For Whom The Hair Grows

Hazzelhoff

I never thought I'd be the type of person to worry about hair loss, but then again, I never thought I would lose hair. I don't actually know if it's happeneing since I have very fine hair and I see alot of scalp from time to time if it's wet.

My wife could care less but it means everything to me. I am not the type of person that would look cool bald. Trust me.

What steps should I take to figure out if I am going bald and what are some pointers there-after? Thanks

blincoln

Talk to your doctor?

Hair loss is very common. I never thought it would happen to me, either, but there you go. Somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 of the guys in my department at work have some degree of hair loss. Maybe it's overexposure to computer monitor rays .

Hazzelhoff

oh no! I work with computers all day... I even open up the boxes!!!

EDIT: yah, I know it's common. But like I said, I'd be an ugly bald man

EDIT2: are there special doctors of the hair?

blincoln

It was a dermatologist who noticed mine was thinning before anyone else did. I would guess that's as close as you can get to a "hair doctor," other than a cosmetic surgeon like you'd go to if you wanted surgery to move follicles around or whatever.

Treatment options right now are pretty lame, which is why I went with the shaved head approach. Basically you have:

- Rogaine, which only works for maybe 1/3 of men.
- Propecia, which can have, uh, unpleasant side effects.
- Surgery.

All three are expensive and IMO produce substandard results.

Some time in the next 5-10 years, there is supposed to be a treatment hitting the market where someone's own follicle-related cells will be cloned in a lab, then the cloned cells will be implanted en masse into the patient's scalp. That's the only thing I can see really working well.

sark

I use Follicare. It's kinda pricey, but works for me. You won't notice much change for months, but now I see all the difference in the world.

Before I started using it, there was hair freaking everywhere in my bathroom (i have long hair). Now my hairline has stopped receding, I don't hair hair all over my freaking bathroom, and new hair has been growing in for a while.

It works for me, that's all I can say. There's no telling how any of the products out on the market will affect you. There isn't just one reason for hair loss. If you have extra money to spend on it, give it a shot if it's that important. Just don't expect to see any change for a 6 months or so, if there's even a change ever.

JWFokker

You can try a shampoo that removes DHT from the scalp, if that is in fact the problem. Baxter's of California and Nizoral are two inexpensive shampoos that do this.

blincoln

Follicare's active ingredient is minoxidil, so it's more or less the same thing as Rogaine.

sark

blincoln wrote:

Follicare's active ingredient is minoxidil, so it's more or less the same thing as Rogaine.

It comes with minoxidil, but it has a couple other products that come with it as well. Such as a shampoo like JWFokker was talking about, vitamins, and this other thing that promotes circulation to the scalp.

JWFokker

I was also going to mention a saw palmetto berry extract supplement as an alternative, as it inhibits DHT production better than finasteride (Proscar/Propecia), but similar to the prescription only treatments, there have been reports of ED or reduced libido. On the upside though, you're unlikely to get prostate cancer while taking it.