Ask HN: Is there any legit hair loss research?

4 points by Benjamin_Dobell 10y ago ↗ HN

I'm in my mid twenties and slowly been going bald over the last few years. Not ideal but also not the end of the world. Baldness has been around for at least several thousands of years. However, we have made a lot of technological advances in recent times, many of which improve our lives in fairly superficial ways. Nonetheless, it seems that hair loss is the realm of miracle cures, sketchy companies and con artists. Let's just say googling "scientifically proven hair loss treatment" isn't going to get you very far!

The only semi-legit treatment I know of is Finasteride. However, the Wikipedia article is pretty light on the supporting research, and extremely light on references to studies about its perceived side effects.

I was wondering, does the Hacker News crowd know of any legitimate research into male pattern baldness; causes and treatments, that are backed up by scientific evidence? In particular I'd be interested to know of the existence of any peer reviewed studies from respectable institutions.

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superqd 10y ago ↗

I would like to know this myself. I've tried Finasteride, and it did work, but it did affect me in other ways (very low energy, low libido). So I stopped using it. I do recall seeing some actual research on the laser combs, and that they did, in fact, have a measurable effect, but it wasn't impressive. If I can find the laser comb stuff, I'll post it. I did buy one (HairMax), but did not see any results.

teslabox 10y ago ↗

There is no way to monetize basic science anymore, because all the most important patents have expired. Big companies only care about treatments which are profitable. Thus we have abominations such as Finasteride being FDA approved.

If you broaden your horizons as to what constitutes "legitimate research", I think you'll find some useful information.