How Effective is Rogaine Foam?
Hey doc, been using Propecia for 2 1/2 years its slowed things down a lot, just added Rogaine Foam last week. Just wondering if I can get a straight answer on the effectiveness of Rogaine Foam. The commercial says 85% of men see regrowth, ive heard other people say it only works for 50% of men and then I saw a post from you in your archive where you say it only works well for 15% of men. Well which one is it?
We are prisoners of our words, so I will stick to what I said.
If you are in the 15% of good responders, then it moves you into the 100% category (playing with numbers, or course). Some people feel that the Rogaine Foam works better than standard liquid Rogaine drops, because it is easier to use and thus better for those who find the drops difficult to titrate. If there are 85% of men that see some growth, I’d estimate that maybe 15% of men see it work very well.
I’ve been on finasteride and minoxidil for almost a year now and my results have been very good. I would even say excellent. It has reversed my Norwood 3 with a thinning top to a Norwood 2 with much thicker hair. It has even worked at the front of my head and at my temples.
My guess is that many so-so responses to minoxidil have to do with compliance. It is a bit of a pain in the ass to go through the regimen every day, twice a day, and my guess is that many men really don’t do this and then complain that it doesn’t work very well. Just like with exercise programs (I exercise and am used to staying with a regimen). I have been very good with compliance and can tell you that this one-two combo has worked very well.
I used to use rogaine foam but personally feel that it doesn’t work as well as the liquid for me primarily because my hair would soak up a lot of the rogaine foam and less would touch the scalp. It is essential that you get as much as this stuff to directly touch and soak and dry on your scalp in order for it to work. This is why I switched to the liquid with the dropper. With the dropper it is very easy to get this stuff through your hair and onto the scalp directly. More direct contact means better growth.
The downside is that you have to tilt your head just so so the stuff doesn’t roll off your head too much. I’ve gotten pretty good at that; this is pretty easy to do. The other thing is that it takes longer to dry. I get around this by brushing my hair back after I put the stuff on so my hair sticks more straight up. This increases the surface area to the air and allows more air to touch that hair so it dries faster than say matting the hair down so the stuff would take forever to dry. I sometimes use a blow dryer after letting my hair dry for about 15 minutes to accelerate the process. But without heat. Just use the fan function to air dry your hair.
I know this all sounds like a bit of a pain in the behind by hair loss is a progressive condition with no cure yet. Yet we do have effective medical therapies that can help, sometimes help a lot. It is up to us whether we will address the problem or just go bald. I chose to address the problem a year ago and really make a lifetime commitment to address the problem. This entails some work and alteration of your daily routine, but it is working out for me and I am glad I made this choice.
I am an African-American male with male pattern baldness and I was looking into trying some type of hair regrowth solution. I have heard about Rogaine foam and it seems pretty simple, my question is how much can I allow my hair to grow before the foam starts to lose its effectiveness? I understand that the solution has to get to the scalp for premium results. If anyone could help me with this it would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps give me an example of a celebrity that wears his hair at a certain length normally or something. Thank you in advance.
A test to determine if minoxidil will not work for you before you start treatment.
Minoxidil works for only 30-40% of people.
A company in California is conducting a clinical study for a new device that will help determine if minoxidil will work for you. Here is the link https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02198261?term=minoxidil&rank=1