Fifteen years (perhaps more) after Rogaine hit the market. Are there any studies on reduction of baldness?
I’ve watched the hairlines of friends and coworkers thin throughout the years. The literature says Rogaine is most effective for people under 40. I’m sure a lot of 25 year olds started using the stuff back in 1996. They are now approaching 40. There should be studies indicating how many of these men still have hair.
Just looking around I see little change in baldness among men I saw in the 1980’s and guys I see in 2010. Sit in any stadium and you’ll be blinded by the shiny chrome domes.
So has Rogaine helped significantly among the population or not?
According to the label, it only works for a few months anyway. My husband used it for a while, but the ridiculous price, with only limited success wasn’t worth it.
He also looked into hair transplant, but that too, is only temporary.
I’ve been using it for 3 years or so, in concert with saw palmetto. (The literature I read noted that a rogaine/ proscar regmen was effective, but that rogaine/saw palmetto was more effective, because there were a wider variety of active compounds in saw palmetto.
It’s stopped my hair loss completely, and initiated a small amount of regrowth.
I’m sure I’d be noticeably bald otherwise.
I’m 48, started using at approx 45.
You do have to use it every day, preferably twice a day. The price has gone down, I don’t find it to be problematic.
I would have expected some long term studies of this stuff by now. It takes years to know if a 25 year old will retain his hair or not. They should track a test group for at least 20 years to see if there are any long term benefits.
I have heard young guys on Rogaine claim there is less hair in the drain after shampooing. Some guys find fists full of hair in the drain before seeking help.
Who would pay for long term studies?
Not the makers of Rogaine; they are selling plenty of it without studies. And there is always the chance (fairly high chance in fact, based on the short term studies) that the results of the study would say that using Rogaine has no significant effect over the long term. Not something the makers would want to fund!
Silly boys, we don’t care if you go bald. Save your money!
Really, I personally don’t care a bit. My husband, who actually isn’t losing his hair, is instead fretting about grey hairs around his temple. Also not an issue at all. Confidence is sexier than a bunch of products, guys.
I love that my boyfriend shaves his head. I like it when he gets too busy/lazy to shave too, and it grows in around the sides. (Thats so rare though, it almost feels like I’m stepping out with another guy when he has hair)
Seriously, there is never any greasy hair, hair in my face if we are cuddled up, lingering smoke smell in his hair from a party or whatever. It is a very clean look and it seems hygenic.
If I am ever single again I may actually put “baldness a PLUS” in a dating profile.
Some women find a bald head irresistible… I happen to agree with Dave Barry that guys with shaved heads tend to look like giant thumbs. Baldness isn’t a deal breaker if the rest of the guy is attractive, but I gotta say, hair is sexy. Maybe it’s some kind of karmic balancing of scales for women and cellulite.
Rogaine’s a crock imo. It’s based on minoxidil - a compound that only works on the hairline and only for some people. They don’t even know how it works - lol!.. just like magnets. :rolleyes: Palmetto’s supposed to be better, once again, for an unestablished reason. Apparently indigenous American Indians used it for something I can’t recall right now, nor can be bothered Google-ing(:p), and stumbled upon its follicular loss-prevention characteristics. Its primary use is for urinary problems associated with an enlarged prostate.
Another method know as ‘Bayalam’, of subcontinental Indian derivation, which entails the rubbing of one’s finger nails together to stimulate blood flow to the scalp, may also have some merit. If you do it for a few minutes you should feel a warm sensation in the scalp/head. It’s also a relaxing, meditative practice, if I’m not mistaken.
The obvious reason they don’t have any concrete studies on the effectiveness of these commercial treatments is because there’s a multi billion-dollar industry predicated on their continual sale. If what we all suspect, that these elixirs are just placebos is born out, then many an ivory tower will topple.
The one rule of thumb however is, if you lose you hair outright - no fine baby-like growth, no root, nada - only a transplant will do. No [known] medication can bring your hairs back. Hence the emphasis these companies place on starting their treatments early. For if you come to them late they can only pluck and replant hairs so many times before you start developing that Laim Neeson-like ‘bowl cut’ look! That, and they can only fleece you for the surgical procedure(s), which is a considerably more finite cash cow. :rolleyes:
Odd, then, that the packaging doesn’t claim that it works on the hairline. It says the exact opposite in fact. Do you have a better source of information, or are you just making up crap?
Used it. Hairline only. But research it, as I did before I invested, and you’ll find this to be factual. It’s common knowledge for those in the know. Don’t ask me why this is the case however, as those that hock the stuff don’t know themselves! Ahhh… science! :rolleyes:
NB: This is contingent upon the active ingredient in Rogaine still being minoxidil. They may have changed it in recent times… dunno.
“Minoxidil is used to stimulate hair growth and to slow balding. It is most effective for people under 40 years of age whose hair loss is recent. Minoxidil has no effect on receding hairlines. It does not cure baldness; most new hair is lost within a few months after the drug is stopped.”
Sounds like it may work for men over 40, but not as effectively? And it just plain doesn’t work on receding hairlines.
If I were a guy, I’d hate losing my hair. I’m sure it sucks.
Curiously I can find no studies on longer term safety or efficacy. I guess the manufacturer has no motivation to fund them and government monies are probably better spent funding other things.
My wife misses the hair of my young adult days. Personally I am thrilled with just buzzing the scattered remnants down once a week and leaving the patchy fuzz alone. She may miss the brown curls but they’d be gray by now anyway and I think I look younger and sharper with my fuzz-do than I would with limper gray curls and even a modestly reduced baldness (and mine was always a patchy baldness rather than the vertex spot) anyway. I can’t claim a lack of any vanity, but not enough to warrant twice a day application forever from early on for a modest effect. That vain I aint.
This really isn’t a surprise. Rogaine wasn’t developed to cure baldness. It was originally used orally to treat high blood pressure. While taking it for that purpose, a lot of balding patients noticed that they were regrowing some of their lost hair. So they knew it worked before they even started marketing it for curing baldness.
