Rawbd,
Im a NW3. I have hair about like the actor Jude Law. There are 90-something transplants in my temples from about 10 years back. I have plenty of hair to conceal them. Im planning on electrolysing them out. Im pale complected, so scar tissue shouldn't really show up on me, and if it did, I'd get a permanent skin-colored (permanent make-up) tatoo over the little area.
If you seen me out, youd say "that SOB has pretty fair hair, whats he whining about".
Ive taken propecia for a long time. Im using minoxidil once a day. I use nizoral about twice a week. Im using an anti-DHT shampoo called Nanoguard most days I dont use Nizoral. I have some NANO shampoo I use from time to time. I have a bottle of Folligen coming in the mail. Its to be used every other day according to the maker.
I have piddled with many things. Prox-N, Tricomin, Folligen, American Crew, Spironolactone, Revivogen, Crinagen. Nanoguard.
I tested the revivogen and crinagen as anti-androgens on my wrists. Anti-androgens are supposed to slow body hair growth. Revivogen did it much better than Crinagen did. Crinagen, in my opinion had hardly no effect at all, but Revivogen really did seem to be an effective anti-androgen. It stinks though.
spironolactone seems nice, and would be a great product to use at the same time with Prox-N, which is proboably the best copper peptide product in my opinion. There is a picture of Bryan's two year results with Prox-N here at gourmetstylewellness.com in the Photo Gallery page. He regrew some hair over a two year period while using no anti-androgens with it. It just tries to counteract the immuno-attack on the hair follicle. Im going to go with folligen because its alot cheaper, and I think its still pretty good stuff. The inventor, Dr. Loren Pickart, invented both Tricomin and Folligen (and Graftycyte and American Crew are based on his inventions), and Pickart thinks Folligen is best. Its proboably the second most effective SOD-acitivity product.
If I were really SERIOUS about keeping what I had for as long as possible..................I think Id do propecia, spironolactone twice a day applied with prox-N, use nizoral twice a week. Perhaps minoxidil once a night. Id subsititue soy milk for cow milk, take green tea extract. Id stay away from high glycemic index foods like white bread, excess sugars, pototoes.
That would be my little regimine if I was a young guy and just starting to lose hair. Id be watching and waiting for cloning and watching research for new products periodically.
Dr. Proctor says that its best to fight baldness on the anti-androgenic front, anti-inflammation front, Superoxide dismutase front, and the growth stimulant front. That regimine above would get all that.
Of course just spironolactone twice a day and folligen would get that too.
My opinion on baldness from what Ive been able to learn is that its unendingly progressive. Your hair WANTS to fall out (miniaturize) and will do so in about a year if you have baldness and suddenly stop treating it. It will go to where it genetically would have quite quickly. Dr. James Hamilton proved this when he shot up castrates with testosterone back in the forties. The castrates who had baldness genes, lost all the hair they would have lost in about a year or so reportedly.
Its funny now that we have receptor blockers and DHT inhibitors that some men are "cheating" baldness for a couple of decades at least. Waiting for a genetic therapy, cloning, or a pharmacutical cure that stops whatever is going on inside the dermal papilla when the papilla transcripts male hormone. Thats where the ugly action is occuring in my opininon. The papilla. That doesnt mean that the papilla is the place where the stem-cell DNA is hiding out that relays baldness genes are (they could be in the arrector pilli muscle, tissue sheath, or any other part of the follicle that is present in all three major phases of growth). It sucks. I wish science knew where and what it is we have that other men dont in there.
Anyhoo......Ive got some proanthocyanidins (polygro) coming in the mail. Id like to try them. They appeal to me because they are natural and Im nosy. There are homemade recipies for them on hairsite under Wasedas regimine. Id like to piddle with a few other things. Im wanting to try a few anti-androgens on some body hair (wrists again) and see if there is anything to them. There is some beta-sitosterol in a few substances and Im thinking of trying this. Ive though of spraying the proantho's on the back of one hand and seeing if they amped up body hair growth (there are supposed to be stimulants). Im tired of products that dont get tested, or if they do, dont post the photos of growth. We know propecia and minoxidil, and nizoral work. Id like to test some other stuff. I can vouch for revivogen. Stink or not, thats pretty good stuff. Im intrigued a bit by alpecin also, and am interested in the research results of the EHRS conference in a couple of months on it. Im also intrigued by topical saw palmetto, and have thought of buying a bit of it and putting it on a patch of my forearm and seeing if it decreased growth in about six months. If some of this stuff works, Id report back here online what did well and what didnt. I ought to buy a cheap disposable camera and post the damn pics If I could find a scanner--Har Har.
As you can tell, Ive gotten a bit interested in hair. Im alot interested in seeing young men like you not get ripped off by snake oil companies or talked into surgery years before you can really appreciate the consequenses. Men who get big donor scars cant conceptualize accurately how they might regret not being able to buzz their heads later. I hope by spreading a wee bit of what Ive learned online, a few guys out there wont make some of the mistakes I have. Men with male pattern baldness, like us, dont deserve to be ripped off because of this stuff.
My advice to a young guy is to use the proven stuff. The big three plus spironolactone topically twice a day should keep most in hair for a good while. Adding another anti-inflammatory shampoo a few time a week or a copper peptide shampoo like NANO too it should see a young guy keep what he has until more info about cloning comes out. If a young fella did all this and started to 'really' lose the battle after five years or so, he might consider a buzzcut. Its the best time in history for guys with male pattern baldness in that regard. You can look cool and be bald now if you keep your hair short. That was not always the case. I came of age in the big-hair eighties and nobody looked like Vin Deisel or that very cool guy that plays Lex Luthor on Smallville, or an icon like Michael Jordan (one of the coolest guys of all time)
On that wreath hair post before I leave........thats my point about transplants. You will genetically slowly bald to where you were going to bald to in old age. Even guys on the big-three would slowly over the years see the hair go. Even if this was 35 years. If you were going to be bald at 35, you might not be bald until 65-70, but you would get there. Just alot slower. Ive seen some men with very small, thin wreaths. Only about three inches in height, sides receeded back to the ears. Transplants on men who arent good candidates are the thing Id like to warn guys from. All other things might lead to baldness or wearing an goofy rug for a time until you "get over it" and cut it short. Transplants however, make baldness a lifetime commitment that may lead to a forced toupee' wearin' even if you dont want that. They can lead to utter disfigurement if you get a lousy Doctor too.
Thats about it. Thats why Ive spent a little time on the forums showing some what Ive been able to pick up. If you want to learn some about baldness........follow Bryans posts here. Matt500 (or 5001) over at HLH is very astute also. Hairsite has a couple of really brainy guys in The Almighty God of Hairloss, James Bond, John the Revelator. They all know a great deal more than me. Tom Hagerty at hairloss-reversible.com also knows tons about hair.
