Nizoral

Nizoral is a shampoo you can find in almost any pharmacy in the medicated shampoo section. You can find it at Walmart as well. The active ingredient is ketoconazole. There are actually two versions of Nizoral. Prescription and nonprescription. The nonprescription formula contains 1% ketoconazole. The prescription version has a 2% concentration of ketoconazole. If you have good medical insurance it may actually cost you less to get a prescription from your doctor to obtain the more powerful 2% version. The 1% version will cost you around $14 for the large bottle. If you use it sparingly, twice per week, you can make it last for about 3 months.

In my opinion it is a "done deal" that Nizoral is effective to a degree for treating both male and female pattern hair loss. But just because I think it's a "done deal" does not mean it is proven to regrow hair. It is no miracle cure but I believe it should be part of anyone's regimen that is fighting the balding condition. It is cheap, and will not take up any more precious time out of our already busy routine to use on a long term and consistent basis. Some people use it more often than the recommended twice per week. I've never heard of any kind of systemic side effects from doing this. The only draw back seems to be that it can be harsh on the scalp and hair. I for one do not have this problem with the product. It makes my hair feel "silky smooth". I did develop some scalp acne in the first few weeks using it however this resolved for me after sticking with it for a few additional weeks.

The active ingredient, ketoconazole, is known to be an antiandrogen. This is a gloried way of saying it is a DHT blocker, or DHT inhibitor. As you probably already know it is the hormone DHT that is responsible for gradually making us balder. This is the hormone we must try to eliminate from our scalps. The more of this we can eliminate the longer we will keep the hair we have and the more hair we can hope to grow back. Again ketoconazole is not proven to regrow hair. In my opinion it will it never be proven to regrow hair because ketoconazole can no longer be patented. When a substance can't be patented there is simply no financial incentive for a pharmaceutical to spend millions of dollars to do phase I, II, III testing.

I've never talked with anyone who found that Nizoral was powerful enough as a stand alone treatment to halt further hair loss. But it should be the very first thing you try. It should be part of any hair loss preventing regimen. In my opinion you should buy it and use it consistently.

Below are some links to journal abstracts that should convince you to get on it.