Hair Transplant After Stopping Minoxidil?

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.