You are a gentleman and a scholar. One of the greatest contributions of British society was the establishment of the gentleman and now gentlewoman as people above the masses but still among them devoted to improving society for all. I see being a renaissance lady or gentleman as just about the highest goal in life. Knowledge for the sake of knowledge and courtesy and good manners directed to all.
Fellow travelers of all sorts are important to the community and you might find that your ideas could evolve or there could be non-hormonal breakthroughs. Oral minoxidil is the biggest advance forward in the hair loss area for males, perhaps ever, since so many failed to respond with growth from even Min/finasteride treatments. Micro-needling and establishing parameters regarding mm depth and how often is optimal are other things that although not hormonal, are still on the cutting edge. Kumbaya but there is a nice group of folks here who aren't afraid to admit that baldness hurts and that it might have taken us off a preferable course. Most guys are stoic and can't admit that it hurts and except for losing loved ones, it hurts more for many of us than any other thing that has befallen us in life. Supporting people on slightly different paths or who just want to express disappointment over how hard all of this is, I get you and several others on here have shown the same regard. No one goes up to someone and says, "you have terrible acne scars" or "look at your cleft palate" but people will go right up to someone thinning on top and muss their hair or make some sort of sadistic remark. I haven't let anyone stand behind me or approach me from behind since I was 20 because that was how I found out.
I am not sure that I would say that I didn't have success with topical estrogen. I still tout that as something that I and @bridgeburn both used during periods of effusive hair growth. What's changed perhaps are two adjunct treatments, derma-rolling and oral minoxidil that might be used with lesser amounts of estrogen and AA's and few have tried all three together: Estrogel, micro-needling and oral minoxidil. Also since we have been discouraged from seeking breast fusion intentionally, I hope to write and focus more on Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators. I have heard reports that Serms can actually dissipate breast growth and gyno after the fact.
That's the bizarre thing. Almost every single article of his is spot on. The issue is that he never was bald and that part diminishes. I was doing the massages during my shed and I blame the massages for being too rough and that is why I prefer to talk up derma-rolling which he does as well but if the massages were viable, I mean, wouldn't we have examples of hair recoveries throughout history? But to those looking into castor oil or caffeine or PG's his stuff seems pretty much always dead on. I might contact him about our HRT successes and pics cause he had only one pic in that influential HRT article. That's when I gave in and decided to enter a formal HRT program.
Since you have been on DR and DT based on your regimen, have you found any success? In his articles, recession sufferers tend to benefit more compared to diffuse thinners due to them having more underlying problems (thyroid, hair shedding disorders or nutrient deficiencies).
Restoring some hair and following with transplants is a viable path. Unfortunately sometimes they don't take and in some of the micro-needling literature there are some thoughts that actually plugs were more viable long term due to cross-talk but plugs could be pluggy in. a cobblestone patter. Also, I say this never to disparage because we all want solutions but it is a sort of mutilation that can leave scars in the donor area. I think with minoxidil and oral minoxidil and derma-rolling a lot can be accomplished without transplants but I know several who are thinking of using them more so in the temples which are very hard to restore. For people with diffuse thinning which is many, they are probably risky because why wouldn't they fall out in the new area. With the plugs, there might be cross-talk that helps all six or seven strands survive and integrate more easily. They also aren't cheap but anything that works, and which is your best alternative is great. I had one in the 80's and one in the 90's and I regretted it once finasteride and Dr. Lee's formula came out.
Derma-rolling, eg. DR but what is DT?
Hmm. MIX is one of the few things I haven't tried. I know some seem to tout it. Combo treatments make it hard to identify what's doing what.
I have wondered whether daily extended brushing isn't a treatment and it seems as though it could promote faster growth. Somewhere I saw a post about people using wire brushes but it sounds too rough. I am using boar's hair. How is bamboo superior? Bambu, now, that I have used....
From what I've seen, boar's hair brush seems superior if you plan to give more redness and possibly blood out (similar to what micro-needling does). I only use bamboo brush due to religious issues (can't use anything related to boar or pig).
Part of the pleasure as you move towards success is brushing your hair without fearing hair shedding everywhere and it feels good in a sort of bio-feedback way. Looking at the dermal papillary, I wonder if brushing can assist in pushing the keratin strands out more quickly by "clearing space" and increasing blood flow. It worked for Marcia Brady with her 100 strokes a night.
