Rogaine \ Minoxidil for back of head balding only???

[LukeJ]

Rogaine \ Minoxidil for vertex (back of head) balding only???

I bought some rogaine and in the info packet it says for people who experience "gradual hair loss on the top of the scalp (vertex only, as shown on the next page). It is not intended for frontal baldness or receding hairline".

Here is the picture in the booklet


I am having thinning in the front (pictures here), does this mean it does not work for this type of hairloss

 

[talmoode]

it works for some and not for others. depending on the individuals.

 

[Lance]

I heard this very topic being addressed a number of years back on the "bald truth" (a radio show about male pattern baldness) . If I remember correctly, the expert that they had on said that it can work on the front and the reason why it states that Minoxidil is not intended for frontal baldness or receding hairline was because the FDA only tested it for the top (I forget the reason why it wasn't tested for the front).

Again this was a number of years back and my memory isn't as sharp as it used to be, so...

 

[The_Mentalist]

The reason they say it because of bureaucracy and politics involved in approval process. In experiments, they probably did not get as good results in frontal as they saw in vertex, so they had to specify the exact success for approval process which did not recognize the frontal success a success. So, the pharma had to settle with vertex success just to get the approval and marketing rights. So, for advertising purposes, they could not say that it would grow hair in front only to be sued by people for false claims and advertising.

It does work in frontal by halting the loss for some, and grow hair at varying degrees and scope from individuals to individuals. In other words, keep low expectation for frontal, especially without the finasteride combo, and hope for the best.