Hairmaxxing: what the minoxidil and finasteride trend gets right and wrong
Young men are starting hair-loss drugs early and stacking them with dermarolling and oral minoxidil. Two drugs have decades of evidence; the trend's framing runs ahead of it.
Minoxidil works for female pattern hair loss. Finasteride, in three trials, did not
Cochrane pooled 47 randomised trials in 5,290 women. The drug most often named alongside minoxidil as first-line — spironolactone — had no randomised evidence, and the review asked for some.
Hair-loss drugs work. The trials measured hairs per square centimetre, not a full head
A network meta-analysis of 24 randomised trials ranks oral dutasteride first on 24-week hair density. The adverse-effect literature behind these drugs is separately, and seriously, contested.