Category: Drugs

Hi Doc,

I am 27 year old male. I had some degree of success with rogaine foam. But I stopped using it about four months ago as I was experiencing increased eyebrow hair growth. I made sure foam would not drip or reach eyebrow hair and despite this, I still continued to see more eyebrow hair. I am thinking to start the foam again. Do you think rogaine foam grow eyebrow hair? Or Am I seeing increased growth because of genetics?

Thank you

Since it seems you have been careful not to let the Rogaine (minoxidil) reach the eyebrows, it is likely that you are absorbing the medication into your body. Rogaine works by getting into your scalp and hair follicles to stimulate hair regrowth, but from a historical viewpoint, we know that it grows hair when it was used to treat high blood pressure some years ago.

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You’ve mentioned in the past that alcohol and finasteride is safe.

But…is it as effective? I know some other drugs are less effective if you have alcohol in your system…something to do with the liver or kidneys working overtime to filter out the alcohol, and being unable to really focus on absorbing all the finasteride.

Any reason to be concerned?

It really depends how much alcohol you drink. If you drink to a point of a drunken stupor every day or have cirrhosis of your liver from all the drinking, or have dietary deficiencies associated with your drinking, I would think many things are not safe.

From a biochemical point of view, both alcohol and Propecia (finasteride) are metabolized in the liver by an enzyme called cytochrome P450 (Cyt-P450), so there is definitely an interaction (as with many other drugs). If you have one or two glasses of wine with dinner, I doubt it would be a problem.

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Hello

I started to notice that I was losing my hair in late 2005. I started on Propecia (in qutie a panic) as soon as possible. Later I switched to Fincar and now take that on alternate days with Dutagen (generic dutasteride). However my hair loss has not even slowed or stopped. Is it possible that I am immune somehow to both?

My apologies if this is posted elsewhere. Many thanks for your help

Hair loss does not occur overnight and you should not panic or make hasty decisions based on fear. I doubt that you are immune to these drugs. In other words, I doubt that they aren’t working. I am sure that you are getting some benefit, albeit possibly too small a benefit for you to notice (assuming that you have genetic MPB).

I do not generally recommend finasteride and dutasteride in combination. More importantly, you may be doing you body more harm than good by choosing and experimenting with different medications no matter how safe you may perceive these medications to be. Dutasteride has many negative side effects and it does not necessarily grow more hair than finasteride. Please read the recent post, Update on Dutasteride.

Dr. Rassman,

I’m a 32-year-old with a Norwood 2-3 pattern in the front and some very mild but immistakable loss in the Crown. I very recently started taking propecia and am strongly considering trying that in conjunction with Rogaine Foam. Your esteemed colleague, Dr. Bernstein recommends the use of both of these products simultaneously, right off the bat. You suggest that one hold off on Rogaine until propecia has been shown to be ineffective, as it causes “dependencies”…

Not to create friction, but what is the source of your disagreement on this? What do you mean by “dependencies”? I don’t understand because doesn’t propecia create a dependency as well? (i.e. if you stop taking it, you lose all of the benefit)…

There is no disagreement. I would also recommend Propecia and Rogaine. But, think ahead for a second:

1. Once you start both Propecia and Rogaine, you need to take both for life.
2. You will never really know which medication is working more or less if you start both at the same time.
3. Rogaine can be difficult for many men to follow the twice a day application (a pill like Propecia is easier to deal with and faster to take).

If you can accept the above, I agree you should take both Rogaine (minoxidil) and Propecia (finasteride 1mg). Both create the same dependencies and I’ve never tried to downplay that. If you stop either medication, the benefits received (maintaining or regrowing hair) will be lost, therefore you will depend on both to keep your hair loss in check. The medications work differently, so finasteride can’t retain hair grown by minoxidil and vice versa.

When you say that Propecia slows down the balding process, are you talking months? Years? Decades?

Does this differ by person? If so, what’s the most common occurence for young men in their early to mid twenties with early MPB? Do they keep their hair for just a couple more years or do the effects last until their 40’s?

Yes, it differs in each person. Propecia can work wonders on men in the early balding years 20s to 30s, but it can also work wonders on men in their 70s (which I have seen). Some readers report that they don’t see the same resistance to DHT after 5 or 6 years, some report that Propecia is still working perfectly fine for over 10 years. Please understand that this is very individualized and I do not know of any statistical breakdown of age groups. Also keep in mind that even if you are still losing hair when taking Propecia, the RATE of hair loss is likely still slower than if you were not taking the medication at all.