PLEASE HELP - Rogaine is destroying my life, had a very rare side-effect

Topicals for hair loss
1

I KNOW EVERYONE IS HERE TO SOLVE THEIR OWN PROBLEMS, BUT I REALLY NEED SOME HELP. PLEASE READ MY WHOLE STORY AND REPLY IF YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE OR EXPERIENCED SOMETHING SIMILAR TO ME.

FYI - The point of this story is that I did not have a preexisting hair loss problem. I stupidly used Rogaine just once on my eyebrows because I over-plucked them (I’m a guy, but I have very thick eyebrows.)
Immediately after Rogaine, I began losing hair from my eyebrows, scalp, arms, legs, and even pubic area. PLEASE read my whole story and reply with advice.

I am a 22 year old kid who just graduated college in December 2007.
I am a hairy guy.
On November 13, 2007 I over-plucked my eyebrows.
I wanted my eyebrows to grow back quickly, so I bought Rogaine and used it just ONCE on my eyebrows on November 20, 2007.
Within 1 hour, I felt very light-headed and my heart was beating rapidly.
So I took a shower to wash off the Rogaine.
I have not used the Rogaine since that incident.
Within 1 day, I noticed some eyebrows falling out.
Then I quickly noticed lots of hair shedding from my head, arms, legs, and even pubic area.
It has now been 2.5 months since the Rogaine incident, and I’m still experiencing diffuse hair loss over my ENTIRE BODY, SCALP, AND EYEBROWS.
My eyebrows look very ugly now.
And the hair on my scalp is starting to look like doll hair, because it isn’t thinning, it’s just falling out all over.

I have very little hair re-growth.

Any new hairs that I grow appear rather frail, almost sickish, and are often kinked or somewhat deformed (the hair shaft is not symmetrical).

I’m also experiencing mild dandruff on my scalp and eyebrows. No shampoos have helped.

I am not on any medications.
All my blood tests are normal (including CBC, metabolic, thyroid, iron, testosterone, etc).
I haven’t had a scalp biopsy yet, but I’m getting one soon.

I know this problem is almost unheard of, and that’s why I’m reaching out to all of you!!!

SO HAS ANYONE ELSE HAD A HAIR-DESTROYING EXPERIENCE WITH ROGAINE?
DO ANY OF YOU HAVE SOME ADVICE FOR ME?

Thanks so much guys,
John

2

» I KNOW EVERYONE IS HERE TO SOLVE THEIR OWN PROBLEMS, BUT I REALLY NEED SOME
» HELP. PLEASE READ MY WHOLE STORY AND REPLY IF YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE OR
» EXPERIENCED SOMETHING SIMILAR TO ME.
»
» FYI - The point of this story is that I did not have a preexisting hair
» loss problem. I stupidly used Rogaine just once on my eyebrows because I
» over-plucked them (I’m a guy, but I have very thick eyebrows.)
» Immediately after Rogaine, I began losing hair from my eyebrows, scalp,
» arms, legs, and even pubic area. PLEASE read my whole story and reply
» with advice.
»
» I am a 22 year old kid who just graduated college in December 2007.
» I am a hairy guy.
» On November 13, 2007 I over-plucked my eyebrows.
» I wanted my eyebrows to grow back quickly, so I bought Rogaine and used it
» just ONCE on my eyebrows on November 20, 2007.
» Within 1 hour, I felt very light-headed and my heart was beating rapidly.
» So I took a shower to wash off the Rogaine.
» I have not used the Rogaine since that incident.
» Within 1 day, I noticed some eyebrows falling out.
» Then I quickly noticed lots of hair shedding from my head, arms, legs, and
» even pubic area.
» It has now been 2.5 months since the Rogaine incident, and I’m still
» experiencing diffuse hair loss over my ENTIRE BODY, SCALP, AND EYEBROWS.
» My eyebrows look very ugly now.
» And the hair on my scalp is starting to look like doll hair, because it
» isn’t thinning, it’s just falling out all over.
»
» I have very little hair re-growth.
»
» Any new hairs that I grow appear rather frail, almost sickish, and are
» often kinked or somewhat deformed (the hair shaft is not symmetrical).
»
» I’m also experiencing mild dandruff on my scalp and eyebrows. No shampoos
» have helped.
»
» I am not on any medications.
» All my blood tests are normal (including CBC, metabolic, thyroid, iron,
» testosterone, etc).
» I haven’t had a scalp biopsy yet, but I’m getting one soon.
»
» I know this problem is almost unheard of, and that’s why I’m reaching out
» to all of you!!!
»
» SO HAS ANYONE ELSE HAD A HAIR-DESTROYING EXPERIENCE WITH ROGAINE?
» DO ANY OF YOU HAVE SOME ADVICE FOR ME?
»
» Thanks so much guys,
» John

I know it isn’t what you want to hear as I believe in what you are saying. Using rogaine on your eybrows once didn’t cause anything that is currently going on with your problem. Not sure what it is, but definitely not from using rogaine once on over-plucked eyebrows.

