Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette! In today's video, we discuss the five best
hair loss treatments for men. Recently, while looking at the mirror, I noticed
"Wow, it looks a little thinner up here" so I actually watched the videos from 2015
and sure enough, I'm suffering from hair loss. Hair loss is very normal for most
men and it happens to us as we age. Frankly, I don't know of any man
including me who is happy to lose their hair. So the big question is how do you
treat or even reverse hair loss? Statistically speaking, 66 percent of
American men sees some form of hair loss by the age of 35. Even worse, 85% of all
men will have significant thinning of their hair by the time they turn 50. Hair
loss can occur for many different reasons including medical conditions or
medications. In today's video, we're only going to talk about male pattern hair
loss which is a hereditary trait and not tied to any medications or illnesses. I'm
not a medical doctor and everything I say here is based on my experience and
my opinions. So the first place to start when you notice some hair loss is your
doctor. Talk to them to figure out if anything is wrong so you can get to the
real bottom of it. So of course the big question is how can you treat hair loss
or possibly even reverse it? Well, to answer that, let's look at what causes
male pattern hair loss in the first place. Male pattern hair loss, also known
as the Androgenetic Alopecia, is the result of a increased DHT in your body.
DHT is a hormone which levels increase as men age and as your DHT levels
increase, the size of your hair follicles decreases and shrinks until it can no
longer grow any hair. That means your hair thins and shortens until it's all
gone. Because male pattern baldness is hereditary,
it pays to look at your relatives. As long as you've ruled out other medical
causes, it also means that you have to play with the cards that were dealt to
you. In my case, my paternal grandpa had a full head of hair that was great. On my
mom's side though, my grandpa was pretty bald. My dad, on the other hand, is
also quite a bit bald and while he had always very thin hair, my hair was very
thick and much more like my dad's dad so I hope for the best.
That being said, it seems to be a whole lot easier to treat hair loss while you
still have hair than once it is all gone. Now, before we look at five hair loss
treatment options, let's talk about some myths that are out there and are simply
wrong. Hair loss myth number one, some people argue that hair loss has something to do
with the type of hat you wear or the grooming you do but that is simply not
the case. Brushing your hair or wearing a baseball
hat are totally fine and will have no impact. Of course, you shouldn't just rip
on your hair and try to rip it out, that may have an impact but short of that,
general grooming and head wear will not have an impact. So what about all the
hair you see when you take a shower or a bath? Well, the American Association of
dermatologists says it's normal to lose about 50 to a hundred hairs on your head
a day. Hair loss myth number two is to take hair vitamins. The truth is there's no
such thing as a hair vitamin unless the cause of your hair loss was a
nutritional deficiency. There is no proven track record of any hair vitamin
reversing or treating or slowing down any form of hair loss, there's also not a
single study out there that has proven that the hair vitamin Biotin has any
impact on hair loss. It's often found in shampoo and while it's not proven to
help, it likely also won't hurt to have it so you can still use your shampoo
even though it contains Biotin. Number three, hair loss also isn't caused by any
stress, a lack of circulation, or the sun shining on your head. Last but not least,
hair loss myth number four says that guys who go bald have more testosterone
and the increased testosterone has something to do with the lack of hair in
your head, not true! Studies have shown that men who are bald have similar
testosterone levels to men who are not bald.
Finally, there's one connection to balding that's actually very true.
Smoking makes your baldness more severe and it's just something to keep in mind
next time you smoke that cigarette. So without further ado, here are the five
best hair loss treatments ordered from easiest to probably most difficult but
again, talk to your doctor about it to be sure that it's right for you!
Seemingly, the easiest thing to treat hair loss is a drug called Finasteride.
