October 2 2009, 12:36 pm PT | Posted in: Drugs
Hello Dr. Rassman,So I have several questions. Firstly, I read somewhere that if the scalp is wet upon application of Minoxidil, that the Minoxidil would be absorbed better achieving better/faster results. I’m a little skeptical of this. Is this true?
Secondly, if I apply the Minoxidil before I blow dry my hair, how long should I wait to blow dry it to achieve maximum effectiveness? I’m kind of in a rush in the morning and so waiting more than a half an hour would kind of be impossible. If this were the case, I might abandon application of Minoxidil in the morning. How less effective would only one application of Minoxidil per day be?
This is perhaps a stupid question that I should have asked my physician a long, long time ago, but, how is 1 mL of Minoxidil supposed to cover my entire scalp!?!? A lot of it tends to run down my forehead as it is, thereby wasting it, but even if it were all put to good use, 1 mL only seems to cover several square inches before I no longer feel any left on my fingertips during the massaging. Is it there even though I don’t feel it or something? What am I doing wrong?
I don’t know if this is relevant or not, but after 4 months of using 5% Minoxidil and noticing no results, I decided to switch to 15% Minoxidil w/ 5% Azelaic acid.
Azelaic acid is an irritant and in using it is supposed to increase the blood supply to the scalp and therefore increase the absorption of minoxidil. Your point about coverage is well taken. It takes a lot of minoxidil to cover the entire scalp, so I generally advise patients to apply it only to the areas that are thinning. Minoxidil is best applied after a hot shower, as the circulation of the scalp is higher at that time. Waiting 5-10 minutes should suffice, but using the Rogaine Foam rather than the liquid could solve your styling timing issues and it may be more effective.
Many of your additional minoxidil questions have already been answered at Rogaine.com.
Paid advertisements (not an endorsement):
In regards to your first question, using Minoxidil when your head scalp was dry is the best option to go for, since your head scalp will absorb the Topical solution faster instead of being dried up and turned into vapour escaping into the air.
Secondly, i would recommend you use Minoxidil solution half an hour just before you go to sleep at night. This will allow time for the solution to be absorbed into the scalp.
Thirdly, you should use a dropper to apply Minoxidil. You can squeeze very lightly just enough for tiny drops to come out of the dropper onto your scalp. Better still, you can use a tapping motion with your dropper which will drop enough solution evenly throughout your head scalp.
If you are interested in knowing whether Minoxidil actually works or not for everybody, check out my true personal experience at http://hairsurvival.blogspot.com
I would apply the minoxidil to the hair after it is dry.
I would also recommend switching to using the Rogaine Foam in the morning and a couple of hours before you go to bed.