May 2005
Dear Paula,
In a past issue of Allure magazine, it was suggested that Rogaine could be useful for women whose eyebrows have become sparse due to years of tweezing. They recommended that the product be applied with a Q-Tip to the brow area and that it would take a few months to see results. Could this possibly work? I am usually skeptical of gimmicky-sounding tips from magazines, but my brows are the one thing that I truly dislike about my face. I have been tweezing for about 13 years and would give anything not to have to fill in the bald spots in my brows with powder each day! Please let me know if the side-effects of Rogaine (hair growth on other areas, etc.) are still a possibility given the small area of the body it is being applied to. I hope that you can help me out with this issue.

Tamara, via email

Dear Tamara,
The possibility of Rogaine (active ingredient: minoxidil) working on eyebrows is not supported by any research. Even if it were, there are safety issues for this kind of application, because getting this stuff in the eyes is a problem. In terms of efficacy, there is some anecdotal research that it could work to grow brow hair. This assumption is most likely due to the fact that excess (and for women, definitely unwanted) hair growth on the chin or upper lip can occur when Rogaine is put on the scalp; that is, hair can grow far away from where the Rogaine was applied. No one is quite sure what triggers the excess growth in spots where Rogaine isn't applied, but then again, no one is quite sure how Rogaine actually works to regrow hair on the scalp either.

If you decide to try Rogaine and see if it works to grow your brows (or a generic version of Rogaine with the active ingredient minoxidil), remember that it will take a good deal of time to see results, far more time than it can actually take for hair to grow back naturally. According to Pfizer, the company that makes Rogaine, even if you use the 5% strength on the scalp twice a day, it can still take up to 4 to 12 months to see results.