Mixing Rogaine to lower the % of minoxidil

[rcom440]

hi
I was using scalp med for 2 years.
I have a few questions for you guys.

Scalp med comes in 2 bottles - Vitadil® 5a (which is 5% minoxidil) and NutriSol-RM (which is "Vital Nutrients"). I used to mix those two bottles put them in one large bottles and use it like that. Does that mean that 5% mixed with that other solution is less strong? In this case I mixed those two bottles so that would give 2.5 minoxidil? Is that correct?

Today I mixed Rogaine (5% minoxidil) with water.
I guess that 5%minoxidil Rogaine is too strong for me, so what I did I mixed 5%minoxidil Rogaine with pure water, 45% water and 55% Rogaine.. That means there will be around 2.6% minoxidil?
I'm planing to apply it tonight.
5% minoxidil is simply too strong for me.
please let me know what you thing about mixing Rogaine in order to get lower % of minoxidil?
Thank you.

 

[rcom440]

Ingredient of Rogaine: Minoxidil 5% w/v.,Alcohol 30% v/v, Propylene Glycol 50% v/v, and Purified Water.
that means Minoxidil, Alcohol and Propylene Glycol is 85% solution, and purified Water is 15%, right?

So by adding water we will lower the % of minoxidil?

 

[Bryan]

5% minoxidil is simply too strong for me.
please let me know what you thing about mixing Rogaine in order to get lower % of minoxidil?
So by adding water we will lower the % of minoxidil?

Why do you think 5% minoxidil is "too strong" for you?

I don't think it's a good idea to go diluting Rogaine with water like that, because you might cause some of the minoxidil to drop out of solution altogether. Instead, I think you should simply use a smaller quantity of the Rogaine, which would accomplish your goal in a simpler and more elegant fashion.

 

[Cassin]

you can buy 2% Minoxidil.

 

[Bryan]

you can buy 2% Minoxidil.

That, too. I think people can get into trouble when they start mixing things together willy-nilly on their own, unless they have a pretty good idea what they're doing.

 

[rcom440]

Thanks guy.
I want to lower % of minoxidil of Rogaine because I get really dizzy from 5%
I used Scalp Med for 2 years and I didnt experience any dizziness from it.

 

[Bryan]

I want to lower % of minoxidil of Rogaine because I get really dizzy from 5%

Yeah, just apply less of it.

I've been emphasizing for a long time that 2% and 5% versions of Rogaine are essentially the same thing because after you apply either one of them to your scalp, they BOTH turn into saturated solutions of minoxidil in propylene glycol. Only the quantities of that saturated solution are different.

 

[SoThatsLife]

Wouldn't diluting minoxidil in water actually make the minoxidil absorbent better?

Many derms say it's a moneysaver to wet the skin before applying some creams or liquids. I think it's usually about 2 x absorption. Bryan, you would probably know this better than me.

It's funny how many people use these expensive and high dose versions of minoxidil and don't know about absorption. Hope Dr. Lee didn't loose his millions on bad stocks this year.....

 

[Bryan]

Wouldn't diluting minoxidil in water actually make the minoxidil absorbent better?

The problem with that idea is that minoxidil dissolves a little bit in pure water, but to nowhere near the 5% level. If you take a typical 5% topical minoxidil solution (like Rogaine, or some generic product) and start adding a lot of extra water to it, I can pretty much guarantee you that _some_ of that minoxidil is going to start dropping out of solution altogether. If that happens, it's not going to be able to penetrate into your scalp.

So that's why I'm telling everybody to be VERY VERY CAUTIOUS about taking commercial minoxidil solutions and tinkering with them on your own by adding stuff to them. If you don't really know what you're doing, you could make things WORSE, not better.

 

[Bryan]

Okay, I've been wracking my brain trying to remember the exact solubility of minoxidil in water, but couldn't quite remember. So I looked it up. Here it is, straight out of the Merck Index:

Minoxidil dissolves in pure water to only 2.2 mg/mL, which is only a 0.22% solubility. Keep that in mind, the next time you're tempted to dump some extra water into your Rogaine bottle!

 

[rcom440]

Okay, I've been wracking my brain trying to remember the exact solubility of minoxidil in water, but couldn't quite remember. So I looked it up. Here it is, straight out of the Merck Index:

Minoxidil dissolves in pure water to only 2.2 mg/mL, which is only a 0.22% solubility. Keep that in mind, the next time you're tempted to dump some extra water into your Rogaine bottle!

thanks for the info. So does that mean that it wont work if I mix it 50% Rogaine and 50% of water?
I will apply a 4 small drops of Rogaine 5% on my hairline and one drop on the top tonight and see it my dizziness will stop. I'm still a little bit dizzy since Sunday.

I didnt get dizzy when I was using Scalp Med but Scalp Med comes in 2 bottles -
1) Vitadil® 5a (5% minoxidil, Alcohol 30%, Propylene 50%, Purified water) and
2) NutriSol-RM ("Vital Nutrients" - Deionized water, Glycerol, Polysorbate-80, Retinol Sabal Serrulata, Beta-sitosterol, Panthenol, Cystine, Biotin, DMDM Hydantoin, Methylparaben) and they recommended to mix those two bottles. So there was quite a bit of water.
thanks for your help

 

[Bryan]

So does that mean that it wont work if I mix it 50% Rogaine and 50% of water?

