Hair Loss Medicine

A hair system can be any type of borrowed hair in the form of a full wig, hairpiece, weave, hair extension or a toupee, which replaces your own missing hair. Hair systems are for many people the only available option to replace the lost hair and to regain the original appearance of a full head of hair. The quality and the price of hair systems depend on a variety of different factors, such as the type of hair used, the production process used to make the wig, the foundation of the hair system and how it is attached to the scalp.

The type and quality of hair is the first thing many buyers will ask about. Both natural and artificial hair can be used. The natural hair can be of human or animal origin. Some hair systems blend human hair with animal hair to save on cost. The human hair can be of Asian origin (the least expensive option), Indian origin or European origin (the most expensive option). Asian and Indian hair must be often bleached, which makes it brittle and less durable. Considering the harvesting methods, virgin hair is the most expensive and hair gained from combs and hairbrushes the least expensive option. Human hair requires more care than artificial hair but it looks much more authentic, lasts longer and is more comfortable to wear. Its downside is its higher cost and the fact that it can lose its colour when exposed to direct sunshine for long hours or break, as normal human hair does.

As far as the manufacturing process is concerned, hair systems can be hand-tied or machine-tied. Hand-tied wigs can also be custom made, which happens to be the most expensive alternative. The foundation of a hair system can be either a polymer or a mesh. The polymer foundation is a more affordable but also a less comfortable option. A mesh structure breathes better than polymer structures and is therefore more comfortable to wear but, besides being more expensive, it is also a less durable alternative and more difficult to maintain. Mesh is suitable for creating authentic-looking hairlines, so many wigs combine both technologies, mesh for the hairline and the polymer structure for the inside of the wig.

The method of attaching a wig to your scalp and blending it with your existing hair is an extremely important factor. There are semi-permanently attached hair systems that are either glued to your scalp or woven into your existing hair and these can only be removed in a hair salon once every five or six weeks for maintenance. These systems cling tightly to your scalp but can be unhealthy and uncomfortable to wear after a couple of weeks of use. The temporarily-attached hair systems use double-sided sticky tape or clips to fix the hairpiece to your scalp and existing hair. They can be removed and cleaned any time you like but can also be easily and unexpectedly removed, leading to embarrassing situations.

The final, determining factor when deciding on buying a hair system is obviously the cost. Any hair system is temporary in nature, it will not last for ever like hair transplants do. Nevertheless, they can be also quite expensive. Hair transplants can cost as much as ten thousand dollars or more. Although you can get a wig for a few hundred dollars, the more authentic pieces cost a few thousand dollars and require regular maintenance costing a couple of hundred dollars every month. In addition, you have to buy at least two identical pieces, one to wear while the other is being maintained by your hair salon. Though not inexpensive, hair systems are often the only option to replace the lost hair for many alopecia areata patients, as well as a large percentage of female hair loss sufferers.

The principal methods of non-surgical hair replacement today involve the use of hair systems and hair loss concealers. Various types of hair systems such as full wigs, hairpieces, toupees, hair extensions and weaves can look very authentic and have been used for ages to cover bald areas and typically with good rates of success. However, their main weaknesses are high maintenance expense and, in many situations, the discomfort of wearing them. Hair loss concealers on the other hand have been around for a shorter period of time and have often been looked down upon for being incapable of withstanding adverse external conditions such as heavy rain or wind and for appearing unnatural. This is no longer true as many of them have greatly improved recently, both in terms of their authentic appearance and their resistance.

There are three basic types of hair loss concealers: those that simply paint your scalp to match your hair colour, then there are hair thickeners that thicken your hair by coating and penetrating the hair and trapping volume-building proteins and moisture inside the hair shaft and, lastly, there are concealers that use microfibers that cling to your hair like branches to the trunk of a tree, increasing the hair density. Some products combine two of the aforementioned approaches and paint your scalp and thicken your hair at the same time. All of these products come in various forms, such as a powder, cream or a spray. Hair loss concealers do not contain any active ingredients that would combat hair loss but some of them allow you to continue with a topical hair loss treatment such as minoxidil.

Microfibre-based hair loss concealers can be typically applied in as little as 30 seconds versus a minimum of five minutes needed for hair thickeners. However, microfibres are less water-resistant and it is quite difficult to apply them precisely and, therefore, they are not too good for creating an authentic-looking frontal hairline. Their greatest advantage is that they are unrecognisable in your hair, even with a very close inspection. Hair thickeners, mainly those that also colour your scalp, are extremely water-resistant and excellent for frontal hairlines but they take longer to apply. They cover your scalp with a layer of colouring substance, which makes it difficult to effectively apply any topical hair loss treatment. Their greatest weakness in comparison to microfibres is that in direct sunlight it can become visible to the sharp eye that the scalp has been painted.

