How effectively can hair loss be fought just with diet and exercise/lifestyle changes? What should be my next steps?

[Flounce]

I was pretty sure my hair was receding when I was 18 or 19. I'm now 22 and very clearly receding. In the last 1.5 years I can notice diffusing on top especially when hair is wet. The fact I started balding so young makes me think my hair loss is quite aggressive. I did use finasteride for over a year and I don't think it changed anything. It may have slowed my hairline from receding but in that year is actually when I first started to notice diffusing on top. Now over 6 months off finasteride surprisingly my hair seems mostly unchanged in those 6 months, but I have improved my lifestyle a good bit in that time as well. I don't know how to tell how aggressive my hair loss is and if maybe dht wasn't my main issue (is this even possible)? Thing is I've never really noticed tons of shedding on my pillow or anything, but I am clearly losing my hair.
Is there ANY research on people balding young doing different diets or anything like that? I just started using rogaine a month ago, and just micro needled my hairline for the first time at 1.5mm derma stamp and I guess I'll start doing that weekly. I don't really want to use finasteride as even though I mostly tolerated it pretty well I do think it contributed to some severe anxiety I was having not to mention I don't even think it was helping my hair loss (as hard as that is to believe).

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

I was pretty sure my hair was receding when I was 18 or 19. I'm now 22 and very clearly receding. In the last 1.5 years I can notice diffusing on top especially when hair is wet. The fact I started balding so young makes me think my hair loss is quite aggressive. I did use finasteride for over a year and I don't think it changed anything. It may have slowed my hairline from receding but in that year is actually when I first started to notice diffusing on top. Now over 6 months off finasteride surprisingly my hair seems mostly unchanged in those 6 months, but I have improved my lifestyle a good bit in that time as well. I don't know how to tell how aggressive my hair loss is and if maybe dht wasn't my main issue (is this even possible)? Thing is I've never really noticed tons of shedding on my pillow or anything, but I am clearly losing my hair.
Is there ANY research on people balding young doing different diets or anything like that? I just started using rogaine a month ago, and just micro needled my hairline for the first time at 1.5mm derma stamp and I guess I'll start doing that weekly. I don't really want to use finasteride as even though I mostly tolerated it pretty well I do think it contributed to some severe anxiety I was having not to mention I don't even think it was helping my hair loss (as hard as that is to believe).

I would say hang in there with the finasteride if you can, pretty much at all costs.

In answer to your more specific question, unfortunately neither diet nor exercise seems to be viable options. Most of us have been there and tried that. I wish that I could say something different but you want to have a good diet and exercise just for appearance and longevity but many a thread about using diet and exercise to combat hair loss has ended with a thud as an orphaned thread.

 

[whatintheworld]

Stress can definitely worsen your hair loss, but there's nothing really that can improve your hair via stress mitigation/improved diet/exercise for male pattern baldness. If you have telogen effluvium then yes, but 99.99% of cases are not that.

 

[Flounce]

I would say hang in there with the finasteride if you can, pretty much at all costs.

In answer to your more specific question, unfortunately neither diet nor exercise seems to be viable options. Most of us have been there and tried that. I wish that I could say something different but you want to have a good diet and exercise just for appearance and longevity but many a thread about using diet and exercise to combat hair loss has ended with a thud as an orphaned thread.

I may give finasteride another go, but first I may see how rogaine + microneedling works for me. Only reason I'm hesitant to jump back on finasteride is because of my previous experience of anxiety after using it a while. I'm still not totally sure how much of that anxiety was the finasteride or not because I was on it over a year before the anxiety was bad enough for me to quit. That said I may have scared myself away from finasteride because I think i'll just nocebo myself into having anxiety again if I take it even if finasteride. Also after using finasteride for over a year I'm still unsure if it had much effect for me and I really don't understand why.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

I may give finasteride another go, but first I may see how rogaine + microneedling works for me. Only reason I'm hesitant to jump back on finasteride is because of my previous experience of anxiety after using it a while. I'm still not totally sure how much of that anxiety was the finasteride or not because I was on it over a year before the anxiety was bad enough for me to quit. That said I may have scared myself away from finasteride because I think i'll just nocebo myself into having anxiety again if I take it even if finasteride. Also after using finasteride for over a year I'm still unsure if it had much effect for me and I really don't understand why.

When I first noticed thinning in the crown, I had most or all of the finasteride side effects except we didn't have finasteride then. I was depressed and lost most of my confidence and this was before really anyone else even noticed my hair. Only once I discovered a well-known 80's infomercial substance that seemed to greatly slow down inflammation and hair loss did my magic penis spring back up or something like that.

