The Dreadful Business of Balding & Hair Loss
Balding is a personal and emotional process that 85% of men will experience in their lives. 70% of men suffer hair loss by 35. Male pattern baldness accounts for 95% of cases worldwide and is the most common form of hair loss. Like Thanos, male pattern baldness is inevitable. For some men, male pattern baldness starts as early as the teens. For me, I started balding in my early twenties. And it sucked.
With so many possible treatments with different degrees of effectiveness and cost, hair loss is a global billion dollar market with ties not just into big pharmaceuticals, but also the medical tourism of developed countries like South Korea – the cosmetic surgery capital of the world.
In this episode, we’ll navigate the business of balding, the different treatments available, the companies behind those solutions, all through my own personal experience / transformation from medication to hair transplant at a prestigious clinic in South Korea.
If you're interested in Dr. Kim Kyong-Bok & Moment Clinic for FUE hair transplants, you can get in touch with him via email: momentclinic@naver.com. Their website is . For fastest response and how I did it – you can add Moment Clinic (ID: moment_1) and text the staff on KaoKaoTalk (popular iOS / Android messaging app used in South Korea).
Join the Reddit community for additional content and discussion:
Audio Editing & Mixing Credits: Sonalf
0:00 Male Pattern Baldness
3:07 Wigs, China, and Halloween
7:33 Controversial Medication
11:18 Corruption of Big Pharma
15:02 No Beauty Without Pain
19:05 Journey to the East
Join the Reddit community for additional content and FAQ – https://reddit.com/r/Modernmba/
0:00 Male Pattern Baldness
3:07 Wigs, China, and Halloween
7:33 Controversial Medication
11:18 Corruption of Big Pharma
15:02 No Beauty Without Pain
19:05 Journey to the East
Please make a video about Sports Gambling businesses!
there’s new findings you not mention in this comprehensive video. surprisingly some muscle tension on our forehead is responsible for hair growth. it’s accidentally found when people taking some botox on forehead regain his hairlines, it’s repeatable success. there’s ongoing research and you can find reputable source / paper for it.
@Tannman yes! there’s some new study about muscle tension on scalps and its relation for hair growth / loss. it should be mentioned here. here some video talking about it https://youtu.be/Yehk_h_Uj6k
Do you still take medication? I find hair transplant amazing but I have some reservations about finasteride.
in colombia southamerica, is only $3.600 surgery (i used paypal), hotel, traslator, transport and so on were included. air tickets are cheap, $320 (which were not included).
Great content as always, also thanks for sharing such a personal experience on the matter of the hair transplant business.
I’m 25 now and I’ve been balding hard myself since the past 3-4 years. Tbh it was pretty bad when it started, just sitting at a desk and brushing through my hair softly left like 25+ hairs falling down to my desk, which was quite unsettling, having my “youth” leave me so early. Even going so far as shaving my head like 1 year into the whole thing, but I didn’t wanna keep it cause of my egg shaped head and the effort repeating the shaving every 2-4 weeks lol. Now since I lost most of my hair on the forehead, it’s actually not so unsettling anymore, brushing through my hair doesn’t make A LOT fall out anymore since there’s just not much left to fall out.. It was actually much more scary to me to lose my hair than just not having hair.
I’ve been to the dermatologist couple years back as well and she recommended me some minoxidil or finasterid stuff, as a student I wasn’t really able/willing to afford it for 80 or something euro and went for the shave instead, I thought there was more value in learning to live with my biology instead of shelling out money to fix what I’ve been born with in the gene lottery. It also wasn’t quite appealing to me that I’d have to apply it daily for ever basicly..
As I was looking at pictures of my (20 years) older brother and my father, I’ve actually discovered the exact same balding pattern. Even on photos where my brother was 20ish years old, he had a pretty bald forehead already which kinda gave me some comfort. I think most people are not too bothered if they see a baldy, it’s much more that it makes yourself insecure because of your own self image.
