Two plain white bottles, one tall and one small, on a marble counter, with a glass dropper lying in front of them.

Topical treatments

Is 10% minoxidil better than 5%?

Shops sell strengths the UK licence does not cover. The largest placebo trial of 10% against 5% did not favour 10%.

Updated 18 October 2026 8 min read

No. The best placebo-controlled comparison found 5% minoxidil increased hair counts more than 10% after 36 weeks, and 10% irritated more. Ten percent is not a strength described on the NICE CKS prescribing page. In the UK the licensed topical products are 2% and 5%.

See a GP or doctor if hair loss is sudden, patchy, or comes with illness, a rash, or other symptoms. The NHS asks for that conversation before a private clinic.

On this page

What is licensed in the UK?
What did the 36-week trial find?
Why do people still hear that higher is better?
Does the extra minoxidil even stay dissolved?
What should you do with this?
Questions
Sources

Ten percent is not better, on the evidence that can actually separate the lotion from wishful thinking. A 36-week randomised trial in 90 men found 5% minoxidil increased hair counts more than 10%, and more than a placebo. The same trial recorded marked irritation with 10%. NICE does not describe 10% as a licensed UK strength.

That is the gap online shops leave out. They list 2%, 5%, 10% and sometimes higher as if the percentage on the bottle were a simple ladder. It is not. The licensed products, the trial that included a placebo, and a smaller study that did not, point in different directions. This page keeps them apart.

What is licensed in the UK?

NICE CKS, last revised in May 2026, describes two topical products for male pattern hair loss.

The 5% solution is licensed for men aged 18 to 65. NICE says it is applied as 1 ml twice a day to the affected scalp, it is not permitted on an NHS GP prescription, and it should be stopped if there is no improvement after one year. The 5% foam is licensed for men aged 18 to 49, as half a capful (1 g) twice a day, and NICE says to stop it if there is no improvement after 16 weeks. Those sentences describe the licensed products. They are not a suggestion to copy a dose from a clinic website.

For both, NICE says improvement may take two months or more, and the benefit reverses if treatment stops. People are told to buy the product or use a private prescription.

Women have a separate licensed foam. The summary of product characteristics for the once-daily 5% foam says it is for female pattern hair loss in women aged 18 to 65, that growth may take 12 to 24 weeks to show, and that treatment should stop if there is no improvement after 24 weeks. The 2% solution remains the long-standing lower-strength option sold for women. The pharmacy products, and what they cost when we last checked, are on best minoxidil.

A 10% lotion does not appear on that NICE page. Selling it online does not create a UK licence. This page does not link to a seller, a price or a provider for 10%, and it does not suggest how much of it to put on a scalp. If someone has already been given an unlicensed preparation, the person to ask is a GP or a pharmacist, not a product page.

What did the 36-week trial find?

Ghonemy, Alarawi and Bessar published a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment in 2021. Ninety men with androgenetic alopecia were split into three groups: 5% solution, 10% solution, or placebo, for 36 weeks. Hair was counted clinically and with trichoscopy.

After 36 weeks, the change from baseline in total hair count was higher with 5% than with 10% or placebo. The authors report the vertex figures as 0.47 ± 0.26 for 5%, 0.05 ± 0.13 for 10%, and 0.01 ± 0.05 for placebo. The frontal figures were 0.59 ± 0.64, 0.45 ± 0.74, and −0.03 ± 0.08. They describe 5% as significantly superior on both sites.

The hair-pull test turned negative after six months in 37% of the 5% group and 37.5% of the 10% group, and in none of the placebo group. No sexual dysfunction was reported in any group. The authors’ conclusion is the part shops skip: 5% was moderately superior, opposite to what they had expected, and irritation was marked with 10%. Shedding and irritation, set against high expectations, made the stress worse for the people on 10%.

A 2022 review in Clinical and Experimental Dermatology, discussing the same trial, adds that local adverse effects, including increased initial shedding, contact dermatitis and hypertrichosis, were significantly higher in the 10% group. Global photographs in that review’s summary looked similar (88.8% versus 87.5%). The counted hairs did not.

Ninety men is not a huge trial, and it is one trial. It is still the comparison that included a pretend lotion, which is what you need before you can say a higher percentage did the work.

Why do people still hear that higher is better?

Because other studies, built differently, came out the other way.

