Hair Loss Cheat Sheet

Take the guesswork out of how effective popular pills, drugs, topicals, and therapies are for regrowing hair.

Here's what the literature says.

When weighing your hair loss treatment options, it can feel overwhelming trying to sort fact from fiction (and weed through all the misinformation online).

That's why I've created this cheat sheet. This a straight-to-the-facts overview on nine popular "treatments" for pattern hair loss (androgenic alopecia). For each treatment, you'll get the key takeaways on:

Mechanism: how do these treatments actually work?
Response rate: of the people who try this, how many people see a slow, stop, or reversal in their hair loss?
Regrowth rate: what's my expected increase in hair count over 6-24 months?
Costs: how much do I need to pay?
Problems: what aren't marketers telling me when I actually buy this product?

As you look through these options, notice that all treatments are very limited in their upside to hair regrowth... except ones targeting a specific set of mechanisms.

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Finasteride (Propecia)

Mechanism: 5-alpha reductase inhibition

Response rate: 80%

Regrowth rate: 10% and hair thickening

Costs: $5-30/month

Problems: concerns over side effects; hair regrowth contingent upon lifelong use

Minoxidil (Rogaine)

Mechanism: vasodilation, prostaglandins

Response rate: 30-40%

Regrowth rate: 5-15%

Costs: $20/month

Problems: efficacy fades over time; hair regrowth contingent upon lifelong use

Low-level laser therapy

Mechanism: vasodilation, heat shock proteins

Response rate: 70%

Regrowth rate: 5-15%

Costs: $400+

Problems: placebo groups also see hair regrowth; efficacy plateaus after 6 months

Nutrafol

Mechanism: 5-alpha reductase inhibition, addresses nutrient deficiencies

Response rate: unknown

Regrowth rate: 10% (in women)

Costs: $79/month

Problems: not tested on androgenic alopecia alone (but marketed to androgenic alopecia sufferers); placebo groups also see hair regrowth; more likely to support hair loss from nutrient deficiencies versus androgens

Saw Palmetto

Mechanism: 5-alpha reductase inhibition

Response rate: Low (hair loss rate may slow)

Regrowth rate: 0%

Costs: $25/month

Problems: doesn't reduce DHT enough to significantly improve hair; weak clinical evidence for androgenic alopecia; likely needs to be combined with other therapies

Biotin

Mechanism: addresses biotin deficiency

Response rate: 0%

Regrowth rate: 0%

Costs: $25/month

Problems: popularized by marketers who cite studies on malnourished third-world populations that show a link between a biotin deficiency and hair loss; hair loss from a biotin deficiency is not the same as androgenic alopecia

Platelet-rich plasma therapy

Mechanism: acute inflammation, growth factors

Response rate: 80%

Regrowth rate: 15-40%

Costs: $1,500-$4,000

Problems: expensive; low-quality studies; real-world results often don't match those of studies; similar mechanisms targeted with microneedling; results vary wildly depending on the clinic

Standardized massages

Mechanism: acute inflammation, growth factors, muscle relaxation

Response rate: 75%

Regrowth rate: unknown

Costs: free

Problems: very low quality of evidence; requires significant effort; lacking long-term studies

Microneedling

Mechanism: acute inflammation, growth factors

Response rate: 70-80%

Regrowth rate: 10-15%

Costs: $20-250 (device-dependent)

Problems: painful; low quality of evidence; lacking long-term studies

About The Instructor

Rob English is a researcher, medical editor, and the founder of Perfect Hair Health – a website dedicated to showcasing evidence-based methods for hair regrowth, with and without drugs.

Diagnosed with androgenic alopecia as a teenager, he wrote this course to teach hair loss sufferers everything he wished he would have known after his diagnosis: the information that would have saved him six years and $10,000 dollars before finally finding an approach that worked for him.

Robert English

Founder, Researcher, Writer

The challenge across all treatment choices?

Hair loss sufferers often choose these treatments not based on their quality of evidence, but based on their exposure to marketing campaigns.

Even worse, they buy products on impulse, and without a plan. This often leaves them wasting years worth of time, money, and hair... all because they don't understand:

1. Results Horizons

These time windows are the minimum number of months to try a treatment before expecting regrowth, and the maximum number of months whereby new results become unlikely. Results Horizons vary across treatments, and if you don't know them, you might quit treatments too early or stay in treatments too long while always thinking, "Maybe I just need more time for results."

2. Scalp Inflammation

Most non-responders to topical drugs have some degree of scalp inflammation. If you don't take steps to determine the causes of inflammation (and resolve them) – you're selling yourself short significant hair regrowth. Causes range by symptoms, and are often linked to microorganisms, hormonal shifts, autoimmunity, and/or anatomical changes.

3. Hair Loss Speeds

On average, pattern hair loss sufferers lose 5% hair volume per year. If we stratify that data, some people lose 1% yearly while others lose 20% yearly. It's much easier to stop hair loss than it is to regrow lost hair. As such, your hair loss speed should influence your candidacy for which treatments to choose, and which treatments to avoid.

We build you specific, actionable, evidence-based regrowth protocols inside our Membership Program

No longer do you have to guess which pills, topicals, supplements, or products make the most sense for you. We do the work for you. Using our interactive videos and tools, we build you a Regrowth Roadmap: an action plan that takes into account your hair loss status, scalp health, and overall health to build you a regrowth protocol based on your needs, preferences, and unique hair loss situation... all within minutes.

We don't leave you fending for yourself. We offer expert-level support in face-to-face environments, group coaching calls, and inside our community forums – and from researchers with peer-reviewed publications on hair loss disorders.

It's a membership program designed to save you years worth of time, money, and hair – with a system that is not only built on science, but validated by hundreds of success stories from past and present members.

Ready to take the guesswork out of regrowing hair? Find out more below.

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