Does Rogaine Really Work?

The question of does Rogaine really work has been asked by countless people desperate to regain their lost hair, and the general answer is that yes, it does work, but only for specific types of hair loss. Most men, and many women, who suffer from hair loss will naturally be keen to try any remedy, and it is important that the strong desire for the treatment to work does not result in misjudgment or exaggeration of its effectiveness in doing so.

Rogain is based on a generic product known as minoxidil, used to treat severe high blood pressure and which had a side effect of excessive hair growth. It thus became an obvious candidate for those wanting to regrow their lost hair. This medication had a massive potential for profit due to the number of people who are unwillingly losing their hair, and also a tremendous potential of taking advantage of vulnerable people.

It first became known in 1988 when it was available on prescription in only a 2% solution as a potential treatment for baldness. Seven years later Rogaine was cleared by the FDA for general sale and a large number of generic products hit the shop counters based on minoxidil solutions of up to 5% in strength. The 5% solutions seemed to work better than the 2%, although was all this psychological or actually based on real improvements? In fact there is likely an element of each involved, but the general opinion is that in some cases Rogaine does help.

To exemplify the problem, here are the results of two different studies. In a double blind test using 50/50 treatment and placebo groups, whether neither the tester nor the people being tested knew who had the Rogaine and who had a placebo, 15% of the men using Rogaine grew new hair, and 85% did not. In another study, 55% of men reported an improvement, and in other studies up to 75% have reported improvements. It is not known whether the reported improvements were real or imaginary, but the consensus appears to be that Rogaine does work.

So why does minoxidil have this effect, and is it a general one? To answer the second part of that question first, no, it is not general. Treatment seems effective only in the case of male pattern baldness, and no other kind. However, no reason for this happening has yet been found, and the known effects of minoxidil do not explain it.

For example, minoxidil is known to promote dilation of the larger blood vessels and so reduce blood pressure. This was its original function, but there is no apparent reason why this should reduce baldness, let alone cause new hair growth. The follicles of your hair are affected by a form of testosterone called DHT as you grow older, but minoxidil has not been found to have any effect on DHT. There is no known reason why Rogaine should have the effect it appears to have.

The effect that Rogaine has on your hair is to slow down the shrinkage rate of follicles and to promote apparently normal hair growth from shrunken follicles, which is rather a strange effect. It does not work on all areas of the head, only on the top where male pattern baldness starts, and generally works better on small bald patches than larger ones. It does not help a receding hairline, or hair loss at the sides of the scalp. If the follicles are missing or damaged it also does not work, so there have to be follicles present.

Rogaine can also be used by women suffering from female pattern baldness, though only the 2% solution is recommended since it can promote the growth of facial hair. This is not an acceptable side-effect for most women. However, Rogaine is the only known product on the market that can work for women and claims to regrow some hair in 3 out of 5 women after 32 weeks.

Note the 32 weeks, because persistence is the key with hair growth. Hair grows so slowly that it takes a while for the result to become visible. You must apply the treatment as recommended on a daily basis for at least four to six months before deciding whether or not it might be helping you. To do so sooner would be to sell yourself short, because it is at around four months that you should see a difference. You have the best chance of the treatment working if you have a two or three inch bald spot, hopefully with a small amount of hair still growing in the middle, and you have not been bald for more than 10 years. These are the statistics, though that does not infer that if you do not conform to that description that it will not work for you.

Hair loss is a very personal thing and occurs for many different reasons, and what works as a remedy for one might not for another. While one person's treatment might simply halt the hair loss, another with exactly the same hair condition could grow his or her hair back completely.

However, to answer the question: Does Rogaine really work, the answer is yes, but not for everybody.

For more Rogaine information, including all the benefits and side effects: please visit our Rogaine page