The most commonly criticised weakness of all chemical substances used for concealing hair loss is the limited choice of available shades. Some hair loss sufferers use a combination of two products simultaneously in order to overcome the weaknesses of individual products and to achieve the most authentic shade and appearance. Most often a combination of a hair thickener and a microfibrous concealer is used. The results of such combinations are usually excellent. If you want to try any such combinations, make sure that you apply the scalp-painting, hair loss thickener first and then use the microfibres to mask the remaining imperfections. There are many products in all three categories of hair loss concealers and you may need to test several of them in order to identify those that best match you hair colour and style of application.

Gray hair at a young age can have various causes, such as vitiligo, thyroid imbalance, vitamin B deficiency, constant and extreme stress, alopecia areata, bad diet, etc. but its greatest trigger is genetics, causing the premature death of pigment-producing cells in hair follicles. When it comes to treating gray hair caused by other non-hereditary health conditions then the focus should be on tackling the primary reason. In treating genetically determined, premature gray hair, any effective therapy should involve interference with our genes. However, at the moment, no such treatment exists that can halt or reverse the dying of pigment-producing cells called melanocytes. There are some commercial products out there, though, containing vitamins, minerals and a Chinese herb Fo-Ti that are said to stop and reverse gray hair but the only evidence supporting the claims made by their marketers refers back to the old Chinese legend of an old villager, Mr He, from one thousand years ago. Vitamins B, namely PABA and folic acid, have been observed to stop graying in people with diets poor in vitamins B but they cannot help reverse gray hair in individuals suffering from chronic vitamin B deficiency, let alone in cases of genetically-determined gray hair.

Therefore, the only available and effective treatment option for premature and age-related gray hair is to cover it. There are two principal colouring options for covering gray hair, which include hair dyes and progressive hair colorants. Hair dyes can be temporary, semi-permanent, demi-permanent or permanent, depending on the durability of their colouring effects. The ability of the pigment molecules to penetrate into the hair shaft determines the stability of the hair colour. Each hair consists of at least two layers, the cuticle, which is an outer protective layer, and the cortex, which is hidden under the cuticle. Permanent hair dye is, as its name says, the most stable of the hair colouring options and the most effective method of covering gray hair amongst hair dyes, as its large molecules get trapped in the cortex of the hair and resist being washed out but it is also the most drastic method of dyeing hair. Hair dyes are popular, especially with female consumers. Men usually look for more subtle options of covering their gray hair as for a man dyeing hair is socially less acceptable. Progressive hair colorants, with their slow and gradual mode of action, seem to be the right product for men.

The marketing of progressive hair colorants is typically targeted at male customers but they can be also successfully used by women. These products colour hair gradually and unnoticeably and only affect your gray hair. They can be applied selectively to cover only certain areas so that you can leave some area untreated to look more natural. Progressive hair colorants are easy to apply, no plastic gloves are required to apply them, and you just have to spread them on your white areas. Their mode of action consists of the chemical reaction involving one or two substances from the colorant, which in the presence of atmospheric oxygen produce synthetic pigment on the surface as well as in the pores and in the cortex of your hair. As the substance is drying in the air, the chemical reaction begins and lasts until the next shampoo wash. Hence, the longer the substance stays in your hair the more effective it is. The downside is that progressive hair colorants have to be reapplied relatively frequently, which makes them more expensive compared with the majority of traditional hair dyes. Progressive hair colorants are either metallic based or use organic chemicals.

The sporadic controversy surrounding these products results from a wrong understanding of their mechanism of action and the purpose they were designed for. They were not meant to cover all your gray hair with a single application. For people with more than 50% of their hair already white, it is not possible to achieve full white hair coverage with these products, no matter how often they apply them. They were designed for individuals who wish to reduce the amount of their gray and would like to do it discretely and unnoticeably. Frequent shampooing reduces the effectiveness of these products as does exposure to direct sun.

There is no single natural hair loss treatment that sells as much as some of the best selling hair loss medicines such as Propecia or Rogaine. However, due to the sheer variety of natural hair loss products, their combined sales exceed the sales of medicinal treatments. The key to the growing popularity of natural products is a general belief that they are as effective as medicinal treatments but less expensive and do not carry the risk of causing negative side-effects. However, none of these claims seem be true.

