Male-pattern baldness runs in my family (my mom's brother and father both went bald). Over the last 5 years, I've lost some hair at my crown - not a lot, but enough to be noticeable and noticeably increasing. But, it's slowly. I was prepared to just start minoxidil as a preventative measure... until I learned how it works. That it essentially "hides" your hair loss until you stop taking it, or (critically) its effectiveness decreases, at which point all of the hair you would have lost slowly ends up getting lost all at once. The real kicker for me is that minoxidil is only maximally effective for 7 years. So it seems like in an ideal world, I'd have some idea of when my hair loss is about to accelerate, and start minoxidil then. My anxiety is that I might be screwing myself over if I start it now - what if my hair loss would actually continue to be very mild for the next ~5 years, and really only accelerate in 2031? Then, I'd really only get 2 years of "benefit" from my 7 years of minoxidil, and I'd end up visibly losing hair by, say, 2034. But if I held off until 2031 to start minoxidil, I'd get another few good years out of it and wouldn't start visibly losing hair until 2038. Am I overthinking and I should just start taking it now? Are there recommended signs to look for or ways to approach the question of timing?   submitted by   /u/colinjcole [link]   [comments]