Part 2:
Moving on:
Here's a product geared towards taking advantage of black females:
The Roots Naturelle Virgin Hair Fertilizer Conditioning Treatment ($16)
"Claims the blurb/ad, "Any product that reads "hair fertilizer" immediately piques our interest. Ideal for African American hair types, this deep conditioner is meant to heal hair that's been damaged due to braiding, heat, and chemicals. Essentially, it utilizes key power players like proteins, vitamins, olive oil, shea butter, and oils from peppermint and sweet almond to treat and restore weak and brittle strands. Just look at the below happy review for proof.
"100% works!! Warning, it does feel like an Icy-Hot on your scalp. The first time it was kind of a shock, but it hasn't bothered me since, and it has definitely helped my hair grow double what it normally would. I usually use it every other day, and I'll leave it on for about five minutes in the shower. It has definitely helped to heal the damage in my hair."
Nope, not either although this ad is less misleading than others.
In terms of breakage and frizziness, the races might be ordered Asians, Native Americans, Whites and African-Americans. That doesn't mean any sort of hair consistency is "better".
Moisturizing products might help excessive breakage but no product is likely to hair grow double, even if only in reference to hair volume merely through conditioning. This could possibly be a great conditioner for blacks, but it isn't going to double the volume or anything even close to that. Nor is this product any sort of hair fertilizer. Hair is not grass and none of the listed ingredients do anything except to coat the already existent hair shafts.
And wait a minute, what the heck does the "virgin" reference in the product name mean? Does it restore virginal hair? And it is naturelle, which must be lots better than natural.
Then there's Easy Hair Growth Oil, now only $19:
It contains castor oil, caffeine, rosemary oil, and biotin, purportedly to infuse both scalp and strands with essential omega-6 fatty acids, minerals, proteins, and vitamin E.
These are just different things that men have been trying to regrow hair or prevent baldness forever. All of these are referenced on the Perfect Hair Forever site.
Unless someone has a nutritional deficiency, this is a conditioner and nothing more except a bunch of different things thrown together that balding males who refused to use finasteride or dutasteride hope will work. They don't.
$19 dollars for a really good conditioner or hair treatment could be worth it for some people but you can get several effective such products at Amazon for about $8.
Reviewer Erin Graham on Amazon continues :"when I find something that is exceptional, I have to rave about it. I started using this oil about three weeks ago. Since then, I have been religiously using it every night. I can tell the difference in the health of my scalp. It feels nourished and healthy and it is evidenced in the rapid growth of my hair. This is a definite keeper in my arsenal of products for natural hair."
Yeah, yeah. Theoretically caffeine might accelerate growth slightly but it does not cause rapid regrowth in males. Possibly the female pathways differ but just soak your head in coffee and save the bucks. The Perfect Hair site discusses caffeine and it is a waste of time unless you refuse to try spironolactone or estrogen.
I do agree with her. on one thing. When
I find a treatment that is exceptional, I try to tell all of my female friends about it. Try spironolactone! Try estrogen! Go get a prescription tomorrow or order Biestro just to see.
Even if you are not balding, these hormonal medications might substantially improve the quality of your hair, allowing it to grow longer, thicker or shinier without breakage, sort of like Jennifer Anniston's.
Look at all of the young cis-females and their pictures on google images or youtube, say under 25 years old or even 30 years old. All of them use estrogen and spironolactone and they tend to all have exceptional hair. Check these pictures of transgender females before and after:
https://www.reddit.com/r/transtimelines/
Things that impact hormonal levels are the
only things that regrow hair or that even stop hair loss or even improve hair for anyone, male or female but I can't even get my sister to listen to me.
I fail to understand at all, the bias that some women have against estrogen supplementation. Any dermatologist is going to hand you a script for either estrogen or an anti-androgenic medication after five minutes and then shoo you away unless there is something extremely rare going on, like alopecia areata going on.
There's not even any point in fretting about cis-female hair loss unless and until said female tries spironolactone first! It should be automatic in these situations just as it often is for teenage girls with acne. Remember DHT causes all of these terrible afflictions like acne, baldness, dermatitis, rashes sores and so on.
It's rather cis-males who have to twiddle their thumbs and think before using anti-androgens because except for dutasteride and finasteride, in large enough quantities, every single thing that regrows hair makes erections difficult or impossible, and impacts fertility and makes them physically, much, much weaker if used to approximate cis-female hormonal profiles.
Oh well.
Then we come to Viviscal, which is the only one along with Keronique even with a reputation for growing hair, meaning that I have heard of this particular brand name. It is ultra-expensive and contains the following ingredients: Amino Mar Marine Complex, Horsetail (Stem) Extract, Millet Seed Extract,
Vitamin C (from Acerola Cherry and as
Ascorbic Acid), Niacin (as Niacinamide), Biotin, Iron.
Once again, this is just a warmed over vitamin concoction plus Aminomar Marine Complex, which appears to be nothing more than protein. They have a vegetarian version that replaces the Marine Complex with Biotin. This one is a major, major rip-off. Virtually all the articles that refer to it are advertisements that link to each other in a looping fashion.
