Minoxidil is sold in different formats, concentrations and volumes, by pharmacies that price independently. A bottle price tells you almost nothing on its own. What you want is cost per month of actual use.
Working It Out
Three inputs:
- The pack price, including delivery
- The volume — commonly 60ml or 73ml per bottle
- Your usage rate — typically 1ml twice daily for solution, or a capful of foam twice daily
At 1ml twice a day, a 60ml bottle is roughly a month. Multi-month packs are sold on exactly this arithmetic, which is why they are usually the cheaper route per month.
Where the Cost Varies Most
Format
Solution is generally cheaper than foam. Foam costs more and irritates less.
Brand vs generic
Generic and own-brand minoxidil 5% contains the same active ingredient at the same concentration as branded Regaine.
Pack size
Buying three or six months at once almost always lowers the monthly cost, provided you will still be using it — and if minoxidil is working, you will be.
Delivery
On a product costing tens of pounds, a delivery charge is a significant percentage. Free-delivery thresholds are worth reaching.
The Costs People Forget
- It is indefinite. Stop, and the hair maintained by it is lost over the following months. Price it annually, not per bottle.
- Combination treatment. Many people use minoxidil alongside finasteride, which is a separate ongoing cost with a separate supplier decision.
- Bundled extras. Subscription plans often add shampoos and supplements. The evidence for those in androgenetic alopecia is weak; removing them is usually the easiest saving available.
What the NHS Will Not Do
Male pattern baldness is treated as a cosmetic condition, so minoxidil for hair loss is not prescribed on the NHS. It is bought over the counter. That makes it entirely a shopping decision — and one of the few hair-loss decisions where shopping around is straightforwardly legal and easy.
Where hair loss has a medical cause — thyroid disease, iron deficiency, alopecia areata — that is a different matter and worth seeing a GP about, because treating the cause beats treating the symptom.
The Practical Advice
Pick the format your scalp tolerates, buy the largest pack you are confident you will use, include delivery in the comparison, and check prices again once a year. The difference between the cheapest and dearest UK supplier of an identical product is larger than most people expect, and it repeats every month for as long as you keep treating.