Thank you for your question. You state in your question that you have been using Rogaine
foam for 20 days and that you express a concern that you developed some shedding and some
side effect issues and you want to know is it safe to stop. And you are concerned about
the dependency on Rogaine.
Well, certainly I can assist you with this question. You describe well a thinning problem
on the crown and frontal area. I’m a board certified cosmetic surgeon and fellowship
trained oculofacial plastic and reconstructive surgeon practicing in Manhattan and Long Island
for over 20 years. Hair loss treatment is a very large percentage of my practice. I’m
the founder of TrichoStem™ Hair Regeneration centers which may be of interest for you because
this is a treatment for hair thinning that is non-surgical and it does not require the
use of medications.
To begin with, let us just review a little bit with the medications that are options
for you assuming for male pattern or androgenetic alopecia. You have 2 drugs. You have finasteride
which is a pill you take daily which blocks a conversion of an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase
of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT). This is a pill that you take daily and it
can help 60% of men who take it and 40% of men don’t respond to it. And unfortunately,
it has been associated with a lot of controversies which remains to be defined completely about
long term sexual side effects that’s why a lot of men who come to see us will not take
it. Then there is Rogaine which has been around since the 80’s which is a drug developed
from a side effect observation of a drug that was minoxidil for hypertension. Now the symptoms
you describe such as shedding potentially irritation is a well-known symptom of the
use of Rogaine. Now as far as stopping it, I think it makes sense to stop something that
is causing you to have hair shedding.
I would suggest that you consider learning about a treatment that we developed called
Hair Regeneration. This is a treatment for male pattern hair loss and female patter hair
loss which involves injection that are performed in the scalp in a way using a combination
of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and Acellular matrix. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a concentration
of the wound healing and growth factors from your own blood. And Acellular matrix is a
wound healing material that was originally developed for the purpose of surgical wound
healing. We use it as part of the hair transplant procedure with the desire to improve graft
survivability as well as to help improve wound healing of the donor area. A fortunate side
effect was that the thinning hair actually became thicker.
It took time for us to develop a method and a process that would be applicable to both
men and women, all ages and different variations of hair loss pattern so we’ve developed
that and now we developed a company call Trichostem™ Hair Regeneration with the intention to bring
this treatment closer to people who can’t come to us. We have patients who come to us
from all over the world and being in a place like New York City, it’s fairly convenient
for that to happen but I think you are at a point where you don’t really have that
many options and you may consider transplant. But I think that anyone who understands transplant,
who understands that there is a limited mutation from the donor area as well as the amount
of density and the challenge is can you get enough hair to keep up with the loss? And
as a general rule of thumb the answer is No.
Hair Regeneration is basically successful in stopping hair progression in terms of hair
loss which means you stop thinning. You will activate hair that has not been growing and
you will take thinning hair and make it thicker so that’s a combination of factors from
a single treatment. And in some cases, we will do, 12-18 months later, is really unparalleled
and it is part of I think a new age of medical care that is based on adult stem cell activity.
That’s your own body using its intrinsic systems to help effectively change a pattern
that is something that is genetically destined. So it has been very successful. With over
5 years of data, we have really tremendous pride in the quality of the outcome.
So I think you can learn more about Hair Regeneration as an option for you and you can certainly
safely stop Rogaine. And I don’t know how you would continue to heal if you have these
side effects and it’s hard to justify doing that and I think it is not necessarily healthy
for the scalp. Of course, meet with your doctors who can offer you some guidance as to what
your options are.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question!