The substances used by many of us in the 80's were various polysorbate numbers, usually 60 and 80 but 20 and 40 might work as well. PS 60 is best as a stay-in conditioner and maintenance therapy while PS80 to me, seemed very, very similar to castor oil in terms of topical usage--sticky and you needed to dunk in a bath tub to get it all out but polysorbates held me over until Min came out about five years later and then finasteride, actually proscar, came out in 1998 or so; that's when I started on finasteride.

So, while some might have actual non-placebic effects on finasteride, much of it is probably just from placebo effects and hearing about negative experiences from others. In the olden days, we just took finasteride and used min and hoped for the best since there were few other options. Also remember that titration is your friend and some people tolerate dutasteride better than finasteride so that is another option. If we do find a "cure" or a way of utilizing HRT for hair growth without significant feminization, the more hair that you can hold onto using current "male" meds is critical as this is often the difference for MtF's in terms of hair restoration. The slicker the balding area, the less restoration is likely and this is true for Min/finasteride and Duta from what I have observed.

Janey

 

[Flounce]

When I first noticed thinning in the crown, I had most or all of the finasteride side effects except we didn't have finasteride then. I was depressed and lost most of my confidence and this was before really anyone else even noticed my hair. Only once I discovered a well-known 80's infomercial substance that seemed to greatly slow down inflammation and hair loss did my magic penis spring back up or something like that.

The substances used by many of us in the 80's were various polysorbate numbers, usually 60 and 80 but 20 and 40 might work as well. PS 60 is best as a stay-in conditioner and maintenance therapy while PS80 to me, seemed very, very similar to castor oil in terms of topical usage--sticky and you needed to dunk in a bath tub to get it all out but polysorbates held me over until Min came out about five years later and then finasteride, actually proscar, came out in 1998 or so; that's when I started on finasteride.

So, while some might have actual non-placebic effects on finasteride, much of it is probably just from placebo effects and hearing about negative experiences from others. In the olden days, we just took finasteride and used min and hoped for the best since there were few other options. Also remember that titration is your friend and some people tolerate dutasteride better than finasteride so that is another option. If we do find a "cure" or a way of utilizing HRT for hair growth without significant feminization, the more hair that you can hold onto using current "male" meds is critical as this is often the difference for MtF's in terms of hair restoration. The slicker the balding area, the less restoration is likely and this is true for Min/finasteride and Duta from what I have observed.

Janey

Thanks for the great response. I did have somewhat weaker erections from finasteride but never had any noticeable mental fog or depression or anything like that. As my anxiety has continued to improve I'm more willing to give finasteride another go and I just may, but at least for the next couple months I will probably see what min + needling does for me. I really hope we do get a cure and I'm sure everyone else on this forum does too. I'll do my best to keep my hair until then.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

Thanks for the great response. I did have somewhat weaker erections from finasteride but never had any noticeable mental fog or depression or anything like that. As my anxiety has continued to improve I'm more willing to give finasteride another go and I just may, but at least for the next couple months I will probably see what min + needling does for me. I really hope we do get a cure and I'm sure everyone else on this forum does too. I'll do my best to keep my hair until then.

Keep us informed and much depends on you and just how devastating your hair loss is or you worry that it might become. I know of a couple of guys cycling HRT on and off, for say three to six months and I have seen pics of one of them and he had great hair but it was definitely "male" hair. There's a difference in look and he seemed to still have a normal five o'clock shadow and non-androgynous look. Some, like me, seem to see a great increase in overall growth by using higher levels of oral min but like min, itself, there are BP risks and min works in a puzzling way, that might make it work better when used in an estradiol environment. Dosages for cis-females on oral min tend to be too low to even "drink" topical min because the amounts go as low as .25mg of Loniten daily. Using a dropper, probably about 5mg daily is the lowest because you end up with mere drops and some guys just take a drop or two morning or evening or both.

Janey

 

[Capone]

100% my hair takes a massive hit when I overdose on junk, donuts, pizza, chocolate.

 

[JaneyElizabeth]

It could be that lipid changes towards the unhealthy range might worsen hair results to come but it doesn't seem that reversing course regrows any lost hair that is of a cosmetic significance but that is why there is pictorial evidence with dates imprinted if we want to try to make anecdotal claims more likely and relevant to others. The caveman short of diet was what I was attempting when I first saw results but I gained quite a bit of weight and went back to a more normal diet and I still saw great improvement. I then added oral min and maybe that is where we max out in terms of covering as many bases as possible but I think that eating well is its own reward and exercise for some, is like that too. The goal is overall best health and appearance.