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By the age of 35, 66% of men will experience hair loss. As you age, the likelihood of losing hair only increases. Male hair loss is incredibly common, but the good news is that we’re finding more and more ways to treat it.
It’s not all doom and gloom!
An increase of DHC, is the cause of natural hairloss. DHT is a hormone related to testosterone which decreases as men age. Additional lifestyle factors, such as smoking and stress, can lead to prematurely thinning hair too.
Here we look at the top 16 hair loss treatments for men who want to know how to regrow hair safely.
While there are lifestyle changes that can help to reduce the thinning of hair, there are also paid-for solutions that can help to stop male pattern baldness and/or promote hair growth.
There are many baldness treatment options on the market, but these are some of the best hair restoration solutions we’ve found:
You might have heard of “Rogaine” if you’ve looked up hair loss treatment. Rogaine is just a branded version of Minoxidil, a special compound approved by the FDA that effectively promotes hair growth in around 50% of the men who use it daily for several months.
Minoxidil is an antihypertensive vasodilator, which basically means that it forces hair follicles to open up, shed old hair, and produce strong new hairs. Blood vessels are relaxed to allow blood to flow to the scalp more easily, encouraging better overall hair growth and hair health.
Sounds good!
When you use Minoxidil regularly, you will initially start to lose some hair as it speeds up your hair’s lifecycle and starts to grow thicker hair in its place. This is normal; hair growth cycles can take several weeks or months, depending on how long your hair grows (naturally short hair that grows quick will work faster). Minoxidil is a long game method and requires patience as thin hair is replaced with fuller nourished hair.
ForHims sell their own Hims 5% Minoxidil Treatment that comes in the form of drops. You apply it to your scalp twice a day wherever you’re experiencing hair loss. However, if you would prefer a foam version of Minoxidil, Keeps sells a Keeps Hair Loss Minoxidil Foam Treatment that many people find easier to use. It’s also applied twice daily.
Finasteride is a prescription medication that needs to be prescribed by your doctor (or an online doctor) before you can take it. This FDA-approved hair regrowth treatment pill blocks the body’s production of DHT, the hormone that causes male pattern baldness in aging men.
Show DHT who’s boss!
You must take Finasteride regularly for it to prevent hair loss. You can miss the occasional day, but keep taking the pills as regularly as possible for the best effects. Studies have shown that 85% of men who take Finasteride daily can experience hair regrowth in as little as 3-4 months.
Finasteride is often sold under the brand name “Propecia”, which you might be familiar with. However, there are much cheaper non-branded versions available.
You can buy generic Propecia (Finasteride) from ForHims. Hims Finasteride Pills need to be prescribed by an online doctor, but they’re great for hair growth and relatively cheap.
Hair loss treatment can be much more casual than pills and surgeries – it could mean just changing your shampoo. If your hair loss is minor and you’re only starting to notice the effects early, you might want to try a DHT blocking shampoo that helps to reduce DHT levels across your scalp, reducing future hair loss.
Saw Palmetto is a common ingredient used in hair loss shampoo treatments, as it naturally reduces the amount of DHT produced in the scalp. Hims DHT Blocker Shampoo Treatment uses Saw Palmetto as its active ingredient to help prevent the hair thinning men experience as they age.
However, if your baldness problem is more severe, you might want to seek other treatments or use a hair regrowth shampoo in conjunction with other hair regeneration treatments.
If you are deficient in a particular vitamin that is essential for healthy male hair growth, then hair loss vitamins could be the answer. Many different nutrients contribute to healthy hair, but the most common thing you’ll hear about is Biotin.
Biotin can improve hair growth in men, leading to healthier hair, skin, and nails. A lack of Biotin in your diet is associated with balding, so it’s essential to make sure that you’re getting it either through your diet or through biotin vitamins.
Hims Biotin Vitamins are specially formulated to treat balding and thinning hair in men. These pills also contain B12, B6, and Vitamin D, which have their own additional health benefits to consider.
Does Hims work? Well, Hims hair loss vitamins are no miracle pill – they will only work if you’re already deficient in the nutrients they provide.