Finasteride is a prescription drug also known under the brand name Propecia. It
has been on the market since 1997 and you just take it orally in form of a
pill every day. It treats hair loss on your crown and the middle part of your
scalp but not on other parts of your body. So how exactly does it work? It
blocks your DHT hormones by about 70% thus slowing down the shrinkage and
shortening of your hair and therefore, you keep your hair for longer. Studies
show that Finasteride has to be taken consistently in order to see the impact
of it. Results can be first visible after three months but you have to continue to
take it, otherwise, anything you've done in the past will be gone after 12 months
of not using it. Studies have shown that 80% of the men who took Finasteride kept
the count of their hair follicles which is quite promising. 64% of men even
experienced some regrowth after two years which is amazing. Additional
studies have shown that after five years, a hundred percent of men on a placebo
had hair follicle loss while only 35% of men who would take Finasteride
regularly suffered from hair loss, that's a pretty significant difference.
So how do you get your hands on it? Well, you need to talk and consult with your
doctor. It's a prescription drug and as such it's the only way. Make sure to
discuss the potential side effects. When I did my research, I came across a site
called PFS foundation which means Post Finasteride Syndrome Foundation and
there are lots of men who share experiences about Finasteride and the
side effects they experienced which can include depression or impotence or other
more severe side effects. It even seemed like lots of doctors from Europe
including France, Germany, and Italy were vehemently arguing
against the use of Finasteride for hair loss treatment versus in the US, it seems to
be subject to less scrutiny. At the end of the day, the choice is, of course, yours but in
any case, talk to your doctor and I always find knowing more about it helps
me make a better decision. You may have also heard of the drug Dutasteride
which is very similar to Finasteride in the sense that it blocks DHT even though
it's more effective in the sense that it can block up to 90% of DHT versus
Finasteride only blocks up to about 70% of the DHT hormone. So obviously, it's
more effective but it's not FDA approved in the US for hair loss treatment.
The second hair loss treatment is called Minoxidil also known as the brand name
Rogaine. It's an over-the-counter medication and FDA approved in the US
for hair loss treatment. Interestingly, it's supposed to be used around the
crown of your scalp only and nowhere else. It's basically a foam that you have
to apply to your crown twice a day in order to be effective. In my book, that's
a serious commitment. On top of that, this tube that lasts for a month supposedly,
costs $34 so that's more than a dollar a day. The good news is Rogaine or
Minoxidil has shown to reduce the loss of hair in men. In a one-year study, 62%
of the male participants said that they experienced a reduction in hair loss
when they used it. 84% of the men found it to be moderately effective for hair
regrowth. The cons about Rogaine are if you stop using it, everything goes
downhill again. So if you start using it, you have to keep using it twice a day
which is just too much of a commitment for me. Side effects include scalp and
skin irritation. Once again, talk to your doctor
about details. The third way to deal with hair loss is hair transplantation. This
is not a drug but it works actually by moving hair follicles from areas where
you have a lot of hair to areas where you don't have a lot of hair. Yes, it
sounds like a lot of work and it is because every single follicle from the
back or from the side of your scalp has to be relocated. Because of that, it takes a
lot of time, is therefore very costly, and can also cause a lot
pain. Of course, there is a risk associated with the surgery such as
bleeding or scarring. Also, most men have anywhere between two and four hair
transplantation treatments so it's not just a one and done kind of deal. Now,
what does it look like? Honestly, hair transplantation has come a long way. In
the early days, it looked more like a field of corn with distinct rows.
These days, it looks very very natural if done properly. Many men who have hair
transplantations take Rogaine or Minoxidil afterwards to just keep
reducing the loss of their hair. There are many well-known men out there including
Elon Musk and Kevin Costner who've used it. In England, there's also Wayne Rooney
and when he did it, he started something called the Rumi effect. So even
many other soccer players have hair
transplants and if you look at the before and after, it becomes very clear but it also
looks a lot better. The fourth hair loss treatment is laser
therapy. It's also known as low light therapy or cold laser therapy and it
works in the way that photons are irradiated onto your scalp thus helping
to increase the circulation on your scalp. The idea is that the photons
stimulate the circulation in your scalp and therefore, help your hair growth.
