topical DHT blockers (2024)

Unfortunately, there's no convincing evidence for any of this stuff.

It might work, but the studies done are typically manufacturer's studies, so we can't know.

Digidako said:

Imo "natural" DHT blockers don't have any efficacy with regards to stopping hair loss/promoting regrowth.

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I know of no convincing evidence for or against.

There's no commercial incentive to rigorously investigate products that can't be patented.

Digidako said:

Come on, if saw palmetto and biotin had any clinical efficacy would we all be posting on this forum?

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I think you just wrote in another thread that anecdotal medicine is on par with horoscopes, maybe that was someone else.

I'm not as extreme as that statement, I think that statement is too extreme, but I agree with the general gist.

Saw palmetto, nettle root, soy milk, etc might have a (modest) efficacy as far as I'm concerned -- but there's no way for us to be sure of this unless we can finance an independent placebo-controlled experiment.

Using Topical Liquid Finasteride

I am 21 and suffering from male pattern baldness. I am 2 months in treatment. For the first month, my doctor put me on 5% Minoxidil + 1.5% Amenixil Solution. But after one month when I visited him again, he switch me on a new solution, that is, 5% Minoxidil + 0.1% Finasteride. I am on this treatment from past 40 days.
I think my hair loss is less aggressive than before. I still see few hairs in my hand when I do shampoo. So its not completely stopped .

I apply 2ml- 2.5 ml every night once a day as suggested by the dermatologist. And I also use caffeine + saw palmetto + Biotin enriched shampoo 5 days a week and Ketoconazole 2% twice a week. I am also taking multivitamin tablets rich biotin zinc amino acids L arginine L carnitine Lycopene and Co enzyme Q10.

One question I have is since I am applying 2ml of minoxidil with finasteride 0.1 so that means I am taking 2mg of finasteride. Is that ok and safe. I am not having any complications till now. And this is waht doctor recommend me.

And also how is Topical liquid finasteride compared to oral finasteride in effectiveness??

The thing is, there are some studies on the natural/herbal route. It's just they aren't wide enough with enough participants or lacking in strong evidence.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4017725/

This one in terms of pumpkin seed oil from a little while back for example. 40% thicker newer hair from baseline after 6 months of....pumpkin seed oil. The problem is, no one ever follows up and does studies after the initial one.

Norwood One said:

The thing is, there are some studies on the natural/herbal route. It's just they aren't wide enough with enough participants or lacking in strong evidence.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4017725/

This one in terms of pumpkin seed oil from a little while back for example. 40% thicker newer hair from baseline after 6 months of....pumpkin seed oil. The problem is, no one ever follows up and does studies after the initial one.

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It was also short duration (6 months) and with a small sample (76 men).

The paper also links to this study arguing that saw palmetto is better than finasteride:

Rossi A, Mari E, Scarno M, et al. Comparitive effectiveness of finasteride versus Serenoa repens in male androgenetic alopecia: a two-year study. International Journal of Immunopathology and Pharmacology. 2011;25:1167–1173

I don't see how the hell SP even compares to finasteride. Found the original study. It is so misleading

[h=2]Abstract[/h]The objective of this open label study is to determine the effectiveness of Serenoa repens in treating male androgenetic alopecia (Androgenetic Alopecia), by comparing its results with finasteride. For this purpose, we enrolled 100 male patients with clinically diagnosed mild to moderate Androgenetic Alopecia. One group received Serenoa repens 320 mg every day for 24 months, while the other received finasteride 1 mg every day for the same period. In order to assess the efficacy of the treatments, a score index based on the comparison of the global photos taken at the beginning (T0) and at the end (T24) of the treatment, was used. The results showed that only 38% of patients treated with Serenoa repens had an increase in hair growth, while 68% of those treated with finasteride noted an improvement. Moreover finasteride was more effective for more than half of the patients (33 of 50, i.e. 66%), with level II and III alopecia. We can summarize our results by observing that Serenoa repens could lead to an improvement of androgenetic alopecia, while finasteride confirmed its efficacy. We also clinically observed, that finasteride acts in both the front area and the vertex, while Serenoa repens prevalently in the vertex. Obviously other studies will be necessary to clarify the mechanisms that cause the different responses of these two treatments.

68% noted improvement with Finasteride vs 38% for SP, how could they argue SP is better? Stupidity like this is why we can't take PSO or other herbal remedies seriously. Something just doesn't seem right.