Some people, especially women, may be looking to dilute minoxidil to a lower % product in other to decrease the risk of annoying side effects such as growing unwanted body hair.
Fortunately, diluting minoxidil is not that hard. Furthermore, it can even be done safe and sound from home.
Let’s take a look at how to dilute minoxidil to a lower percentage product.
How to dilute minoxidil 5% to 2%?
The solvent that’s used by both Rogaine and Kirkland is a mixture of ethanol, propylene glycol, and water.
This means that you can dilute minoxidil with ethyl alcohol.
As such, it is possible to dilute minoxidil 5% down to 2% minoxidil as well.
You can take the following steps to dilute minoxidil 5% down to 2%:
- Dilute the substance of the vial to a dimension of 1 to 1 ethyl alcohol
- Open the bottle, pour out half of the substances (30ml) and add 30ml of ethyl alcohol.
- Likewise, you enrol the second half in a different vial.
- After the dilution, you will get 120ml of 2% minoxidil
This process can be followed to dilute minoxidil of any % to a lower strength product. However, one should be careful, as diluting the minoxidil too much will decrease its effectiveness as well.
This technique can be useful for women in order to dilute 5% minoxidil to 2% minoxidil. Especially since most women generally use a lower strength product in order to counteract the potential negative side effects of the higher strength products. The growth of unwanted body hair being one of them.
That’s not to say that women can’t use the 5% products at all, however. Since the 5% minoxidil foam is also FDA approved for women’s use. Nevertheless, the 5% topical solution is not.
Keep in mind that using minoxidil on wet hair and scalp will also lessen the strength of the minoxidil, as water drops will dilute the concentration of minoxidil, resulting in a lower % product. Applying the product on a damp skin is perfectly fine, however. More so, a lot of the times it’s even preferable because minoxidil and other solutions get absorbed better on a damp skin.
Benefits of diluting minoxidil?
There are advantages and disadvantages of diluting minoxidil.
Decrease the strength of the product
One of the main benefits is that you can lower the strength of the minoxidil to a % of your liking.
This can be peculiarly vital for women who normally use lower strength products to prevent the growth of unwanted body hair and other possible skin issues.
Less chance for skin irritation
If you decrease the strength of minoxidil, then chances are large that you will experience less skin irritation such as flaking, redness, and itching of the skin.
This is especially important to consider if you have a history of skin issues, or if you have a sensitive skin in general. Alcohol-free minoxidil exists for people who have a history of skin issues.
You can lower the strength of the minoxidil to your liking
The advantage of diluting minoxidil is that you can dilute it as much, or as little, as you want.
This means you can effectively choose the strength of the product that you’ll end up with.
Conserving product
Diluting stock minoxidil preserves more of the active ingredient that’s minoxidil, since less minoxidil product is actually needed.
Conserving minoxidil can help to dampen costs. This is essential for those who are on a tight budget, but still want to get the benefits that minoxidil provides.
Disadvantages of diluting minoxidil?
Less effective
The biggest downside of diluting minoxidil is that it will usually become less and less effective the more you dilute the minoxidil to lower the strength of the product. Of course, this is less of an issue if you start with a higher strength product such as 10% minoxidil and don’t dilute it too much.
Higher strength products such as 5% or 10% minoxidil typically work better to combat hair loss and to stimulate hair growth.
Wasting time and money
If you’re diluting the minoxidil yourself, then that means you’re wasting time and money that you could’ve spent on other essential things in life.
Instead of thinning the minoxidil yourself, you could’ve simply bought a lower strength minoxidil product to your liking from the start without having to put in any additional effort.
Incorrect results
Diluting minoxidil yourself, particularly if you don’t exactly calculate the math well because you don’t know how to or due to inexperience, means you will get incorrect results.
This can make it difficult to know the exact strength of the product that you’ll end up with.
This means that you might have diluted the minoxidil too much, which will make it less effective, and at worst totally inefficient.
Final note
Learning how to dilute minoxidil is not hard and can be done at home for convenience. Consequently, it’s easy to store your new made minoxidil.
Diluting minoxidil to a lower strength product can be a viable option if you are suffering too many side effects from a higher strength product, or if you’re a woman that’s worried about growing unwanted body hair.
Generally speaking, higher strength products are considered superior to grow more hair. But a balance should be struck between effectiveness and annoying side effects.