How long does the initial rogain shed last?

[Cassy]

how long should the rogaine shed last? how long is too long? If you are past 3 months and still having dred shed should you stop?

[Tracy C]

It differs from person to person depending on the degree of hair loss. The more damaged hair follicles you have and the longer it takes for them to return to normal - and the longer the shedding period can last. It's awful but it does get better eventually.

I had extensive hair loss for a female. I went through three separate periods of shedding during the first two years of treating my hair loss. My memory of those times is understandably cloudy but I think that first shed lasted a few months for me as well. I am pretty sure the other two periods did not last as long as the first. Thankfully I haven't gone through another shed in over two years.

[Hailey]

Tracy-

that is great that you have slowed down your hair loss and it stuck! I often think i could live a lot better with the sad state of my hair if i also didnt need to deal with cleaning it up all the time. What did you do that helped? how is your hair today?

[Tracy C]

Hi Hailey,

How is my hair today? I have stopped my hair loss and it has been slowly filling back in. This is a painfully slow process but I have enough hair now that I don't need to wear wigs anymore if I don' want to. I can get by with using concealer now.

What did I do? I started out with low level laser therapy for the first six months. After seeing improvement from using my laser comb I started using generic Women's Minoxidil as well for the next six months. After that first year I went to a doctor who specializes in treating hair loss. He put me on Sprionolactone. After another year with Spiro, Minoxidil and my laser comb I had grown a lot of hair back. It wasn't enough though. I had patches that were not filling in. The doctor checked to see if I was a good candidate for transplant surgery and he determined that I was a good candidate. So I had surgery to fill in those areas. About a year after that I had a second hair transplant to build up density.

It has been just over 14 months since my second surgery and my hair is still filling in. Everytime I get my hair done my stylist tells me she can see more hair comming in. So I am hopeful that the next six months will be promising. Honestly though, if I don't gain any more hair back than I already have I will be content - because it is a lot better now than it was when I started. I'm not thrilled about being on the medications for the rest of my life but I don't want to be a bald lady. I've already been there done that - and I didn't like it.

[Cassy]

Dr. Haber told me something I wish the MANY drs Ive been to would have told me 20 years ago. If you shed on rogaine that does not mean those hairs are being lost. It means that the rogaine is taking control of the growing phase and thats good. That being said the shed stills scares me.

[Tracy C]

Shedding can be very traumatic. Shedding is a necessary part of the process though. You need to be strong and ride it out. Shedding does stop eventually and when it does your hair grows back thicker than it was before. Unfortunately this takes a really long time.