Low-Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) is a common hair loss treatment for men’s hair loss. The treatment is thought to reduce inflammation in hair follicles, promoting healthy hair growth. The lasers irradiate photons into scalp tissue, with weaker scalp cells absorbing the photons to encourage future growth.
It’s all very science-y.
You can get laser therapy performed in professional clinics, though there are more and more at-home remedies available too. Though more research is needed, one 2016 study found that LLLT was effective at safely reducing male pattern baldness in test subjects.
It’s also widely considered to be safe.
LLLT is very tolerable, causing no pain or discomfort. It’s a non-invasive hair loss treatment, so it’s very low-risk, and it doesn’t seem to have any side effects either.
The HairMax Laserband 82 is a good at-home laser treatment for hair loss. The device contains 82 lasers that you move over 3 parts of your scalp, giving you a total of 246 laser coverage points in a session. Cleared by the FDA, you do this treatment 3 times a week for around 90 seconds each time.
You could also try the iRestore Laser Hair Growth Helmet, which uses a similar system of lasers to encourage hair growth in men and women. You wear the helmet every other day for around 25 minutes, with 100% of users seeing at least some level of hair regrowth after 6 months of use. It’s also been cleared by the FDA.
Follicular Unit Transplantation Surgery is the classic hair transplant surgery that’s been performed since the 1960s. This hair transplant procedure involves taking a small strip of skin from the back of the scalp, where the hair is thicker, and inserting these thicker strips of skin into balding sections of the scalp.
The hair will fall out around 2-3 weeks after FUT surgery, but it will grow back within a few months. Within 6-9 months of the hair transplant, you’ll find 60% of new hair growth has occurred. It can take 1 year or more to fully see the benefits of the procedure.
Patience is a virtue!
FUT hair transplant surgery is rarely covered by insurance, and it can cost $4,000 to $10,000 on average. However, some countries like Turkey offer cheap FUT surgery, though this carries obvious risks. Istanbul alone has over 300 hair surgery clinics, as seen in this BBC documentary about hair loss.
Follicular Unit Extraction Surgery is basically a newer, more complex version of FUT. Instead of taking strips of skin from your scalp, FUE removes individual hair follicles from the parts of your scalp with thicker hair and applies them meticulously to balding areas.
FUE normally has a much quicker patient recovery time than FUT, and there is generally less postoperative discomfort than FUT with reduced health risks.
Of course, all surgeries and treatments can have side effects, but FUE is generally considered to be the safest surgery type for hair loss prevention.
Sold by a company known as DS laboratories, Nanoxidil is a hair loss treatment that is very similar to Minoxidil. However, this version tends to have fewer side effects than Minoxidil and is very good for people with sensitive skin who may have an adverse reaction to Minoxidil foams and drops.
The DS Laboratories Nanoxodil Treatment has multiple ingredients that encourage hair regrowth and might be the perfect solution if you’ve had a bad reaction to more conventional Minoxidil treatments.
While there are many ways to pay for hair loss prevention, you might also want to change your lifestyle and habits. Improving your lifestyle often keeps hair loss at bay for many years, so here are some things you could try:
When you’re stressed out, your body produces a hormone called Cortisol which helps to prepare your body for an alarming situation. However, too much Cortisol can negatively affect hair follicles, leading to reduced hair growth.
Reducing stress is a great way to encourage more hair on your head without going to a doctor or getting expensive treatments.
Look at stress reduction techniques such as deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), mindfulness meditation, and changes to your life that reduce stress.
Just remember that stress causes temporary hair loss – so reducing it won’t necessarily stop genetic baldness.
There are a million reasons to eat a healthy, balanced diet… and here’s another one!
It goes without saying, but a healthy diet full of vitamins and nutrients is the easiest way to encourage natural hair growth and keep your scalp healthy.
Pay close attention to proteins, B-vitamins, Beta-Carotene, Vitamin A, Biotin, and good fats. Eat more meats, nuts, berries, oily fish, and leafy green vegetables.
If you’re vegan or vegetarian, consider taking B12 vitamins as well.
If you live in a sunny climate, try to limit your exposure to the sun’s harmful UV rays. Excessive sunlight can damage your scalp, leading to premature hair loss.