There are many herbal extracts out there that are assumed to treat hereditary pattern baldness in humans but none of them has ever been clinically proven and independently verified in a statistically significant sample. Hence, no matter what the marketers of the natural hair loss treatments say about the superior effectiveness of their products, you should take their word with a grain of salt. That does not automatically imply, though, that all natural hair loss products are useless. Herbal treatments are a mix of numerous components that are thought to promote hair growth and they may work for some people but their mechanism of action is a mystery and their results usually vary significantly between patients.

Herbal supplements have one weakness and that is that they have not been subjected to any rigorous clinical testing regarding their safety, either alone or in interactions with other substances, as medicinal drugs. Most herbal extracts and naturally-derived substances are only tested on rodents not on humans. In addition, increasing numbers of herbs and herbal products are becoming responsible for bad allergic reactions. Many marketers tell you that saw palmetto is as effective as finasteride in treating hereditary hair loss and that it can be used as its natural substitute. Its mode of action is to reduce the dihydrotestosterone (DHT) levels in your scalp, the same job as finasteride does. However, saw palmetto is supposed to have no negative side-effects. Saw palmetto simply enjoys the best of both worlds; it is as effective as finasteride but as harmless as drinking mineral water. A quick internet search turned up the following list of side-effects experienced by saw palmetto users: stomach pains and diarrhoea, severe bleeding during saw palmetto use, difficulty with erections, testicular discomfort, decline in sexual desire, breast tenderness and enlargement, allergic reactions and a warning that saw palmetto extract is not recommended for women who are pregnant or breast-feeding because of its possible hormonal activity. This shows that herbal substances are not so harmless after all.

The price comparison does not speak in favor of natural hair loss products, either. They happen to be some of the most outrageously-overpriced hair loss remedies on the market. Sure, it is not easy to beat the price of cheap generic minoxidil. But why should you pay ten times more for the same generic minoxidil just because it comes in a box with a few herbs and vitamins? Natural hair loss products usually come as a complete treatment, consisting of topical and oral applications and a shampoo. You are advised to use the entire therapy, as the individual components complement each other, which ensures very good profits for the manufacturer.

Hair loss can be caused by a variety of factors but heredity is the number one reason why men and women lose their mane. Hereditary hair loss in men and women has the same main cause, which is dihydrotestosterone (DHT) attacking our hair follicles. DHT is a metabolite of the male hormone testosterone but it is also present in the female body. Men and women lose their hair not because of increased levels of DHT in their bodies but due to the susceptibility of their follicles to DHT attacks, although the exact mechanism and reasons why certain hairs, mostly those on the top of the head, are more vulnerable to such attacks are not yet know.

The main difference between the male and female form of hereditary baldness is in its shape. The male form has a characteristic horseshoe pattern whereas the female form is usually a diffuse thinning across the entire scalp and is therefore less easily-recognised. The female form of hereditary hair loss is, in its form, practically indistinguishable from hair loss caused by various other factors. The second most common reason for a woman to lose her hair are hormonal imbalances during and after pregnancy or menopause. Such changes are typically of a temporary nature and so also is the hair loss, although post-menopausal hair loss is in most cases permanent.

When it comes to treating female hair loss there are some specifics. First, most women do not make very good candidates for hair transplantation due to their diffuse thinning pattern, which makes it impossible to identify the hair that will be resistant to future miniaturisation. Secondly, finasteride, which is one of the only two FDA-approved hair loss treatments available today, cannot be used on women and neither can dutasteride, which is its closest relative. Rogaine (generic name minoxidil) is the second FDA-approved hair loss treatment and its approved concentration for women is only 2% versus 5% for men. However, many doctors recommend their female patients use 5% minoxidil formulations such as Rogaine foam. Aminexil is a molecule similar to minoxidil and it is often recommended to women who are pregnant or breastfeeding as a safer option than minoxidil.

Although some anti-androgens such as finasteride or dutasteride cannot be prescribed to women, there are other anti-androgen medications that can be effectively used to treat female pattern baldness. Spironolactone (trade name Aldactone) and cyproterone acetate (used in contraceptives such as Ginette 35, Diane 35 and Diane 50) are anti-androgens most commonly used to treat female pattern hair loss.

Another therapy with seemingly satisfactory rates of success is topical estrogen solutions such as Crinohermal, which use a female hormone, estradiol, as their main active ingredient. Estradiol inhibits the conversion of testosterone into follicle-harming DHT. Hormone replacement therapy is another hormonal treatment suitable for women at menopause, with estrogens and progesterone pills and creams being the most common forms of treatment. Estrogen levels in the body decline with time. As women enter the menopause, estrogen levels decline and hence more of the male hormone testosterone is then bioavailable to be converted into follicle-harming DHT.

