Month: February 2013

Doc.. does minoxidil have to be rubbed into the scalp to be effective. I feel like my hair is soaking it up when I do that.

Also my hair looks much worse with it. Even if I use it just at night and wash it out. It seems to effect the texture. If i go a few days without it my hair returns to normal looking much better. I guess that’s the trade off. Wish I never started it.

Thanks.

Minoxidil is for use on the scalp, not the hair. Unfortunately, much of it is wasted on the hair because of the applicators and their limitations. There almost seems to be a conspiracy to design the applicators to be wasteful and more profitable for the suppliers selling the products. Maybe one day, a better applicator will come along.

Minoxidil is also known as Rogaine, and there is a video on Rogaine.com, showing you how to apply the foam. The same application instructions apply to the liquid version, though the foam likely involves less of a mess.

I’m 33 years old and have been using Propecia for about 5-6 years with great results. my hair on top of the head regrew almost completely. three months ago in order to save costs, instead of using Propecia, I started dividing a generic Finasteride 5mg into 4 pieces and take a quarter daily. Ever since then ive started noticing that im losing hair again. this may or may not be related to Finasteride and could be down to the fact that the drug itself may have stopped working for me.

Ive introduced Minoxidil Foam Extra Strength twice daily and will use Nizoral 2% 3 times a week but I’m a little anxious about this and wanted you opinion. do you think i should go back to Propecia or perhaps take 2.5mg daily of Finasteride, or alternatively start taking Avodart?

Many thanks for your help

As you know, the medication in Propecia and the 5mg generic are the same, just different dosages. Cutting the 5mg pill shouldn’t produce anything different from the 1mg name brand pill. I guess you could go back to trying the name brand Propecia to see if that makes any difference, but I would be surprised if it did.

Many men use minoxidil and finasteride at the same time, and I suppose you can add Nizoral to your regimen. One thing that I should point out about using a bunch of daily treatments is the financial commitment you’ll need to make to continue these for life.

As for whether you should take Avodart (dutasteride) or increase your finasteride dosage, that is something you’ll need to talk to your prescribing doctor about.

I’m 24 years old male and have hair loss both at the front of my head and the crown. I’m starting to use rogaine foam in combination with propecia. I’ve heard that using minoxidil in higher concentrations (10%) makes you see better results faster. Is this true?

Perhaps it’s possible that high concentrations of minoxidil will bring about faster results (I’m not sure), but nothing occurs overnight in this business as the timeline often goes into months. In other words, don’t expect a miracle. I don’t recall seeing any studies comparing the speed of regrowth for the 10% vs 5%.

Higher concentrations of minoxidil will produce more side effects, so read the instructions carefully.

Hello doctor,
I am a 19 year old student suffering from hair loss since I was around 17. As you would know this is normally a very young age to begin losing hair. My mothers side of the family unfortunately seem to have the baldness gene, with all of her brothers being bald.

I recently saw a doctor whilst abroad who confirmed for me that I was indeed losing my hair and that I was beginning to thin around the sides. He recommended and prescribed Tricovivax to me. I wanted to know whether it would be safe for me to use especially at my age and whether or not I should begin to try it.

I have been using Alpecin caffeine shampoo but that doesnt seem to be doing anything at all to be honest, My hair gets greasy very very quickly and I normally have to wash it once a day, I also tend to find I have a dry skin on my scalp after I wash it. I am considering starting propecia but am worried of the side effects. Please advise, any information would be highly appreciated. Thank you

Tricovivax is just a brand name of minoxidil sold in some international markets. Minoxidil is also known as Rogaine or Regaine, depending on where you live. At 19 years old, I don’t see a problem with you using minoxidil. It works best in the crown, but I don’t know where your hair loss is.

I wouldn’t expect caffeine shampoo to do anything to treat hair loss.

Hey doctors,
I know there’s all this debate about Propecia and ED……and whether or not there’s a placebo effect or the power of suggestion at play. Have you seen this study from 2008?

Link: The effect of 5 alpha-reductase inhibitors on erectile function

This was published in the Journal of Andrology in late 2008, but I don’t remember if we wrote about it before. Thanks for sending in the link.

Based on this study, finasteride was associated with a significantly higher proportion of erectile dysfunction (ED) in patients that were informed of possible erectile side effects as compared with patients for whom the same information was withheld. For patients taking the 5mg finasteride to treat BPH, the incidence of ED was 9.6% for the group without counseling and 30.9% for the group with counseling (source: Mondaini et al, 2007).

The abstract concludes: “We conclude that 5 a-reductase inhibitors do not lead to erectile dysfunction to a significant degree, and we support the position that dihydrotestosterone is less relevant than testosterone in erectile function.”