Cure for male pattern baldness given boost by sugar discovery
sheffield.ac.uk
sheffield.ac.uk
Think about the end game - hair loss is probably only going to escalate over time. This is an uphill battle. Focus on other parts of your body. Things you can fundamentally improve without drugs and other fake crap. I am sure everyone on this board can quickly identify certain popular figures who have gone all-in on the "save my hair at all costs" angle and should look to this as a cautionary tale, not an inspirational one.
Hair transplants are a thing and work pretty well if the person in question has the money available. Several streamers have covered their transplant phase, giving you an insight to their experience over the months.
I personally don't value my hairline to that degree, but it does exist and works well.
To be honest, I also cut it very short because it's comfortable and indeed looks better when it's receding, but it would be nice to have the choice.
Not if you take the right meds. And I can assure you, they are very real.
Musk is one of the richest men in the world and he's had multiple transplants, yet is thinning aggressively again.
That's the Hobson's choice we're left with.
A Hobson's choice is a free choice in which only one thing is actually offered. The term is often used to describe an illusion that multiple choices are available
Minoxidil is barely effective, especially for something that became widely available. It got approved in the 80s as a topical version of a hypertension drug, and IIRC the McStudy that supported it was funded by the original patent holder.
I don't think anyone had much of a problem with it, as the market was previously 100% snake oil, and this sort of thing happens even with drugs for serious diseases. If you benefit from the placebo effect and stop stressing out about it, then maybe the drug really "works"?
Since the discovery in the article is pretty much a mirror of the story of Minoxidil, I would default to being skeptical of the claims.
The 5-alpha-reductase (5ar) inhibitors [1] like finasteride and dutasteride do work. The 5ar enzyme converts testosterone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT.) Over time, DHT causes sensitive follicles to shrink further and further and the hair growth phase to get shorter and shorter, until it reaches zero. People whose skin is genetically less DHT-sensitive go bald later in life or not at all.
However, the inhibitors have systemic reach, and their long-term consequences are hard to study. It is (was?) believed that DHT is not practically useful in adults, but this was partly based on research on people who are 5ar-deficient due to a genetic mutation. They also have a less-than-pretty clinical picture [2] because they had no DHT when it mattered (in the womb) so the safety argument has always been rather tentative.
If you're balding, you should ask yourself how much it really matters to you. Are you willing to take a serious drug for decades, with less-than-well-understood systemic consequences? No one will really be able to answer your what-ifs.
Some people really stress out about it, and I'd say they are good candidates. But if you don't really care all that much, you're much better off letting Darwin take the wheel on this one.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_5α-reductase_inhibitor...
Loads of people take the 'high road' and say it doesn't matter but having hair is such an level up that its ridiculous. Maybe more now in a digital age with Snapchat, tiktok, youtube, tinder than before - looks have become way more important.
Here's an example of balding vs hair and there are loads of such examples on the web; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72wf4NLglOY
There’s tonnes of research that show that bald men are considered more attractive but less good looking.
Anecdotally, I’d say it doesn’t really affect your dating life. 90% of women have “has good hair” very low on their priority list, 5% won’t ever date a bald guy and 5% consider it extra attractive.
Your example link is of a guy balding. Balding is a terrible look. I always say that balding is an affliction, and going bald is you taking back the initiative from nature. Bald can look great, especially with facial hair. Basically this: https://ibb.co/Jz16LN4
So yeah, any other balding guys reading: don’t let him talk you into a pit. You’re fine.
But still it would be nice to have a hirsute mane again, I can't lie.
[1] https://www.monstersandcritics.com/celebrity/farruko-in-fake...
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/health/minoxidil-hair-los...
It seems to suggest that oral minoxidil can be at least moderately effective
I suspect the only reason we don't hear about this more is that the patent expired and most docs only know what is marketed to them by drug reps
There are several papers in the dermatology literature suggesting low dose oral minoxidil for hair loss. I think dermatologists or hair surgeons who do this every day will know the literature. The average pcp likely won’t unless asked.
