Put simply this is all a game to reduce free testosterone, as that decreases the amount your hair follicles get exposed to and so reduces balding, or stops it entirely. This is proven by the regrowth when transgenders change their hormones, or if someone with male pattern baldness were castrated! Shock horror, you castrate someone or reduce their free T and guess what... their balding stops! Or at the very least it slows drastically. I assume it would often regrow as well.
And what influences free testosterone (excluding any possible drugs and things, I don't know much about that)? Initial production (primarily in the testes) and regulation whilst in the blood (Sex Hormone Binding Globulin - SHBG).
Therefore, the FIRST question you should ask if someone has male pattern baldness is "are his testosterone levels high?".
If the answer is in the affirmative, you should be looking at WHY. If it's not overactive production in the testes or (far less likely) adrenal gland, then it, according to modern science, IS your level of SHBG. I really am sorry if you don't want to believe that, I am, but that's not my problem I'm afraid
And then comes the next logical question. WHY is your SHBG level too low? What is known to regulate SHBG activity?
And the answer there (is a little debated), but usually comes out at - insulin, IGF-1, the liver's production of fats and other lifestyle and diet initiated mechanisms.
Ok so you measure the subject's insulin levels and lo and behold it's high! So then you put them on a diet designed to lower them (less sugar, carbs, fat, meat and dairy (for IGF-1)). And... what? It's STILL a little high? Well maybe their BASELINE insulin level is too high. The lowest possible amount of insulin they could have whilst still being healthy is... too high.
And that is another part that is often according to modern scientific belief down to diet and lifestyle. What can give people type 2 diabetes (which is caused by insanely high insulin resistance)? Bad diet and lifestyle. And what can give people male pattern baldness much of the time (not all of the time! MUCH of the time, and I mean this RELATIVELY SPEAKING)? Bad diet and lifestyle.
I rest my case
EDIT -- This is also relative. Eating a portion of meat everyday counts as "bad". Consuming dairy counts as "bad". So does eating sweets and chocolate. So does eating lots and lots of bread, or drinking lots of beer. Many, many things that we don't perceive as being bad for us, and really AREN'T all that bad for us, may be having a very small measurable effect. And of course the worse someone does it, the worse they will lift their insulin and resistance level, and the worse they will bald. Turn off your internal monologue, READ what I am trying to say, and perhaps you will see the logic.
double edit -- Again, I'm not saying this is true for everyone, and I am CERTAINLY not saying you have to have had a lifestyle or diet most people would consider "bad" to experience this. If one's follicles were just very sensitive to DHT by their very nature, or your natural levels of testosterone were high, then this is a different cause, but that still doesn't mean that this won't help
