Once or twice a day? How much of a difference?

[shootingguard]

I'm going to start using 5% minoxidil tomorrow in conjunction with my nizoral and 1.25% daily dose of finasteride. My question is whether I will see better results using it twice a day over once a day. Has anybody ever gotten success just putting it on before they go to bed?

 

[somone uk]

well lets see it this way: you are effectively increasing your dosage
the half life of minoxidil is quite short so it probably better applied 2 halfs a day rather than a whole once a day

 

[shootingguard]

Well that's the thing. It's not really a monetary or time issue...fact is, my hair is pretty short already (about 3/4") so applying it isn't a problem. It's just that I couldn't stand the feeling of having that stuff on my head for the entire day while I'm working, or playing basketball, etc. At night it won't really matter, since I'll apply it roughly an hour before I go to bed, and it can sit comfortably in my air conditioned room. Plus, sometimes I wear a hat during the day, so that will make it even worse.

minoxidil + sweat + blazing heat = Discomfort

 

[Bryan]

the half life of minoxidil is quite short so it probably better applied 2 halfs a day rather than a whole once a day

I've seen people talk about the "half-life" of minoxidil in this same context, but I'm not really sure what they mean by that. "Half-life" is generally used in reference to the level of a drug in the blood; so is THAT what you're referring to, or just the level of minoxidil in the skin/scalp?

BTW, it's known that minoxidil has a "depot effect" when applied topically to the skin; that effect, alone, will tend to increase the amount of time it's absorbed into the scalp, regardless of whatever it is you mean by "half-life".

 

[spiveslude]

Actually half life refers to the amount of time it takes for half of anything to break down (in this case, render useless). Its a chemistry term which obviously would include drugs. An example is carbon. Carbon has a certain (and very long) half life. Carbon dating is possible because we know how long it takes an amount of carbon to be reduced thus if we have an amount of carbon and we can guess with reasonable accuracy how much carbon is found in bone then we can determine how old a bone is. When people throw out the term half life they typically mean "ah well it doesn't work anymore after a certain point."

 

[TEDDYRUXPIN]

Minoxidil has a half life of 4.2 hours and depending on the person, most of the effectiveness will be lost by the 8th hour. That is why, you should apply it roughly twice a day for full effect.

unk:

 

[Bryan]

Minoxidil has a half life of 4.2 hours and depending on the person, most of the effectiveness will be lost by the 8th hour.

Dude!! Read what I wrote just three posts above this one! You need to explain what you mean by "half life" in this context! :dunno:

 

[TEDDYRUXPIN]

Minoxidil has a half life of 4.2 hours and depending on the person, most of the effectiveness will be lost by the 8th hour.

Dude!! Read what I wrote just three posts above this one! You need to explain what you mean by "half life" in this context! :dunno:

Come on. Do some googling my friend. Half life is definitely not the game. It basically means the efficiency or potency of the drug.

So in 4.2 hours the effectiveness of minoxidil will have reduced by 50%. More than 8hrs the effectiveness has nearly completely worn out.

That is why it is recommended that you apply minoxidil 2 times a day.

 

[Bryan]

Come on. Do some googling my friend. Half life is definitely not the game. It basically means the efficiency or potency of the drug.

So in 4.2 hours the effectiveness of minoxidil will have reduced by 50%. More than 8hrs the effectiveness has nearly completely worn out.

LOL! Obviously you don't have any idea what it means!

 

[squeegee]

Come on. Do some googling my friend. Half life is definitely not the game. It basically means the efficiency or potency of the drug.

So in 4.2 hours the effectiveness of minoxidil will have reduced by 50%. More than 8hrs the effectiveness has nearly completely worn out.

LOL! Obviously you don't have any idea what it means!

Bryan said LOL? WTF is going on here? unk:

 

[Bryan]

Bryan said LOL? WTF is going on here? unk:

I'm getting sick and tired of people referring to the "half-life" of topical minoxidil without clarifying exactly what it is they mean.

 

[TEDDYRUXPIN]

Bryan said LOL? WTF is going on here? unk:

I'm getting sick and tired of people referring to the "half-life" of topical minoxidil without clarifying exactly what it is they mean.

I'm getting sick of people asking when they can't be bothered googling the sentence.

At high school everyone learned this phrase. The first interaction with this word was when you have to read up on radioactivity. I guess you did not attend that class.

One, the meaning of half life is not this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_(video_game)

It is this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_half-life

 

[KeyserSoza]

new to the forum teddy?




anyone got any popcorn........i have a feeling bryan's going to Citizen kane this topic....

