I’ve noticed my hair thinning and hairline receding since I was about 25 or so.

I’ve been using Collagen and Biotin “thickening” shampoo but never noticed any difference. My dad swears by some pills he started taking.

What’s Lemmy think? Is he just paying for pills that are placebo effect?

  • WolfLink@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    I think the thickening products just try to coat your hairs in oil or something to make each individual hair appear thicker to make the overall hair appear more full.

    There are products like minoxidil that actually promote hair growth.

  • SmoothIsFast@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Minoxidil and finasteride will prevent further hair loss and thicken up what you still have. I highly recommend them.

    Finasteride is a hormone based therapy which prohibits the production of DHT which strangles hair follicles, but it can effect male reproductive health so I recommend taking it typically instead of orally to prevent systemic exposure.

    I have been using a combo spray for almost a year with great results.

    • ditty@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Ive been taking oral 1 mg finasteride daily for a few years, and it has totally frozen my receding hair line, also my hair is fuller and healthier than it has ever been. No side effects yet, other than during the first week or two I couldn’t feel pleasure while ejaculating (but it came back after that). I’ll stop taking it if I ever try to conceive but for now it’s just nice being able to delay hair loss by a few years

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    4 months ago

    It’s all bollocks. You’ll can buy your hair back like Musk, but it takes fuck you money.

    Shave it off. That’s how poor people look good when they’re balding. It’s not a disease. Throw off the shackles of the advertising industry and just roll with it.

  • AnyOldName3@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I use topical Minoxidil. It’s clearly made some difference, replacing a bald patch with a thin patch, and making my scalp noticeably warmer to the touch due to the extra bloodflow. It wasn’t the brilliant instantaneous wonderdrug some people told me it would be, nor totally ineffectual like others said, so I guess it’s something whose efficacy varies from person to person.

  • MudMan@fedia.io
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    4 months ago

    Okay, I’m here to help.

    Shave.

    Seriously. The amount of pressure put on guys around balding is horrendous, and it can consume your attention if you let it. The moment that superfluous, vestigial hair comes off, it’s such a breath of fresh air (no pun intended). No more fussing, worrying or stressing about it. Plus, in many cases it looks pretty good. Give it a couple of weeks and it’ll just become your face.

    Give it a couple of months and the moment there’s a scratchy, annoying milimeter of hair on your head will be a natural call to give it a shave for the comfort alone.

    • MissJinx@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      or don’t. My ex was balding and never bothered me. It may bother.some ppl but tbf what doesn’t? There is alwas a problem, too tall, too short, short dick, dick too big, to fat, too skinny

      There will always be someone that doesn’t like something about you, no matter who you are. Just accept it and be free

    • TheMinions@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      Eh I’ll consider it, but I like my hair for now. If it gets to a point where I look dumb I’ll shave. But I also have a humungous head. Like literally 99th percentile lol

      • ngwoo@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        If you’re slowly losing it but like how it is now, finasteride is exactly what you want if you’re alright with taking a pill forever. There are of course side effects but it’s worth talking to a doctor about if you think hair loss will be something you don’t want to accept.

  • ThinkBeforeYouPost@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    The Big 3 are: Hair Transplant, Hair Systems, or Shaving.

    The Medium 3: are Oral Dutasteride, Oral Minoxidil, and Microneedling.

    The Small 3: are Oral Finasteride, Topical Minoxidil, and Ketoconazole.

    The Meh 3: are Head Massage, Vitamins, and Laser Caps.

  • sicarius@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I started balding in my late teens. Shaved my head for the first time at 20. Never looked back. Wished I’d done it sooner.
    Still remember an offhand comment from a girl who said I have a nice shaped head.
    A quick once over with the clippers once a week and you’re good.
    Whatever you decided to do don’t stress about it! I’m sure that will only make it worse.
    Bonus: the freshly shaved head acts as velcro to keep your hat on during windy days!

    • arefx@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      See I have a lumpy awful shaped head but thankfully I’m 37 with thick full hair still, so I might be in the clear. I know what you’re saying though, I bet you looks good with a shaved head!! Honestly some people look better bald (not me though)

  • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    No there are no thickening products that fix hair loss. Monoxadil and other similar products work but you can never stop using them or your hair will fall out again.

