Hi,
As someone who started losing his hair or should I say thinning and receding from around 23/24 I can see where your coming from.
Let me give you some help here:
1. You are of course way to young to consider an hair transplant as we don't know how much more you will recede and to how much extent.
The no.1 thing that saved my hair was acting fast and focusing on PREVENTION, i.e your hair loss will only get worse from now on. Meaning that as every day and every year goes by more and more hairs will miniaturize and start to lose density and eventually fall out through the effects of DHT attacking the hair follicles.
The Best thing you can do is to save what ever hair you have left as early as possible if you choose to go on the journey of saving your hair for the foreseeable future like the rest of us you will be on a long, long journey for decades think about that.
Meaning the more you save now the more you will have in a 1 year and or 5 years from now.
You need to act today and get going with the big 3 don't piss around thinking that minoxidil will work and then if doesn't then go with finasteride or vice versa you need everything right now as all of the big 3 work in different ways.
Since you have an itchy scalp your better of going with the foam, it gives way less irritation vs the solution and also it thickens the hair up as well a nice bonus, I often use that alone for hair styling
go here for super cheap rogaine foam:
http://www.****************.co.uk/Rogaine_Foam.htm
- don't know why the site name is not showing up?? should be minoxdil direct try googling it)
if you were to buy it from boots they would set you back about £30+ for one months supply!
2. Get on board finesteride asap, this stopped my hairs falling out onto my pillow within a few months and has def now stabilized my loss and also slowly started bring in crown area, with finesteride its important to set the expectation of no more loss rather than regrowth, think of that as a bonus if it does and will mainly hold on to the crown and mind scalp at best.
You can't really get finasteride without a prescription a great resource is
http://ukfinasteride.info/prescriptions/ run by Dr Singh who is a UK based Gp that has a good 10 years or so of hair loss medication treatment. You have to fill in an online prescription, register as a patient and you can then qualify for medication. He turns it around super quick like within a few days of you sending money through an excellent service.
With regards to side effects I can help you there as well, I initially had the sexual side effects, in the way of not so much erection loss but I had massive decreased ejaculate and also did not feel like having sex at all,and had anorgasmia i.e no orgasm. I sacked of finasteride for several months to save my relationship! and get back to normal, then I tried it again but this time I tapered my dose in gradually going from 1 tablet a week upto 1 tablet every day over 7 weeks, this had ZERO side effects and I have never been so horny! So that is def what I recommend if you start on the meds.
As with any medication especially when dealing with hormones if you shut that down or inhibit it in one hit from ay one the body will respond possibly with a higher side effect profile than normal, if you taper it in slowly you allow the body to get accustomed to the inhibition much more softly.
3. Get on board nizoral 2% twice a week no more.
Now the meds will possibly give you a big shed, which will scare the sh*t out of you and possibly make you want to stop what you just started, this is NORMAL and it shows that meds are working, stick through he meds and hold your faith and give everything a good 12 months and re-evaluate before deciding if it is working or not.
Remember when you start this journey, if this sh*t does work for you will be anally fixated with your routine, meds, lotions etc for the rest of your life, so you really have nothing to lose to give all three a shot now whilst you still have some hair left.
You will only regret what you DIDN't do. Don't piss about with should I or shouldn't I with the three treatments hit them all at once and you will do the best to hold on to what you have left. If the treatments stabilize your loss for the next several years and you can get to 30 , you can then think about a hair transplant to complete the picture.
your total cost for 1 year of doing this is approx:
£ 160 in regaine foam
£ 99 in generic finasteride
£ 20-30 in nizoral shampoo
Total cost = call it £300 a year every year.
Remember you need to save what you have now not later as by next month or next year you will have lost some more hairs to DHT and when they are gone, they are gone.
GET ON BOARD NOW and give yourself a chance