This list of treatments for female pattern hair loss is not exhaustive, though. A number of other remedies exist that are often claimed to help promote hair growth in women, such as ketoconazole, fluridil, flutamide, alfatradiol, as well as numerous substances of natural origin. Despite the fact that there are female patients who will swear by some of these treatments, none of them has ever been sufficiently clinically tested, let alone approved by any major national health supervisory authority as a treatment for female hair loss and the claims of their guaranteed effectiveness should be taken with a grain of salt.

The existing medical options for regrowing lost hair in patients suffering from hereditary forms of hair loss are limited to relatively few treatments which are most effective in the early stages of baldness. Once you have lost a substantial portion of hair due to hereditary factors or an accident, such as a burn, the only remaining option is to replace the missing hair. Your options can be either of a temporary nature, such as the use of wigs and hair loss concealers, or a permanent surgical solution. Hair transplantation happens to be the most effective way of surgical hair replacement and the only permanent solution that offers satisfactory results.

Hair transplant surgery consists in transplanting your own hair from the back of your scalp to the frontal, balding area. The major limiting factor of hair transplantation is the shortage of donor hair and, hence, many patients do not make a good candidate. The ideal hair transplant candidate should have a high hair density in the back of the scalp, his hair should be thick and wavy, his scalp flexible and the contrast between the colour of his hair and scalp should not be too great, and he must be in good physical condition. Women usually suffer from a diffuse form of hair loss and, therefore, do not make very good hair transplant candidates. Hair transplantation also cannot be performed on patients suffering from unpredictable forms of hair loss such as alopecia areata.

Given the chronic shortage of donor hair, the hair restoration surgeon must be able to utilise the little hair he can use to create the optical illusion of a full head of hair. This is one of the biggest risks in hair transplantation, as it can sometimes happen that the patient does not like the final result. Although you can arrange for another hair transplant session, some damage can be irreparable. Other risks and side effects occurring during and after hair transplant surgery include excessive bleeding and scarring, the lengthy healing of wounds, the transaction and eventual death of many implanted hair follicles, post transplant shock hair loss, which, though usually only temporary, can affect your newly-implanted hair as well the hair in the donor area, scalp numbness and tension and the further progression of hair loss post surgery, which can lead to unnatural patterns of baldness. In a recent study, which analysed the experiences of 425 hair transplant patients who had undergone 533 hair transplant procedures in total, it was determined that about 5% of the patients experienced complications either during or after surgery.

Hair transplantation can cost ten thousand dollars and more, depending on the technique used, the location and reputation of the clinic, the extent of hair loss and the number of hair transplant sessions needed to achieve the desired effect. However, sometimes it is impossible to estimate the final cost, which is another risk you take when deciding on hair transplant surgery. Given the pain, time and cost involved, it pays to educate oneself prior to signing up for hair transplant surgery. The hair transplant industry is a fast-growing sector and the quality and affordability of hair surgeries are improving, so do not let anybody push you into hasty uninformed decisions.

Considering the currently available treatment options it seems that the graying process cannot be reversed. There is no scientific proof that any existing medicine, herb, dietary supplement or natural product can prevent or reverse graying hair. Several cosmetics and pharmaceuticals companies are working on the discovery of the ultimate cure for gray hair but no adequate solution is commercially available yet.

Occurrence of premature gray hair is often associated with excessive stress, psychological shock or trauma, bad diet, vitamin B deficiency and smoking. The fact is, however, that the main cause for premature graying hair is genetics. The pigment that determines the colour of our hair is produced by special cells at the root of our hair called melanocytes. It is the lifespan of melanocytes that determines the onset of the graying process. Once these cells die, the hair turns white.

There is no principal difference between a premature and a normal, age-related graying process. It is by virtue of nature that some people will experience their first gray hair in their teens and turn completely white in their early thirties, while others will keep their native hair colour for many decades. If more than half of a person’s hair is white by the age of 40, it is considered premature.

There are numerous commercial products out there that are claimed to rejuvenate the dead pigment-producing cells and reverse gray hair. Such claims, however, are totally unsubstantiated. The sad truth is that at this point in time no remedy exists that can reverse the graying process. Most of the anti-gray hair remedies either use Fo-Ti, referring to the centuries old legend of Mr He, who recovered his hair colour, youthful appearance and vitality thanks to this traditional Chinese medicinal herb, also known as He Shou Wu or use vitamins B (mainly PABA and folic acid) as their main ingredients, since some forms of premature graying are said to be caused by vitamin B deficiency. However, such products are ineffective for the majority of grey hair sufferers.

