I’ve received a couple of inquires lately from older men, experiencing relatively mild forms of hair loss.
Unlike some of my readers, they’re not balding in their teens, and they’re unlikely to go totally bald. But dealing with hair loss is no fun at any age, so of course I’m here to all of you middle-aged and older guys treat and manage your hair loss.
Here’s one correspondence I had with a reader named Rodney, who contacted me a few weeks ago asking about my thoughts on topical finasteride. We go over the top treatments for mild hair loss, general advice on later-in-life hair loss, and more.
The Gist Of His Email
- He’s a 34-year-old man
- Has mild hair loss, Norwood 2, with 25% miniaturization, according to a prominent hair restoration surgeon.
- He provided a detailed overview of his family’s hair loss history. No Norwood 6s or 7s that I saw. Most of his relatives also experienced mild hair loss, Norwood 2-3.
- He was curious about which treatments would be best for him.-
- Additionally, he’s worried rosemary oil would be too big of a hassle and impracticable for him to use on a daily basis.
- And finally, he’s concerned about the side effects of minoxidil and finasteride.
My Advice for Rodney
Again, he’s 34 with mild hair loss.
Here’s my response:
“25% miniaturization is not all that significant, I don’t think. 20% is often viewed as the cutoff for an MPB diagnosis — though some doctors claim the cutoff is closer to 15%.
Regardless, I doubt you’re ever going to be a full-on Norwood 6 or 7, and I doubt you’ll even reach Norwood 4 based on your family history, age, and current, minimal recession. And if that’s the case and you have mild MPB as I suspect, like many of your relatives did, you can probably just get your hair fixed via a
hair transplant or two if desired without much treatment.
You’d be rolling the dice a bit by taking that approach, granted, and it probably would help to begin a treatment program to slow/mitigate the balding process, of course.
And yeah, rosemary oil can be a pain.
Some people do leave it in overnight, that’s an option, assuming it doesn’t give you skin irritation. Once you prepare your first batch of it, I think it’s pretty easy from then on.
Concerns about Minoxidil’s Side Effects
I’ve heard about minoxidil side effects, and the heart-related ones are the least desirable, I agree. But, from what I’ve gathered they’re quite rare as only a tiny amount of the medication is typically absorbed into the blood stream. Yes, the hairs will definitely fall out if you stop taking it – that’s true of pretty much any MPB treatment, unfortunately.
Treatments for Mild Hair Loss
Laser therapy, rosemary oil, minoxidil,
pumpkin seed oil, a ketoconazole shampoo (will have a post on that shortly) and maybe vitamin D. Those would be the treatments/vitamins I’d look into if I were you.
I’d probably stay away from more “aggressive” options like finasteride, even of the topical variety, along with RU58841 which is still something of an experimental treatment at this point. Again, I’m definitely not a doctor! I’d get on some sort of program, then revisit your hair situation every year or so with a reputable doctor via miniaturization tests and an in-person exam. Now you have a baseline and can make treatment/transplant plans accordingly.
If the miniaturization gets much worse or your hair loss starts becoming aggressive, you can always adjust your treatments as needed.”
Robert Price is a writer, consumer advocate, and hair loss researcher with thousands of hours of experience in the field. His goal is to keep you out of the hair loss rabbit hole, underworld, or whatever you want to call it. He founded Hair Loss Daily, the unbiased hair loss blog, in 2016. You can learn more about Robert in the my story section of this website.
Related
I was stuck at Norwood 3 for almost thirty years. When I receded from Norwood 1 to Norwood 3 my senior year in college, I was ecstatic, believing that I would be bald by age 30. I wanted it so badly, I could almost taste it. But I also panicked a bit, as I was still unattached and I worried no girl would marry me if I was bald. So I was both deeply disappointed and greatly relieved when my hair stopped receding as suddenly as it had started receding. Talk about mixed feelings!
Unfortunately, whether or not we go bald and when we go bald is not ours to choose. I fantasized about marrying the girl of my dreams and then immediately going bald. In the end, it didn’t work out that way. I did marry the girl of my dreams, but had to wait impatiently for the next 25 years for the ‘male pattern baldness fairy’ to finally visit me. Thankfully, she made it up to me by making me bald in less than two years. Not only that, she made sure my lovely wife fell in love with my MPB. My wife loves it as much as I do and I love it when she sneaks up behind me and kisses me on top of my shiny bald head. What a turn on!
For those guys out there wishing you were bald, but stuck at Norwood 3, be patient and don’t lose hope. Getting older has a way of accelerating MPB. It worked for me and there is a good chance that it will work for you. I do miss my youth, but I definitely do not miss my hair.
I’ve been bald now almost 20 years, so I know it is permanent, although I partially regrew my hair when I started using saw palmetto to relieve prostate discomfort. Fortunately, that effect wore off after several years and I lost all the hair that had regrown. The prostate relief continues and fortunately the hair I lost has not regrown again. Last night, I had an unpleasant dream that my hair was growing back again. When I woke up the first thing I did was run my hands across the top of my head and was immensely relieved that it was only a bad dream and I was still bald. I love my male pattern baldness so much that regrowing the hair on top of my head would be a nightmare. If a ‘cure’ to MPB is ever discovered, I will refuse to take it. Male pattern baldness is one of the best things that ever happened to me, not a disease in need of a cure.