrew with your previous minoxidil usage. How much of your gains you’ll lose depends on how long you’ve stopped using minoxidil for.
Theoretically, it is possible to regrow that hair when you start using minoxidil again at a later date. However, since hair loss is progressive, and you’ve probably started using minoxidil because you are suffering from androgenic alopecia, chances are that it is harder to regrow that lost hair at a later date.
More so, it is important to start using minoxidil early on, preferably as soon as you start noticing hair loss since it is easier to prevent hair loss rather than regrowing lost hairs.
If minoxidil is effective for regrowing your hair and/or increasing hair volume, then I wouldn’t advise stopping using the product. If you do want to stop using minoxidil, you can do so without worry for a few days to even a few weeks. Although a few weeks might already be pushing it.
But be advised. The longer you’ll stop using minoxidil, the more hair loss you will experience, even if it isn’t immediately noticeable because the human scalp has thousands of hair.
Is stopping and restarting Rogaine possible?
Stopping and restarting Rogaine is also possible since Rogaine is a brand of minoxidil.
But again, this too is not recommended since you’ll eventually lose your gains if you quit for long enough.
Conclusion
Stopping and restarting minoxidil usage at a later date is possible, but is not advantageous. As a matter of fact, there are multiple downsides to it.
You will only lose your beard hairs if you stop using minoxidil when the hairs are still in the vellus stage rather than the terminal stage.
Stopping and restarting minoxidil usage on the scalp, however, will cause hair loss to occur again. How much depends on how long you discontinue the minoxidil usage.
If the medication is effective for regrowing your lost hair, increasing hair density, or even staving off more hair loss, then I would advise continuing minoxidil usage indefinitely. That is, as long as the side effects are tolerable.