Ok I'm gonna do my wacky alternative hippy thing and then get pounced on by half the forum.. lol
Ready? rofl
Basically, in my opinion it's far from just "sensitive follicles" that can be the problem. My regimen revolves around looking inward and dealing with any problems in the body that can be throwing it off balance, chucking excess hormones, free radicals, inflammation, sebum, and all these many negative things at hair follicles, and starting the solution at it's core. Do you see what I mean?
So, for me, I discovered there is a high chance my thyroid is a bit suppressed due to stress/anxiety, and my liver was being overworked making fat and insulin due to my sloppy high carb/sugar diet. Therefore I put together a regimen to tackle particularly these things - correcting my thyroid, correcting my stress, optimizing my liver and lifting what is called "SHBG" to mop up free testosterone and estrogen before they do harm (T converts to DHT and estrogen enlarges the prostate). So, yes things like Nizoral, stimulatory shampoos, Finasteride, probably beta-sitosterol, minoxidil or whatever, yes they all work, but I personally believe that by resuming your body to perfect balance or pinpointing any precise triggers (such as low SHBG, inflammation, thyroid issues, high insulin, gluten intolerance etc) you can be much closer to quenching the problem at source. And then no-one is saying you can't use nizoral, finasteride, b-S, minoxidil or whatever you want as WELL. Get it?
But yeah, I am in a minority on here with these kinds of views, most people focus on systemic and topical reducers of DHT, basically, stuff that inhibits the enzyme that causes it, binds to androgen receptors etc, as well as minoxidil-based things which vasodilate and open potassium channels to flood the follicles with what they need to grow.
Anyway, my advice is here if you want it! As a quick fix I personally would say Nizoral 2%, HMRlignan (or SDG lignans, both are available on swanson vitamins), and curcumin and resveratrol if you wanna give it an additional thwack round the head and boost your health while you're at it! heh
Also smooth out your diet if poss and remove any stress and stuff if you can!
finasteride, yup, you can add if you want - if you are cautious (as I was) I would recommend starting on a nice low dose, say 0.25mg a day or possibly even less if you want to be REALLY cautious, but of course you will see less results (although combined with the other things you should be fine, and I also believe that the lignans should provide you with some defence against certain potential finasteride side effects). There are probably other things you can do to defend yourself against finasteride sides too, but this is not somewhere I have done much research personally.
Erm, so yeah! Oh, and also personally I would say check your thyroid as it does seem that a fair few people losing hair young have mild hypothyroidism (often not picked up in blood tests) and raised insulin (but this is very common just due to common diets).
So yeah erm, here:
http://www.drbobnd.com/low_thyroid.htm
As I say, take or leave my advice, and now watch as I am torn apart by every other member of this forum xD
Hoppi! ^_^
