Sporatic use of Rogaine

[havehairlossquestion]

At age 21 I noticed my hairline was receding and (unwisely) decided to use Rogaine.  My Dad is bald for the most part but it didn't set on until 30ish.  After about 6 months of use, I felt it was becoming a pain to use twice every day so I stopped using it.  Then I noticed that hair started falling out where I had used it, so 6 months later I began using it again.  I used it for roughly 18 months then decided to stop using it again... for good... maybe.  I had stopped in February of this year and by May my hairloss was becoming alarming.  This is getting frustrating.  I feel the vast majority of my hairloss is from the Rogaine (and my poor decision making) because the loss is occuring exactly where I used it and my brother is having no hairloss issues whatsoever.  I used to have very thick hair and I wish that I had never started using it to begin with.

My question is should I use it again, for good this time?  Or should I stop altogether?  If the hairloss really is from the Rogaine use and not from heredity will it grow back?  And if I decide to use it again, will it be as thick as it used to be?

[baldhater]

rogaine is good stuff but it works at its full capacity only in case of you're using it  together with technique presented on http://www.save-your-hair.com

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Rogaine doesn't do much, which means that if you lose hair after stopping, you won't lose much from stopping, because you never got much from using it.  If you are losing hair, it's almost certainly from genetics, not from Rogaine.  Please get yourself examined to find out for sure if this is true.  If you are losing hair genetically, Propecia by mouth may be a useful option to consider.  But you have not damaged yourself, so please don't beat yourself up on this.

Take care.

Dr. Rockoff