I'm a male. I eventually gave up and shaved the whole thing. Not really interested in taking meds the rest of my life or doing some uber expansive surgery to try and fix it. I do have a nice beard I take good care of though.
this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
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Asklemmy
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it's a tough choice but I made a similar one. I shave my head every week or so with clippers with the smallest guard. I don't like how shiny my head is sometimes but eh, overall it saves a lot of time and money. It's not a big deal but society makes it feel like it is, especially if you're a woman
I am not a doctor, but have had some results using minoxidil and Foligain’s Minox&Triox spray. As was pointed out in the other comment, hair follicles will start to die as you age (assuming you’re male) this is caused by DHT which is a result of testosterone breaking down. First the follicle goes dormant, and then dies. Depending on how advanced your thinning is, you can likely reactivate and save between few and most of the follicles. I hate recommending Reddit, but r/tressless is a good resource, but they pass around a lot of lingo so be prepared for that.
Hmm, I'm female but I'll have a look around anyway. Thanks!
Gotcha! I think tressless could still be a good resource then, but from what I recall it’s mostly men.
My mom and sister have both started using minox and have started to see some positive results, but I’m not sure of the biological process that would cause follicle dormancy/death in females, so I’m not sure what results you could expect. Also to note, minoxidil can cause some shedding at first, so your hair will look thinner for a few months until it starts to regrow more.
My wife and I are both taking the Nutrafol supplements and topical minoxidil. It's working, expensive, but it's working. Nutrafol has saw palmetto, which is basically herbal finsteride. Ymmv.
What about a hat?
Always an option :)
I’m not a doctor, but isn’t the issue that the hair follicle dies? So to get more hair you would need to have more follicles implanted or something?
I'm not a doctor either obviously, but apparently hairs first start growing of a thinner diameter, shorter length, and eventually they die. So hair products ideally would help keep these follicles healthy so that they keep producing thicker hairs and not die prematurely. You are right though, if I want to increase the number of hairs I'd have to implant, but perhaps there are methods to improve what I still have.
I'm a trans man (FTM) and while I've gone for the "shave head and let nature take its course" option, a lot of trans men seem to really like finasteride because it doesn't have as many hormonal side effects as some other treatments. It's not an at-home method but I believe you can get it from a GP/PCP, you shouldn't need to go to a specialist. A lot of guys also seem to like minoxadil/Rogaine but you need to watch out if you have cats, because it's really toxic to cats.
well, shit. I did not know that about cats. I'm entering menopause and my hair is thinning. I bought a box but hadn't started using it yet. Guess that's going on the buy nothing group.
edit: I also started taking keratin and biotin supplements. While it hasn't been long enough to notice results in my scalp, my eyelashes are getting long and curly!
Ooh that's good to know about your results with the keratin and biotin supplements. I took collagen for several months and didn't notice any huge results.
I will preface this by saying its not for everyone. I know some ladies that went with wigs when their hair started thinning. One just does a topper, more or less like extensions but clips on the top of your head. The other full on accepted it and just buys cheap wigs off Amazon. They are better than Halloween wigs but cheaper than real human hair. There is a learning curve to picking out ones that aren't obviously fake and trimming and wearing them so that don't look like they are wearing a wig. There are videos on YouTube to help with all that. Also some hair stylists will trim them for you. It works well for her. Except for wanting to buy all the wigs in addition to all the shoes.
As an aside, if you are one to want to have vibrant unnatural colored hair it can be a better route to go than dying because the wigs don't fade or grow out. You can spend $20-40 on a fun colored wig that you just replace when it wears out or $100+ on getting your hair dyed and touched up.