43
votes
Thinning hair suggestions?
So I've recently noticed that the hair on the top/back of my head is starting to thin. It's enough now that if my hair isn't brushed perfectly back you can see scalp through the thinner hair.
My dad went bald, so if I do too so be it -- but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for good shampoo/products to delay and or repair.
Thanks
Superb write up! Just wanted to add that minoxidil is also available as a tablet, sometimes in combination with finasteride.
I'd also like to add that I have seen the 5 MG prescribed with instructions that patients quarter them because the 1 MG tablet is generally much more expensive than the 5 MG.
Surely there's a fourth answer to this - hair transplant? It's expensive but it definitely also works.
I've had a hair transplant, and unfortunately unless you keep up with - at the minimum - finasteride your hair will continue to fall out at the same rate.
Heck yeah for owning it!
Also a bald dude owning it. I did a brief stint with Rogaine, but found it to be underwhelming and not worth the cost and effort. Am legion with the bald dudes with a beard.
"God gives man only so many hormones. If a guy decides to waste them on hair, I guess he's free to do that." - me, and some other bald horny dude.
Agree with this, just buzz it off. Grow a beard if you can. Bald + beard = god tier aesthetic. Literally.
I'm curious to see if anyone has anything worth trying. I'm also losing my hair in classic male pattern baldness. I have just committed to shaving my head in a year or less.
I know there are some expensive routes to go to try and save your hair, but I just don't see the point in fighting for however long I've got left to try and save something when I could spend the money on something to genuinely make me happy.
Team shaved head here. I just hit it with a clipper with a very small guard once a week. I won't win any beauty contests but my wife says it looks better than the guys that do combovers or whatever. I don't care enough about my hair to try to save it.
This is the boat I'm in. I just give myself a buzz cut once every 2-3 weeks. To be honest, I feel much better and more comfortable this way than having to go through all these routines of using products with potential side effects and whatnot. Also, I look good, and I feel like anybody can pull it off.
I take it down too the scalp with a razor. If the hair doesn't want to grow then it's fully got to go is my motto lol.
Someone please let me know if this kind of comment is against the tildes rules:
You can check out my comment here https://tildes.net/~life.style/1942/thinning_hair_suggestions#comment-a279 which goes through some more non-mainstream recommendations with an emphasis on avoiding side effects.
Nioxin is what the hair salon will recommend. It's a shampoo and conditioner and it is quite expensive. Supposed to deep clean the pores or something. I tried it in my early 20s and it did nothing for me, though it did seem like really high quality shampoo and I liked using it.
I have since embraced the baldness and been shaving my head for several years now. Good luck dude.
I am right on the edge of shaving/trimming my head and am about to make the leap. Any tips? How often do you have to shave? Razor or trimmer? In the shower or a separate activity?
I shave my head roughly once every 5 days. It's kind of insulting as even though I'm bald the hair that does still grow seems to grow fast. I use a cheap Remington electric rotary shaver, and I think it does a good job. No complaints from my girlfriend anyway.
At first I tried wet shaving it with a razor and shaving cream. It works fine, but if you let it go too long it becomes a total pain in the ass. The long hairs jam up the razor constantly. This method probably works best if you do it more often. It will give you the smoothest head though.
Last year I bought an expensive Philips foil shaver as I'd read they work better. It gives me a slightly closer shave than the rotary, but takes soo much longer. I am not impressed with it.
Good luck!
Thanks! o7
This is what I do, and I shave it every two days. Seems like the sweet spot. I've been doing it long enough that it only takes a couple of minutes in the shower, and I don't need a mirror or anything like that.
Same here but sometimes I forget, If it gets to long I will shave with the machine first then wet. Pretty simple and I like the feeling after I shaved. So smooth, love it.
Recently got one of these and it's a game changer. If you use it every few days it only takes 20 seconds or so and you're good to go.
Aidalls Wellup 6D Head Shavers for Bald Men
https://a.co/d/i3Xw1wI
I shower at night so I shave at night. This is nice because if you nick yourself it won’t really be obvious in the morning.
I've just deciced to embrace it. I don't want to spend a ton of money on treatments with potential side effects, and no guarantee of success, and I also don't want to shave my head. I'm a big, bearded guy, and I don't really want to look like a biker.
So I've just accepted it. I keep my hair a little shorter, which doesn't allow me to comb over the front where it's thinist.
I also just leave it kind of messy.. Kind of like the Bernie Sanders look.
The Multi-Peptide Serum for Hair Density is good for existing hair density somehow.