The problem with doing anything after "full" balding has progressed is that the follicles have just completely died off, which is way more difficult to solve than preserving or stimulating existing growth
Nonsense. It's extremely effective taken orally (to increase scalp, body and beard hair count and thickness) as proven by many studies and countless anecdotes.
My hairline started receding somewhere in my 30's, but on the one side of my forehead there is this one single remaining hair that refuses to give up, no matter what.
The poor guy looks kind of sad out there by himself, but I'm sure if we science him we can discover how to apply his chutzpah to all hair everywhere.
I've yet to be able to let that tuft go lol they are trying their damnedest and far be it from me to squash that effort.
- Semaglutide - Tirzepatide - Liraglutide - Exenatide - Danuglipron
Those are just some.
And like others noted, it's not an absolute miracle (there are side effects, it's hard to get right now, somewhat contentious) but it's definitely miraculous in effects so far.
If a multi-centi-billionaire is bald, then there's no viable baldness cure at any price.
Look up Elons photos during balding phase and now.
What would the cure be really? Some daily pill that would regrow the hair or just some one time therapy? I don't think it is coming any time soon.
[0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S102781171...
You never took your dog on a walk for 10 years?
Pretty big limitation, and their discussion really is just there to justify publishing anyway. Both groups, bald and shaggy, may as well have been shooting blanks.
My reaction here was, "How good was it at helping wounds heal? Why is the article talking about the seemingly less important application?". But it seems like it's a little less effective than already available angiogenic factors -- if cheaper and easier to store.
Surely someone has looked into harnessing cyclosporin for baldness.
Some people are working hard to change this, and making up terms like "fatphobic" to shame people who find in-shape people attractive.
Sure, it can cause psychological issues, but so can short height or big nose or what-have-you, and we don't talk about "curing" those (except in some hormonal imbalance cases).
Both men and women are wired to find a good head of hair attractive.
So far I think the reality of it is: - to slow down baldness - drugs like minoxidil - to stop baldness - PRP sessions once every few years - to reverse it - hair transplants
I wonder if they would be able to not only get into "slow down" territory but to "stop" with a drug based on this sugar.
I was balding from 25 years onward and had made peace with it by just shaving my head. But recently I had an extended sabbatical and thought to myself - what the hell, let me try the "Elon Musk" way and just did some hair implants. It was rather painful, and took almost a month to fully recover, but it was soo worth it. Had forgotten how satisfying it was to have hair through your fingers plus walking out in the sun is much simpler now, no hats required.
Minoxidil can reverse _some_ baldness. Apparently by stimulating blood vessels and waking the dormant hair follicles. Once you stop taking it, they revert back to the dormant state, and you lose the hair that you gained.
You're probably thinking about finasteride.
> Some of these are just the effects of having low DHT, which is in reality not a negative,
Sexual disfunction, depression, and gynecomastia are not desired effects for most people.
If I do a few PRP sessions, and then continue with PRP every few years, should keep indefinitely - and honestly I’m pretty ok with that - kinda like going to the dentist ever so often to be proactive.
If you don’t mind me asking, how much was the implant. And how much was the PRP. Obviously, prices will vary, but all the existing info I find from googling is so far all over the place I struggle finding a realistic projection of my cost.
My doctor doesn't want to prescribe me finasteride or deuteroxide because of the negative health side effects, even though I was persistent. I was told by my doctor to "come to terms with it" because he's bald.
Guess what, you're a doctor buddy, you'll be attractive to anybody you talk to.
I'm just a lonely IT guy with no life and no social prospects, so any leg up to keep my sanity would have been appreciated - oh well, hope the next life bears fruit
I've already depressedly resigned myself to going bald - my hair is too far gone to have any medication or treatment give any meaningful amount of restoration.
