Nizzle said:
Hi, I'm slightly thinning along the hairline and crown and i'm thinking of applying spironolactone 2% before i go to bed each night. Do you thihnk this will stop further thinning and thicken what has just started to thin? Are there any bad side effects from spironolactone 2%?
To enlarge just a tad on what else has been said in this thread:
If your intention is to interfere with the fundamental balding process, then yes, an antiandrogenic or 5a-reductase-inhibiting treatment of some sort is probably what you'd want. spironolactone is one of the few such treatments easily and commercially available. Topical spironolactone is pretty darn safe, although there will inevitably be the occasional person who may be sensitive to it (possibly from something in the vehicle, like propylene glycol).
Topical minoxidil would also help thicken up your hair, but it probably doesn't really interfere with the balding process itself. It just provides an offset of extra growth, and balding probably continues at approximately the same rate, although with a little more hair at each point than you would have otherwise.
Bryan