Cortisone Shots for Eyebrow Hair Loss: Worth A Try?

​Should I give cortisone shots a try to help my eyebrows grow?

Eyebrow hair loss is common. There are a multitude of causes ranging from overtweezing and overstyling to hormonal issues, autoimmune issues, and trichotillomania.

I’m often asked if cortisone shots (also called steroid injections) are helpful to treat eyebrow loss. The reality is that these treatments are helpful for only a limited number of eyebrow issues. These are limited mainly to to alopecia areata and frontal fibrosing alopecia although a few other hair loss conditions of the eyebrow might be treated with steroid injections as well.

Eyebrow injections are less helpful (or not helpful at all) for most other conditions. For example, in long standing eyebrow loss from over tweezing, the best treatment is probably hair transplantation. The best treatment for trichotillomania is to stop the patient from pulling out their eyebrows along with use of growth stimulators like minoxidil or bimatoprost in some cases. Very rarely steroid injections can help acute hair pulling situations but it’s not a main treatment.

Side Effects of Steroid Injections into the Eyebrow

When performed properly, steroid injections into the eyebrow are quite safe. However, steroid injections in the eyebrow have their own set of side effects that patients must review before consenting to having them done. These include short term pain, dimpling of the skin. Rarely, blindness as occurred.