Androgenic Alopecia Support Group

As a physician, I can tell you that there is not really much that truly works. If you have alopecia areata, steroids (lots of side effects) may help, or maybe it will regrow on its own. If you have male pattern baldness, I would look into hair transplantation or just shave it off (bald men look great if they stay in shape). If you have female pattern baldness, my heart goes out to you. Hopefully your hair is thick enough that you can hide your condition with a perm or a good haircut or style. If not, you can try women's rogaine, it may irritate your scalp but it may help. Birth control pills and aldactone may help slow the hair loss but usually do not help you regain hair. It is worth checking your thyroid and iron levels, although again, correcting these may not help to the degree you hope. Try to learn to see the bright side of things, and if you are truly obviously balding, do not be ashamed to seek out a wig or topper. There are worse things in life, I know. I too struggle with this every day.

For men, the best thing I have found is a product called "HairX" by Solaray. The cheapest place to buy it is from Vitaminlife.com

The next thing that is pretty well documented to be just as effective as Propecia, but without the side effectis, is Saw Palmetto Extract. I buy mine (the 320 mg ones of 85-95% extract) from SwansonVitamins.com They're the cheapest on the net for most things.

With those two thing, I'm seeing my hair grow back in.

For woman, I don't know... but I'd try MSM (methyl-sulfonyl-methane), B-vitamins (especially Biotin and B-5).

For more stuff, for both men and women, I'd highly recommend the book "Prescription For Nutritional Healing" by Balch & Balch, available for $20 to $25 from Amazon.com and every Whole Foods grocery store.

Best $20/$25 you'll ever spend.

I am a female who lost a lot hair from Topamax. I recently began using JASON shampoo from Vitacost.com and in just 2 weeks my hair is doing much better!

Bleach your hair and use radical hair creme.

Bleaching your hair will be pretty bad so idk why anyone would suggest that. I too have very thin hair now, I had very thick curly hair, I burned my scalp from bleaching it, well a girl burned my hair, and it got pretty thin because of that. Now it's just falling out. I'm a diabetic and I never took care of myself in the beginning. Now it's just always falling out and I don't know why because I take my meds, take my biotin so I don't know. You can try this vitamin called Shen Min for women, they say it's very good and grows hair back. I used it for 2 weeks but for some reason my left leg started to get numb, but I read the reviews and only one other woman was having those same problems. Good luck!

i bought some regaine? / rogaine? from here www.shoppingday.co.uk/category/h/haircare-products/ but it never worked for me unfortunately. might b worth a try tho.

sorry - http://www.shoppingday.co.uk/category/h/haircare-products/

have your thyroid levels checked, for sure. I have a thyroid problem, and it is amazing how being a little out of range, either going hyper or hypo can make my hair fall out. I have to be really well managed in order for my hair to look its best.
Hannah

As always, treatments have the best chance of being effective if they are geared to the cause of the hair loss as well as to triggering hair growth.

Currently there is only one FDA approved treatment for female pattern hair loss.

Below you will find a list of treatments currently being used to treat hair loss in women. Some of these drugs have not been approved by the FDA for this particular application, however they have all been approved for other applications and are used “off label” to treat hair loss.

The effectiveness of these agents and methods vary from person to person, but many women have found that using these treatments have made a positive difference in their hair and their self-esteem.

Minoxidil 2% Topical Treatment
Women with diffuse androgenetic alopecia can use minoxidil and it actually seems to be more effective for women compared to men.

The makers of minoxidil recommend women only use the 2% concentration of minoxidil and not 5%. The makers of minoxidil have not received FDA approval for promoting 5% minoxidil or minoxidil extra strength for use by women. Many dermatologists do prescribe minoxidil 5% for women with androgenetic alopecia if used under their supervision.

Some small clinical trials have been conducted on 5% minoxidil for androgenetic alopecia in women showing that indeed the 5% solution is significantly more effective in both retaining and regrowing hair than the 2 % solution.

Androgen Receptor Inhibitors.

Aldactone / Spironolactone

Spironolactone or the more popular brand name Aldactone is in a class of drugs called potassium-sparing diuretics (water pill). It is used to reduce the amount of fluid in your body without causing the loss of potassium.

It is also used to treat hypertension (high blood pressure) and edema (swelling) and used to treat potassium deficiency and hyperaldosteronism (a hormonal disorder).

Spironolactone is an antiandrogen that works in two ways. Primarily it slows down the production of androgens in the adrenal glands and ovaries.

Secondly it blocks the action of androgens in part by preventing dihydrotestosterone from binding to its androgenetic receptor.

The hormonal process of testosterone converting to DHT, which then harms hair follicles, happens in both men and women.

Under normal conditions, women have a minute fraction of the level of testosterone that men have, but even a lower level can cause DHT- triggered hair loss in women.

www.regainhair.org
www.americanhairloss.org