Put the sugar on your… dome?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Losing your hair is a real head-scratcher! Minoxidil works, but it doesn’t dissolve in water. Can we make it easier to absorb?
Enter Junying Zhang and team at China Pharmaceutical University. They had a sweet solution.
By mixing minoxodil with stevioside – a natural sweetener from Stevia – it dissolved eighteen times better!
They then made microneedle patches to painlessly deliver this mixture. Together, more hair follicles grew, with nearly seventy percent new hair coverage after a month!
Hair loss is frustrating and slow to treat, but this research might make it easier.
It’s definitely time to part ways with bald spots!
Reference: J. Zhang, T. Shao, H. Li, et al. “ Natural Sweetener Stevioside-Based Dissolving Microneedles Solubilize Minoxidil for the Treatment of Androgenic Alopecia.” Adv. Healthcare Mater. (2025): e03575. https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.202503575