For brushing, you can brush it the opposite way then lightly pull it across normally for a little cover up, but nothing will truly match a transplant.
A dude I know was going bald and was into the /r/tressless world, trying all of the drugs with little success. He ended up getting a transplant done and it looks great.
First of all, shave it off! Brushing it back to cover it just looks sad. You're not fooling anyone.
Then have a look at the options the others gave, but bear in mind most of this stuff doesn't work. Most of these companies are just trying to relieve you of your money.
As someone who went through this, I fired them before they quit on me.
The existing suggestions of finasteride, minoxidil, ketoconazole and micro-needling are good. Ketaconazole shampoo is a good idea. Micro-needling is painful and time consuming, in my experience. Minoxidil causes shedding and doesn't address the root cause of androgenic alopecia (assuming that's what you have, it's good to check). If you stop minoxidil you will very quickly lose a lot of hair, too. Also, you can get systemic side effects from minoxidil, like heart palpitations, since it's a blood pressure medication.
Finasteride can cause side effects, and the general idea of systemically modifying your hormones is IMO not super good. That said, side effects are rare. There is a conceivable theoretical mechanism for post-finasteride syndrome, and I think it's probably a real thing (even ignoring entirely psychogenic causes), but still it's very rare. So, those 4 should cover the majority of people's use cases.
That said, if you want to avoid side effects as much as possible, you can look into the topical anti-androgen fluridil (also called topilutamide, brand name eucapil). This has a clinical trial and is used in eastern Europe, unlike the other research drugs for topical anti androgens. It also is inactivated by water, so there's very little risk of systemic absorption (study found no active substance or metabolites after 90 days of usage, IIRC). It is weaker, but for me it's sufficient.
There's also 17α-estradiol which is used already to stop hair loss in both males and females. It's weak and should not cause side effects. If you get systemic absorption, that may even be a bit of a bonus since 17α-estradiol was shown by the ITP to extend lifespan in genetically heterogenous male mice.
Disclaimer that this isn't medical advice, and this strategy is not the generally accepted strategy of fin+minox+ketoconazole so you should check with your doctor etc before you try it.
Change the way you dry your hair. A lot of men do that thing where they put the towel on their head and give it a vigorous scrub to quick-dry it, but that can damage your hair follicles.
Don't fight it. Just shave it off. The upkeep is so much easier and you won't have to be in an uphill battle.
My hairline started to recede when I was 19. I began taking Saw Palmetto 320 mg, and that stopped any and all further hair loss.
Edit, I found a summary of some trials/studies: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7706486/
Nioxin shampoo and conditioners work great. I use NutriOx. My hair was really thin and falling out by the handful when I started using it. Within a week it had started to mitigate the hair loss. A year later my hair had made visible progress in filling back out. I've been using it for years.
Maybe look into low-dose oral minoxidil - I started seeing stuff about this maybe a year ago, seems promising and affordable.
https://www.physiciansweekly.com/low-dose-oral-minoxidil-deemed-safe-for-hair-growth/
Btw baldness is inherited through the mother so you're dad isn't going to be a good an indicator if you will go bald... Take a look at your men on your mom's side.
Source(s)?
Well, it's... complicated. Until (relatively) recently, it was believed (or at least taught in high school and maybe undergrad biology) that male pattern baldness was inherited in basically the same way as hemophilia: namely, on the X chromosome. This is a hugely oversimplified explanation of how that works. It's not my intention to be condescending or insulting, so I apologize in advance if it comes off that way.
A son gets one X chromosome (from the egg -- from the mother) and that's it, so one "hemophilia gene" is enough to result in disease. The Y chromosome he gets from the sperm can't "counteract" what's on the X chromosome in this position.
So, yeah, we used to be taught that male pattern baldness works the same way. In some cases, it probably does, but there are lots of other genes that could potentially be involved, and "male pattern baldness" might not even be a single thing but just a similar physical appearance to a number of different things going on "under the hood". Here's a fairly recent journal article that identifies a lot of other genetic factors in male pattern baldness.
It's still an okay rule of thumb, though. If your maternal grandfather was bald, your chances are significantly higher than if he wasn't. If he wasn't, though, it doesn't mean you're in the clear.
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned caffeine. It's better to think of it as a preventative measure since it doesn't necessarily reverse anything, but it limits the effect testosterone has on your remaining hair follicles and allows them to become thicker and stronger.
I encourage you to do your own research/fact checking, but the broad strokes are: