Topical Minoxidil: Hair Growth Agent

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Topical Minoxidil: Hair Growth Agent

Minoxidil Sulfate

Many people might think that minoxidil sulfate would work much more effectively than minoxidil if minoxidil sulfate is applied directly to the scalp.

However, minoxidil sulfate is so unstable that it is difficult to produce a solution of minoxidil sulfate in a stable state. Minoxidil sulfate will be converted back to minoxidil in a short time.

For example, it will cost more than hundreds of thousands of US Dollars to produce 60 mL of minoxidil sulfate solution. However, minoxidil sulfate will change and return to minoxidil on the next day within the same bottle. It doesn’t make sense.

Everybody has minoxidil sulfotransferase in the hair follicular cells on the scalp. Therefore, it is much easier to apply a minoxidil solution to the scalp. We only need to wait until minoxidil is changed to minoxidil sulfate at the hair follicles.

This is the reason why minoxidil sulfate cannot be commercialized nor supplied to the market.

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Kuniyoshi YAGYU, MD

General Manager, Ginza HS Clinic (current position) | Director, Ginza HS Clinic (current position) | Graduated from the University of Tokyo, Medical School.
Doctor of Medicine.

The 24th President of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS), a Board of Governors of the Asian Association of Hair Restoration Surgeons (AAHRS), a Fellow of the ISHRS, and a Diplomate of the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery (ABHRS).

He has received many awards for his outstanding achievements in hair transplantation, including “Research Award” and “Special Achievement Award” from the ISHRS, “Mediterranean Award”, “Tiberio Award” and “Caesar Award” from the Italian Society for Hair Science and Restoration, and “Hirayama Award” from the Japan Society of Clinical Hair Restoration.

He is a certified registered physician of the Japan Surgical Society, an Honorary Fellow of cardiovascular surgery of the Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery, a Fellow of the Japanese Circulation Society, and a Fellow of the Japanese Respiratory Society.

He served as a director of cardiovascular surgery at the Japanese Red Cross Medical Center, and an Assistant Professor at the University of Tokyo, Medical School. He studied at the Hannover Medical School in the Federal Republic of Germany on a scholarship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Kuniyoshi Yagyu, MD, FISHRS. He served as the President of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery from 2015 to 2016. He is a board member of the Asian Association of Hair Restoration Surgeons. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery and a Winner of the ISHRS Research Award in 2010, and ISHRS Poster Award in 2014. He has authored more than 53 research and clinical publications in books and journals. He had been specialized in cardiac surgery for 22 years. He has been practicing hair transplantation for about 20 years in Tokyo, Japan.