Social media lives from the advertising revenue that they generate. I can usually block most of it on my desktop or laptop but it comes straight through on my tablet and smartphone. Ads for local businesses, for services, and for goods. I try to ignore most of it.
Lately though they’ve been bombarding me with ads for hair restoration products and services. Maybe it’s due to my age bracket or maybe their advertising algorithms are sophisticated enough to note my receding hairline on my profile picture. Whatever the case may be, it finally made me curious enough to look into it.
I’ve known for a long time that it was genetically probable for my hairline to recede as it’s a prevalent condition for the men on both sides of my family. My nephews however seem to have escaped the curse so if I had a son he would have probably escaped this as well.
Oh well.
As I said I always figured it would be inevitable. So I’ve pretty much expected it and learned to accept it. My hair has never been all that important to me anyways. I’ve always kept my hair trimmed short as it never looked good long. Nowadays it looks even worse if I let it go for too long. So I’ve learned to ask for the simple short back and sides and to trim up the top. Other than that I really don’t care all that much about my hair.
When I was growing up hair restoration consisted mainly of elaborate toupees and wigs and very primitive hair transplant operations. Minoxidil came along in the early 90s and gave limited but definite results. All of these options were horrendously expensive and seemed impractical to me, so I ignored them.
Things in this field have changed in the last 20 years so I decided to do some independent research.
Firstly are wigs, weaves, and toupees. Basically artificial covers for bald spots. Some groups claim that they’re undetectable, some people snicker and say no hairpiece is ever totally undetectable. I’ve seen ads and actual people and to me they look terrible. They need regular maintenance and replacement and some say they actually promote balding, though they’re not too clear on how.
Next is surgery. Transplants used to look horrendous, even in “successful” transplants back in the early days. The technique has been refined and results do look better nowadays. After some operations you will actually lose hair at first before it starts growing again. The whole process can take between 6 months to a year. And of course as it is a surgical procedure it is extremely expensive.
Then there are the drugs. Minoxidil and Propecia. Minoxidil seems to be the more widespread of the two. The effects are limited. I mean you won’t have flowing locks of hair sprouting overnight. The effects usually take about 4 months to occur and you may actually lose some hair in the intervening time. You will most likely get some results but they won’t be overwhelming. The main problem however is that if you stop taking the drug then the effects wear off in a month or two. So you’re stuck taking this for life. I priced the drug and found that at best it would be $120 per year for life.
I look at my hairline in the mirror and see what I have left. Not great but not the worst either. All of this new information pretty much reinforces my previous belief that I am going to leave things as they are and let nature take its course. Once my hairline recedes too far back I may even get rid of the rest and go totally bald.
I have more important things to worry about than this.
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