3

…Except if the rogaine bottle is tainted. After all that might happen. So you suffer from what seems to be a telogen effluvium?.. What do medicos say?
My bottomline advice would be: use a mix of essential oils daily on your scalp: salvia + salvia sclarea +laurus nobilis + tea tree + cedar + lavender. 1 ml each in 40 ml of rhum. Apply 1 ml in the morning of this solution on your scalp and 1ml in the evening. This may be no cure but essential oils allow for a maximised hygien and recovery of scalp.
It seems COMPLETELY impossible that you might not recover from this. Even if it may take a year. Hair is a slow business.

4

I don’t think Rogaine will cause hair loss all over your body. Never heard of that before.

5

NOTE:
To those of you that think such a reaction to Rogaine is impossible, I found one other guy who experienced the same thing. His uses the nickname “tom green 1721”.
We’ve been communicating on a thread called “Rogaine Truth” at Keratin.net.
You can read the thread here:
http://www.keratin.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8415&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Please keep replying with ideas guys. I need all the advice I can get. THANKS.

6

» NOTE:
» To those of you that think such a reaction to Rogaine is impossible, I
» found one other guy who experienced the same thing. His uses the nickname
» “tom green 1721”.
» We’ve been communicating on a thread called “Rogaine Truth” at
» Keratin.net.
» You can read the thread here:
» http://www.keratin.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8415&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
»
» Please keep replying with ideas guys. I need all the advice I can get.
» THANKS.

Not exactly the same thing. I didn’t see anywhere he said that he used it just one time on a small body part as eyebrows and rinsed it off within an hour. Something else is going on.

7

» » NOTE:
» » To those of you that think such a reaction to Rogaine is impossible, I
» » found one other guy who experienced the same thing. His uses the
» nickname
» » “tom green 1721”.
» » We’ve been communicating on a thread called “Rogaine Truth” at
» » Keratin.net.
» » You can read the thread here:
» »
» http://www.keratin.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8415&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
» »
» » Please keep replying with ideas guys. I need all the advice I can get.
» » THANKS.
»
» Not exactly the same thing. I didn’t see anywhere he said that he used it
» just one time on a small body part as eyebrows and rinsed it off within an
» hour. Something else is going on.

The other guy who experienced similar side effects from Rogaine applied it just once to the crown of his scalp. Then he began losing hair rapidly, followed by the loss of eyebrows and eyelashes. He seems unsure whether his body hair was affected or not.
Finally, he says that after a period of several months, all his facial hair turned white, as well as the little bit of new hair that he could re-grow. He attributes this accelerated graying to the Rogaine because he is just 31 years old. I’m not sure if the graying is related to Rogaine, but the way he describes his hair loss, it sounds very similar to my situation.

8

In one of the ebodiments for PERMANENT HAIR REMOVAL in the Follica patent, they simply 1)pluck the hairs and wait three days
2) abrade the skin and apply epidermal growth factor for 11 days thereafter

Hair will not regrow there. Skin has grown where they follicles were. Gone forever.

I dont know if by some strange pathway that plucking a hair and then administering minox to the bulb could have seen too much propylene glycol or alchohol or minox be able to get down in the hole in the skin and flood the area of the arrector pilli and sebaceous glands with those substances could have inhibited stem-cell flow from the area, either delaying the re-entry into anagen or screwing them up altogether or extending telogen…but plucking your eyebrows IS UNNATURAL DUDE. Women who pluck their brows for years often find that they thin them unreversibly and they complain about them being thin when they age (and they thin naturally). Ive seen a guy on this forum who thinned out his hair plugs from a bad transplant by plucking them constantly over the years. He only had two and three hairs in most the plugs when he used to have 8-10 hairs in them. He thinned them out by constantly plucking them. Stem cell damage to the arrector pilli muscle is likely done, and the stem cells that flow from the arrector pilli down to the root during the end of the rest phase and the early anagen phase when a new large follicle is being rebuilt cant happen.