Depends what you mean by "work". I don't doubt that you'll still be applying a weaker minoxidil solution to your scalp; it'll just be a weaker solution than even the 2.5% that you would expect, because I think not all of it will dissolve in such a watered-down vehicle.

I will apply a 4 small drops of Rogaine 5% on my hairline and one drop on the top tonight and see it my dizziness will stop. I'm still a little bit dizzy since Sunday.

If what you say is correct, you must be amazingly sensitive to minoxidil. That would worry me.

I didnt get dizzy when I was using Scalp Med but Scalp Med comes in 2 bottles -
1) Vitadil® 5a (5% minoxidil, Alcohol 30%, Propylene 50%, Purified water) and
2) NutriSol-RM ("Vital Nutrients" - Deionized water, Glycerol, Polysorbate-80, Retinol Sabal Serrulata, Beta-sitosterol, Panthenol, Cystine, Biotin, DMDM Hydantoin, Methylparaben) and they recommended to mix those two bottles. So there was quite a bit of water.

What happened when you applied ONLY the Vitadil, but not the other one?

 

[rcom440]

So does that mean that it wont work if I mix it 50% Rogaine and 50% of water?

Depends what you mean by "work". I don't doubt that you'll still be applying a weaker minoxidil solution to your scalp; it'll just be a weaker solution than even the 2.5% that you would expect, because I think not all of it will dissolve in such a watered-down vehicle.

I will apply a 4 small drops of Rogaine 5% on my hairline and one drop on the top tonight and see it my dizziness will stop. I'm still a little bit dizzy since Sunday.

If what you say is correct, you must be amazingly sensitive to minoxidil. That would worry me.

I didnt get dizzy when I was using Scalp Med but Scalp Med comes in 2 bottles -
1) Vitadil® 5a (5% minoxidil, Alcohol 30%, Propylene 50%, Purified water) and
2) NutriSol-RM ("Vital Nutrients" - Deionized water, Glycerol, Polysorbate-80, Retinol Sabal Serrulata, Beta-sitosterol, Panthenol, Cystine, Biotin, DMDM Hydantoin, Methylparaben) and they recommended to mix those two bottles. So there was quite a bit of water.

What happened when you applied ONLY the Vitadil, but not the other one?

I never apply Vitadil on its own. I was always mixing those two. No dizziness.

 

[Bryan]

I never apply Vitadil on its own. I was always mixing those two. No dizziness.

The simplest and most obvious explanation would be that you reduced the amount of dissolved minoxidil so much by mixing those two bottles together, you didn't get the problems with the dizziness. But obviously, I'm just speculating here.

Frankly, I wouldn't trust any company that actually recommended that you do something that crazy. I don't think they know what they're talking about. I think they're quacks.

 

[rcom440]

I never apply Vitadil on its own. I was always mixing those two. No dizziness.

The simplest and most obvious explanation would be that you reduced the amount of dissolved minoxidil so much by mixing those two bottles together, you didn't get the problems with the dizziness. But obviously, I'm just speculating here.

Frankly, I wouldn't trust any company that actually recommended that you do something that crazy. I don't think they know what they're talking about. I think they're quacks.

They may be quacks, but my hair loss stopped after I used Scalp Med for around 2 years. I decided to switch to Roagine because Scalp Med, starting mid 2008, continuously is charging form your credit card for Scalp Med - They send you Scalp Med every month and take money from your credit card. Now, that is a little scamish!!
I just bought CVS 5% minoxidil Hair Regrowth Treatment ($20 for a month) ... I'm planing to apply it tonight - very small dosage to see how it goes. Maybe it won't make me dizzy, I don't know what to think. I will give a shot. I'm telling you, this dizziness makes me crazy. This is 3rd day. Sunday was the worst! Then Monday I felt much better but still dizzy. Today (Tues.) I'm also dizzy but not as dizzy as on Sun, now its going away slowly. Maybe my body have to adjust to minoxidil ?
I apply minoxidil (Rogaine) only at night. That was also the case with Scalp Med.

 

[rcom440]

I just woke up. I applied less than half ml. of 5% minoxidil to my scalp - Around 6 small drops and today I'm still a bit dizzy.
Do you think I should try 2% minoxidil?

 

[Cassin]

are you sure you're not freaking yourself out?

 

[rcom440]

are you sure you're not freaking yourself out?

no dude. I'm not one of those. I feel like I'm a little bit dizzy.. I'm fine when I'm sitting but when I walk I feel dizzy. It goes away around 7 or 8 pm.
do you think I should use 2% minoxidil instead of 5%? But still, I didnt use that much of 5%, less than half of 1ml.

 

[Cassin]

then its not worth it.

 

[rcom440]

then its not worth it.

why not? Ive been using scalp med for around 2 years and no side effect. It slowed my hair loss