Exploring The Hormonal Route. Hair=life.

Solxama

Banned
My Regimen
Reaction score
302
@Jacob Williams , your hair still looks great, I wish I had hair like that :). Don't worry too much about it and have hope, I'm sure you will find something that works.

Anyway, I got some news for everyone here : I have decided as to my future regimen. If I do nothing I won't be able to forgive myself but I also want real results, not staying NW3 for ever. This is why I have decided to take the nuclear option. This is the plan :

1. First I am going to get on Finasteride as soon as possible, I'll ask my doctor for a prescription tomorrow, so even before I leave my country, I'll be able to buy 2-3 boxes as that's the maximum I'll most likely get on one prescription.

2. As soon as I arrive in the UK, I'm going to order Bica and Estrogel, I'll start with 50mg Bica and small amounts of E2 (0.75-2mg) on my balding crown and temples. I'll go easy first, to try and minimize gyno.

3. If the effects are not satisfactory or too slow, I will up the dose of E2 to full HRT doses (2-6mg), stay on it long enough to get good gains and then try to maintain them with Fina or Duta if Fina does not work well for me. If balding resumes, I will most likely start cycling HRT for the foreseeable future.

As for the gyno, I have decided to just accept that some amount of it is inevitable. I am pretty skinny, my weight at this point is 59kg, so in theory if I stay this way, there should not be enough fat to create big breast growth. If the gyno does start really bothering me, I might take breaks in using HRT and try to reduce it between cycles with stuff like Raloxifene, something similar to what nWo Wolfpack did. To be honest the gyno thing doesn't really bother me as much personally as long as it's not too bad, it's the reactions of others I fear and the need to hide it. But after thinking about this for the past few days, I have decided to simply stop caring about that anymore, hair is more important to me then people's opinions, even the opinions of my family members. And in the worst case scenario, gyno surgery is actually much cheaper then a hair transplant.

So my future regimen will look something like this to start with : 1mg Fina, 50 mg Bica, and 0.75-2mg Estrogel topically. I might also consider adding topical Minoxidil. If the doses are too low to have a good effect, I will up them and maybe try Duta instead of Fina.

I will keep everybody updated and I'll also take pictures of my progress and post them here. I might also create my own thread to document my treatment.

Thank you so much for inspiring me to take action people of hairlosstalk, thanks to you I have a chance to save my hair! :)
 
Last edited:

Jacob Williams

Established Member
My Regimen
Reaction score
78
@Jacob Williams , your hair still looks great, I wish I had hair like that :). Don't worry too much about it and have hope, I'm sure you will find something that works.

Anyway, I got some news for everyone here : I have decided as to my future regimen. If I do nothing I won't be able to forgive myself but I also want real results, not staying NW3 for ever. This is why I have decided to take the nuclear option. This is the plan :

1. First I am going to get on Finasteride as soon as possible, I'll ask my doctor for a prescription tomorrow, so even before I leave my country, I'll be able to buy 2-3 boxes as that's the maximum I'll most likely get on one prescription.

2. As soon as I arrive in the UK, I'm going to order Bica and Estrogel, I'll start of with 50mg Bica and small amounts of E2 (0.75-2mg) on my balding crown and temples. I'll go easy first, to try and minimize gyno.

3. If the effects are not satisfactory or too slow, I will up the dose of E2 to full HRT doses (2-6mg), stay on it long enough to get good gains and then try to maintain them with Fina or Duta if Fina does not work well for me. If balding resumes, I will most likely start cycling HRT for the foreseeable future.

As for the gyno, I have decided to just accept that some amount of it is inevitable. I am pretty skinny, my weight at this point is 59kg, so in theory if I stay this way, there should not be enough fat to create big breast growth. If the gyno does start really bothering me, I might take breaks in using HRT and try to reduce it between cycles with stuff like Raloxifene, something similar to what nWo Wolfpack did. To be honest the gyno thing doesn't really bother me as much personally as long as it's not too bad, it's the reactions of others I fear and the need to hide it. But after thinking about this for the past few days, I have decided to simply stop caring about that anymore, hair is more important to me then people"s opinions, even the opinions of my family members. And in the worst case scenario, gyno surgery is actually much cheaper then a hair transplant.

So my future regimen will look something like this to start with : 1mg Fina, 50 mg Bica, and 0.75-2mg Estrogel topically. I might also consider adding topical Minoxidil. If the doses are too low to have a good effect, I will up them and maybe try Duta instead of Fina.

I will keep everybody updated and I'll also take pictures of my progress and post them here. I might also create my own thread to document my treatment.

Thank you so much for inspiring me to take action people of hairlosstalk, thanks to you I have a chance to save my hair! :)
If you do get gyno surgery pick the right surgeon. The previous train of thought has been that you can’t remove the entire gland and as a result it will just grow back, but there are novel surgery techniques now that can remove the entire gland with the same aesthetic results. My surgeon removed the entire gland and it’s never grown back despite my regimen.
 

Solxama

Banned
My Regimen
Reaction score
302
If you do get gyno surgery pick the right surgeon. The previous train of thought has been that you can’t remove the entire gland and as a result it will just grow back, but there are novel surgery techniques now that can remove the entire gland with the same aesthetic results. My surgeon removed the entire gland and it’s never grown back despite my regimen.
Nice! I'll keep that in mind. And it was still probably cheaper then a hair transplant lol.
 

KNemo

Established Member
My Regimen
Reaction score
203
That's interesting, so basically you have no need for any AAs. How's your gyno BTW, is it bad?
I use a sports bra but it's not too bad. Nipples haven't changed much so breast reduction surgery would make me look like a normal dude.
 

Solxama

Banned
My Regimen
Reaction score
302
I use a sports bra but it's not too bad. Nipples haven't changed much so breast reduction surgery would make me look like a normal dude.
That's good to hear, maybe it will be similar with me if I manage to keep my weight low. I've heard HRT can make you hungry and that it's easier to gain weight on it, but I'll try to do my best and stick to my healthy diet and exercises.
 

Get my hair back

Established Member
My Regimen
Reaction score
98
It's the finasteride dose. Estradiol dose is 200mcg patches plus some gel mixed into topical minoxidil which is enough to reduce testosterone to castrate levels and raise estradiol to around 200pg/ml.
Have greatly improved my diffuse thinning, totally recovered a bare vertex bald spot and significantly improved hairline.
Recently reduced doses for a while returning to a good male testosterone level without any sign of shedding.

I'll update the regimen for clarity.
I am surprised how it is possible to reduce T to the level of castration with a plaster and gel, I am sure that this is impossible. Did you do the analysis? I take 6 mg of estradiol and my T level is higher than castration, and the E2 level is 110pg / ml.
 

KNemo

Established Member
My Regimen
Reaction score
203
I am surprised how it is possible to reduce T to the level of castration with a plaster and gel, I am sure that this is impossible. Did you do the analysis? I take 6 mg of estradiol and my T level is higher than castration, and the E2 level is 110pg / ml.
Have done 5 tests, first pretreatment showing normal testosterone, then 3 tests after 6 months or so all showing very low testosterone, finally a test recently after reducing the dose for a few months showing normal testosterone.
Stable levels for a longer time seems to be the key to suppress without extreme doses.
 

Solxama

Banned
My Regimen
Reaction score
302
Have done 5 tests, first pretreatment showing normal testosterone, then 3 tests after 6 months or so all showing very low testosterone, finally a test recently after reducing the dose for a few months showing normal testosterone.
Stable levels for a longer time seems to be the key to suppress without extreme doses.
Reading all of this on hairlosstalk makes most of my worries slowly disappear. Lower doses of any medication are generally safer, so hearing that I can nuke my T without extreme dosage is very nice. Once I start my new regimen, I aim to do hormone tests every 3 months of being on it, so I can monitor my levels closely, also I'll be doing liver functions as I'll be taking Bica.

To be honest I'm starting to think that the people way back in this thread are right, androgens are poison for people with certain genetics, and I'm one of them. Hair loss is one thing, but also my skin is very demanding, plus I hate the mental effects of Testosterone, like the aggression and the annoying T fueled sex drive.

Anyway, I got some news for everybody, my doctor gave me a prescription for 3 boxes of Finasteride. I will go to the Pharmacy tomorrow to buy them and I'll start taking it straight away. My supply should last 84 days, as the Fina sold in my country for balding is 28 1mg pills per box.

I also found Bica and Estrogel in very good prices online. Bica I will buy in 150mg pills that I will cut up, and Estrogel I will get from Otokonoko Pharmaceuticals, apparently beside being a bit unorthodox, people on reddit and 4chan say the products there are legit and good. All in all, my regimen should cost about 500-600$ a year, I think that's a very good price for potential hair regrowth. :)
 
Last edited:

Get my hair back

Established Member
My Regimen
Reaction score
98
Do not take biku it is a useless thing for hair, you will ruin your health, and there will still be no result from it. When I was on a hard course, I took a lot of sh*t (estradiol, dutasteride, progesterone, bicalutamide, ciproterone) A few months ago, I canceled everything, leaving only estradiol and did not notice the difference, it turns out that I took all this sh*t in parentheses for nothing, killing my health!
 

Solxama

Banned
My Regimen
Reaction score
302
Do not take biku it is a useless thing for hair, you will ruin your health, and there will still be no result from it. When I was on a hard course, I took a lot of sh*t (estradiol, dutasteride, progesterone, bicalutamide, ciproterone) A few months ago, I canceled everything, leaving only estradiol and did not notice the difference, it turns out that I took all this sh*t in parentheses for nothing, killing my health!
When deciding on my new regimen, I wanted something to surely nuke most of my Androgens. So in theory it should work something like this, 5-ARI blocks DHT, AA blocks all Androgens and Estradiol stimulates growth and also blocks some T. Wouldn't the dose of Estradiol be much bigger without an AA for good regrowth as a lot of Androgens would still be present in the body?

Also the reason I chose Bica is that it looks the best on paper, it has the least side effects compared to other AAs (It does have a big risk of gyno, but I'll be getting that with E anyway.), and it's not that liver wrecking as Cyproterone for example. But If I do feel very unwell, or if my liver functions blood test shows something bad, then I will drop Bica and maybe go with just E.

Thank you for your concern and your suggestion, but for now, I'm going to go with the whole regimen, as it looks promising and other people earlier in this thread have had massive success with a 5-ARI, AA and E2 combination.

Now for a little story to give you an idea how bad my country is when it comes to treating hair loss. No pharmacy in my town sells Fina, so I had to look for it in the closest bigger city, 30km away. I found a pharmacy that's got it, but they only have one box in stock, and I can't buy one now and the others later because of some bureaucratic nonsense. So now I have to wait till tomorrow for them to order more boxes and only then can I buy my prescribed amount. And after that, I will have to hide the Fina from my mum before I leave to the UK, as she's opposed to even the weakest hormone modification drugs, using the whole "real man" cliche as an excuse. I love her dearly so I don't want to argue with her, but I'm so glad to be leaving soon. Why can't people understand the pain of loosing hair at a young age, it makes me so sad :(
 

Get my hair back

Established Member
My Regimen
Reaction score
98
Most of what they write flood, ludi, being insured, eat everything that in theory should help, but in fact, much of the regime can be deducted as useless.
By the way, all experienced transgender people do not take antiandrogens.
I myself used to think like you, antiandrogens + E2 work synergistically, but in practice this is not the case.
It is not necessary to reduce T to zero, it is not necessary to block A receptors to zero. All that is needed is to catch the balance of T and E2.
I will not teach you how to act, you yourself have to go this way to understand.
 

Solxama

Banned
My Regimen
Reaction score
302
Most of what they write flood, ludi, being insured, eat everything that in theory should help, but in fact, much of the regime can be deducted as useless.
By the way, all experienced transgender people do not take antiandrogens.
I myself used to think like you, antiandrogens + E2 work synergistically, but in practice this is not the case.
It is not necessary to reduce T to zero, it is not necessary to block A receptors to zero. All that is needed is to catch the balance of T and E2.
I will not teach you how to act, you yourself have to go this way to understand.
So you are saying that E2 alone is enough to regrow hair to a satisfactory state? I know about the trans people using E2 only, even some online pharmacies state that monotherapy is the best way for feminization. But I'm not trans, I'm looking at this from a hair angle. And after all this disease is called Androgenic Alopecia, and a lot of scientific evidence points to the fact that all Androgens, not only DHT but also T play a role in hair loss, especially in people with over sensitive genes, like me. So going with that line of thought I decided that I want to rid my body of all Androgens as much as I can for at least 9-12 months. But I won't lie, what you are saying is intriguing, I think you are the first person here saying that they use only Estradiol without anything else. There are people who don't use AAs, but they still use 5-ARIs from what I gathered going through this thread.
 
Last edited:

Get my hair back

Established Member
My Regimen
Reaction score
98
I have the most sensitive receptors)) and a severe form of Androgenetic Alopecia, it would be funny if it were not true.
When I started the course I had grade 6 hair loss, for this reason I need more estradiol than you probably need.
I have tried different schemes of Androgenetic Alopecia therapy and I can say for sure one E2 is enough. But the dose for everyone will be individual.
But here's the caveat: there are those for whom nothing helps and nothing can be done about it. I hope you won't be one of them.
 

Solxama

Banned
My Regimen
Reaction score
302
I have the most sensitive receptors)) and a severe form of Androgenetic Alopecia, it would be funny if it were not true.
When I started the course I had grade 6 hair loss, for this reason I need more estradiol than you probably need.
I have tried different schemes of Androgenetic Alopecia therapy and I can say for sure one E2 is enough. But the dose for everyone will be individual.
But here's the caveat: there are those for whom nothing helps and nothing can be done about it. I hope you won't be one of them.
Well I managed to slow it down by using only natural means : Vitamins, Shampoo, Spearmint Tea, CBD oil. Of course it's still progressing, and If I do nothing more then what I'm doing now, I will fully loose my hair in the next 2-3 years. Anyway, the point is that if natural means worked to slow it down, then I hope that an extreme regimen will be enough to regrow a big amount of my hair.
 

Experimentality

Established Member
My Regimen
Reaction score
224
When deciding on my new regimen, I wanted something to surely nuke most of my Androgens. So in theory it should work something like this, 5-ARI blocks DHT, AA blocks all Androgens and Estradiol stimulates growth and also blocks some T. Wouldn't the dose of Estradiol be much bigger without an AA for good regrowth as a lot of Androgens would still be present in the body?

Also the reason I chose Bica is that it looks the best on paper, it has the least side effects compared to other AAs (It does have a big risk of gyno, but I'll be getting that with E anyway.), and it's not that liver wrecking as Cyproterone for example. But If I do feel very unwell, or if my liver functions blood test shows something bad, then I will drop Bica and maybe go with just E.

Thank you for your concern and your suggestion, but for now, I'm going to go with the whole regimen, as it looks promising and other people earlier in this thread have had massive success with a 5-ARI, AA and E2 combination.

Now for a little story to give you an idea how bad my country is when it comes to treating hair loss. No pharmacy in my town sells Fina, so I had to look for it in the closest bigger city, 30km away. I found a pharmacy that's got it, but they only have one box in stock, and I can't buy one now and the others later because of some bureaucratic nonsense. So now I have to wait till tomorrow for them to order more boxes and only then can I buy my prescribed amount. And after that, I will have to hide the Fina from my mum before I leave to the UK, as she's opposed to even the weakest hormone modification drugs, using the whole "real man" cliche as an excuse. I love her dearly so I don't want to argue with her, but I'm so glad to be leaving soon. Why can't people understand the pain of loosing hair at a young age, it makes me so sad :(
Bicalutamide is actually a non-pure AR antagonist. Upon binding it actually promotes the translocation of the AR into the nucleus. Bicalutamide then causes a conformational change of the AR that changes the way the AR induces gene transcription. Most genes associated with the AR will not be transcribed, but it has not been assessed what the exact composition is. There is some anecdotal evidence floating around that Bica does not hamper muscle synthesis by leaving some of the anabolic components of the AR intact. It may be that some part of the androgenic components of the AR are left intact as well. Pure antagonists are Apalutamide, Enzalutamide and Darolutamide. They do not promote translocation of the AR: the AR will simply do nothing and there will be no genetic transcription (at least not in non-mutated cells).

