Men: When men start losing their hair, the hairloss generally follows a particular pattern throughout their scalp. Whether it starts with a front receding hairline or a bad spot at the back, the hair loss typically increases over time and spreads throughout the entire scalp. This is why such hairloss is often called Male Pattern Hairloss. The Norwood pictures below show the typical stages of Male Pattern Hair Loss.

Women: When women start losing their hair, the hairloss is usually found to be a thinning of individual hair strands and or hair fall out throughout the scalp area. Their hair typically does not grow as fast or as long as it once did. Nevertheless, such hairloss for women is still often called Female Pattern Hair Loss.

According to the makers of Rogaine™, Minoxidil was formulated only to work on the area of the scalp that doctors call the VERTEX, the top middle (crown) portion of your scalp. Refer to the hairloss charts above.

Therefore, according to various clinical research studies, Minoxidil (as used in such products as Rogaine™, Avacor™, Follicare™, Hair Advantage™, Kirkland Minoxidil, Provillus™, ScalpMed™ and store brand Minoxidil) generally does NOT work effectively or at all on the Front Receding hair line area of the scalp or in the Back area of the scalp.

Moreover, looking at the side panel of a box of Rogaine, for instance, you can see that it clearly states that if your hairloss is more than about 3 inches in diameter or outside of the Vertex area, Rogaine (Minoxidil) may not work.