Old, cheap hair-loss pill is doing wonders for baldness

Science is finally overtaking baldness.

There is an age-old remedy for hair loss that is back in style – and its effects have been spectacular for many men and women alike.

Minoxidil, a key ingredient in foams such as the brand Rogaine, is being popularized in oral pill form—like it was before scalp-rubbing treatments in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Best of all, it’s much cheaper than a foam treatment, according to board-certified dermatologist Dr. Amanda Doyle of Manhattan’s Rusack Dermatology Clinic.

“The pill is generally cheaper than other treatment options; it may be overall more cost-effective for some patients,” Doyle told The Post. “I think it’s good that people are becoming a little more aware of it. There’s a lot of literature on this, so I’m surprised it hasn’t been more front and center.”

Although researchers are still looking at exactly how minoxidil — a chemical previously used to treat high blood pressure — affects hair growth, Doyle said it is much safer than how the oral pill is currently given. She goes.

“It is found to be effective in some patients and, in general, a very safe drug when we use it in such a small dosage form as we do for this purpose,” Doyle said. “So when it is used at low doses, in most patients, it really has no effect on blood pressure or cardiovascular measures like when it is used at high doses.”

However, according to the New York Times, the treatment is not yet as well-known, nor is it approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Like many cases in dermatology, minoxidil is prescribed in an unapproved manner, known as “off-label.”

But many in the industry are embracing — and succeeding — with the popularity of affordable medicine and off-label practices. “I tell people we go off-label most things because there’s nothing on the label,” Dr. Robert Swarlick, professor and chair of the department of dermatology at Emory University School of Medicine, told the Times.

However, there is a downside. The pill can prompt patients to grow hair all over their bodies—as opposed to just a head-on spray.

Doyle told The Post, “It can stimulate hair growth or a condition called hypertrichosis at the temples and sideburns…

Yet overall, the data from the recent study suggest more good than harm.

According to The Times, Dr Rodney Sinclair, a professor of dermatology at the University of Melbourne in Australia, reported in 2015 that low-dose minoxidil saw successful hair growth in 100 women. Since then, he has treated 10,000 similar patients.

Overall, however, Doyle sees optimism about minoxidil as ways to combat baldness, she said.

“We have a good amount of stuff for hair loss for men and women, which is great now,” she said.