eyy wsup man.
yeah it sucks fuckin balls that we're going through this sh*t at such a young age but we should consider ourselves lucky to have found this site before we hit like our 20's.
well to tell you the truth my current regiment consists of using head and shoulder's dry scalp shampoo, green tea at least once a day, centrum mulitvitamin once a day with breakfast, and not giving a f*** about hairloss.
i'm not sure if it's doing anything but let me tell you there was no difference from my 2 months of minox2% twice a day with what i'm doing now except that applying minoxidil(rogaine) is a fuckin pain in the ***.
i strongly suggest that you shave your head because you won't be able to worry about your hair, pull on it accidently or on purpose, and it takes a shitload of less time to get ready for stuff.
also it's extremely comfortable.
yeah i shaved my head because every time my hair (which was around 2-3 inches long) fell out i saw it and it worried me. also i have very fine/thin and soft slightly curly hair so it always got tangeled and when i shampooed or just put my hand through my hair, it fuckin pulled out and hurt which made me worry about it more...
now that it's all shaved off it feels damn good to not have those accidental pulls anymore.
the bottom line... f*** minoxidil and f*** all that medication sh*t. bro were not even done with highschool... we have our fuckin lives to live out and have fun. for me personally, noone in my family has male pattern baldness my grandfathers are both over 70 and have thickass hair for their age. my uncles and my father just have slight thinning. my fathers side of the family in general was born with fine thin hair. so i probably dont have male pattern baldness but my hair is just in a resting stage from all of the damn styling i tried to do on it. just shave it and leaveit alone it should grow back thick and full again. maybe this is the same case for u or maybe it's not. if you are positive that you have male pattern baldness lay off minoxidil and try finasteride first. ur almost 18 so that shouldn't be a problem for you. good luck man.
oh and take a multivitamin once a day and try drinkin green tea, it's really healthy and good for your body

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hope this helped man. stay strong brotha and be easy. peace