Lots of folks these days are desperate about their thinning hair and look everywhere for solutions. Thin hair, or even balding, is no joke to some people – actually to most people – and especially women. After all, guys can be studly with a shaven head. Women, not so much.
Since we’re often desperate to learn how to grow hair, we check out popular solutions and the #1 best selling product today is Rogaine. So let’s use our Sherlock Holmes Super Sleuthing Skills and find out what’s in that innocent looking blue package.
Rogaine’s Active Ingredient: Minoxidil
Minoxidil was first used for blood pressure patients because it’s a “vasodilator”. That means it makes the veins relax and widen so that blood can flow more easily. Then doctors and researchers noticed that the patients who used it were suddenly growing more hair. Ah … an opportunity!
But minoxidil – no surprise – has a lot, a LOT of side effects and some of them can be very dangerous. Check out this list from the National Institute of Health:
* nausea
* vomiting
* rash
* fast heartbeat
* increase in size or darkness of fine body hair
* breast tenderness
* headache
* swollen ankles or feet
* sudden unexplained weight gain
* dizziness
* fainting
* swelling of the face, ankles, hands, or stomach
* difficulty breathing (especially when lying down)
* rapid heartbeat
* chest pain
* light-headedness
* unwanted facial hair growth
[http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a682608.html; http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a689003.html; http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?id=63816]
What Are The Other Ingredients In Rogaine?
* Butane
* Butylated Hydroxytoluene
* Cetyl Alcohol
* Citric Acid
* Fragrance
* Glycerin
* Isobutane
* Lactic Acid
* Polysorbate 60
* Propane
* Purified Water
* Sd Alcohol 40-B
* Stearyl Alcohol
Here are the safe ones:
Citric acid: maybe; it naturally occurs in oranges, limes and lemons – but this is most likely an artificial version, meaning it’s not that safe
Purified water: sure
Lactic Acid: again, it depends on how it’s produced
The rest of the stuff in the formula is DREADFUL for your health.
This Is Madness
Skin, the scalp, is permeable, meaning that it’s a two-way street. Whatever you put on your head is going to sink into your body and putting these kinds of chemicals on your head near your brain is just madness! According to the directions on the box it takes four months for Rogaine to create hair which means four months of allowing these chemicals into your body in the area of your brain. And, if you stop taking Rogaine the new hair falls out so this is a life sentence if you like your new hair.
If the risk is worth it to you, great. Just know what you’re getting into if you use Rogaine to grow hair. Perhaps there is a safe alternative?
Coming soon: How To Grow Hair, Part II
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