  • addictedtochaos@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    the only thing that works is finding out if you have nutriotional deficencies. minerals, vitamins. protein fat, and fiber. all of this is important. in my case, i had diabetis. so i ate keto. i developed copper deficencie, which led to vitamin c deficencie. very hard to find out. many vitamins and minerals battle each other. what nobody totld me: you dont need fiber to have good poop. you need it for the short fatty chain acids that turns into fuel for cells, or does catalyst stuff that needs be doing to absorb all kinds of things.

    fat is essential for hair, likewise proteins. proteins and fat are the building blocks, minerals and vitamins are the cement. nothing will work without the other.

    oh yeah you need the sun. if yu have copper deficency, you cant take in iron. and there is many more things like that.

    so go to a lab and mak a mineral and vitamin profile.

  • HatchetHaro@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 months ago

    balding < bald

    just shave it. get a buzz cut if you’re uncomfortable. i know once my hairline starts receding i won’t try to kid myself by spending money on temporary fixes.

    • PancakeBrock@lemmy.zip
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      4 months ago

      I’m the first guy in my family to actually have facial hair and the first one to start balding haha. My dads hair is pretty thick and he gets a tiny mustache. My grandpa’s hair wasn’t bad before he passed away in his 90s and really nothing for facial hair. Never met my great grandpa but he was chickasaw and the few pictures I’ve seen he has very thick hair.

      In the next few years it’ll be to the point where I start shaving. It’s right on top where it’s getting really thin and I’m 6’2" so most people don’t actually see it. The other day at a self check out it thought I didn’t scan something and showed a top down camera view and I was like damn that’s bad.

  • Veedem@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I started using Rogaine (generic versions) when I was around 25. I’m 40 now. It slowed my hair loss considerably and I have a pretty good head of hair still. My dad was completely done by 35.

    I recently added Finasteride to the mix and I’m comfortable with the results.

    Some people will tell you to embrace it and that’s ok too. I just didn’t want to if I didn’t have to.

    • Wanderer@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      There no point holding onto hair when it’s really gone. It looks worse than shaving it. Unless you want to pay for hair transplant use need min and fin.

      People with hair transplants need to go on finesteride anyway.

      I think if you are beginning to bald. Might as well go on finesteride and minoxidil.

      They are both proven to work (though not for everyone).

    • gencha@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Please don’t take it as an offense, but how do you know it worked? Like, what are you comparing against? If it’s your dad, maybe you just got the right genes from your mom to give you a benefit.

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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        4 months ago

        DHT blockers (like what he is taking) are proven to work, but not everyone’s hair loss is due to dht sensitive hair follicles. That’s a genetic lottery.

        It can also come with side effects.

    • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
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      4 months ago

      Looking on Amazon the price per liter ranges seem very similar to Minoxidil, maybe a little cheaper. First glance the cheapest Minoxidil product I could see was around 111€ / L, the cheapest rosemary oil bottles seem to be about 80€ / L - probably because most are sold as “essential oils”. That being said, it seems you’re supposed to further dilute the oil so I guess it would last quite a bit longer. Still, from what I heard you need to continue to use that stuff or you’ll lose the gained hair again.

      • wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        The rosemary oil should be diluted in a carrier like argon oil (but it could be something else like jojoba, squalane). At around 3% concentration. So yes, much much longer!

        Yes much like Modoxinil, you need to keep using it.

        • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
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          4 months ago

          That’s kinda another 80€ / L though. Not sure how you’d get to 3% when the article states like 5 drops per ounce of shampoo as an example, which would probably be around 1 drop for a regular amount of what you’d use to wash your hair with.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    As per my cosmetologist friend, those thickening products are great! At thickening the wallets of the company.

    They’re not any better than a good conditioner.

    Same with the pills that aren’t prescription.

    It’s not that they don’t do anything at all, it’s that they don’t do anything a healthy diet and decent hair care can’t do. Now, if your diet is shit, those supplements can fill gaps. And, if you’re using shit hair products (and by that I don’t mean inexpensive, it’s about how they’re made and what’s in them), those extras can help if you’re willing to pony up for them instead of finding a good sulfate, paraben free products.

    Seriously folks, just avoiding sulfates will improve the health of your hair. Parabens are more about overall health, what with cancer suspicions. Phthalates aren’t great either. Shit with “ethicone” as part of the name are bad for hair, but you don’t really see them on shampoos much any more.

    In general, everyone should look up the chemicals in anything they put on or in their bodies, there’s a lot of shit used as preservatives or for other uses in cosmetics and skin/hair products that really shouldn’t be in them.

    But for basic hair care, sulfate free is likely to be on the packaging in big letters, so that’s easier to find. Parabens aren’t always advertised the same way, but can be. So avoiding one or both of those requires no more effort than looking at the bottle.