My Thinning Hair & How I Reversed It

Zwielicht · May 24, 2025

I haven't talked about this much, but in late 2018, my head hair started thinning out. It never got bad, but it was noticeably thinner than it used to be.

For disclosure, male pattern baldness doesn't run in my family at all, and it was always pretty clear to me that it was caused by the work stress I was under since early 2018.

As time went on, I started getting upset as it just wasn't getting better. It got to the point where I started keeping my hair short.

Over the years, I tried so many different tactics to treat the symptoms:

Dermarollers of various sizes - Didn't cause any noticeable results.
Biotin supplements - This caused acne breakouts every single time, consistently the day after taking it. No.
Biotin oil - It didn't help for hair growth, but it was nice for my hair.
Minoxidil - this worked somewhat for a bit, and seemed to stop it from getting worse
Nutrafol supplements - did absolutely nothing and was overpriced.
A hair laser comb - Admittedly, I didn't use this consistently enough to notice a difference.
Red light therapy panel - This did seem to help a bit, but I only used it toward the end.
Hims shampoo & conditioner - did nothing for hair growth, but it's pretty good shampoo. Well, I like the smell of it and it works as shampoo, at least.
Anti-dandruff shampoo - I heard that some people who used medicated shampoo would notice hair growth after some amount of time. I don't have a dandruff issues, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try.

You can see with that last one that I was just getting desperate at points. Some people would just say to give up, but like I said, I knew it was caused by constantly being under stress.

So nearly 3 months ago when I lost my job, I was unable to afford to keep trying different things; I had to stop everything.

You think I'd be more stressed not having any consistent income, but I'm a lot less stressed now than I was before as I have better coping strategies.

Sure enough, my scalp has a load of new growths! In fact, it's already getting pretty close to being back to the way it was prior to 2018. The new growths still need to get longer as they're about 0.25 inches long and the hair on the top of my head is about 3 inches long, but I feel like I finally have my hair back!

Outlaw · May 24, 2025

Zwielicht said:
Sure enough, my scalp has a load of new growths! In fact, it's already getting pretty close to being back to the way it was prior to 2018. The new growths still need to get longer as they're about 0.25 inches long and the hair on the top of my head is about 3 inches long, but I feel like I finally have my hair back!

I'll have to give a few of these a try, dreadlocks ruined my hair

UnusualSubstance · May 24, 2025

Soon you'll be a super Saiyan 3!

Outlaw · May 24, 2025

UnusualSubstance said:
Soon you'll be a super Saiyan 3!

Was the butter really necessary la

Zwielicht · May 24, 2025

Outlaw said:
I'll have to give a few of these a try, dreadlocks ruined my hair

I did feel some of those tactics were keeping the thinning hair from getting worse. If I had to say which ones were the most effective for me, I'd say the Minoxidil and red light panel helped out the most.

Personally though, I'd avoid Minoxidil as I think that's more for people with male pattern baldness. When those people stop using it after 3 months, they lose any growths they got from it. I was thankful I was right about my hair thinning from stress, otherwise I would've lost more hair when I stopped using it.

UnusualSubstance said:
Soon you'll be a super Saiyan 3!

I'm not planning on growing it out that long!

I think I'm going to grow it out to around shoulder length, though.

TheVigilante · May 24, 2025

So stress was the major contributing factor

Btw the remedies you have listed are just temporary and it is always good to go to the root cause and I am sure yoga practices must have helped you a ton in reducing the stress

what about your sleeping patterns are you getting enough sleep?

Minoxidil will not help in hair regrowth it will just stop the hairfall but only if you use it continuously the day you stop using it the hairfall starts plus many people take finesteride which is so risky and has so many side effects

I hear people go to Turkey for hair transplant treatments because it's quite affordable over there

Zwielicht · May 24, 2025

TheVigilante said:
So stress was the major contributing factor

Yeah, stress was contributing pretty heavily, if not entirely toward my hair thinning.

I was actually comparing my hair right now to the picture I have on my Linkedin, and it's pretty close to that aside from the length; in a picture, you can't tell the difference.

TheVigilante said:
Btw the remedies you have listed are just temporary and it is always good to go to the root cause and I am sure yoga practices must have helped you a ton in reducing the stress

I knew that when I was trying those out, it's why I mentioned I tried them to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause.

However, I couldn't resolve the root cause of stress issue since I struggled to get out of the last job.