In other words, minoxidil has been a proven, profoundly tested, FDA approved hair growth stimulant since the late 80’s, and has been experimentally verified in human, rodent, and ape specimins to ALWAYS increase hair growth for a while (until DHT overcomes it). You will probably get your brows back over time (eyebrows have different rest-growth cycles than head hair and body hair—and aren’t really androgen sensitive for the most part). If you fucked up your brows permanently, you can get transplants there. The Follica patent has embodiments for growing brand new eyebrow follicles via abrasion and the application of their chemicals (several of them) over a period of time–but that is still in testing.

9

» The other guy who experienced similar side effects from Rogaine applied it
» just once to the crown of his scalp. Then he began losing hair rapidly,
» followed by the loss of eyebrows and eyelashes. He seems unsure whether
» his body hair was affected or not.
» Finally, he says that after a period of several months, all his facial
» hair turned white, as well as the little bit of new hair that he could
» re-grow. He attributes this accelerated graying to the Rogaine because he
» is just 31 years old. I’m not sure if the graying is related to Rogaine,
» but the way he describes his hair loss, it sounds very similar to my
» situation.

6]i used onced july 18 2006 in oct of 2006 my eyebrows and eyelashes stated to fall out

You are trying to tell me that he used rogaine in the middle of July for 1 time and that cause his eyebrows and eyelashes to fall out 2.5 months later (maybe more since he only reference October could have been as much as 3.5 months).

That is some leap for empirical evidence. Are you sure it wasn’t from the cheese he ate as I’m sure he ate cheese many times during the 2.5 months?

Look, bottom line is sorry you are currently having these issues and sorry he had them as well. You couldn’t blame drinking radiator fluid for something that happened at least 2.5 months earlier.

10

checkingin

You make a good point. ‘tom green 1721’ began losing his eyebrows much later than I did. After one application of Rogaine, he immediately began to lose hair from his scalp. After 3 months, he began to lose his eyebrows and eyelashes as well. And 1 month after that, he noticed his facial hair changing color.

In my case, I immediately began losing eyebrows, and in less than a week later, I was also losing hair from my scalp, arms, legs, and pubic area. This has been going on for 3 months. I’m not saying me and tom green 1721 experienced the EXACT same thing. But it’s similar.

Put yourself in my shoes. You’re just a kid who never lost hair in his life. You put on Rogaine, and the next day your hair is falling out like crazy. I’m trying to appease everyone by searching for other possibilities, and thats why I had so many blood tests. They all came back normal. My parents and I even changed the laundry detergent, re-washed all my clothes, gave me vitamins, changed my living environment, recorded the food I ate and changed it accordingly, and nothing has helped.

I don’t wanna give up. I wanna fight this. Any more ideas guys?

11

The only thing I can think of is the he might be allergic to something in the spray or foam (whichever one he used)…

Ive never heard of this before.

GO SEE A DOCTOR (dermatologist preferably) as soon as possible. Tell him what went down.

12

» checkingin
»
» You make a good point. ‘tom green 1721’ began losing his eyebrows much
» later than I did. After one application of Rogaine, he immediately began
» to lose hair from his scalp. After 3 months, he began to lose his eyebrows
» and eyelashes as well. And 1 month after that, he noticed his facial hair
» changing color.
»
» In my case, I immediately began losing eyebrows, and in less than a week
» later, I was also losing hair from my scalp, arms, legs, and pubic area.
» This has been going on for 3 months. I’m not saying me and tom green 1721
» experienced the EXACT same thing. But it’s similar.
»
» Put yourself in my shoes. You’re just a kid who never lost hair in his
» life. You put on Rogaine, and the next day your hair is falling out like
» crazy. I’m trying to appease everyone by searching for other
» possibilities, and thats why I had so many blood tests. They all came back
» normal. My parents and I even changed the laundry detergent, re-washed all
» my clothes, gave me vitamins, changed my living environment, recorded the
» food I ate and changed it accordingly, and nothing has helped.
»
» I don’t wanna give up. I wanna fight this. Any more ideas guys?

I feel for you man, unfortunately I have no clue why that happened to you. Rogaine foam has been working great for me except for the first couple weeks.