Can I use Latisse on my Thinning Hair? Will it Help? Is it Safe?

Latisse for Thinning Hair

I’m often asked if Latisse, containing the active ingredient bimatoprost 0.03 %, can be used for women and men with androgenetic alopecia. The short answer is it just doesn’t help enough to even make it even worthwhile.

Research over the last few yeas has shown that these so called ‘prostaglandin agonists’ do help to grow hair. Latisse contains the ingredient bimatoprost and this too has been shown to grow hair. In fact, it’s FDA approved to help eyelash growth at a concentration of 0.03 %. Application is nightly to the upper eyelid.

The main issue with Latisse is that the concentation of bimatoprost is quite good for growing longer eyelashes when placed on the delicate eyelid skin. However the concentration is just much too weak to be used on the very thick scalp. Latisse has much too low of a low concentration of bimatoprost - and it ​simply not enough gets into the scalp.

The Allergan company is studying much higher concentrations (3 % instead of 0.03%) and this is showing great promise. Indivdiuals using Latisse right now at the low concentration of 0.03 % on the scalp are going to find that it does not help enough to make it worth while.

Here’s another way of looking at it

1 mL of minoxidil costs 30 cents Canadian and this helps a bit for some people

1 mL of 0.03 % bimatoprost costs about 40 Canadian dollars and this helps hardly any for hardly any people

Interested readers may wish to refer to a previous article

BIMATOPROST FOR ANDROGENETIC ALOPECIA