To conclude of course I’d prefer having my full hair from my teenage years back, I’ve always been rocking a long curly hair style, but it is what it is now. Ideologicly, I’m not too much of a supporter of cosmetic surgery, I wouldn’t wanna undergo surgery unless it is a medical necessity. Same counts for my teeth, I should’ve gotten braces as a younger but now it’s just kinda whatever, as long as I don’t get bad/dirty teeth because of it or severe pain due to them pushing into each other, I’m just gonna live with my naturally crooked teeth, I see it more of a trait of my family and well in nature not everything’s perfectly symmetrical.
Maybe after I finish university and earn multiple thousands a month, my view will change but for now, I’m just gonna live with how I am.
Good for you. Develop special skill in education , that is what more important for life . Liked the way you think and the positive approach looking at things. ✌️
Soak handful of Almonds in water overnight and eat them daily.
It won’t bring luscious hair back but it surely helps. Plus no side effects of eating Almonds. Condition you chew them really nice before swallowing it.
@M K Thanks dude, will try this actually since I’m a fan of “natural remedies” and they taste good enough. Will probably take a couple months or so till the results, if any, kick in. Will report back.
@lcicle Np. I hope it works out for you!!
@lcicle ??? Almonds are probably more expensive than finasteride and minoxidil………….. What?
The comment section of this video makes me feel so much less alone. I’m 26 and only noticed my hairloss last year. It has honestly brought down my overall happiness and am doing my best to avoid thinking about it. The worst is when im having a good day and then a youtube video goes into a Keeps sponsorship about male pattern baldness and I’m once again reminded about it… ugh. I didn’t notice all the hairloss marketing until I put myself in that category. But i wont fall into it. My sex drive is already low enough I wont risk further loss of it with a drug. My girlfriend reassures me all the time that she either doesn’t notice/or doesnt care if i lost my hair. But that doesn’t make me feel better for some reason, I still feel like im losing my identity. And no other guys around me seem to talk about it, so i process this all by myself. I wish people were more open about their hairloss experience. Thank you for sharing yours.
My plan is to just accept my fate. I still like my hair as it is now, but when it gets worse I will shave it; and it will simply be a new chapter in life with new things to look forward to.
@Avicena I’ll check it out thank you
@Evansmustard you’re just gonna lose your hair. A “nutrition” approach was peddled by a bunch of pseudo scientist hacks on YouTube with a receding hairline, and what do you know? They all threw in the towel at some point and just “shaved”, while changing the focus of their channel on some other topics. You’re just wasting your time with this pseudoscience. Unless your hair loss is caused by some sort of severe nutrient deficiency of things like biotin or certain amino acids, which is very rare in industrialized countries, or by religion effluvium, which can be caused by extreme traumatic stress, you’re just going to continue to lose hair. Might as well just shave your hair and accept being bald, or you can do what normal people do, take a pill once a day and apply some topicals, get a transplant to restore what you’ve already lost, save your appearance and move on with your life. It is precisely these fringe quacks who sell you bullshlt supplements or fad diets who have no clue what they’re talking about, and absolutely no track record or evidence to run on. Finasteride and dutasteride work. And if you add minoxidil, ru58841, stemoxydine and maybe a few other topicals, you’ll basically halt all further hair loss. Androgenic slope is is not caused by nor can it be modulated by any changes in diet. A book by a quack isn’t going to change that.
I’d highly suggest you check out the channel “haircafe”, on YouTube, and he literally debunks and puts to rest every bit of fringe nonsense out there about “alternative” theories to the causes of MPB.
@HonISfirE completely irrelevant for male pattern baldness.
Finasteride and Monoxidil have worked wonders for me mate.
I appreciate when you’re able to share your personal experiences like with the food delivery episode since it allows for a hands-on perspective that adds to the narrative, and all in all another great video! As someone who isn’t even out of university yet but very much values his hair, hopefully the information here will serve me well when I inevitably have to face the balding problem, even though I’ll most likely learn to rock the bald look or make use of wigs I already like wearing for cosplay anyways (just gotta find a wig that doesn’t itch when I actually get a high end one…).