Avoiding the sun may be difficult depending on your job and where you live. If you can’t avoid it, wear hats to protect your scalp from the UV.
Brushing your hair is an essential part of grooming, but don’t do it too much. Excessive brushing of hair can encourage more hair than necessary to be pulled out by the comb, accelerating hair loss.
If you like combing your hair a lot, consider wide-toothed combs that are less abrasive.
Yet another reason to quit smoking – smoking can lead to hair loss. Smoking leads to poor circulation in the body, making it difficult for the necessary nutrients to get carried to the hair follicles by your blood.
The pollution in the air around you caused by smoking can also encourage hair loss. Just do yourself a favor and quit!
Okay, so you’re struggling with hair loss, but you don’t want to seek treatment. If baldness treatments aren’t an option for you, here are some basic solutions to try:
I know it’s obvious, but you might simply want to try shaving your head and rocking it as your new look. Lots of men suit a bald head, whether it’s shaved for style reasons or because they’re losing hair.
Generally speaking, it looks better to have a bald head than hair which is clearly receding.
If hats, bandanas, and other forms of headwear have not normally been a part of your wardrobe, now is a good time to start incorporating them.
Just look at Hulk Hogan!
From baseball caps to bandanas, beanies, and trilby hats, headwear could be the perfect way to cover up a bald spot or a receding hairline without going to the doctor or buying treatments.
We associate baldness with a “lack of manliness”, yet dozens and dozens of cool male celebrities have embraced their baldness as an iconic part of their look.
Would Jason Statham seem as intimidating if he had a full head of hair? Probably not.
Male celebrities who rock the bald look include Jason Statham, Stanley Tucci, Billy Corgan, LL Cool J, Pitbull, Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Terry Crews, and Bruce Willis.
Even Jeff Bezos, the ultra-rich CEO of Amazon, rocks the bald look.
If you’re really struggling for baldness cures, you could always try a toupee.
While they don’t always look believable, you can get pretty good male wigs and toupees these days if you’re willing to fork out enough money.
With hair loss affecting 85% of men aged over 50, it’s no surprise that so many myths and old wives tales have been created about male baldness over the years. Here are some of the most common hair loss myths that simply aren’t true:
If you’re just grooming and styling your hair regularly, with a normal amount of brushing and everyday hair styling products, you’re not going to do any significant damage to your hair follicles.
Next time you reach for the hair wax, don’t worry – it’s not making your hair fall out unless you’re yanking it really hard.
There is a common myth that hats lead to hair loss, but this simply isn’t true. In fact, hats can help to protect your scalp from the sun’s UV rays, so they’re one of the best ways to keep your scalp healthy.
Obviously, just don’t wear them too much and give your scalp some time to breathe every day.
It’s commonly believed that you inherit the male pattern baldness genes from your mother’s side of the family, but this doesn’t always necessarily ring true.
Both your parents’ genes can play a role in genetic hair loss, so pay attention to your father and your grandfathers on both sides of the family if you want to have an idea of how your own hair loss journey might take shape.
DHT, the hormone that causes hair loss, is linked to testosterone, so people assume that more testosterone leads to more hair loss.
This is not the case.
Increased testosterone levels have no demonstrated effect on male pattern baldness, so feel free to hit the gym as hard as you want.
Okay, so we’ve recommended hair loss vitamins in this article, but there are some caveats to take into consideration. Vitamins such as Biotin and B-Vitamins will only help to treat male pattern hair loss and hair shedding if you’re already deficient in those vitamins.
So if you’re already getting plenty of these vitamins in your diet and you’re experiencing hair loss, taking more of them isn’t going to prevent baldness.
Hopefully you enjoyed this guide to preventing hair loss in men and treating baldness through a variety of treatments and lifestyle changes!
Whether you get prescribed pills by your doctor, you get a hair transplant, or you try a more natural method of hair loss prevention, I hope one of these methods works for you.
Whichever one of these hair loss solutions you go for, just remember to stay safe, follow the instructions, and speak to your doctor if you encounter any issues. Good luck!
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