A conference abstract in QJM in 2024 followed 51 men for six months. One group used 5% and the other used 10%. There was no placebo arm. The abstract reports a significant difference in the percentage improvement in frontal total hair count, favouring 10%. Other parameters were comparable. The authors say the two concentrations had nearly the same efficacy, and that a concentration above 5% could reduce compliance and tolerance. Their conclusion is that the higher strength was associated with a higher improvement on that one frontal count and with higher side effects.

That is a real disagreement, and it is a limited one. An abstract is not the full paper. Fifty-one men and no placebo group cannot tell you whether either lotion beat doing nothing. One frontal percentage moved. The larger, longer, placebo-controlled count did not favour 10%.

The same 2022 review also summarises a 24-week trial of 66 people comparing 15% solution with 5%. In that summary, 15% looked better at weeks 12 and 24, and the difference in adverse effects was not statistically significant. There is no placebo group in the description the review gives. A later line in the same review’s table, about women who had not responded to 5%, is worded inconsistently between the paragraph and the table, so this page does not quote that response rate.

The review’s own conclusion is the honest one: most studies reported better results from higher concentrations, some did not, and the ones that did not still found more local irritation. Differences in setting, patients and follow-up can explain the spread. The authors ask for larger controlled trials before anyone names an optimal strength above 5%.

Does the extra minoxidil even stay dissolved?

Singh and colleagues say minoxidil is poorly soluble, and that concentrations above 5% tend to be unstable. When the solvent evaporates, the drug can crystallise, or powder, on the scalp. They also cite a report that the maximum solubility in propylene glycol is 7.5%, after which it crystallises easily, so simply printing a higher percentage does not mean more drug reaches the follicle. That 7.5% figure is the review’s citation of another report, not a measurement made for this page.

The same review says propylene glycol is what keeps minoxidil in a solution, and that it is also a reason the solution itches. Foam is built without it, from fatty alcohols, and has less of that irritation potential. If a scalp reacts to the solution, the useful switch is to a licensed foam, not to a stronger unlicensed liquid. Who the foam is licensed for, and the age cut-offs, are on best minoxidil.

NICE also lists unwanted hair growth away from the scalp if the product is smeared or transferred, and tells people to wash their hands. That caution applies to the licensed products. A stronger liquid does not make the caution smaller.

What should you do with this?

If the diagnosis is pattern hair loss, the medicine with a UK licence and a placebo-controlled record at 5% is the 5% product, or 2% where that is the product sold for you. Does minoxidil work? covers the limits: it does not work for everyone, and the benefit stops when you stop. The British Association of Dermatologists says to judge 5% liquid or foam over 6 to 12 months.

How the products were scored, including the evidence mark, is The Growth Check. An evidence grade for minoxidil as a class is not a grade for a 10% bottle that was not in those trials.

Oral minoxidil is a different medicine, a blood-pressure tablet some specialists use off label. It is not a stronger version of the foam. The separate page is oral minoxidil. It does not give a brand or a dose, and neither does this one.

Sudden, patchy, or unexplained loss is a GP appointment before any percentage. NICE says topical minoxidil is not for hair loss that is sudden, patchy, or of unknown cause, and not for an inflamed or broken scalp.

Common questions

Is 10% minoxidil licensed in the UK?

Not as a strength NICE CKS describes. The May 2026 prescribing page for male pattern hair loss covers 5% solution, for men aged 18 to 65, and 5% foam, for men aged 18 to 49. Women’s licensed foam is a once-daily 5% product. A 10% lotion sold online is outside that list.

Did any study find 10% better than 5%?

A 2024 conference abstract of 51 men, without a placebo group, found 10% ahead only on the percentage change in frontal total hair count. Other measures were similar, and the authors linked the higher strength with more side effects and lower tolerance. That does not overturn the larger placebo-controlled trial.

Why do higher strengths irritate?

Solution needs propylene glycol to dissolve minoxidil, and that solvent is a common reason for itch. A 2022 review says strengths above 5% tend to be unstable and can crystallise on the scalp as the solvent evaporates. Foam is made without propylene glycol.

What should I buy instead?

A licensed 2% or 5% product from a pharmacy, matched to the age and sex on the packet. The UK foams and solutions, with prices checked on 18 October 2026, are on the best minoxidil page. If you are unsure, ask a pharmacist. This page does not suggest a dose of an unlicensed strength.