My Hair Loss Journey
Many men lose their hair, it’s more common than you think. About 25% of men start showing signs of hairloss before the age of 20. I was one of them and to be honest this completely freaked me out. All throughout middle school, I was made fun of for my widow’s peak, kids would crack jokes and say I had a receding hairline. Then one day on vacation, my family and I were sitting at the table eating, and my sister cracked a joke about me going bald one day. Coincidentally this is around the time I started to show real signs of hair loss. I began to freak out about it, constantly checking my hairline out, counting how many hairs I’ve lost in the shower and looking on forums on reddit to see what I could do to prevent the inevitable. I’ve tried just about everything to slow or stop my hair loss, some things work, but a lot of things do not. This is my story and how I got my hair loss to stabilize.
I was 16 when my sister cracked the joke, my hairline was just beginning to recede and I had a small spot on the back of my head that I thought was a cowlick. Which in truth it was, but it was slowly thinning. At this point I thought I was gonna be bald by the end of highschool. Ever since I became obsessed with finding a remedy for my hairloss. At first I tried a hair loss shampoo, nizoral, which has ketoconazole in it, which helps block DHT on the scalp. DHT is the by-product of testosterone, some people’s hair follicles are very sensitive to this hormone causing the hair to fall out and come back slightly thinner every time. Without blocking DHT you will not be able to beat male pattern baldness. At this point in time the shampoo did seem to help reduce the amount of hair fall, just up until I was 17. I was styling my hair trying to do a Leonardo DiCaprio look. After I finished up I noticed my hairline took another hit. At this point I was kind of tired of it, so I just said fuck it and shaved my head clean. I didn’t really worry about it for awhile, trying to convince myself it wasn’t really happening.
Later that year I moved states and I shaved my head again. As it grew back I noticed my crown started to seem a bit off. I started minoxidil but only stayed on it for a little bit, as my Aunt, who was a hairstylist said I wasn’t losing my hair and I shouldn’t be using it at 17. To be honest parents and plenty of family won’t tell you straight up that you’re losing it. So I started using essential oils instead, and to be honest whoever promotes these, are full of shit. I tried peppermint oil, rosemary oil, castor oil, and basically any hair oil you could think of. So ultimately I went through my senior year trying a bunch of products that did not help at all. Towards the end of the year I got a perm which made my hair appear a lot thicker so I continued to try to convince myself that I wasn’t losing my hair anymore.
After senior year I didn’t really think about it at all, my hair was looking pretty good. I guess I still didn’t want to admit I was losing it. Fun fact most men don’t notice their hair loss until a decent amount of their hair is gone. So I continued to deny it until I got my second perm. The hairstylist wet my hair down completely and looking at my hair when she combed it, you could see my scalp a lot easier than before. This freaked me out man. Here we go again. It didn’t help that I heard the ladies in the back making jokes about it. I never went back to that place. Anyways after this I hopped on minoxidil which in fact helped me out for a good 6 months until the results diminished; because I wasn’t on a DHT blocker. I then began to microneedle alongside minoxidil which helped a bit for about a year. These TWO practices actually WORK, they aren’t a bunch of nonsense! Fast forward and I hop on a natural DHT blocker called saw palmetto because I was scared of taking finasteride because of side effects. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME, this “DHT blocker” is not strong enough to stop male pattern baldness. So I continued to lose hair slowly for 2 years. Eventually I quit minoxidil and saw palmetto as they weren’t doing anything. At this point my hair on the top of my head was losing more and more density. This is called diffuse thinning. My hairline however was still kinda intact. Now I’m on finasteride which is a FDA approved DHT blocker. It’s only been three months but my hair fall has stopped completely.
Hair loss really takes a toll on the mind, especially when it happens when you are young. It’ll constantly freak you out. I am happy to say that my hair loss has begun to stabilize with finasteride, side effect free. Please check out my other info on this site to learn how to go about using products that actually WORK. While also learning why some don’t work. Anyways that’s my shitty hair loss story too-da-loo!
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