In my late 20’s I started noticing more hair in my hands than usual after washing my hair, and a slightly receding hairline. I’m almost 30 now and it hasn’t gotten that much worse; could just be some natural recession that can be expected as you enter your 30’s, but I decided that I’m not going to worry about it. It’s natural, it happens to most of us. If it gets to ‘that’ point I’d rather just wholesale shave it off than be reliant on medications or do surgeries.
@Mikolaj F. I’m fairly certain you aren’t going to die a slow, painful death from male pattern baldness. Untreated cancer on the other hand…
For me it was my late 10s
Use topical minoxidil at the least and additionally use finasteride tablets if you want to stop hairfall completely and reverse your balding completely.
Side effects in finasteride are temporary and in only 4% population. Can discontinue if you feel the side effects.
I’m a doc, you can trust me.
@Ravi Ghelani I second that. I had the typical sides after fin, decrease of libido and some ED. After a week of putting fin aside, these sides start going away. After a month you are fully back to normal. Fin is still worth trying.
this is pretty wild. for context, i’m a girl and my family has really good genes when it comes to hair, so i’ve never really had to think about this at all. thanks for sharing this, it’s really opened my eyes and i sympathize a lot more now w people who have to deal with this issue!
@Avi Where do you live sir ? 3000 dollars seem too high to me, for just 2500 grafts. In Turkey, the average cost in the market is 1500 dollars now days , and the number of grafts can reach up to 4000 grafts .
@Mahmood Abbas right now I’m India, the figure I said was from one of the better hair transplant center.
@Tamsin Skarsten hi I’m a balding short man. I find kt hard to find a girlfriend. I would love to date a bald woman I don’t mind. Let me know 🙂
Okay
females talking about MEN issues. AHAHAHAHA. FO.
I wish this was available when I was in my twenties. Eventually took the leap and just shaved it for the better but I definitely considered most of what you discussed. Easy to maintain and actually more confident now that I don’t have to worry about combing my hands through my hair every time the wind goes by. Great work!
My husband started balding in his early 20s. He did a hair transplant in EU for about 5,000€ in 2014 for 3,500 follicles. After the surgery he did nothing… and although his hair implanted well, he kept losing the remaining hair. About 5 years later he did another transplant( again in the EU for 5,500€) but this time he started taking both finasteride and minoxidil after the surgery and oh boy did it make a difference! He’s currently taking a very low dose of finasteride 3 times per week and and 10 drops of 5mg minoxidil every night and after 1 year post-surgery his hair started looking amazing! He’s in his early 40s now and with the full head of hair he looks younger than he was looking when I first met him 15 years ago. Until this day he regrets not starting on finasteride & minoxidil earlier.
@Everything is fine loss in libido, full head of hair but bye bye sex drive lol
For the ppl who are saying that there are no side effects because they have been taking it for 2 years without noticing anything: that’s not how it works.
Which country in EU?
females talking about MEN issues. AHAHAHAHA. FO.
I take the pill, started after a hair transplant and honestly the best thing I have done. Took about 6 months after the transplant to see awesome results and thanks to the pills I have no hair loss. Got my transplant done in North cyprus, 4700 grafts for £700
£700 that’s got to be a typo, that’s a massive risk. Glad it turned out well tho
@Citizen Transfers It is that cheap in Turkey and Cyprus and the results are great
@Citizen Transfers yeah man you need to find good clinics don’t just go anywhere that’s with anything LOL
Must be 7000
As someone who’s never not received a compliment on my hair, losing my hair is probably the toughest thing I’ve ever gone through.
If my hair was still short then I wouldn’t hate losing it.. but I LOVE having long hair, just feels so right for me, paired with my beard also.
I’m stressing more than I should if I would lose it or not.
@Abdullah kamal yesss but finasteride is mostly safe. There are plenty of success stories.
