You might be giving me too much credit since I see that you have been a member since 2009.
The Castor oil I have used once on my scalp and it can be used that way but most use 5ml daily or less which is just a few drops. Don't use too much or you will have gastric discomfort. Can you remind me of your whole regime? I am sorry but so many email me now which I love but believe it or not, I am already the person with the second most sent messages in the history of the site and not that far behind Bridge. It's always nice to know where folks are from and their age.
I'm no expert for sure despite having signed up to this site a long time ago. I'm 37 now (scarily), and from the UK. I guess that would have made me about 25/26 or so when I signed up here and when I first noticed (and started on obsessing about hair loss). At the time I had noticed my hairline corners receding and I got really depressed about it and started taking a crazy amount of photos etc. I also would have had some slight crown thinning. I lived with my cousin who had severe hair loss and used minoxdil and I 'borrowed' some of his to use on my hairline corners before buying my own. Bad move I think - that stuff just very quickly seemed to make my hair shed where I used it and after 8-9 months of use it just didn't really recover. I shaved my head off and on for like two years and I had a distinctly asymmetrical patterned hairline in the shape of where my fingers had been applying the minoxidil. I researched finasteride over and over but just could never do it...something about me and the thought of feminising my body whatsoever I just hated...hair loss has been incredibly mentally painful for me, but I just couldn't alter my male hormones no matter how much distress I was in. The opposite to you I guess in terms of masculine/feminine mental self image etc. And I still feel the same about finasteride all these years later. Back when I was in my late 20's I went to Hair transplant surgeons and trichologists who all said I was miniaturising badly and would make an awful hair transplant candidate as my hair is so fine (literally as soft as a baby's hair...I saw the top hair transplant surgeon in the world at the time and he simply said 'your hair quality is sh*t'...even at the donor. Just extremely fine and not great for a hair transplant (although he would just about be able to do the hairline if I wanted it and then I would have to SMP the rest because when I lost it because I wouldn't have enough donor density or quality to cover my NW6 thinning pattern).
Thing is, 10+ years on...and I still have coverage in a NW3V pattern. Yes it's thin and fine all over, but if I cut it short then I can almost look like I have a fullish head of hair. I have a very thin spot at the back which is a couple of inches in diameter and the temples are also thin in that NW3 pattern. So while my thinning is all over (and the crown does look annoyingly bad in some lighting), my loss has been slow. I'm kind of at that point where if things got much worse then I'd have to really just keep cutting it very short until maybe in another 7-8 years possibly(?) I have no option but to shave it...and shaving doesn't look great because of the asymmetry of the hairline. So yeah...sorry that was long but I thought i'd give my background and where I'm at. It would be good to maintain at least and then I can keep cutting it fairly short. If I could get any regrowth at all at the crown (even like 10% thickening then it would be amazing, as this is the bit that bothers me now when I see photos or video myself).
My very basic routine at the moment just goes:
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Sunday - nizoral 2%/keto shampoo in the morning and then dermaroll in the evening with a 1mm roller, pressing fairly hard (some blood spots but more redness).
Monday - normal shampoo/shower gel
Tuesday - normal shampoo/shower gel
Wednesday - nizoral/keto 2% shampoo
Thursday - normal shampoo
Friday - nizoral/keto 2% shampoo
Saturday - normal shampoo
So nizoral 3 times per week and I leave it on for around 8-10 minutes each time. I deliberately leave 2 days without using it after dermarolling as I don't want to risk keto going systemic.
I just wonder what else I could add to give myself the best chance without touching my internal DHT. It's a tough one I know as the answer to all my problems would probably be just to pop 1mg finasteride every day. But nope, it's just not for me and probably never will be.