Are modern hair loss treatments worth it?
I tried a $2500 per year hair routine to find out
Hair loss. It’s a problem most men (and women) will face as they reach their middle-aged years.
In the world of beauty and anti-aging, probably one of the most sensitive topics is that of hair – and whether you have enough of it on your head and how to wear it.
For women, this can look like: Short hair or long hair? Bangs or no bangs? To color over gray or wear it proudly à la Andie MacDowell?
For men, it’s … bald spot or completely bald? Salt/pepper, or completely white? Drugstore color or get it colored so deftly your gray looks fucking great and garners whispers of “is he or isn’t he?”
Or go all-in, get a hair transplant and make people forget you were ever going bald, like Wayne Rooney?
When I played violin in a youth symphony orchestra, our conductor was this South African dude who was bald on top.
Bless his heart, he insisted on rocking a thin blonde ponytail with what slivers of hair he could gather into a hair-tie at the nape of his neck.
He was endlessly mocked by us students who sensed his desperation to cling to his youth. His driving a red convertible sportscar didn’t help.
While I can’t even begin to fathom what it’s like to lose your hair as a man, I can say that for women, it’s a particularly personal and even traumatic experience.
Because celeb culture and longtime beauty standards have told us we’re supposed to have hair.
Because long, thick, flowing, voluminous hair symbolizes sexiness and youth.
My mom suffers from female pattern hair loss and thinning hair. When she goes out in public she’s always under a cute hat or an excellent top-piece which we carefully selected for her from a high-end Taipei boutique.
As an adult, I remember when I was a kid and teenager, she would always scratch nervously at her scalp, and also suffered from an extremely dry scalp.
Since then, women's hair loss technology and research has vastly improved. So I’m determined to not encounter the same fate.
A Mount Sinai report says female pattern baldness is not well understood but is usually caused by the following:
Aging
Changes in the levels of androgens (hormones that can stimulate male features)
Family history of male or female pattern baldness
Heavy loss of blood during menstrual periods
Certain medicines, such as estrogenic oral contraceptive
Of course after the “slap” incident, female alopecia and pattern baldness is getting even more well deserved shine.
But what’s happening is a growing $3.9 billion-dollar industry dedicated to reversing and preventing hair loss among men and women.
As women, we can feel a deep sense of insecurity, embarrassment, or longing at why we aren’t blessed with hair we see in social media, magazines, the red carpet, and commercials.
Which are mostly the result of beauty campaigns, hours of hair extensions, styling, lighting, and photoshop.
When I noticed I was shedding way more in my early 30s and my hair was getting thinner – I decided to do something about it.
Almost a decade ago, I went to Philip Kingsley and paid around $300 for a consult, strand test, and treatment. I left with recommendations for a blood test and costly regimen of supplements and hair products.
Admittedly, their hair products feel luxurious and their “Elasticizer” always left my head and hair feeling nourished. But I didn’t go back.
In 2020, I visited Harklinikken (Danish for “hair clinic”), which I learned about from a Vogue article published a year earlier. This Byrdie article also has way more detail about the process and cost.
During my initial consult at the Flatiron location in New York City, my scalp was examined and I learned my many baby “flyaway” hairs are not cute at all, and are apparently a sign of hair aging; these hairs will never reach full length.
An initial Harklinikken consult costs $175.
If they can help you, then you will leave spending more than $350 for your consult and hair serums which you’ll apply ideally nightly as part of your compliance regimen.
Without compliance, this stuff won’t work. It involves injecting a watery, tea-colored serum onto your scalp with a plastic syringe-like applicator two times nightly, at least 30 minutes apart, massaging it into your scalp, and then doing your best to wash your hair daily.
The serum is customized for you regularly and is a proprietary solution of burdock root, marigold, apple, sandalwood and cow’s milk, along with “naturally occurring sterols, tannins and fatty acids found in botanicals.”
Because my financial situation was different from before and I felt more capable of following a hair regimen, I gave it a try.
Two years later, and $2500 per year on hair serums and periodic check-in consults later, I can say that my hair does feel thicker and healthier than when I started.
In my interim checkups, it would seem that the serums have worked and are continuing to work. Here are my progress photos after 9 months:
Whether this is a combined result of hormonal changes or efforts to eat and live a more healthy and active lifestyle, I do know my hair looks better than before I started with it.
Because my phone knows everything about me, Instagram now floods my feed with supplement-based treatments like Nutrafol and other topical competitors like Thirty Madison, Hims, and Rogaine.
If you’re thinking about starting a hair maintenance routine, then my suggestion would be to research throughly before ingesting anything, and deciding what you can reliably commit to before starting, because consistency is everything ;)
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Until next time,
Shindy
On Instagram + TikTok
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