Help with hair that seems to be thinning... I'm praying isn't just balding

[Rybe]

So I have a question on behalf of my husband. :( He has lovely, long, wavy red hair and it seems to be growing more sparse :( :( We both knew it was coming considering his family history of hair loss, but he's only 26! It never struck anyone else this early. And it seems to have gotten worse when there was a spell when he was too lazy buy his own shampoo/conditioner and used my body boost stuff, which didn't seem to agree with his head, so I'm hoping maybe possibly there's something we can do to make it better? For all I know his hair isn't falling out, it's just a weird texture thing thanks to the shampoo. I just don't know what to tell him to do. He has always had relatively thin hair, I'm just really hoping this is an optical illusion.

He declared me his "hair care advisor" :rolleyes: But it's hard for me to advise him, because my hair texture isn't even remotely similar. I got him new shampoo/conditioner but thus far I haven't detected any change. It's hard to police someone else's head when his general response to "how is this shampoo/conditioner working for you" is "alright" every time. Without fail. Whether he looks like a movies star, greaseball or frizzball :p

Any advice? This may be the wrong forum to ask in, but you guys seem to know a lot! Or should I just start slipping Rogain in his shampoo (does that stuff even do anything?), then crying when we go to get his hair cut...:(

[insomniac-uk]

I lost a lot of hair from stress and I found that Monistat and castor oil helped, it took a few months of using them before I saw results.
here are links
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=156
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=18265

[Rybe]

Hmm, interesting. Without going into too much detail I'm allergic to Monistat, and even though it's his head, I'd rather not open that can of worms...The caster oil however...

*runs out the door to buy some*

Thanks for the links! Cross your fingers for us :D

[Mairéad]

I was going to second castor oil, and scalp massages in general. Whether it's thinning, balding, or just rampant shedding; I think getting those follicles stimulated is going to help. But, if it is balding. Well, we don't escape our genes forever.

[FrozenBritannia]

My husband started losing his hair at the age of 24. Then, at about 26 it halted. Wayne Rooney was going so bald at the age of 25 that he got a hair transplant. It happens.
My husband quite likes his head and shoulders hair endurance for men (he likes the commercials for it too). and getting the odd scalp massage, but he swears that his hair loss was from wearing baseball hats all the time. Don't know if it's true, but he rarely wears them now and his hair loss has been stalled for the last few years, while his younger brother who always had lots of hair is now more balding than he is, and wears hats all the time..

[Rybe]

I heard somewhere that the hat/baldness correlation was just that, a correlation. The time in a man's life when he's most prone to wearing hats happens to correlate with when he'll generally first start noticing hair loss. Not that mine wears hats, unless a bicycle helmet counts!

I hope my hubbie's like yours Frozen and that it just halts on its own! His older brother's hairline snuck back a bit but hasn't really gone too much further in the years I've known him. His hair's still quite thick and you wouldn't know it had receded if you didn't have high school reference pics. Maybe it's similar?

I know if he has the baldness gene (which he most likely does) he's ultimately hosed. But we figured it would follow the pattern of the rest of his male relatives and we'd have a good 10 years+ before it became a major issue. Some of his male relatives don't even have it, and none of them are 100% bald. So it seems worth putting up a fight for now!

He's gonna look at me so strangely when I try and start putting oil on his head.

ETA: The Head and Shoulders looks interesting, but we're both extremely dubious of 2 in 1s for long hair! Perhaps if it's still around when we're forced to give in and cut it I'll keep it in mind.

[Anje]

Well, it's probably worth getting a workup from the doctor, just to make sure he's not anemic or hypothyroid or has some other deficiency or disorder that's making his hair come out. We tend to shout for these when women have thinning hair, but with men it's so often assumed to be male-pattern baldness. On the chance that it's not, consider checking.

Once all that checks out, frankly, I've got good things to say for Rogaine. My husband didn't have the vertex thinning that they say it's meant for, but just all-over thinness and maybe a bit of hairline recession. His hair is thicker now than he remembers it being in high school, and the results were pretty dramatically noticeable after he'd been using it for maybe 3 months.

One caveat with that route: cats should not be exposed to Rogaine. No drips left on the countertop that they might step in, no kitty licking his hair at night. It's very toxic to them.

[Kiwiwi]

It is my understanding that castor oil (it works wonders on me) does not work for male (the testosteron thing) balding.

