Will minoxidil work for a man of my age?

Thank you for your question. You are 58-years-old, and noticed over the past 2 years that although you’ve had a good head of hair, you have receding temples you’re not bothered by, and have thinning in the crown area which you are able to cover with hair. You’re asking if minoxidil is of any value for someone your age.
I can help you understand the role of minoxidil in the management of hair loss. A little background: I’m a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon and Fellowship-trained oculofacial plastic and reconstructive surgeon. I have been in practice in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years. I am also the founder of TrichoStem™ Hair Regeneration Centers, a system we developed based on a wound healing material we used to help hair transplant patients as part of the management of hair loss strategy. We developed this as a standalone treatment, and it defined a new category of regenerative medicine for the treatment of hair loss. I can offer a certain perspective on how I discuss hair loss with my patients at different stages of their lifetime of progression.
I developed this hair loss treatment called Hair Regeneration that required a different perspective in understanding various categories of people and their relative aggressiveness of hair loss. As you describe yourself as 58-years-old with a decent amount of hair, but now noticing some crown thinning, you are already in the more fortunate group as you did not experience significant hair loss at a much younger age. We are treating males as early as 17 or 18-years-old, all the way into their 70s. We eventually figured out a categorization system to help patients be managed optimally with our system used appropriately.
Generally, minoxidil was originally a blood pressure medication, which was found to have a great side-effect of hair growth. Over time, we’ve learned that minoxidil, although the process is not fully understood, appears to have some stimulatory effect on hair growth, and some effect on prolonging the growth cycle. However a couple of things to be aware of are there is a limitation on how effective it can be, and as a treatment it is fairly safe. Minoxidil is over-the-counter, and applied once a day. It couldn't be less problematic in terms of anything else you do, but I do suggest you get a view of the top of your head.
Often when people come to us with similar questions and concerns, we take our photos from a view of the top of the head, because when you look in the mirror, you see the front. Maybe you get a side view mirror, or the last time you were at the hairstylist you noticed that thinning area getting larger. It’s important to understand when you think of a temporal recession and the crown area, you have this area of the mid scalp. Generally, people tend to underestimate the degree of hair loss. Hair loss affects both men and women throughout the scalp, and is expressed in variable ways among men.
It might also be a time for you to consider a DHT blocker such asfinasteride. Finasteride is currently a controversial drug, but it’s not in the experience of myself and most of my colleagues. A DHT blocker has a role in management of hair loss, so it is something we do prescribe. It is important for you to get a realistic understanding of the degree of hair loss, and the amount of how aggressive you want to be about management.
Comparing a DHT blocker to minoxidil, the DHT blocker can more significantly impact the longevity of the hair follicles, which is also seen with our Hair Regeneration treatment. When we've taken patients who were on finasteride for a long time, anywhere from a few years to 10-15 years, then we did our Hair Regeneration treatment. Hair Regeneration is briefly a combination of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) derived from your own blood combined with Acellular matrix. Over the past 7-8 years, I developed an algorithm and a system to help stimulate hair growth. The distinction here is that finasteride will allow the hair follicles to live a little longer, so it is my observation that it is more effective than minoxidil.
That said, we use Hair Regeneration which reactivates hair that isn't growing, thickens thinning hair, and prolongs the lifespan of the hair growth cycle. The synergy has worked out very favorably - patients who were still on finasteride, but weren't growing as much hair until after we treated them with Hair Regeneration. I think that in a way, your goal is to maximize coverage.
I always explain to my patients that hair loss is progressive, so medical interventions from pharmaceutical, regenerative, stem cell-based technologies, or surgical are all about maximizing coverage. When you are at a point of threshold, you are seeing enough hair loss that you want to do something about it, you want to do everything you can to extend the longevity of coverage, and maximize coverage. Scalp coverage is a function of hair density and thickness of the individual hairs. If you’re on minoxidil, and you don't use finasteride, the progression may go on faster than it otherwise would with finasteride. If you choose to do everything you can, then a treatment like Hair Regeneration can have a value in synergizing everything so you can get maximal coverage for a longer duration.
Again, to answer the question about minoxidil, it is safe and worth trying. A lot of the minoxidil studies have shown that to be the case, especially with slow progression in the crown area. It tends to be fairly effective, but it’s only one tool. I think if you look at yourself not only at the top of your scalp, but look at your scalp with your hair wet, you might realize you have more extensive loss than you previously thought, so it’s best to be proactive rather than reactive. I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck, and thank you for your question.

If you have hair minoxidil can help. I suggest a formal consultation to see what is best for your current state which may need transplant, PRP/A cell or a combination.. Dr. Emer.

Minoxidil should work for anybody who has follicular units present. The longer that the hair has been miniaturizing, the less chance that the minoxidil will be as effective. Most of the time, if hair is present, there are some results. It's important to evaluate minoxidil on a 12-month basis. There might be a slight shed at the initial implementation, but it must be continued for the full 12 months for best results.PRP hair MD.com