Therefore, the only remaining grey hair treatment option that seems to deliver guaranteed results is to cover your gray. Women use various types of permanent, semi-permanent and demi-permanent hair dyes but men usually prefer a subtle and less noticeable change in their hair color that does not cover all their gray. Such products are usually called progressive hair colorants. It is obvious that none of these products can make the dead cells produce pigmented hair and thus they must be used continuously to cover the gray of fresh hair. Although there are some natural hair dyes that claim to effectively cover your gray hair, the products that really work well all use certain chemicals. When deciding about hair dyes or progressive hair colorants, you should always take into account the potential health risks, as most of them contain toxic substances and, if used inappropriately, can lead to severe allergic reactions. You should always use a patch test before applying any such product to your scalp and follow the application guidelines in order to minimise exposure to aggressive substances.

The first hair transplants were performed in Japan eighty years ago. In the old days of hair transplant surgery relatively large pieces of skin of four millimetres in diameter, the so called punch grafts, were transplanted from the back of the scalp to the frontal balding area. Hair transplantation techniques have evolved tremendously since then and today’s hair transplants can give you a completely natural look. This is due to the miniaturisation of hair transplants, which now contain only one hair follicle (holding between one and four hairs) and are less than one millimetre in diameter. These tiny, single follicle grafts are then implanted into the needle-made incisions in the bald area. Today’s technology enables dense packing of hair follicles, which gives patients a completely natural-looking frontal hairline. Gone are the days of “pluggy” grafts that made you look like a toothbrush.

The two techniques that are used today are called Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) and Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE). The main difference between them is in harvesting hair follicles. The FUT is the older method, using strip harvesting, when a linear strip of skin of up to 20 centimetres long and 1.5 centimetres wide is extracted from the back of the scalp and the opening is then sewn closed. This strip is then placed under microscopes and dissected into small grafts, containing just one follicular unit each. Such follicular grafts are then implanted into the balding area. The advantage of this method is its high yield, measured as a percentage of the hair follicles that are successfully transplanted into the balding area. This yield is around 98%. The greatest weakness is that it leaves the patient with a linear scar at the back of the head. The FUT is less expensive than the FUE and is used when a large area needs to be filled with transplanted hair in one single session.

The FUE method uses a micro-extraction technology to harvest individual follicles that can be directly implanted into the small needle-poke holes in the balding area. The FUE method is the latest technology, introduced only in 2002. Its greatest benefit is the fact that it leaves the patient with only minuscule scars at the back of the head, which are hardly visible, and the healing time is much shorter than with the FUT, due to the small size of the wounds. However, this technique cannot be used to cover large areas in one session and it is more expensive than the FUT. Additionally, its yield is much lower, especially in the hands of inexperienced staff, due to the transaction of many follicles, and since the supply of donor hair is limited, it cannot be used in patients whose hair loss has progressed above NW4 level.

Potential future surgical hair restoration technologies, such as hair cloning and the generation of new hairs in wounds, are expected to solve the constraints of the limited amount of donor hair. It seems that hair transplants will in the long future only be used for frontal hairlines and, therefore, the follicular harvesting should manage to provide a sufficient number of hair implants. However, none of the aforementioned potential future techniques is expected to become commercially available before 2013. Therefore, the immediate future probably lies in improving the harvesting methods of the FUE in order to improve its yields and make it financially more affordable to customer. The FUT with its strip harvesting, which started a revolution in the hair transplant industry less than two decades ago, may become history in the not too distant future.

The most frequently prescribed remedies for male pattern baldness by dermatologists and hair loss clinics are Propecia, or some other form of finasteride, such as Proscar, and Rogaine, or its generic form - minoxidil. Some doctors will also recommend you to use supplementary vitamin and mineral pills, some anti-dandruff shampoos, such as Nizoral, and a laser comb. But very few dermatologists and hair loss clinics will recommend their patients buy herbal treatments. But there are so many of them out there and most of them claim that they work better than Propecia or any other medicinal hair loss treatment prescribed by your doctor, while being free of potential negative side effects so typical of prescription medicine. And some of the manufacturers seem to be so much convinced about the effectiveness of their product as to offer you a full money back guarantee. Or is it a catch?

