Rogaine’s 3 month treatment costs 53 dollars in one of the U.S. more popular pharmacies (Walgreens), compared to the 16 dollars I paid for the same amount under the generic Kirkland brand.

Well it turns out that the magical power that Minoxidil has to re-grow hair was found by accident. Yes, by accident!

Reading through the internet I found that Minoxidil (the generic name of the drug) was sold first with the commercial name of Loniten as a medication to treat high blood pressure. Nevertheless the patients taking this medication started to notice that their hair was growing, or re-growing, or an excess of hair in parts of the body other than the scalp (such as facial hair).

Minoxidil is hardly the only medication found by accident; drugs such as valium, penicillin and even Viagra were also discovered by accident.

After being approved to treat hair loss in the U.S. Minoxidil was commercialized with the name of Rogaine, the treatment was somewhat expensive but in the mid 90s the patent expired and nowadays one can find Minoxidil in a generic version for less than half of what Rogaine used to charge.

The treatment is only recommended for people with hereditary hair loss (androgenic alopecia), and as said in the last post the label says that one should not use it if the hair loss is patchy and sudden (as it is in the case of alopecia areata). Nevertheless I have found on the Internet (and with my own dermatologist) that Minoxidil tends to work in order to stimulate hair grow in cases of alopecia areata.

Most of the documents I read that talk about this drug and its use for androgenic alopecia, say that in order to maintain the hair one has to continue to use it indefinitely. It is stopped the hair loss will return. But I have also read that this is not the case for alopecia areata. Once the follicles have been stimulated and they start to produce hair again one can stop the medication and the hair won’t fall out.

I have to say that I don’t feel comfortable stopping the Minoxidil anytime soon. I am starting to see some re-grow of very fine white hair and I don’t want to loose the little I have gained! Not now and not ever.