Topical minoxidil effectiveness in enhancing facial aesthetics: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The present systematic review and meta analysis was to synthesize the available data, mostly concerning safety and side effects of the available literature on minoxidil therapy for facial hair loss, to provide family physicians with evidence to guide their initial assessment and decisions concerning treatment and referral for this conditions. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed concerning study selection, synthesis, and reporting. A thorough search was conducted utilizing PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases. A focus was placed on papers published between January 2001 and May 2024. Based on a quality assessment of the study using the standards outlined in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions, the risk of bias (RoB 2.0) was graded as low, unclear, or high. A total of 302 studies were obtained by our search approach from 294 studies from electronic databases and eight studies from manual search. After duplicates were eliminated, 196 records were left, and 93 studies were eliminated based on their titles and abstracts. An additional 84 studies were eliminated for not meeting inclusion criteria after reading over the complete text of the remaining 103 records. Consequently, the current systematic review contained 19 RCTs. Upon utilizing the RoB 2.0 tool, it became apparent that most of the examined studies raised some concerns about RoB. Five studies reported high RoB, while six studies revealed low RoB. This systematic review establishes low dose minoxidil treatment as an effective intervention for those seeking to enhance facial hair development with relatively minimal side effects, which can be relevant in primary care settings.