An Old Medicine Grows New Hair for Pennies a Day, Doctors Say

As a bald-ish dude I have mostly come to terms with my looks, but hair is not just cosmetic. I find that I need to wear a hat constantly, lest I bash my head on things I can't see. The early warning that something is approaching the top of my skull is gone along with that hair. Working on anything in close quarters is perilous.

There have been studies on the effects of combining techniques with minoxidil like with needling for better absorption [1]. I know people have done this for beard growth as well.

The caveat that comes with these formulas is that they don't treat all baldness equally. Typically the type of male baldness that recedes backwards until gone (think George Castanza) doesn't have any methods that work other than getting implants

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3746236/

> "I call us the off-label bandits — a title I am proud to bear,” said Dr. Adam Friedman

I get the sentiment, but bandits don't go to school for twenty years. Cholestyramine, for example, is a quality of life necessity for some patients following cholecystectomy, but there'll never be widespread acceptance by surgeons since its not their area.

> "Oral minoxidil costs pennies a day,” Dr. King said. “There is no incentive to spend tens of millions of dollars to test it in a clinical trial. That study truly is never, ever going to be done.”

Just a shame. Can there be no other path to getting acknowledgement from the FDA? More and more I am inclined to ignore their seal (or lack thereof).

> Some patients taking low-dose minoxidil, though, notice stray hairs growing on their faces and chins. So some dermatologists, including Dr. Sinclair, have added another drug — very low doses of spironolactone, a blood pressure drug that also blocks certain sex hormones called androgens — to try to prevent unwanted hair growth.

To be clear, minoxidil is a vasodilator and spironolactone is a diuretic - both can treat hypertension, but in different ways. At the hair-regrowth dose, I assume these effects are negligible, but I hope the bandits are handy with their sphygmomanometers.

Been taking this for a few weeks. Hope it works. I didn't want fin because of the side effects

I can’t for the life of me understand the obsession with fighting baldness. I started losing my hair in my late 20s and have gone completely bald ever since.

Admittedly, having a bald head is more accepted as a Black guy as a stylistic choice.