Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

At the time, people would have considered it risky.

In the late 80’s I was starting to lose my hair. I heard about a drug trial for a product the company thought would grow hair. At the time, this was as crazy an idea as someone telling you they could guarantee you could go into a casino and come out a millionaire an hour later. There had always been baldness cures and they were all scams. Nothing was ever found to grow hair.

The drug was a high blood pressure medicine that had what people called a “werewolf effect” in that clumps of hair might grow in various parts of your body. They felt that if the drug was used topically (on the skin) it might just grow hair. Since it was already approved for internal use, the concern was whether it would cause issues with blood pressure if used externally.

I and hundreds of others went to the discussion they had an NIH in the DC area and listened to the talk. It sounded real and viable. I did not participate because they said that my hair was too light in color and thus, too hard to count hairs in their periodic medical test.

I spoke with a guy who medical background and he said that everything I had heard was correct. I decided to buy stock in the company (Upjohn) and encouraged everyone I knew to “mortgage the house” and buy stock. Within a very short time, word got out and the stock started going up. Within 9 months I had tripled my investment. I sold my stock just before the FDA announcement as to whether the product would be approved for external use. The stock went up a bit more before profit-takers sold it. Thus I got out at just the right time. You see, if the product was not approved, the stock would drop, otherwise I figured it would drop because people like me would sell to take their profit. I was right.

Of course you know that the product was approved and Minoxidil is now marketed as Rogaine.