While more circulation is a good thing for your hair, blood flow alone can
reverse the shrinkage of your hair. To see results, clinical hair laser
treatments have to be done several times a week, especially in the beginning. Over
time, it'll be less but it's still quite a time commitment and it's also very
costly. Typically, you spend several thousand dollars a year. At
the moment, there's not enough data that can show that laser therapy over a long
term is very effective when it comes to preventing hair loss. Even though there
are some encouraging results, data is inconsistent at best. Furthermore,
long-term safety and effectiveness have not been established yet. The fifth way
to treat hair loss is to use scalp micropigmentation. Now, this really
doesn't treat the hair loss, it is more of a cosmetic procedure, think of it you are
tattooing little dots onto your head so it looks like you
have a buzz cut that was intentional and not forced because you're going bald. It
cost anywhere between $1000-$4000 depending on how many
hair dots have to be tattooed onto your scalp. It's a fairly new procedure and it
doesn't give you any hair back, it just makes it look like there is hair that
could grow and you just decided you don't want to do that. Some companies
also advertise hair powders that are supposed to help your hair instantly. At
the end of the day, it is just a cosmetic thing and it doesn't have anything to do
with hair growth or hair treatment. So even though it's very inexpensive, it
contains ammonium chloride which is something you'll find in hair dye but
overall, it's just a cosmetic thing and I don't think it should be listed under
hair loss treatments. So what should you take? Honestly, that's a decision that you
have to make. Just keep in mind that it's okay not to pursue any of those
treatments and to just be confident about it. Just think about Vin Diesel or
Jason Statham, their lack of hair hasn't impacted their personality, their
character, their confidence, or even their masculinity. In fact, they've made being
bald a key part of who they are. Being proud of what you have should always be
the goal because confidence is a look that looks always great. So what do I
take? Well, honestly, when I started the research,
I thought Finasteride was very reasonable thing for me to do because it
was just a pill a day that wasn't too expensive. Now, when I looked into the
side effects and I came across the PFS foundation's website and read more about
it, I realized there can be some serious side effects and yes, even though it may
just be a small number of people affected, the severeness and longevity
of the side effects really make me wary of it and I probably won't be taking it
because I don't want to risk getting depressed or impotent or anything of
that kind. Normally, you think if there are any issues, I just stop taking a drug
and everything is back to good but apparently, that's not the case for all
the people who take Finasteride and experience those side effects. So that's
just something to keep in mind. At this point, I don't have any issues
with my crown, it's full of hair but even if I had issues with a thinning
crown, I probably would never take minoxidil or Rogaine twice a day, it's
just a lot of work, it's not inexpensive, and it's just very impractical for my
lifestyle. Between hair powder and micropigmentation, hair lasering or hair
transplantation, I think the transplantation is something
that I would most likely do. Yes, it's a surgery but there's no hormone blocker
involved, it's just moving follicles on my head to a different position so it's
basically cosmetic surgery or plastic surgery and with it being so costly,
maybe I do it at a certain point in time but at this point, I don't plan on doing
it but you'll certainly be able to see it if you keep watching our videos.
Frankly, I'd be curious to know what you're taking and what your experiences
are. Please share with us in a comments below.
in today's video apart from wearing hair I'm wearing part of a suit it's a grey
flannel jacket double-breasted I'm combining it with a black and white
houndstooth pair of pants that is cuffed with double pleats it has an interesting
waistband with two buttons and I'm wearing it with a white shirt that has
a rounded club collar double cuffs that I wear with cufflinks from Fort
Belvedere these are carnelian Silver Eagle Claw
cufflinks which you can find in our shop here the color is slightly orange and
red which is picked up on my pocket square which is a pocket square
which you likewise can find in our shop here and it works well with the tones of
turquoise that can also be found in my tie which is a printed tie on a jacquard
background and it's kind of turquoise aqua blue and it's just a cool tie that
is unusual yet business appropriate but also meant for more casual outings for a
foot wear I chose chocolate brown suede Chelsea boots that are not too high from
Loke I like the look of grey dark brown black and white because my tie my pocket
square a little louder my socks are shadow
striped socks from Fort Belvedere which I really love
and you can find them in our shop here just like all the other accessories