The effectiveness of medical hair restoration alone with hair restoration medical options that are currently available such as finasteride or Rogaine has always been questioned. Medical hair restoration without the surgical option (hair transplant), might work for some people, but should not be recommended to all as a cure-all solution, as you may find in some advertisements.
The available FDA-approved medications for hair loss prevention are finasteride and minoxidil. Although both are effective, they may have different indications for male and female patterned baldness. They might not be considered a complete treatment for male patterned baldness, as pharmaceuticals may try to show.
Medical hair restoration should be seen as a preventative measure which should be considered, along with the surgical options, as part of a master plan. Most people are prone to shock loss that may happen after a hair transplant surgery and they need to be on preventative measures such as finasteride at least a few months around the time of surgery. Shock loss after a hair transplant used to be one of the biggest problems that hair transplant patients had up until the last few years. Now, most hair transplant patients go on finasteride after a hair transplant surgery.