u/NoBat2321

Hi everyone,

I've been getting a lot of DMs about the steps I've utilized during my hairloss journey and the tests I've done to finally get the results I've gotten today.

So once again in this post, I'm going to share my step by step process with respect to how I combated this issue:-

1. Acceptance - Around July 2023, I cut my hair super short, and this came as a shock to everyone since I mostly kept long hair. However, this time when I cut my hair short, my family noticed that there was a slight recession in texture, and while they did address this to me, I brushed it off saying it maybe just the lighting, and that was the first biggest mistake I made.

2. Crazy Push - Around April 2024 as added in the pictures, it was evidently clear that I was going through hair loss. I immediately visited a doctor and visited the dermatologist, he reckoned me to get on Oral Minoxidil initially of 1.25 mg (I can't recollect the brand name). While I did notice some progress post taking it, the progress was barely minimal and it wasn't what I was expecting. Then in June/July 2024, I visited him again and then he put me on 2.5 mg Oral Minoxidil from Lonitab along with Finastride 1 Mg.

3. Basic hair hygiene - While meds started to show their results, I knew for a fact that I was also suffering from scalp conditions like folliculitis (started after I started taking topical minoxidil and my scalp turned out to be very sensitive to alcohol so it screwed things up), I got on shower gel creams of Benozyl Peroxide and Ketokonazol shampoo (attaching the pictures of them, though I don't have the picture of the keto shampoo I used as I recently disposed it off). I applied these 2 daily while taking bath diligently and this helped me tackle all the bacteria and sebum production which was excess.

4. Hormonal / Vitamin and Nutrient tests - I got on Dutastride post visiting my doctor around the December 2025 (I uploaded the picture of Dutastride by Cipla which I'm taking recently since the past week, but prior to this I used to take Dutastride by Dr. Reddy's), 5 months after being on fin and oral minoxidil (I dropped down fin then), and did a serum DHT test 2 months post taking it. The results were in 800s and I was upset. But recently when I did the test in June 2026, the results were in 100s. The Serum DHT literally dropped by 700 decimals which was a big achievement to me, thanks to dutastride. I processed with a Vitamin B12 test, Vitamin D3 test, Vitamin C all of which came normal as well. The supplements I used for these were mostly from Naturaltein and proper home cooked food, and for Vitamin D3 I have been consistent since the past 2 months with the 60k IU shots (it's a small bottle with syrup).

5. Side effects- Absolutely none. I faced 0 sexual side effects. I do face palpitations when I'm running extremely fast but hey, almost everyone gets this and even the folks who are not on oral minoxidil. I don't face palpitations generally otherwise.

6. Workout and eating healthy - I stopped consuming sugar completely since the past 2 months and I've started proper weight training and supplemented it with proper healthy high protein food (easily over 100 grams protein daily). All of this, in combination with the lifestyle changes I've adopted, have 5× my progress journey.

I'm attaching the pictures of my medicines, the shampoo and benozyl peroxide cream. I'm also attaching the DHT test results of 2025 and 2026 for reference. Hope this helps!

Please note that everyone's underlying cause for hairloss is different. Mine was DHT, while for others it may simply be nutritional and vitamin deficiency.

I also wanted to share something weird in my hair loss journey. One of the reason for me to delay working out or weight training was because I was of the misconception that if I cannot handle my Testosterone, it will get converted into DHT and completely botch my hairline as my scalp is DHT sensitive.

In reality, the opposite happened post working out, not only did my testosterone increase by a few decimals, but also my hair loss got better due to a healthy lifestyle which came as a result of working out.

Age - 27

Height - 6'1.5

Weight - 97 kgs

This isn't a post to gloat about my gains. It's a post about how emotionally, mentally, and physically draining hair loss can be.

Growing up in India, most of us have heard people make fun of bald men with comments like**, "aye takle,"** and other jokes. I wasn't someone who actively mocked others, but I definitely laughed along at times. It was only when hair loss hit me that I truly understood how devastating it can be.

I was terrified of attending social events because I felt like everyone was staring at my hair. Whether they actually were or not didn't matter, the insecurity was real. There were a few occasions where I even wore hair fibers because I hated how I looked. That's how much it affected my self-esteem.

My partner at the time never judged me for my appearance, yet I still felt like I was missing something, like I wasn't the same person anymore.

I even avoided visiting a particular relative because every time I saw him in 2024, he'd comment on my scalp and say that I had started going bald at such a young age. I'd mindlessly defend myself, saying it was just my hairstyle or bad lighting, even though deep down I knew the truth.

Today, even after recovering, the victory doesn't entirely feel like a victory. I don't think my hair texture will ever be what it once was. Sometimes it feels like the only reason I've retained my hair is because of medication, and that the progress is somehow "artificial."

But what choice do people like us really have?

There is still no visible cure for hair loss. People talk about gene therapy, hair cloning, and future breakthroughs, but none of those treatments seem to be anywhere close to becoming a reality. Most of us have simply accepted that.

The truth is that society can be incredibly harsh toward physical traits that people often can't control, whether it's balding, height, or something else entirely. Hair loss made me realize how casually we dismiss men's insecurities and how little empathy there often is for them.

To anyone currently battling hair loss: I understand your pain. The anxiety, the obsession with mirrors, the fear of photographs, and the feeling that a part of your identity is slipping away. It's all real.

And even when you finally start winning the battle, the scars it leaves behind don't disappear overnight.

For those who have asked what worked for me personally, my regimen was:

• 0.5 mg Dutasteride (Dr. Reddy's)

• 2.5 mg Oral Minoxidil (Lonitab)

This isn't medical advice, it's simply what helped me regain a large part of what I had lost.

As my idol Zyzz once said:

"We're all gonna make it, brahs."

I was someone who always had amazing hair, the "Severus Snape" type, for real. Around mid-2023, I started noticing that my hair was thinning, but I didn't want to accept it. I kept telling myself it only looked that way because I had cut my hair short.

It wasn't until 2024 that I realized I was genuinely losing my hair. It had become so thin that it felt like wet tissue paper, and my scalp was clearly visible.

I started taking oral minoxidil in April 2024, but I quickly realized it wasn't enough. It was increasing blood flow to my scalp, but it wasn't addressing the underlying issue — DHT. My real enemy was DHT because my hair follicles are highly sensitive to it.

I went back to my dermatologist, and as expected, he recommended that I start finasteride.

While I did notice some improvement in my hair texture with finasteride, I knew it still wasn't enough. So, in December 2024, after my dermatologist had me undergo a liver function test (LFT) and confirmed everything was fine, I switched to dutasteride.

Two months after starting dutasteride, I had my serum DHT levels checked and found that they were still in the 900s. I was upset because I thought that after two months on the medication, my DHT should have been much lower.

Nevertheless, I decided to stay consistent.

And voilà, one year later, the results are clearly visible in Picture 2.

I recently had another serum DHT test, and my levels have now dropped to 171. This is the power of consistency.

Stay strong, my guys. Trust the process.

I'm attaching my before-and-after photos in the first and second pictures. The third picture shows how my hair looked back in 2022, just to prove that even someone with virtually no visible hair loss can still be hit by the misfortune of DHT sensitivity.

1st Picture: 2024 2nd Picture: 2026 3rd Picture: 2022