minoxidil 2 % or 5 % ?

[Constantine]

Is the concentration percentage essential when using minoxidil? Do you get more regrowth with 5 % than with 2 %?

Also...are the side effects related to the concentration you;re using? For instance, would you go through a bigger shed when using the 5% and a smaller one when using the 2 %?

 

[Bryan]

You get a little more regrowth (and side effects, too, for that matter) from 5% Rogaine than you do with 2% Rogaine, for the simple reason that you're applying more total minoxidil to your scalp. That's assuming, of course, that you're applying the same physical quantity of both solutions (like the standard 1 mL application).

Not too many people seem to appreciate an important fact about the 2% and 5% versions of Rogaine: they both turn into essentially the same thing when you apply them to your scalp! The volatile components of the vehicle (alcohol and water) evaporate fairly quickly, leaving behind a saturated solution of minoxidil in propylene glycol (somewhere around 7.5% to 10%). All that's different between the two versions is that the 5% solution produces a larger quantity of that saturated solution. If you wanted to, you could simply apply a larger quantity of 2% Rogaine, and get the same results.

 

[skallagrimur]

If you wanted to, you could simply apply a larger quantity of 2% Rogaine, and get the same results.

Is there no limit to this? Would applying 5 ml of 5% minoxidil be equivalent to applying 1 ml of 25% minoxidil?

 

[Bryan]

Is there no limit to this? Would applying 5 ml of 5% minoxidil be equivalent to applying 1 ml of 25% minoxidil?

Not necessarily. I was careful to specify the 2% and 5% versions of Rogaine, because we know how those versions are made, and how they work: they use differing proportions of the same basic ingredients (minoxidil, alcohol, water, and propylene glycol), and we know that the process I described before (the evaporating water and alcohol) happens with both of them, resulting in a saturated solution of minoxidil in the propylene glycol.

It's different, though, when you start talking about these ultra-high concentrations of minoxidil (I've never even HEARD of a true 25% solution of minoxidil in anything; are you thinking of Dr. Lee's 15% solution?). To get something higher than around 7.5% or so, you have to start monkeying around with special vehicles which would support that. That obviously changes everything, and you can no longer make simple extrapolations about what happens when you apply those special vehicles to your scalp. An ultra-high percentage of minoxidil like that may or may not work better than a large quantity of 2% minoxidil; I think that's something you could only find out for sure, one way or the other, by actually testing both of them on real, live humans.