Starting yoga about a year and a half ago definitely helped me relax more, and I thankfully have far better coping mechanisms for stress than I did before.

TheVigilante said:
Minoxidil will not help in hair regrowth it will just stop the hairfall but only if you use it continuously the day you stop using it the hairfall starts plus many people take finesteride which is so risky and has so many side effects

That's exactly what Minoxidil seemed to be doing for me; it seemed to stop the hair thinning from getting worse.

I avoided finasteride entirely. I just felt like that was going to cause too many side effects, as I tend to have bad luck when it comes to side effects with medications.

TheVigilante said:
what about your sleeping patterns are you getting enough sleep?

I wasn't sleeping well for a long time since I was required to work 9-5 or 10-6 hours in the last job.

My sleep was pretty poor when we were building up the forum as well.

HoweverI have actually been sleeping better the last week.

TheVigilante said:
I hear people go to Turkey for hair transplant treatments because it's quite affordable over there

I didn't know people went to Turkey for that.

Personally, I wanted to avoid hair transplants as I always felt my situation was reversible. It was also never bad enough to warrant that, either.

It's hard to find an example image, but I suppose at its worst, it was sparse sort of like this YouTube thumbnail I found:

Not terrible, but it was depressing for me to see this in the mirror (not anymore, though!)

SilverClouds · May 24, 2025

Thanks for sharing. Yeahhh, job or clients can destroy your nerves

. I know what you're saying. But on the other hand I still have extra stress now... even if I'm happy about lack of sales calls and dms (hate these

) I feel so fuckin useless with *technically* nothing to do. You know, I could fix all these things in the business that I never had time to fix, behind the scenes, backend, get more organized, get better socials, better branding, etc, but that's not paid customer work so it gets on my nerves too

. I wish I'd end up doing something else but paying and paying well, doing random shit around for free annoys me

. Since it *is* a thing that I usually end up doing when there's nothing else it's still in my best interest to work a bit on it being more presentable and maybe changing business model a bit (idk more consulting and actual work for huge clients only would be nice).

Ex-client contacted me today, I hoped he wants to buy something but no, he complains he forgot to cancel linkedin navigator and linkedin took money from his card

. Oh come on.

Good that you actually got healthier (at least in this aspect) even with current stress, only because you didn't have to deal with your previous employer's venom! I used to have some hair loss on and off, when my immune system had weaker (even more than usual) moments or simply if I had long hair too long and didn't cut them. Cutting them and keeping them short for a while usually solves the problem for me. Weird thing: I got a buzzcut and was fuckin cold in winter

and started wearing scarf on my head (DON'T • GO • WITH • MUSLIM • MEMES

) around the house and damn, this actually accelerates hair growth for me... Crazy shit... I've seen a huge difference. Damn, dermarollers don't do anything? What a disappointment

. Overall I have fairly thick hair/braid (for a white person, indians would overcompete me on this one

) but hair loss did happen on and off over the years. It sucks, good that you got better.

TheVigilante · May 25, 2025

SilverClouds said:
Thanks for sharing. Yeahhh, job or clients can destroy your nerves . I know what you're saying. But on the other hand I still have extra stress now... even if I'm happy about lack of sales calls and dms (hate these ) I feel so fuckin useless with *technically* nothing to do. You know, I could fix all these things in the business that I never had time to fix, behind the scenes, backend, get more organized, get better socials, better branding, etc, but that's not paid customer work so it gets on my nerves too . I wish I'd end up doing something else but paying and paying well, doing random shit around for free annoys me . Since it *is* a thing that I usually end up doing when there's nothing else it's still in my best interest to work a bit on it being more presentable and maybe changing business model a bit (idk more consulting and actual work for huge clients only would be nice).

Ex-client contacted me today, I hoped he wants to buy something but no, he complains he forgot to cancel linkedin navigator and linkedin took money from his card . Oh come on.

Good that you actually got healthier (at least in this aspect) even with current stress, only because you didn't have to deal with your previous employer's venom! I used to have some hair loss on and off, when my immune system had weaker (even more than usual) moments or simply if I had long hair too long and didn't cut them. Cutting them and keeping them short for a while usually solves the problem for me. Weird thing: I got a buzzcut and was fuckin cold in winter and started wearing scarf on my head (DON'T • GO • WITH • MUSLIM • MEMES ) around the house and damn, this actually accelerates hair growth for me... Crazy shit... I've seen a huge difference. Damn, dermarollers don't do anything? What a disappointment . Overall I have fairly thick hair/braid (for a white person, indians would overcompete me on this one ) but hair loss did happen on and off over the years. It sucks, good that you got better.

