Regimen listed, some regrowth.

Friends,

I have made a few posts here earlier, and think this forum's doing well. I'm a NW 3.5, on the wrong side of 30. Ok, onto the subject now. Today, I analysed my scalp a bit, and I wasn't expecting much progress since there's not been *much* new hair on my temples, but surprise, I'm definitely seeing significant growth of new hard, prickly hair on the *front* side. I know, pics, or it didn't happen, but I don't have any pre or current pics, but neither do I have an agenda. So, sharing my regimen in case it helps others. This'll be a little detailed.

Back to when I was 20:
I was already wide at temples, and it progressively increased. I remember the initial hairfall was triggered by a stubborn case of dandruff.

Recent past:
In the past year, I have shed 10 kg mass, some due to improper meals, some due to deliberate exercise (in spurts), and some I attribute to drinking green tea and Basil tea. Anyway, I'm much fitter than I was a year ago now, although some 4-5 months ago, I came close to being borderline anaemic (had a blood test, other parameters were fine) with my rbc count and haemoglobin on the boundary. I had a particular bad case of hair fall at the sides and in front, at a lag of 1-2 months of this condition. Since then, more attention to diet, light exercise, and some basic supplementation has got me back to better health. But the run down condition of hair, and the hair fall problem did not stop.

Diet measures for hair:
So, I decided to be aggressive in tackling hair loss. Mostly, my regimen is topical but here's what I've been taking internally for the past 2 months-
* cod liver oil in small doses every other day. As per forums here, better alternatives are krill oil and fish oil, but they are not easily available in these parts (south asia).
* a general vitamin supplement (with panax ginseng) every alternate day.
* small doses of Ayurvedic general health tonic pills, everyday. The ingredients are too many to list.
* A Homoeopathy supplement in pill form, containing Silicea (silicia), Arnica Montana, Calcarea Fluorica, Thuja Occidentalis. I take this supplement in a small dose everyday. The label says- 'Improves functioning of connective tissues'.
* Recently started a once-a-day homoeopathic alphalpha general tonic.
* Now the normal food part. Increased intake of curcumin (turmeric), tomatoes, garlic, onions.
* In fruits, particularly apples, of a yellow or green variety.
* A predominantly non-veg meal, 2 or 3 times a week.
* I habitually already take green tea and basil tea (have been taking them regularly for the past year). Added occasional ginger tea, bay leaf tea, and spearmint tea in the past 3 months.
* Last but not the least , Gooseberry juice aka Amla juice aka Emblica juice, once or twice a day. Usually I try to drink the gooseberry juice prior to drinking herbal teas in hopes of increasing benefits.

Topicals:
This is where I'm fairly aggressive. I try different things everyday from among those listed below. Daily, I would say, I try one of them on the average, usually at night.
* Prior to applying topicals, I lightly wet my hair and scalp. Else, I boil some water in my kettle, and lightly steam my scalp for about 20 seconds.
* Take some Amla juice in my palm, and massage the scalp with it. Sometimes, I mix it with a little coconut oil, sometime with a little portion of a strong brew of green tea.
* Once a week Bentonite clay mask on the scalp.
* Mix some black pepper powder and a) mustard oil or b) an ayurvedic oil (more details below). This forms a bit of sandy mixture that can exfoliate/abrade the scalp a bit. Massage with this oily mixture.
* Traditional (as opposed to mass consumer products) Ayurvedic oil- I'll list the main ingredients. Base of sesame oil. Added herbs- Eclipta Alba, Centella Asiatica, Emblica, Jatropha Curcas.
* Coconut oils. I'm listing the brands- a) Dabur Vatika, enriched coconut hair oil b) Parachute Advansed, Ayurvedic hot oil.
* Recently, Parachuta Advansed Therapie hair vitaliser (says- for hair fall control, with root healing complex)
* Rosemary essential oil mixed in coconut oil.
* Tea Tree essential oil mixed in coconut oil.
* For washing hair and scalp, an ayurvedic shampoo with much the same ingredients as the traditional Ayurvedic Oil I mentioned previously. Or, a mild herbal shampoo.
* On occasion, a little lacto-calamine lotion on the front and sides of scalp
* At times, instead of coconut oil as base for adding other things, I use aloe vera juice as base.
* A light homoeopathic oil- has mainly arnica montana, with some jaborandi and calendula.
* Lastly, I try (and don't succeed much with) Tom Hagerty's scalp exercises, on rare occasion. The more I do it, the better I seem to get at it, though, and it does feel great overall.

The reader might do some web search to find the details on some branded products I mentioned. Hope you had fun reading this. :-)

This is not a magic bullet, obviously, but seems to be reversing my hair loss (that is, showing some regrowth at the temples and frontside), so please take it for what it is.

To add to all this, a little about my metabolism. I'm a medium-slow oxidiser, an 'O' blood type, and an Ayurvedic Vata-Kapha type (search web for online tests).

On the flip side, I do smoke 1-2 cigarettes a day. Have a sedentary work life, and don't exercise as much as I should.

hope this is useful to some fellow sufferer,
9r5