I was looking up info on it a few weeks ago for a friend (who is also balding in his 20's) and came acros something called Minoxidil (atleast, in The Netherlands it does, I don't know if it's in English too). Which seems to be proven to work for men who are badling from the middle, like where we would part our hair, in the middle.

See this pic:
http://i770.photobucket.com/albums/xx350/KiwisHouse/Minox.jpg

I don't know all that much about it yet, I'd like to do some more research, but it seems promising.

I don't know where your DH is thinning/balding, but this might work.

EDIT:
Ohhhh, I now see that rogaine is the same thing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoxidil)

[Rybe]

One caveat with that route: cats should not be exposed to Rogaine. No drips left on the countertop that they might step in, no kitty licking his hair at night. It's very toxic to them.

Well crud :( I was really wondering about Rogaine since my my mother tried using the women's version and it did nothing for her, and I hadn't heard many other reviews. But we have 2 cats who are very much in our business at all times. One even sleeps on his pillow when he's gone...

Actually I made this whole thread because I heard him complaining (jokingly) to one of our cats that he was going bald and it made me sad :p we....talk to our cats. :D

Kiwiwi, it looks like Minoxidil IS Rogaine...Hmmm, I need to do more research to figure out if there's some way to protect our cats and still give it a try. I think I'll still give the caster oil a try too, just in case it isn't specifically just the male pattern baldness because of the evidence of the rest of his family...as for other medical concerns...wow this is making me wish our insurance didn't such so much ): Maybe he'll be willing to spend the money...

[Kiwiwi]

Every cat owner talks to their cat(s) :-D
Don't they...? *looks sheepishly*

[FrozenBritannia]

I heard somewhere that the hat/baldness correlation was just that, a correlation. The time in a man's life when he's most prone to wearing hats happens to correlate with when he'll generally first start noticing hair loss. Not that mine wears hats, unless a bicycle helmet counts!

I hope my hubbie's like yours Frozen and that it just halts on its own! His older brother's hairline snuck back a bit but hasn't really gone too much further in the years I've known him. His hair's still quite thick and you wouldn't know it had receded if you didn't have high school reference pics. Maybe it's similar?


ETA: The Head and Shoulders looks interesting, but we're both extremely dubious of 2 in 1s for long hair! Perhaps if it's still around when we're forced to give in and cut it I'll keep it in mind.

I have heard that male pattern baldness is passed down prominately on the female line- IE, if his mothers father was bald, he'll be bald one day too. Not sure if it's true or not though.
I think the 2 in 1 would just depend on the hair type- in the commercial they had that football player with the great hair using it, but of course, that doesn't mean he actually uses it.
My hubby really hasn't lost much since he was 24 when I met him, but yes, his hairline is not the same as it was in highschool (of course, he didn't cut it, and liked to brush it straight up, so it's really kind of hard to know for sure).. I remember him saying though that when his hairline was receding the hair was really dry and crispy and his scalp felt different in those spots. He's got a spot on the crown of his head that is thinning a bit at the moment too, but since he habitually gets alopecia areata I don't know if it's balding or not. (He once had a golfball size patch of hair gone, right behind his ear, it looked like I had take a razor to his head, but it grew back just as quickly as it vanished.. Although it did grow back blonde... It's dark like the rest of his hair now. :)

[jocelyn anne]

For me, I began counting how many hairs I shed. If it turns out that you have a spot and less hair, then that is balding not thinning.

[Theobroma]

For those considering castor oil treatments, be aware that oils can cause shedding on some scalps. I can't do oil treatments (or CO-washing) at all because it makes my hair come out by the handful. If you're going to try it, please be aware that this could happen and stop if you notice excess shedding.

[jocelyn anne]

For those considering castor oil treatments, be aware that oils can cause shedding on some scalps. I can't do oil treatments (or CO-washing) at all because it makes my hair come out by the handful. If you're going to try it, please be aware that this could happen and stop if you notice excess shedding.

I did not know that! I am only using Coconut oil. Is that safe too? I only use to moisturize my hair.

[Entangled]

I did not know that! I am only using Coconut oil. Is that safe too? I only use to moisturize my hair.

If you haven't noticed anything, great! Oil and CO work on the scalp just fine for some, do nothing for others, and cause significant shedding in the rest. If you notice an unusually high shed level, stop. Otherwise, go for it. It's just that shedding is a noticed unpleasant side effect for many people. Just remember to figure out whatever your body wants.