First, one needs to differentiate between medical practice and the pharmaceutical industry on one hand and the cosmetics industry on the other. The medicinal and pharmaceuticals industries are strictly regulated in almost every country in the world, ensuring patient’s safety. Doctors can only prescribe certain medications for certain conditions and the safety and efficacy of such medications has to be approved by the national health supervisory authorities. Such products are considered safe and clinically proven to help treat the given condition. If your doctor recommends you some other, unproven herbal hair loss remedy, they will be taking the risk of supporting a treatment that has not been subjected to any rigorous clinical testing. Most doctors would not do that since they have no guarantee that such a product would be beneficial to their patients and recommending a bad treatment could hurt their reputation.

Although some of the active ingredients in herbal hair loss products may pose a health risk, despite the common belief that they are safe, this is not their main controversy. The principal question is whether the herbal hair loss remedies are effective in treating baldness. They might be effective to a certain degree since many of them also contain generic minoxidil, the only existing, clinically-proven and FDA-approved topical medicine for treating hereditary hair loss. Additional components, besides herbal extracts, usually include minerals, vitamins, essential fatty acids and amino acids. Most of these substances are either essential to ensuring healthy growth of hair and skin or they have been shown to promote hair growth, mostly in small studies conducted on rodents. They have never been clinically tested for treating hereditary baldness and thus their effectiveness and mechanism of action are unknown. They may or may not help promote hair growth but since no clinical proof of their efficacy exists, the only way to find out is to buy them and try for yourself. And should they fail to work as promised, you may find out that the generous money-back guarantee, after deducting their incurred costs, only applies to a small percentage of the original price. This is the way some herbal hair loss product manufacturers make their money.

In summary, no herbal hair loss remedy has ever been clinically proven and independently verified to treat hereditary baldness. This does not necessarily mean that all herbal hair loss remedies are ineffective as they might work for some of us. However, they are usually overpriced and should at best be expected to maintain your existing hair rather than grow new hair from a bald spot.

The key difference between various minoxidil based hair loss treatments is in the patient’s tolerance of the product as many patients have had to abandon treatment with minoxidil due to its disturbing side effects. It is advisable to try several different minoxidil based products, for instance, those that do not contain propylene glycol, in order to test their tolerability for your scalp.

Rogaine was the first medical drug in history approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating genetically determined hair loss. By now it has been approved and is available as a cure for baldness in many other countries of the world. Its sole active ingredient is minoxidil, a vasodilator that was initially used in the form of the oral drug Loniten to treat high blood pressure. Minoxidil is a hair-growth stimulant but its exact mode of action is not exactly known. Since Loniten has long come off patent, generic minoxidil is widely available in drugstores at a very reasonable price and in most countries it does not require a doctor’s prescription.

Both Rogaine and generic minoxidil come in concentrations of 2% for women and 5% for men but many experimental, generic products use concentrations of up to 20%. Minoxidil is often blamed for causing various negative side effects. Since it has become the most frequently-used medicine for treating baldness, its side effects are well documented and they seem to be often exaggerated. In less than one percent of patients they include an irregular or fast heart beat, very low blood pressure, blurred vision, swelling face and ankles, numbness in the hands, etc. These symptoms are directly related to minoxidil being a vasodilator. In addition, minoxidil can cause unwanted hair growth on the face and other parts of the body. This is due to its ability to stimulate new hair growth. But some negative side effects that minoxidil is usually blamed for are not caused by minoxidil itself. They include inflammation, itchiness and redness of the scalp, dandruff and allergic reactions. These side effects can be attributed to the vehicles used in the solution, such as isopropyl alcohol (propanol) and propylene glycol. Many hair loss sufferers have stopped their minoxidil treatment because of scalp problems, although minoxidil rarely causes such reactions.

Furthermore, many generic, minoxidil-based topical lotions contain supplementary ingredients that are supposed to enhance their overall efficacy, such as azelaic acid, retinoic acid, herbal extracts, etc. These substances, especially the herbal extracts, are known to be allergenic to many patients. It is advisable to try various minoxidil-based products, for instance, those that do not contain propylene glycol, in order to test their tolerability for your scalp. A more expensive product, such as the original formulation - Rogaine solution - is not necessarily a better choice than a less expensive generic mixture. However, Rogaine foam, though quite expensive, is generally well tolerated. Anti-dandruff shampoos, e.g. Nizoral, can, in the majority of patients, be employed successfully to treat scalp inflammations, itchiness and dandruff caused by the use of minoxidil-based topical products.