I would be careful about soy. It has some Estrogenic effects, but on the other side it could help. Check this list of Estrogenic and anti-E food, you will find many others
http://www.holisticonline.com/Remedies/Hrt/hrt_food_and_estrogen.htm
Well I don't know if drinking milk is good idea, because it is usually pasteurized milk and that could not be absorbed well by the body. Refined dairy could be harmful as other refined food....
youngbaldie - well some Estrogens are good and some bad (worst is the most potent one - Estradiol). You need some Estrogens for your bones etc.
Pete - yes pumpkin seeds are excellent for hair. Chrysin is great, but I is little more expensive than others, that's why I am not going to use it yet. Also maca root would be useful.
Google is excellent way to find all studies. Just write green tea aromatase, nettle Aromatase, nettle DHT, Pomegranate Aromatase and like this and you will find tons of studies.
Great resource is
http://www.regrowth.com and many of these teories or rather studies and procedures are described by very sophisticated person Immortal hair. If you check his website
http://www.freewebs.com/immortalhair/mycurrentregimen.htm you will realize that most of his TOP 6 does match to what I have written and to tons of studies.
7 HMR - helps balance Estrogens and DHT
nettle root - antioxidant (help against oxidative stress you are experiencing after each exercise or even short run to catch your bus)
green tea (antioxidant)
Cod Liver Oil - huge intake of Omega 3 + Vitamin D. Inflammation is caused by low intake of Omega 3 (fish, seafood, olives, nuts etc.) and high intake of Omega 6 (other meat, fried food, junk food etc.)
Lipoic acid - helps to lower your blood sugar (remember studies about vertex balding connected to insulin resistance)? If you are eating high-glycemic food whole the day more insulin is needed and through all the time you are less sensitive to it which produce even more insuline.... I am not using this anymore cause my metabolism is pretty high naturally so I am losing weight on this.
Using natural way is not charlatanish as someone could think - it is the same way like using finasteride, but it can be more safe and mainly - much more
comprehensive, because you for example do not cover only levels of DHT, but also its effect on follicles other hormones involved in the whole balding process etc. Your follicles could be less sensitive to DHT, there could be less inflammation in your skin which would causes that you will lower auto-immune response that is responsible for falling your hair out etc.
One would wonder that Asians living at Asia {where with no influence of western civilization} have great hair, but those that come to Europe and are living there for some time (and thus eating in another, western-way) start developing temples and vertex balding.... I bet that people living on some island where is no refined food and no chemicals don't know what acne or cancer is. Do you think it is coincidence?
From my view, Finasteride is OK as long as you have no liver problems and no sides (sure it is not OK to take any drugs but what can men do?), but it is definitely not enough in long term - you will not HALT your MBP just by using finasteride or dutasteride for 10-15 years, unless your recession is minimal and very very very slow.
DHT on its own is not causing baldness. It just triggers the whole process. BUt it can be also triggered by something different. OR it seems that it is triggere by many things. You can say that if someone gets T injected, he will go bald thus T causes baldness directly. But this is misleading information, cause T converts to DHT by 5-alpha (and how much DHT will be converted depends on many factors) and DHT is then stimulating TGF-betas etc, so it begins with hormones, but their effects on the whole body could be influenced.
Just check this article
http://www.hairloss-research.org/february1.html. Finasteride or lowering DHT is only one angle, there is TGF-beta family, TNF-alpha, caspace 3, PKC and others hormones that are involved in balding process. Do you see how many aspects that guy covered to achieve his success?
This study is great, you can see the whole pathway begins with T and continues through 5-alpha and Aromatase, stimulating TGF-beta and other and finally resulting in hair cells death:
http://home.arcor.de/gekkehenk/HW/HW Topical/03. Role of TGF-beta2 in the human hair cycle..pdf
You can not treat such complicated issue like male pattern baldness by one pill and it can never be done this way. Only cure would be to change genes. If you block DHT totally, you would have horrible side effects. TGF-beta is also important immune enzyme. Inhibit it completely and you won't lose your hair anymore. But you will probably die soon due to another reason because you need it. So really comprehensive attitude must be started and you must fight male pattern baldness from every possible angle - change your diet rapidly, detoxify your body (do you know that if your liver or colon does not work properly, it can affect all hormones and thus hair??) regularly, protect your body agains oxidative stress, and prefer food that is good for hair (it is good because it can somehow regulate those hormones you want have regulated) and the list goes on....
If you want to reverse your baldness - by which I mean that those thin hair you have will be thick and healthy as others and you will not lose your hair during years and perhaps regrowth some hair, you will never be enought only with finasteride or Dutasteride. So I am trying to go this way, just
check my regimen and you will see what I mean. And I am right now at the start of my comprehensive treatment
There is no magic pill that will stop male pattern baldness and NEVER will be. But to completely change your life style is necessary. It is much more harder than eating one pill, isnt it? There is so much that trigger MBP - hormonal imbalance, inflammation, high insulin fluctulation, oxidative stress .... finasteride is useful, but I am well aware that using only Finasteride is like drinking each night and than taking Ibuprofen in the morning because you suffer from headache and handover. Why just don't stop drinking and thus solve the cause of the problem?
P.S. I have heard of many peoples that spend some time on detox program e.g. in Asia countries - eating only vegetables and fruit, only whole grain and fiber, only fish, sea food and free-range chicken. Drinking only water and teas and some herbs. No refined food at all. After this they felt so much better and realized that they have some hair at places that were completely bald for years - what a surprise!
P.P.S. I am not able to do spell check as I am really exhausted so sorry for spelling-mistakes, no offence against English