What Treatments Have Worked For You?

[Georgie]

hi ladies

I was just was wanting to start a thread dedicated to what has worked to stop or regrow hair for ladies with Androgenetic Alopecia. We all know that minoxidil helps to grow hair but won’t stop hairloss, so maybe let’s get into antiandrogens, topical or oral. What dose are you taking? How often? How long have you been taking this? Did you have sheds? What was the effectiveness - hair maintenance/stoppage of loss or regrowth? Also, what other topicals or other treamtnents you have benefited from.

 

[Roox]

I have a friend who used rogaine for woman and it helped improve her hair which she was happy with.

 

[PeggyPeterson]

Hey All

I haven’t started any treatment yet, but I’ve been reading some of the posts and I must say it is refreshing to have comments that are backed by scientific research. I’m looking at @IdealForehead as an example.

Just wanted to hear people’s thoughts on the new treatments. Which of these show the most promise in terms of reversing/treating FPHL?

I may be wrong but, I get a sense from this forum that seti would be the closest to a new treatment. Would Seti/Fevi help Pre-menopausal females in your opinion? Any of them proven to be safe for pregnancy?

 

[PeggyPeterson]

Also I’ve read some article that show efficacy for low level laser therapy, and some remarkable global photographs in my opinion ...

Despite this, the Jury is still out in the dermatology circles (My derm in particular calls BS). Which makes me wonder if it is possible that there’s some conflict of interest in these studies that have led to bias? How do we decide when add journal is reliable?

 

[IdealForehead]

Hey All

I haven’t started any treatment yet, but I’ve been reading some of the posts and I must say it is refreshing to have comments that are backed by scientific research. I’m looking at @IdealForehead as an example.

Just wanted to hear people’s thoughts on the new treatments. Which of these show the most promise in terms of reversing/treating FPHL?

I may be wrong but, I get a sense from this forum that seti would be the closest to a new treatment. Would Seti/Fevi help Pre-menopausal females in your opinion? Any of them proven to be safe for pregnancy?

Thanks.

First of all, nothing useful will likely ever be safe for pregnancy.

FPHL must be treated by the same principles as male pattern hair loss, except with the understanding that anti-androgens are not always as guaranteed to work in women and that estrogen/progesterone balance is far more important in women than it is in men (and specifically the types of estrogens you are being exposed to and whether they are ER-beta predominant or ER-alpha predominant - see here).

I just wrote something explaining the pathogenesis of male and female pattern hair loss based on the most current theories and evidence you might find interesting here.

If you wanted any specific advice beyond that, you'd have to explain what you've tried already and what you're doing now or what you would ideally want in a treatment.

Seti might help pre-menopausal females, but we don't even know for sure if it helps men in any significant way until the studies come out, and there are much more powerful "upstream" interventions you can pursue instead of seti, which is very "downstream" in the cascade, and thus less ideal unless your only goal is to reduce anti-androgenic side effects.

LLLT is proven therapy, but it's challenging, because too much LLLT actually impairs hair growth, so it must be done within a very narrow dose range that is hard to calibrate. Furthermore, it does not change the underlying factors which cause hair loss. It's just a mild growth stimulant.

 

[Georgie]

Peggy it really comes down to your genetics and your current hormonal profile. If you haven't already, i would get a full blood workup done. Even if your androgens come back "normal" it's still a good idea to get on a good AA. Spironolactone is usually the first one prescribed to females. Otherwise, your options are cyproterone acetate, flutamide, and bicalutamide. Sadly if you intend to get pregnant, you will have to stay away from finasteride and dutasteride, although to be fair there's not a lot of evidence to show that these are particularly helpful for female pattern alopecia. I would first see what spironolactone or maybe CPA does for you, and later add minoxidil if you need it. You may even see about opting for a topical anti androgen like RU58841. I personally don't hold much faith in LLLT, but you might like to try it anyway.

 

[PeggyPeterson]

Thanks for the advice Georgie, i will definitely get a blood test..

My hair loss isn’t that severe, however I was hoping to start early with less hardcore drugs and could only find LLLT, but just like you, I’m also a bit skeptical... anecdotally I’ve heard it’s useless, but there’s about 3-4 studies with promise, so don’t know what to believe. Maybe the laser dosage needs to be administered properly as per @IdealForehead suggestion.

I must admit, I don’t know much about the options you’ve mentioned, but I’ll look into it, just not keen on having serious sides though.. I’ve also heard somewhere that pregnancy promotes hair growth, mayb i’ll just get pregnant all the time haha.

Have you heard much about seti? I’ve heard there’s a trial of about 60 men that’s due to be realeased soon, not sure what this would mean for women? I’m anticipating more info from it as the side effects of it seems minimal.