Can I have a small patch for my hair

Zwielicht · May 25, 2025

SilverClouds said:
Thanks for sharing. Yeahhh, job or clients can destroy your nerves . I know what you're saying. But on the other hand I still have extra stress now... even if I'm happy about lack of sales calls and dms (hate these ) I feel so fuckin useless with *technically* nothing to do. You know, I could fix all these things in the business that I never had time to fix, behind the scenes, backend, get more organized, get better socials, better branding, etc, but that's not paid customer work so it gets on my nerves too . I wish I'd end up doing something else but paying and paying well, doing random shit around for free annoys me . Since it *is* a thing that I usually end up doing when there's nothing else it's still in my best interest to work a bit on it being more presentable and maybe changing business model a bit (idk more consulting and actual work for huge clients only would be nice).

I know what you mean about feeling useless when you technically have nothing to do. I have periods like that even right now, and even though there’s stuff I can do, there’s not a lot of motivation when you don’t see the fruits of your labour until later.

SilverClouds said:
Ex-client contacted me today, I hoped he wants to buy something but no, he complains he forgot to cancel linkedin navigator and linkedin took money from his card . Oh come on.

I had something like that happen to me last year!

SilverClouds said:
Good that you actually got healthier (at least in this aspect) even with current stress, only because you didn't have to deal with your previous employer's venom! I used to have some hair loss on and off, when my immune system had weaker (even more than usual) moments or simply if I had long hair too long and didn't cut them. Cutting them and keeping them short for a while usually solves the problem for me. Weird thing: I got a buzzcut and was fuckin cold in winter and started wearing scarf on my head (DON'T • GO • WITH • MUSLIM • MEMES ) around the house and damn, this actually accelerates hair growth for me... Crazy shit... I've seen a huge difference. Damn, dermarollers don't do anything? What a disappointment . Overall I have fairly thick hair/braid (for a white person, indians would overcompete me on this one ) but hair loss did happen on and off over the years. It sucks, good that you got better.

I wonder if it’s because the scarf was protecting your hair from damage or helping it maintain moisture. You know, keeping your existing hair healthy and strong, fewer breakages, that sort of thing.

Yeah, dermarollers didn’t work for me. I tried varying lengths, different routines, using them a different number of times each week; no change. They work for some people, but I wasn’t one of them. I heard they work better if you have any blood flow issues to your scalp.

roydan · May 25, 2025

I want to point out the fact that technically speaking, a bald guy saved your hair.

That aside, this is the type of client that is 99% not worth the money. Unfortunately, in most cases it starts fine, and with time it becomes harder and harder, slow enough to barely being noticed. Like the fronlg in the slowly heating water.

Zwielicht · May 25, 2025

roydan said:
I want to point out the fact that technically speaking, a bald guy saved your hair.

You’re right!

roydan said:
That aside, this is the type of client that is 99% not worth the money. Unfortunately, in most cases it starts fine, and with time it becomes harder and harder, slow enough to barely being noticed. Like the fronlg in the slowly heating water.

That slow-burn you described is accurate.

You know, I’ve had two other similar arrangements in the past that started the same way. I’ll save the first one for another time, but the second time I had that arrangement, it was back around 2014 for a CEO who ran a medium-sized company. I had a contract with them that started off as me doing on-page SEO work for their websites. It was pretty straight-forward and easy enough to do, but I became wary of their HR lady who was trying to get me to work 9-5 (every time, I swear…), wanted me to do team meetings, team projects, performance reviews; the usual employee stuff, but again, none of the legal protections or benefits. None of this was a requirement in my contract either, so I told her I’m just going to stick to the work I’m paid to do. I talked to the CEO a few times about her, he said she wasn’t supposed to do that, and she’d back off for a bit before slowly starting up again. The final straw was after I had the client for about a month, and the HR lady demanded 9-5 hours again and kept telling me about how she’s my manager and I have to do what she says, regardless of the contract. I emailed the CEO that night and told him that I unfortunately cannot continue working under these conditions. He was polite, apologised about how she kept doing this, and said that he understands and enjoyed working with me and loved the work I did for him. His response was just refreshing, so I sent him a document filled with various improvements I wanted to make to his sites as a thank you for both the opportunity and for acknowledging my concerns. I liked the CEO of that company, but the work itself just wasn’t worth the stress.

roydan · May 25, 2025

Zwielicht said:
You’re right!

