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IF YOU'RE NOT ON ANDROGENISING HORMONES THEN MINOXIDIL WON'T MAKE YOU GROW FACIAL HAIR.
Your hair grows in stages. Your body is covered in something called vellus hair—"peach fuzz". The hair that's on your cheeks, your face, those tiny hairs that are almost clear in their thinness that cover your whole body. The stage up from this is "terminal hair"—the hair on your scalp, on your crotch, the hair on your body that's easily visible. We all love happy trails, right? That's terminal hair. And so is beards.
In the presence of androgenising hormones, some vellus hairs on your body will fall out and your follicles will start producing terminal hair in their place.
All Minoxidil does is speed up the hair production cycle and increase rate of growth. It will not convert vellus hair into terminal hair unless the hair follicles are already capable of producing terminal hair.
Minoxodil was created to combat balding. The way it works is that balding is caused by the body's reaction to DHT (dihydrotestosterone, a leftover conversion from testosterone in the body). Dihydrotestosterone, among some other things, tells the hair follicles to stop producing terminal hair, usually at the scalp. This results in baldness. All Minoxidil does is encourage the follicles to produce hair again (and sometimes it doesn't work unless you're also on a dihydrotestosterone blocker, like Finasteride).
For facial hair, Minoxidil works similarly. During androgenisation the hair follicles on your face, when exposed to rising testosterone levels, will convert from vellus-producing to terminal-producing. But it takes time, and a few hair cycles, for them to actually start producing terminal hair. All that Minoxidil does is speed up that cycle to fill those follicles in faster. It makes the vellus hairs die off, and grow back in, and die off, and grow back in, and die off, and grow back in, on and on until the follicles have matured and start producing terminal hairs instead. Even on Minoxidil this can take up to two years to fill out a beard—it's a matter of luck of the draw of your genetics.
But Minoxidil won't grow terminal hair (beard hair) unless the follicles have matured, and that only happens in the presence of androgenising hormones. If your hair is very dark and visible against your skin you might be able to get away with using Minoxidil to increase the amount of vellus hair you're growing, but the most you'll get is a slight shadow on your upper lip. You will not grow a beard unless you are on androgenising hormones as well, and Minoxidil is still subject to genetics. If you are not capable of growing a beard, Minoxidil won't give you one as it requires your follicles to become terminal first.
Also, on that note: if you're on androgenising hormones and using Minoxidil, remember that topical Minoxidil is toxic to animals and especially cats. Wash your hands after application and don't let your pets near your face until it's dried. If you want good results, apply it twice daily. The 5% strength is ideal. Don't buy that shit on Amazon cuz there's a lotta fakes out there—buy it in stores. You want Equate or Kirkland.
Also x2 not related to Minoxidil: those pills that "increase testosterone production" won't work if you're seeking an androgenic transition. All they do is make whatever gonads you have go into overdrive. If you have ovaries, they will have the opposite of the effect you want them to and will make you oestrogenise further, not androgenise. They'll work if you have testicles though.
