Month: January 2023

Can Regaine cause hair growth all over even if i don’t put it on that part of the skin? I think I read something about this happening, but i can’t find the source. thanx

A patient reported last week that when he used minoxidil regularly (also known as Rogaine/Regaine) some years ago, he eventually saw hair grow over the entire face and forehead, giving him a Wolf-Man type look. I wish I had photos, but it was just a story he told me. After stopping the medication, he said the abnormal facial hair disappeared. This might sound ridiculous to some people, but I believed him. There have been similar reports posted before.

I asked some other prominent hair doctors (part of an email group of physicians I am in) about this, and some reported seeing this rare phenomenon in patients as well. We do see facial hair growth in some people that can be substantial, and it’s a particularly rare problem for some women on this medication as well. And when I do have photos, I’ll do my best to get permission to publish them…

I just saw a commercial for the Minoxidil applicator brush. Do you(or your patients) have any experience with this product. Do you consider it an advancement in terms of effectiveness or ease of use?

Link: Ultra-Mox Applicator Brush

I haven’t seen this one before. So from what I gather, you load the brush with the minoxidil and then comb it through your hair to dispense the medication. It’s a clever idea, but I don’t really consider it any advancement in the drug arena or a game-changer in the effectiveness of minoxidil. If it’s worth $100 to you to not apply the minoxidil with your hand, I suppose this is an item you could use.

So while I don’t have any experience with this minoxidil brush product, I wish the makers well. It is a free economy. For the record, I also don’t own automatic tie rotating hangers or other extraneous late night TV gadgets. Any readers out there use this applicator brush? If so, we’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

Dear Dr Rassman
Two questions please: first, it is recomended to apply Minoxidil twice a day, in the morning and evening. Does it matter if I apply it later, around midday?

Second: what do you think about Pantovigar?

Many thanks.

Many doctors feel that if minoxidil is not used twice a day it has substantially less value. Generally, twice a day means as close to 12 hours apart as is socially reasonable.

Everything I researched on Pantovigar seems to be in German — I do not speak or read German. No further comment can therefore be made by me at this point in time.

Hello Dr. Rassman,

So I have several questions. Firstly, I read somewhere that if the scalp is wet upon application of Minoxidil, that the Minoxidil would be absorbed better achieving better/faster results. I’m a little skeptical of this. Is this true?

Secondly, if I apply the Minoxidil before I blow dry my hair, how long should I wait to blow dry it to achieve maximum effectiveness? I’m kind of in a rush in the morning and so waiting more than a half an hour would kind of be impossible. If this were the case, I might abandon application of Minoxidil in the morning. How less effective would only one application of Minoxidil per day be?

This is perhaps a stupid question that I should have asked my physician a long, long time ago, but, how is 1 mL of Minoxidil supposed to cover my entire scalp!?!? A lot of it tends to run down my forehead as it is, thereby wasting it, but even if it were all put to good use, 1 mL only seems to cover several square inches before I no longer feel any left on my fingertips during the massaging. Is it there even though I don’t feel it or something? What am I doing wrong?

I don’t know if this is relevant or not, but after 4 months of using 5% Minoxidil and noticing no results, I decided to switch to 15% Minoxidil w/ 5% Azelaic acid.

Azelaic acid is an irritant and in using it is supposed to increase the blood supply to the scalp and therefore increase the absorption of minoxidil. Your point about coverage is well taken. It takes a lot of minoxidil to cover the entire scalp, so I generally advise patients to apply it only to the areas that are thinning. Minoxidil is best applied after a hot shower, as the circulation of the scalp is higher at that time. Waiting 5-10 minutes should suffice, but using the Rogaine Foam rather than the liquid could solve your styling timing issues and it may be more effective.

Many of your additional minoxidil questions have already been answered at Rogaine.com.

I have been taking Propecia for sime time and I recently ran across a site that talks about a combination of 2% Minoxidil and Retin-A. Should I switch?

Propecia works at the cause of hair loss, by blocking the action of DHT on the genes that impact hair loss. Minoxidil is a drug that has a side effect: growing hair. The side effect of a noticeable growth of new hair occurs in between 3-15% of the Minoxidil taking population. Minoxidil does not block DHT, so its action is very different than Propecia. Retin-A is an acid which produces a burn to the skin. I generally look at burns negatively; why burn the skin? The burn causes increased vascularization and therefore allows a higher absorption of the Minoxidil. Retin-A also has it’s own side effects and warnings. Retin-A possibly may make the Minoxidil more effective, but at what cost to you and your skin? That is the question!