Let’s say there’s a magical pill that gives you amazing hair. You’ll still be a lonely IT guy with no life and no social prospects.
I don’t mean to offend you, but don’t you think that you could work on these things for guaranteed massive benefits instead of hoping for a pill that might work somewhat?
Whenever I hear people this desperate about their hair loss I notice how it just exposes a psychological problem that was always there.
>I don’t mean to offend you, but don’t you think that you could work on these things for guaranteed massive benefits
Let's look at an extreme example: suppose there's a lonely IT guy who looks like Quasimodo or worse. Someone that unattractive is not likely to have a great social life or much success in dating, for obvious reasons. Would you also tell him "you just need to work on your self esteem for massive benefits!!"? Sorry, but society doesn't work that way. Attractive people have a much easier time in life and dating.
Rightly or wrongly, OP thinks having a full head of hair would improve his attractiveness, which if he's correct, would probably improve his life to some extent.
which if he's correct, would probably improve his life to some extent.
I would tell him to work on himself physically, mentally, and socially. Just like I said in my previous post: even if you give a loser good hair, he will still be a loser. I don’t think his life would improve at all.
He may get some fake self-confidence (take away the hair and the confidence is gone again). But women would not find him attractive because of the hair but because of the confidence, but they’d snuff out that it’s fake very quickly. He can have confidence without hair as well, and have the same benefits. In fact bald men exhume vast amounts of confidence for saying “fuck it, I don’t care, I will shave it”. Meanwhile balding men look like they can’t come to terms with what’s gone being gone, desperately holding on to the last sickly strands of hair because they think that’s their ticket to getting a partner. Even women who make bald jokes will find a man sexy and manly for reacting to it confidently.
You speak about baldness as if it was some festering disease that’s always negative, but it’s not. Physical attractiveness is based on looking healthy. If you’re Quasimodo: fat or scrawny, have no muscle and a zombie face (no energy), a woman might ask herself how a cancer patient is going to have a healthy baby with her and provide for the family. But if you have some muscle, some tan and look rested, they will assume it’s natural.
And like there are hairstyles some people can or can’t pull off, a bald head or buzzcut are the same. Some people genuinely look the best without hair, because of their head shape. I don’t think The Rock would take a hair pill, because he looked silly with hair. And even if you look bad without hair, it will always beat the balding look by far.
What I mean by psychological issue is that it’s rather evident that the parent loves to focus on things he can’t control rather than what he can. This a common pattern. People will blame their erectile dysfunction on age, genes, and microplastics, rather than not doing any exercise at all since they became adults, stress, bad sleep and garbage nutrition So they take a pill, have surgery or buy devices like pumps to fix the problem, like we also see for balding.
It's always important to test and measure carefully. It could be a net positive, but angiogenesis factors also promote tumor growth (and the head is a common, and less survivable skin cancer spot in balding people).
Sounds like a long shot to have something that's as good as something you can pay $50 for for a three month supply.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/1...
Just accept that it is part of life and of being male.
Its because we have testosterone.
save yourself a small fortune in hair cuts
Buy yourself some decent hair clippers
No 1, job done
If you want hair on your head grow a beard
what I discovered was, this means I spend MORE on haircuts. because shorter haircuts require more frequent haircuts to maintain their neat look.
I'm pretty much at a point now that I'm just going to buy one of those head shavers to run over my head every morning. If it can work for Picard i can make it work for me.
Also, don't project your own experience on others.
In fiction there are tons of evil bald villains, but not that many bald heroes - you've got The Rock, Jason Statham, who else? And when the heroic character is bald, it's almost always combined with being jacked and tough - whereas being fat or skinny and bald is almost always a negative. Think Baron Harkonnen or Blofeld.
Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Patrick Stewart (Picard, X-Men), Bruce Willis (Unbreakable), Tilda Swinton in character as the Ancient One, James Avery (Uncle Phil), David Suchet (detective Poirot), Thing (Fantastic Four), Draxx (Guardians of the Galaxy), Dr Manhattan (Watchmen), Lawrence Fishburne (Morpheus, The Matrix), Vin Diesel (Riddick, Fast and Furious), Kratos (game God of War),
> when the heroic character is bald, it's almost always combined with being jacked and tough
When a heroic character has hair they’re also often jacked and tough; that’s part of the hero type not the hairy type; plenty of characters are haired and wimpy losers.
Being fat or skinny is under you control. Losing your hair (absent miracle cures) really isn't.
Bruce Willis was pretty great, and pretty bald, back in the day.
Can't forget Aang!
As far as I know, baldness is with women and men... And the reason why you don't see many bald woman is..
Presumably, add clothes and manners and you're set, no matter if you're baldy or not.
Also, there's this gem:
At a press conference about Star Trek: The Next Generation, a reporter asked Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry about casting Patrick Stewart, commenting that "Surely by the 24th century, they would have found a cure for male pattern baldness." Gene Roddenberry had the perfect response.
"No, by the 24th century, no one will care."
(Via https://boingboing.net/2015/07/08/star-trek-creators-perfect...)
I’m bald and although I’m blessed with a great skull shape, and being blonde haired also works to my advantage, I would lie if I said I wouldn’t be more attractive with hair.
The very premise of the show is that humans found a way to mostly move past the worst parts of their nature. Not just in Starfleet, but in general.
At least wrt. outside differences, I suppose it gets easier in a world full of "human with rubber forehead"-looking aliens.
Basically we had to hit our lowest point before we could get better.
I've got freckles; they really work the same way. Got bullied for them all through childhood. Hot girls with freckles are hot and people love their freckles. Drab girls with freckles get picked on and their freckles are gross. In adulthood, nobody's picking on me for having freckles, but I hear how other adults talk about their attraction to other people. Fortunately I'm firmly middle aged so my prospects tend to be less focused on appearances by definition.
I have male pattern baldness, long hair (ends unceremoniously chopped once a month for easier brushing) and silly facial hair shaved once a week. Random t-shirts, thrift shop jeans, and technical outerwear, all worn until they start to disintegrate.
You seem to care about your appearance a lot, and also seem to be putting a lot of effort into cultivating a particular image. There used to be a lot of punk rockers in high school who "didn't care about fashion" but somehow all dressed exactly alike and had very similar haircuts.
That being said, appearance is a disguise we choose -- wittingly or unwittingly -- and I think that's just fine.
Beautiful people makes the world more beautiful.
Costs basically nothing and I like my hair? I wish there wasn’t this stigma associated with it and I would have started sooner.
Unless you’ve had a lot of bloodwork and other testing done, it’s unlikely that you would know how you’ve been impacted by its side effects, and even if the impact to you is ultimately very minimal, a treatment that didn’t have these risks would be far superior.
Any exogenous hormone treatment (or treatment that interferes with the metabolism of hormones) is going to affect the natural functionality of your body in ways you probably don’t want it to. They’re all very risky and dependency forming. It’s almost not really true that these risks are side effects either, they’re just the expected outcomes of the treatment.
Taking moderate doses of steroids is also massively beneficial in many ways, with the worst of the side effects typically occurring if you stop taking them. But a lifelong dependency on a drug with a long list of adverse side effects is not a good thing, especially when ceasing treatment has its own long list of potential side effects.
Finasteride does suppress your natural testosterone production. If you intend to take it every day for the rest of your life, and are happy to gamble that you don’t get any of the other side effects, then maybe you’re happy taking that risk. But this is clearly not an ideal treatment, and I suspect most people who are prescribed it aren’t properly informed about these risks.
