Medical Treatments for Hair L... Video Transcript

Participants

Lisa Clark , Michael L. Reed MD, Marty E. Sawaya MD, PhD

Summary

We've all seen those commercials for the "Hair Club for Men," prescription medications for male hair loss, and even men's spray-on hair. But rarely do we see advertisements for women's hair loss. Although hair loss can seem a permanent condition and can be devastating to many women, the condition is rarely hopeless. Join our panel of specialists as they discuss the treatment options for women.

Webcast Transcript

LISA CLARK: We've all seen the commercials for the Hair Club for Men, ads for prescription medications for male hair loss, and even men's spray-on hair. But rarely do we see advertisements addressing women's hair loss issues. Surprisingly, hair loss in women is a common occurrence. It affects more than 30 million women in the United States alone.

Although hair loss can seem a permanent condition, and devastating to many women, there is hope, and there are treatments out there for women, even if you never do see the ads. Here to discuss some of those solutions for women's hair loss are two experts in the field.

Joining us today are Dr. Marty Sawaya, Adjunct Professor at the University of Miami School of Medicine, and Dr. Michael Reed, Assistant Professor of Clinical Dermatology at the New York University School of Medicine, and also in private practice here in Manhattan. Welcome to you both.

The first treatment we want to talk about is minoxidil, known by the brand name of Rogaine. Refresh my memory. How long has this product been available for me?

MARTY SAWAYA, MD: Since 1988.

LISA CLARK: 1988. Here we are, 12 years later, and now it is finally being discussed as a treatment option for women. What took so long?

MARTY SAWAYA, MD: It takes a lot of years of research and development and clinical trial testing, and it was approved as a prescription product in 1988 for men, and then later released a few years later for women, as a prescription product. Now it's over-the-counter. You can buy it at your local drug store, food chain store, freely on your own, and the cost has really come down also. There's 2% Rogaine for men and women, and there's also an extra-strength 5% formulation for men only.

LISA CLARK: When your patients come in, how do you advise them to use Rogaine, and what sorts of results can they expect to see?

MICHAEL L. REED, MD: The usual procedure is to use the strength that they need for their particular degree of hair loss. If it's a person who's never been treated and they have relatively mild hair loss that's just starting, then can start with the lower strength, the 2%. They apply 1 ml. There's a calibrated pipette that they can put a dropper for their head. They have to spread it evenly across the affected area. They don't have to really rub it in, but they massage it and spread it with their fingertips, and it gets absorbed into the scalp.

They do that twice a day. Sometimes people have trouble doing things twice a day, even things they like, much less treating hair loss, but if that's the case, we'll have them sometimes use the higher strength. Women can use the 5%, even though it's not yet been FDA approved; it's perfectly legal and advisable, and it's actually necessary in a lot of them with bad hair loss to use that. Five percent, again, is supposed to be used twice a day, but some people can get away using the entire amount at bedtime.

LISA CLARK: What's formulation like? Is it watery, is it creamy?

MICHAEL L. REED, MD: It's clear, it's colorless, but it has an oily feel to it, due to the presence of something called propylene glycol, which is there in a 50% concentration in the higher strength, and that can be oily, and it can be irritating. In the 2%, it's rather like water or like alcohol; it just disappears into the skin.

LISA CLARK: We'll talk about the medical side effects, but for a cosmetic side effect, does the formulation make it difficult for women to want to use because the cosmetic appearance may not be --?

MICHAEL L. REED, MD: Not usually in the lower strength.