 

[Bryan]

I'm getting sick of people asking when they can't be bothered googling the sentence.

At high school everyone learned this phrase. The first interaction with this word was when you have to read up on radioactivity. I guess you did not attend that class.

You dunderhead, the term "half-life" can refer to different specific measurements. For example, you could have been referring to the half-life of minoxidil in the blood (yes, a certain small fraction of topically-applied minoxidil _is_ absorbed into the blood stream, and there is some evidence that at least PART of its effect on hair comes about from that), or you could have been referring to its half-life as it sits on top of the scalp, dissolved in propylene glycol (if you don't shampoo your scalp after applying the minoxidil or otherwise wipe it off, you'll be able to find at least _some_ of that solution on your scalp many hours later), or you could have been referring to some other kind of "half-life" entirely, like maybe the exposure of the hair follicles themselves to minoxidil, which factors in not only the previous two measurements, but others besides.

So this demonstrates that you don't even have the wit to understand the ambiguity of the term "half-life" in this specific context (the context of "topical minoxidil"). Three or four times now I've asked you to be specific about what you mean, but you've been unable to explain it, or even understand it yourself. Let's hope you've learned something today.

 

[Bryan]

I take Loniten 5mg daily (I don't want to take more so that I don't need a diuretic).
Should I take 2.5mg morning and evening instead of the full dose in the morning as I usually do ?
I guess it should be better, concerning the short half-life... But do you have any idea if 2.5mg is enough to initiate a effect on hair ?

I certainly don't think you should take Loniten just for stimulating hairgrowth, but if you insist on doing that, I'd strongly recommend breaking it into two doses (morning and evening), rather than taking it all at once.

Even though the oral dose you're taking (5 mg) is similar to the amount you absorb systemically from using topical minoxidil, nevertheless there's another BIG difference between those two methods: the latter amount is absorbed and gets into the bloodstream very SLOWLY, over a period of hours. But when you take that Loniten tablet, it hits the bloodstream immediately, and can be more toxic. So I'd recommend trying to make the Loniten method of intake as similar as possible to the Rogaine method, by breaking it into at least two different doses.

 

[somone uk]

ok i get the point bryan is making but wouldn't the medicines actual half life affect how long it's in your blood (therefore how long it will work) after it's completely absorbed from the topical solution?

 

[somone uk]

Brian, please, I have a question.

I take Loniten 5mg daily (I don't want to take more so that I don't need a diuretic).
Should I take 2.5mg morning and evening instead of the full dose in the morning as I usually do ?
I guess it should be better, concerning the short half-life... But do you have any idea if 2.5mg is enough to initiate a effect on hair ?

Thanks

loniten isn't a good idea because regaine will work around the scalp more specifically than loniten and loniten's hair growth was seen more of an annoyance because it woks on body hair as well scalp hair so there were NW1s complaining that they looked like chewbacca

though on the other hand i would rather an oral capsule than rogaine but i wouldn't want to risk hypotention

i wonder about maybe oral minoxidil sulphate actually :dunno: looking at the structure the sulphate is attached to the NO grouping rendering it redundant so it won't act as a vascular dilator

 

[Bryan]

ok i get the point bryan is making but wouldn't the medicines actual half life affect how long it's in your blood (therefore how long it will work) after it's completely absorbed from the topical solution?

Which "actual half life" do you mean? Are you still referring to its blood serum half-life, or something else?

 

[spiveslude]

Just an fyi, it wasn't clear what you initially were arguing Bryan. It seemed as if you were debating the definition of half life (which is clearly defined) when in fact you were simple arguing that the obviously unknown fact that the chemical effectiveness of minoxidil will be different depending on the medium in which it exists(blood, dissolved state on the scalp. I agree one should be clear but the OP I believe simply wants to know how, or if, using 1 does of the recommended amount of minoxidil daily will change its effectiveness on hair growth. If this is a fact that cant be quantified then someone needs to just say that. No need to turn this into an argument of a term that in reality doesn't need to be used in this context.

 

[somone uk]

ok i get the point bryan is making but wouldn't the medicines actual half life affect how long it's in your blood (therefore how long it will work) after it's completely absorbed from the topical solution?

Which "actual half life" do you mean? Are you still referring to its blood serum half-life, or something else?

i am referring to the half life that is given to loniten though now thinking about it the "half life" is only a model and topical minoxidil might fall out the range it's relevant so it's might be different to a topical solution where it enters the scalp in small amounts over a period of time rather than the much quicker method of an oral capsule