Hormone treatments are very scary, and I think people are far too casual about them. You usually take a hormone treatment to affect one thing that the hormone does, but it probably also does 100 other things that you might not want to interfere with, and those 100 other things probably also affect many other things downstream themselves. Your body probably also regulates production of that hormone in some way, so now you're also probably interfering with god knows what upstream from that hormone production. Some of these effects are well understood by medicine, but plenty of them aren't, and even for the ones that are, there's no way of predicting how you're going to react personally. They're a very blunt tool in that respect, and I think most people who take finasteride, or TRT, or birth control, or beta blockers, or even things like topical steroids aren't helped much to properly understand how they work, and all the ways the treatments can go wrong, including the ways that they can form dependencies on the treatment.
Neuroprotection by dihydrotestosterone in LPS-induced neuroinflammation https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096999612....
Neuroprotection of dihydrotestosterone via suppression of the toll-like receptor 4/nuclear factor-kappa B signaling pathway in high glucose-induced BV-2 microglia inflammatory responses https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31876682/
After another 2 years of stopping I haven’t noticed my hair loss starting again.
At least in my case it’s like a miracle drug with minimal side effects.
It is hard to tell if what I am experiencing is a side effect of the finasteride unrelated to my T levels, or it is due to some reduction in the effects of testosterone because of the mechanism of action of the finasteride. If it is the latter, switching to injections and doing monotherapy to lower my T could have the same effects. The fact of the matter is the penis functions better with testosterone in my system but testosterone also leads to hair loss, so trying to get both is somewhat of an imperfect balancing act.
But hey, I'm having the best sex of my life and the people I am attracted to think I am hot as hell so I don't mind a little experimentation to see what works best! Actually its super cool what we can do with a little hormonal alchemy.
Also I’m 39, so whatever masculinization I’m due for I suspect has all happened already.
You are never going to supress T with just oral E.
> Also I’m 39, so whatever masculinization I’m due for I suspect has all happened already.
It never ends.
If you feel like finasteride isn't helping much try dutasteride instead.
Could be unlinked, but for me it just wasn't worth the risk.
You can find various articles of you search the web for this btw.
tl;dr While it can have undesirable side effects, these are long-term. But these side effects make it a powerful nocebo for some people to the point where they almost instantly get side effects (nausea, anxiety, sexual dysfunction), despite that being pharmacologically improbable.
I started dutasteride when I was 20 and have been on it for many years and it really stops hair loss, because my hair loss was very fast and aggressive.
Again, I've heard at least 5 of these first-hand, which is kind of wild for a drug I've probably only talked to 20 people about in total.
We're terrible at detecting changes over long periods of time. If anything I'd think long term users would be much more liable to bias.
If you mean that men with baldness have more testosterone than men with hair and that due to the higher testosterone concentration men with baldness have lost their hair, I have to disappoint you: Men with baldness do not have a higher concentration of testosterone on average. The hair roots of men with baldness are more sensitive to testosterone, another cause of hair loss. In your context, men with baldness have another weakness. Sorry.
Not quite so simple, sadly
If you combine it with microneedling, you can see incredible results in as short as six months.
(1): As in, very low forehead.
People do all kinds of things to look good. People dye their hair, put on makeup, wear lipstick, buy clothing that matches their personality whether that's high fashion or skater threads. You can usually tell every hippy by their clothing and often their hairstyle.
So why should hair be any different?
But further than that, there are other ways it can majorly impact DNA repair. For instance ATP production, and there is extensive research showing that cell inflammation is reduced by ketosis, and so by different mechanisms (reduction in oxidative stress, BHB metabolism, etc).
Also note that in the other direction, the keto diet can promote hair loss in two ways. The first is short term, as the body takes one month to adjust from high-carb diet to low-carb, so it may cause a short nutrient deficiency. The second is long term, in the case of "dirty keto" diet. It is an approach where people only cares about getting the macro values right (that is a proportion of about 70% fat, 20% protein and 5% carbohydrates), and does not care about nutritional value. So industrial highly-processed food-stuff instead of veggies. This can cause serious nutrient deficiency that is really harmful.