18yo, I need advice from the experienced ones

[canerr]

hi, first of all I apologize for my bad english I'm not a native English speaker. I'm 18 and I've been losing hair for about 3 years. I've checked the forum and seen the worse hairs than me gets better. That made me hopeful. I want to start a treatment as soon as possible but I'm very inexperienced and ignorant about treatments. I don't know which one is best for my hair. Is there any more natural treatments or do natural treatments really not work? Should i start taking finasteride? (In some posts it says 18 is early) I need anything you can teach me. Thank you all in advance.

i fully shaved my head last month and it looks awful , here are the photos from different angles.

https://imgur.com/a/tDLCXgU

 

[Lamb123]

I would recommend watching a YouTube channel called The Hair Loss Show, I got most of my information from there. They're very knowledgeable doctors and one of them was part of the research team for the Finasteride study. They will explain to you what finasteride does in the body, potential side effects and much more. They talk about Minoxidil and other treatments as well, so you can decide what sounds the best for you. Go to your dermatologist and ask about finasteride, 18 might be young but you can customize the dosage to a lower amount (3 mgs per week). The amount of DHT blocked is essentially the same as the 7 mgs per week as there are diminishing returns after a certain amount of finasteride.

If you don't want to do too much research then this is the short answer
Finasteride, Dutasteride: Stop hairloss. There is also potential of regrowth, strengthening and thickening of the hair follicle after about 2 years.
Minoxidil (tropical) and dermarolling: does not stop hair loss but increases blood activity in the areas you apply them to, thus encouraging hair regrowth.

P.S. you're going to see a lot of threads with people talking about side effects for Finasteride but keep in mind that most of these are likely placebos. Not saying that it's not possible to get side effects but at a low dosage such as 0.5 mg per day it's highly unlikely. Side effects are also reversible so don't freak-out if you feel like something is off, you can just stop the drug.

Bonus P.S. when you take finasteride or minoxidil you will experience an initial shedding phase were your hair will fall out faster than ever before. Don't panic when this happens and please don't stop the treatment. This is actually a good sign that the drug is working and that the your hairs are entering the hair growth cycle.

Best of luck!

 

[NickyA]

I agree wholeheartedly with everything Lamb wrote earlier. Only thing I would add is that you can also use a ketoconazole 2% shampoo twice or thrice a week if you want, it doesn't do much but it can help treat inflammation or greasy hair if you have that, and it might have some slight DHT blocking effects. It's better if you can keep it in your hair for ten minutes or so before washing it off, but isn't proven to do much either way.

Dutasteride isn't candy and I would strongly suggest trying finasteride for a while before even considering it. Taking dutasteride daily for a long time might end up having effects on your liver down the line, so it isn't something to consider slightly, and it also raises the risk of side effects by a fair bit. I would also recommend getting blood work done before starting finasteride if you can afford to do so, to know your baseline. It'll also aid you to be calmer and know that the possibility of getting any side effects is very unlikely if everything comes out normal. You can read more about what you should get tested here : https://moreplatesmoredates.com/pos...ests_you_should_get_before_taking_finasteride

You're in a good spot to start a hair loss treatment, and might be able to halt or delay it for ten years or so if you start soonish, say in one or two years, and your family's history and genetics are decent enough. It's way easier to prevent further hair loss, or to slow it down, than to regrow lost hair.

Later on, you can add microneedling or oral castor oil if you want to or if the results from Minoxidil and Finasteride aren't good enough for you. You might also want to consider using finasteride first for a year or two before getting on minoxidil, to see if you're a minoxidil responder or not, since once you start using minoxidil, you gotta stay on it for life, or you might end up worse than when you started. There's also the possibility of using it on your cheeks and neck to see if you grow a decent beard, that's another, not very tested way to see if you're a responder or not.