@Pink Man don’t listen to this dude, we are a social species and the loss of social and sexual capital can affect your career and your relationships along with confidence
Same man, I think my hair was the only thing anyone ever complimented, and I genuinely feel more like myself with hair. I don’t enjoy the more mascline look a bald head gives me.
My only regret is not taking medication more seriously at a young age. Had I taken finasteride in my teens I could’ve kept all of my hair throughout my twenties.
I started to go bald at 18, lost my confidence at 19. I remember when I was rinsing my face and hair in the bathroom sink and the hair just started to fall off. Literal chunks where coming off when I ran my fingers through it. You’ll never understand how important hair is unless you’ve lost it. I loved styling my hair and never had a hat on, but as my hair changed so did my attitude towards hats. Now I wear them everywhere. I have to because I genuinely feel disgusted when looking in the mirror. I’ve already lost so much of my life to this. I’m already 24 and feel like my life is just sliding by while I just keep hiding my embarrassment and stay away from people. Hopefully one day I can afford to go to surgery and get my life back.
Use adegan dude, it’s getting my hair back that’s been gone for 5 years, I have severe balding too.
Use topical minoxidil at the least and additionally use finasteride tablets if you want to stop hairfall completely and reverse your balding completely.
Side effects in finasteride are temporary and in only 4% population. Can discontinue if you feel the side effects.
I’m a doc, you can trust me.
Have you already watched one of baldcafe’s videos? We have a great community there
Man I am 24 and already bald but am not out of “it is what it is” yet.
Should I do anything about my hair ? I can’t tell if I’m bald enough to warrant any action. My profile picture is about what my hair looks like
This is my greatest fear but I guess I should feel fortunate thick black hair runs in my family, I’m 34 and still have thick black hair, granted it isn’t as thick as in my 20s but definitely not thinking. I really wish a treatment comes around for all the men who can’t embrace the bald look.
A lot of stuff in this video is true but I have to digress. Hair loss is not the same as balding. I’ve gone to almost 3 clinics that claimed that I had male patterned baldness (at the ripe age of 18). I’ve been shedding hair massively and also started forming a spot at the back of my head (now I’m in my mid twenties). Finasteride and Minoxidil definitely showed really good results, but I wasn’t ready to sacrifice my testosterone and energy levels for the sake of maintaining my hair, just didn’t seem right.
After a lot of reading and going through several papers and stories online, I found out that I never actually had patterned baldness but just a case of severe telogen effluvium. Please remember that not all hair loss is balding. Clinics tend to sell you that narrative even if your condition is different to put you on life long meds or surgery.
I was genuinely able to grow my hair after eliminating stress from my life (including not worrying about hair), sleeping well and eating well, I shampoo only once a month after my haircut(because shampoos have done me more harm than good), but ofc take a warm shower daily. I also massage my scalp very lightly to get the blood flowing.
One of the main reasons I felt I wasn’t balding was because there hasn’t been a genetic history of balding in my family. Plus I never had the ‘typical’ receding hairline – sure my hairline was receding, but it felt like my hair was fragile (like just pulling on it would make it fall) . That felt like the core issue.
Before you conclude that you’re balding, make sure you educate yourself first on the types of hair loss that’s possible. It’s very easy to be confused/convinced. Next, set things that are in your control right – diet(massive emphasis on this), sleep, stress and hair products. Make sure you don’t have any infections or auto immune disorders, severe dandruff can also lead to massive hair loss. And after you’ve done all this, I’d suggest trying Minoxidil first. If that works well then you’re definitely one of the luckier people and it could potentially halt your condition.
If all this fails, then think of surgery or just shaving. Definitely not worth trying the finasteride. And if you do decided to let nature have its way, then that’s also completely fine, there’s courage in that. Your value isn’t in your hair, it’s probably just time to accept that and move on.
I hope this helps anyone who’s reading.
Keep up the great work!
Great content! Thank you!