 

[PeggyPeterson]

Interestingly, idealforehead created a thread regarding a new theory for Androgenetic Alopecia which discussed a link between mechanical pressure and hair loss, and Botox alleviating this. I’ve looked everywhere online and couldn’t find much that supports this 2009 study regarding Botox therapy however. If it showed some promise, it would’ve been an option by now right?

 

[Sam1]

@peggy. I haven’t heard anything regarding Botox interesting. Is LLLT laser comb? I’ve thinking about this.
Regarding the pregnancy ...all I can say is that I lost maybe 1-2 hairs in the shower when I was pregnant my hair was normal and full and stayed that way after I gave birth for a couple of years. Can’ t They come up with something to mimic pregnancy hormones? Has birth control worked for anyone?

 

[Plf]

Also I’ve read some article that show efficacy for low level laser therapy, and some remarkable global photographs in my opinion ...

Despite this, the Jury is still out in the dermatology circles (My derm in particular calls BS). Which makes me wonder if it is possible that there’s some conflict of interest in these studies that have led to bias? How do we decide when add journal is reliable?

There is a trial that you can still participate ongoing in Melbourne Australia, using light therapy..will be interesting to see the results

 

[Sam1]

@Plf I you can, please keep us posted on the results of this trial .

 

[Plf]

No worries, some participants have already started and they are still recruiting so I don't know when results will be out

 

[Officegal]

Keratin growth factor aka KGF seems to be working for me, I started using it last week so it's probably too early to tell for sure. I did take some closeup photos of my front hairline and will take more every week in order to assess growth/nongrowth objectively.

 

[Plf]

Good luck, where did you purchase? Was it recommended by your specialist.. currently I am just drinking spearmint tea apparently takes at least a month to see if it helps, .also trying to apply castor oil twice a week..will check out the keriten growth produce

 

[Sam1]

@Officegal can you tell us where you purchased Karatin growth factor?

 

[mayn]

I met a dermatologist about 8 months ago and she said I have got Vertex alopecia (androgenic). She gave me Biosil capsules to continue, Pilopeptan anti hair loss shampoo, Spironolactone 50mg/day and Minoxidil 5%. The only thing i haven't used it minoxidil because it made me have bad dizziness. Others I have used continuously and my hair fall has reduced so much. I also use coconut oil weekly i dont know if this helped or not. All in all, I am quite happy with it because atleast the hair fall problem is manageble. Didn't have much luck with hair regrowth though ! :/ Still looking for a solution to that.

 

[mayn]

Keratin growth factor aka KGF seems to be working for me, I started using it last week so it's probably too early to tell for sure. I did take some closeup photos of my front hairline and will take more every week in order to assess growth/nongrowth objectively.

Does this help with new hair growth or just the hairs that already exist?

 

[Sunny46]

hi ladies

I was just was wanting to start a thread dedicated to what has worked to stop or regrow hair for ladies with Androgenetic Alopecia. We all know that minoxidil helps to grow hair but won’t stop hairloss, so maybe let’s get into antiandrogens, topical or oral. What dose are you taking? How often? How long have you been taking this? Did you have sheds? What was the effectiveness - hair maintenance/stoppage of loss or regrowth? Also, what other topicals or other treamtnents you have benefited from.

 

[Sunny46]

I tried Rogaine for 2 months and it stopped the loss after initial shed. I did not like stiffness it gave hair and got nervous it would make things worse if I had to depend on it. The shed of stopping made hair worse then ever.

"What worked" Testosterone cream seemed to have worked for me. It was short lived because I could not tolerate the cream as it gave me a horrible headache that did not stop. The results were drastic. Stopped falling out immediately felt stronger & within days it was soft and had bounce again. Its usually very dry like hay. I could not stop touching how soft it was/ I checked hair thoroughly and did not lose one strand until after about week in 1/2. The whole thing was like a dream. Just devastating that I could not continue.

The hormone dr who gave me the script did not agree that Testosterone cream would help and told me it would make my hair fall out more.
My dht was once low (not high) and learned how T is what gives hair follicles their oil. T commonly makes woman lose hair but everyone is different and it helps many too.
For months prior to taking it, I worked with 2 hormone drs, got a ton of labs and briefly tried thyroid & progesterone but didn't seem to do much. There were enough success stories to give me hope that hormones could be my answer. Others also got improvement from taking estrogen. I am now on estrodial cream with no results.

 

[Beru]

For woman, i think hormones play a part too - i.e. after delivery, you will have hairloss for the first 6months....
After that, i think it will slowly pick up and reduce hair loss.

Another thing is to have a healthy scalp. Too oily will also lead to hair loss..

https://radium-aesthetics.com/treatment/pdrn-scalp-treatment/