“I can’t apply minoxidil for the rest of my life, I just can’t”
Minoxidil is an amazing medication. It regrows hair, it prolongs the anagen phase. It does everything you want it to: it gives you more hair for more years of your life. That is proven in clinical trials.
Sound too good to be true? Well, it kind of is because there is one big problem: it sucks to put a liquid on your scalp twice a day. And there are many patients who’d had enough and finally chose baldness over the tedium of daily minoxidil application.
In my opinion, it is foolishness to do so unless you don’t really care about being bald. But if you didn’t care about being bald, you wouldn’t be reading this, so let me talk you through this the way I try to talk patients through it.
The Minoxidil Problem
I understand the issue. It makes your hair clump together, you have to give it time to absorb, so you can’t get ready for the day the way that you’d like, it drips down your neck, it turns your shirt collar and pillow case yellow etc.
I know patients who have been putting that stuff on their scalp every single day for three and four decades. They hate these issues every bit as much as the next guy. But they find the head of hair that it offers well-worth the sacrifice.
You should keep in mind that you have had way more years of brushing your teeth every single day than you will have of applying minoxidil every day. And getting dressed every day. And going to work every day. And showering every day (well, not always, but, you know, most days).
My point is that there are a lot of things that are suboptimal that we do every single day, and we do them because we get into the habit of it, and we figure out a way to make it work because the benefits are worth it. It’s a hassle to be soaking wet from a shower, and have to dry a wet towel, and remember to buy soap and shampoo, and it takes time….but we do it because the benefits are worth it.
I think one of the problems is that people who are losing their hair and trying to do something to prevent it are, like many people, somewhat self-conscious of being different. And for these people to be putting liquid on their scalp every day and having to worry about if people know whether they are doing it or not…some find it just as bad as the hair loss.
My Advice
I have several pieces of advice for these folks:
1. You have to find something that works for you and your schedule. This is the biggest issue. You have to find something that works well with your daily routine.
A lot of people wake up and do the first application right away, and then they can eat breakfast or read the news or do whatever they do next and then shower it out after 30 minutes of absorption.
Uh oh, is the next thing you do take a shower or sweat a bunch at the gym? Fine. You may not get a full 30 minutes of absorption time. But if you can get 15 minutes then you are way ahead of how much hair you’d have if you didn’t apply it at all.
Or you can shower first thing and then apply right after your shower and by the time you make it to work, it’s all absorbed, and you can redo your hair in the car before work.
Whatever your routine is, just find something that you can make work and if you can’t get the full absorption time then fine. At least you are getting something.
2. If reading all that from point #1 just made you decide again you don’t want to mess with applying this every day for the rest of your life then, again, you are thinking about this wrong.
Yes, it’s a new routine for you. Yes, it will take some trial and error to figure out what works. But I can promise you that years 2-30 of applying minoxidil every day will be a thousand times easier than year 1. And a nice head of hair is well worth a year or two of trial and error. You’ll get to the point that it feels just as much of a habit as brushing your teeth does.
3. Just come to terms now with the fact that, at some point, you are going to have to tell someone you love and live with that you use minoxidil.
This is probably the biggest issue for most patients. It turns out that your spouse/girlfriend/whoever won’t really mind. I think the name “Rogaine” has a garnered a bit of a negative connotation but if you just tell them, “I use this medication called minoxidil to help my hair get thicker”, you’ll be surprised how little they will care.
4. If you miss a day or two or three, just start right back up again. If you can only apply once a day during the week and then twice a day on the weekends, then that’s fine.
5. If twice daily is too much, once daily is better than a kick in the pants.
And once daily is much better than a kick in the pants if you precede it with several years of twice daily. See my article on this.
In summary, daily application of minoxidil isn’t bad at all. Thousands and thousands of people have been doing it for decades. The ones who quit are the ones complaining that minoxidil doesn’t work. The ones who stuck with are quietly going about their day with a nicer head of hair than nature otherwise intended for them to have.
There are some emotional and logistical hurdles that have to be overcome in the beginning, but once you are rolling it starts to feel no more tedious than brushing your teeth.