That slow-burn you described is accurate.

You know, I’ve had two other similar arrangements in the past that started the same way. I’ll save the first one for another time, but the second time I had that arrangement, it was back around 2014 for a CEO who ran a medium-sized company. I had a contract with them that started off as me doing on-page SEO work for their websites. It was pretty straight-forward and easy enough to do, but I became wary of their HR lady who was trying to get me to work 9-5 (every time, I swear…), wanted me to do team meetings, team projects, performance reviews; the usual employee stuff, but again, none of the legal protections or benefits. None of this was a requirement in my contract either, so I told her I’m just going to stick to the work I’m paid to do. I talked to the CEO a few times about her, he said she wasn’t supposed to do that, and she’d back off for a bit before slowly starting up again. The final straw was after I had the client for about a month, and the HR lady demanded 9-5 hours again and kept telling me about how she’s my manager and I have to do what she says, regardless of the contract. I emailed the CEO that night and told him that I unfortunately cannot continue working under these conditions. He was polite, apologised that she kept doing this, and said that he understands and enjoyed working with me and loved the work I did for him. His response was just refreshing, so I sent him a document filled with various improvements I wanted to make to his site as a thank you for both the opportunity and for addressing my concerns. I liked the CEO of that company, but the work itself just wasn’t worth the stress.

The CEO's main responsibility was to make sure the HR knows her place. I can't really understand why the SEO was under human resources and not the marketing (or operations, biz dev, etc..), but that's not really the core issue.
If the HR doesn't understand how to work with agencies or freelancer because all she knows is inhouse staff, don't assign her this task.
The CEO can't detach himself from what his C-level team does, and claiming the HR "went rogue" is a bit weak.

polecat · May 25, 2025

I will tell you what works for my ferrets hair.

My albino one got very thick curly hair best fur seen on any albinos so far.

Each ferrets gets breakfast,lunch,dinner per day sometimes after dinner meals plus food giving to them throughout the day.

I got a portable massage gun I use that on my ferrets quite often .

I also got ferret shampoo which does not require water to make it work .

I noticed with ferrets stress sometimes effects so if you think the ferret stressed the best way to solve it is to play with them or give them a good meal.

Zwielicht · May 25, 2025

roydan said:
The CEO's main responsibility was to make sure the HR knows her place. I can't really understand why the SEO was under human resources and not the marketing (or operations, biz dev, etc..), but that's not really the core issue.
If the HR doesn't understand how to work with agencies or freelancer because all she knows is inhouse staff, don't assign her this task.
The CEO can't detach himself from what his C-level team does, and claiming the HR "went rogue" is a bit weak.

I don't really know why the HR lady was in charge of that, either. It was a really odd set up, especially because they had proper departments. They even had a physical building and people who worked in-house from that location. From what I remember at the time, he said this HR lady was directly below him and oversaw the company? So she was in charge of HR with a bunch of extra benefits.

Given what I know now, I was worried that maybe the CEO was giving her the orders to do this. I suppose I didn't want to think about it too much because it's tiring dealing with shenanigans like this, but I did know I needed to get out of that as soon as possible.

Steve · May 25, 2025

"My thinning hair and how I reversed it"

*looks inside thread*

"Lose your job"

that's some interesting advice bro

Zwielicht · May 25, 2025

Steve said:
"My thinning hair and how I reversed it"

*looks inside thread*

"Lose your job"

that's some interesting advice bro

It worked, didn't it?

t2van · May 25, 2025

Should have just embraced it and ahved it.

Stress will come back. It is funny how it fucks you over tho

Zwielicht · May 25, 2025

t2van said:
Should have just embraced it and ahved it.

Stress will come back. It is funny how it fucks you over tho

What can I say? I'm pretty stubborn.

I also have issues with my appearance when I'm bald. I shaved it off completely once a few years ago, and it just didn't look right on me. Some people can pull that off, but I certainly can't!

t2van · May 25, 2025

Zwielicht said:
What can I say? I'm pretty stubborn.

I also have issues with my appearance when I'm bald. I shaved it off completely once a few years ago, and it just didn't look right on me. Some people can pull that off, but I certainly can't!

Probably wasn't drinking enough bourbon

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