@Get my hair back. E2 downregulates AR expression. With saturation dosages (which for oral use is just dose dependent, which means higher doses cause more AR suppression) the AR will be extensively downregulated. Furthermore, oral E2 suppresses androgen levels so there are less ligands to bind the ARs that are left. Basically a two-punch effect. A pure AA will never hurt for hair, but they are in deed not exactly healthy. Nor are supraphysiological doses of E2 (or any hormone for that matter).
 

Norwoody

Banned
My Regimen
Reaction score
1,792
Bicalutamide is actually a non-pure AR antagonist. Upon binding it actually promotes the translocation of the AR into the nucleus. Bicalutamide then causes a conformational change of the AR that changes the way the AR induces gene transcription. Most genes associated with the AR will not be transcribed, but it has not been assessed what the exact composition is. There is some anecdotal evidence floating around that Bica does not hamper muscle synthesis by leaving some of the anabolic components of the AR intact. It may be that some part of the androgenic components of the AR are left intact as well. Pure antagonists are Apalutamide, Enzalutamide and Darolutamide. They do not promote translocation of the AR: the AR will simply do nothing and there will be no genetic transcription (at least not in non-mutated cells).

@Get my hair back. E2 downregulates AR expression. With saturation dosages (which for oral use is just dose dependent, which means higher doses cause more AR suppression) the AR will be extensively downregulated. Furthermore, oral E2 suppresses androgen levels so there are less ligands to bind the ARs that are left. Basically a two-punch effect. A pure AA will never hurt for hair, but they are in deed not exactly healthy. Nor are supraphysiological doses of E2 (or any hormone for that matter).
This makes sense and is evidenced by Tato's continued muscle gains while on this drug. I believe there is still a big concern with dosing and the risk of gyno, however?

@Experimentality is anything known about scalp estrogen, or aromatase? I haven't seen anyone really talk much about these.
 

Solxama

Banned
My Regimen
Reaction score
302
@Experimentality , I'm constantly amazed by your knowledge :)

So if I'm understanding this correctly, Bica might leave some parts of the AR intact. Could this also mean that the AR in the scalp might also remain intact, thus creating the risk of Bica not fully working for hair loss? After reading this thread, and going thorough the AAs available online, I found Bica to be the safest one, but if I'm understanding your post correctly, this means it might not be the best choice for hair.

What about Cyproterone acetate, would that be a better choice for hair? From what I gathered it not only blocks the AR, but also reduces the amount of Androgens created, thereby being basically chemical castration, also Bridge apparently went with it as his starting AA, and his results as we all know are great. But to be honest CPA is apparently very heavy on the liver, so that's one of the reasons I would prefer to go with Bica.
 

Solxama

Banned
My Regimen
Reaction score
302
A little update for everybody, I got my three boxes of Fina today and I'm about to take my first pill. I won't count this as the first day of my new regimen, as that will happen when I get my hands on the other components.

But despite this being just a small step, I still consider this moment symbolic for myself. I hope it's going to be the start of another major chapter in my life, a chapter of seriously saving my hair, of victory over my family's curse and that it will lead to me being happier and being able to fully express myself not in a way others demand of me, but in a way that aligns with how I really feel.

Edit due to reactions ;) : Is it really that surprising that I'm serious about this lol, I wouldn't be on here if I was joking. Fina is just the start, I'm going to go all the way with this, HRT will join my regimen. It's no longer a question of if but when. To hell with gyno, libido, society and gender roles, I'm gonna get my hair back :D .
 
Last edited:
Top