There are no non-hormonal supplements that do anything to affect hair significantly, either positively or negatively for either males or females. Otherwise, I would be taking fist-fulls of any vitamins that worked. All of these over-the-counter products intentionally mislead by saying something like,"studies indicate that hair growth isn't possible at all without supplement X", let's say Biotin.
What they don't say is that, what is logically and inevitably true is that no hair grows in the complete absence of circulating biotin. But again, virtually everyone already has more than enough of biotin circulating within them than is necessary for hair growth. Just downing more biotin does zero. The same goes for Vitamin C, niacin, keratin, iron and virtually every other mineral--unless you are in a starvation state, additional vitamins and minerals do nothing for hair at all.
The other thing is that all of the above users are self-reporting which virtually always involves the placebo effect or hoping against hope under a lighted mirror which I am more than familiar with. For me, polysorbate 80 was like this. None of the listed ingredients that I have seen work at all except for saw palmetto, and dutasteride and finasteride are far, far more effective than saw palmetto.
I have used saw palmetto. Theoretically it could have tiny effects to diminish DHT but it won't regrow hair, just as neither dutasteride or finasteride regrow hair. I reviewed a brand new review of double-blind studies last night and all of the products I have previously mentioned, minoxild, Nizoral, dutasteride, finasteride, i.e., products that do not induce feminization, are unable to regrow hair. These products all do work, however at stopping hair loss, at least a little. Start early with them.
Only estrogen, flutamide, spironolactone, cypreterone ,and other similar acting drugs that bind to the androgen receptors regrow hair and even they might not completely work for former cis-males in transtion.
The supplement-based "treatments" don't prevent hair loss. They don't prevent frizzy hair. They don't regrow hair. They don't make hair thicker. Except for the conditioning types that, well, condition the outside of the hair, basically there are no effects good or bad.
I can't cut hair without using a bowl but all of these products that claim that they are touted by the best hair stylists--that is just fatuous. Under the "ad/blurb" the person touting Viviscal states: I've talked to scores of hairstylists who recommend Viviscal tablets.
Oh really?
Have these hair stylists examined the latest medical literature where double-blind statistically significant testing has been done? Do hair stylists have special training in statistical analysis? My rule of thumb is again never purchase any hair products, particularly that cost more than $10 at a cosmetic salon unless you just want to do so, sort of as a tip since the stylist may get a cut of proceeds.
Number 13 on our "effective" list of products that "actually" make hair grow reads:
"I love and swear by countless products from Hum Nutrition (specifically Flatter Me, $25; Beauty Zzzz, $10; and Ripped Rooster, $40), but these hair-boosting gummies are by far my fave, and I swear on my life to anyone who will listen that they've completely transformed my hair in the past year since I've started taking them. They taste great (but I recommend eating them with food because they contain zinc), and my hair has never looked so thick or grown so fast".
This sounds like rank plagiarism from one of the products above. Just think, fellow transgender females, all we need are vitamins to cover our balding areas and completely transform our hair.
Last and possibly least comes:
Nutrafol Core for Women ($79):
"By addressing multiple causes for thinning strands and poor hair health, Nutrofol has basically designed the holy-grail hair supplement that scientifically works to boost thickness, length, and overall hair happiness. Powered by plants and a bounty of nature's best hair healers, the impressive ingredient list includes things like ashwagandha, saw palmetto, hydrolyzed collagen, tocotrienols (vitamin E), a special form of curcumin extracted from turmeric, among other antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals".
Aarggh! What the heck is "hair happiness?" $79! I have tried French products with placenta factors. Nutrafol has botanical factors and is "powered by plants". They too have a phony study.
Keranique is another product that I am slightly familiar with which may stop hair loss but this is only because one of the five factors or whatever that they tout is minoxidil. All the other steps simply add volume and coat the hair strands. If the price is decent compared to buying minoxidil and separate shampoo and conditioner, then go for it. At least this one has the capacity to slightly grow vellus hair and thicken strands.
This is a fair better and more truthful article about options for women:
https://www.allure.com/story/hair-loss-treatment-plans that actually mentions going to the dermatologist and some new treatments that show promise but it still claims that Nutrafol is a good purchase.
It does mention dandruff shampoos which may work like Nizoral but not as effectively in terms of slowing hair loss so that's true.
I go to a clinic that has literally scores of anti-aging treatments that actually work for cis-females and transgender females, like derma-rolling, botox, chemical peels, filler, collagen injections, etc. and they still try to pawn off special shampoos or conditioners as you go out the door. Some shampoos and conditioners do make a person's hair more manageable or shiny but they do not grow hair or prevent hair loss and none of them are worth more than $10.
I know that many, many transgender females don't have access to anyone to prescribe for them or are afraid of unnatural hormones, and phytoestrogens do act in some ways similarly to prescribed estrogenic hormones but they do so too weakly so that on a bang for the buck basis, they aren't likely to provide effects worth paying for in my opinion. Been there, done that. You know, like eating tofu for every meal....
But cosmetic salons or hair salons are great, as long as no one gets fooled. Different types of hair styles that might be more manageable, also heat and coating treatments that may make hair shiner, more manageable, less frizzy, less likely to break off and other nice cosmetic effects, and for many, many females these hair treatments "work" and are worth the expense and it is a nice bonding experience. Just don't buy any of their products thinking that you are going to reverse hair loss.
