Efficacy of Combinational Therapy Using Topical Minoxidil and Microneedling for the Treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

In this study, combining 2% minoxidil with weekly microneedling significantly improved hair regrowth in women with female pattern hair loss compared to using minoxidil alone, with an 85% effective rate reported in the group receiving both treatments over a 24-week period.

This review examines the efficacy and safety of using minoxidil at concentrations greater than 5% for androgenetic alopecia but reports no new clinical results, emphasizing a need for further research.

This study found that combining topical minoxidil with microneedling improved hair density more than either minoxidil alone or with spironolactone for women with mild-to-moderate female pattern hair loss.

This study found that microneedling monotherapy significantly increased hair count more than topical minoxidil in androgenetic alopecia, with combination therapy of microneedling and minoxidil being even more effective. Further research is needed to evaluate microneedling's safety and efficacy as a monotherapy.

This study reported that while topical minoxidil exhibits hair regrowth in androgenetic alopecia, oral minoxidil 5 mg/day was more effective than topical forms after six months, with low doses also potentially effective for women and other hair loss types.

In this study, the addition of a SULT1A1 enzyme booster to daily 5% minoxidil treatment significantly increased hair regrowth in men with androgenic alopecia compared to minoxidil alone.

This study found that among Chinese males with male androgenic alopecia, combination therapy using topical minoxidil and nano-microneedle-assisted fibroblast growth factor significantly improved hair density, diameter, and follicular unit density over 16 weeks, outperforming individual treatments.

This review discusses the potential of using SULT1A1 expression in the scalp as a biomarker to predict response to minoxidil treatment for androgenetic alopecia, but reports no new clinical results.

In this study, microneedling with a depth of 0.6 mm, alongside minoxidil, significantly improved hair count and thickness in patients with androgenetic alopecia compared to minoxidil alone, and was more beneficial than a 1.2 mm depth.

In this study, a home-use microneedle device combined with 5% minoxidil showed potential for enhancing hair growth in pattern hair loss over six months, although the observed improvements in hair count and patient assessments were not statistically significant compared to other treatments.

This study found that combining microneedling with 5% minoxidil improved hair growth in Chinese men with androgenetic alopecia, possibly through activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.

Hair enzyme activity predicts minoxidil success in Brazilian women with hair loss.

This study found that 5% topical minoxidil was moderately more effective at increasing hair regrowth than 10% minoxidil and placebo in men with androgenetic alopecia.

This review article provides an updated overview of the pharmacology, mechanism of action, clinical efficacy, and adverse events associated with topical minoxidil, a widely used treatment for androgenetic alopecia and other hair loss conditions, while noting that its exact mechanism is still not fully understood.

This study found that finasteride 1 mg improved hair growth in 85.7% of Korean men with androgenetic alopecia over five years, with varying effectiveness depending on the type of hair loss.

This study found that combining microneedling with topical minoxidil was more effective than minoxidil alone in increasing hair count and improving patient satisfaction for men with androgenetic alopecia, though the cosmetic impact was not significant.

This review highlights microneedling's promise as an adjuvant therapy for enhanced drug delivery in dermatology, especially for conditions like atrophic scars and pigmentation disorders, though its efficacy for vitiligo is limited.

Microneedling with PRP and minoxidil (5%) improves hair growth more than minoxidil (5%) alone.

This study found that micro-needling with cosmeceuticals or platelet-rich plasma significantly improved wrinkles, skin laxity, scar softening, and hair growth over 12 months, with minimal side effects, and that the best results occur with pigment and platelet massaging between 5 to 30 minutes post-treatment.

In this study, spironolactone was reported to stabilize or improve female pattern hair loss in 74.3% of treated women, especially those with signs of hyperandrogenism.

In this study, finasteride was found to be more effective than 5% minoxidil for treating male androgenetic alopecia in Chinese patients, with combination therapy showing the greatest improvement.

This case series found that adding microneedling to conventional finasteride and minoxidil therapy for androgenetic alopecia improved new hair growth and patient satisfaction in poor responders.

This review examines misconceptions and gaps in the understanding of androgenic alopecia (AGA) etiopathogenesis, offering new perspectives but no new experimental results.

This study found that adding microneedling to minoxidil treatment significantly improved hair growth in men with androgenetic alopecia compared to minoxidil alone across all assessed measures.

This study found that 58% of men aged 30-50 had androgenic alopecia, with disease severity increasing with age and many being candidates for medical treatment or hair transplantation.

This study found that oral finasteride was more effective than 5% topical minoxidil in treating mild to severe androgenetic alopecia in males, with both treatments deemed effective and safe over 12 months.

This study found that 5% topical minoxidil significantly increased hair regrowth and improved psychosocial perceptions of hair loss in men with androgenetic alopecia compared to 2% topical minoxidil and placebo over 48 weeks.

In this study, hair pain (trichodynia) was reported by a significant portion of patients with hair loss, but it did not correlate with the cause or activity of the condition.