rant on the hair loss community / industry.

It's incredibly annoying to me. 

I've wasted hours pouring over various studies, articles, and YouTube videos. I've lost sleep and exercise time. I've been distracted at work and while studying. I'm exhausted. I feel horrible. 

It's impossible to find information that isn't super biased. On Reddit and in general, there's an enormous circlejerk over finasteride (I'm really starting to hate that word) and how it's the only thing that will work. You cannot find a thread about hair loss without someone preaching about it. Yet, even if there is only a 0.1% chance of sexual side effects (it's greater: I've heard anything from 2% to 15%, which is a wild range), it is not worth it. If the incidence of those specific side effects is any greater than the chance of getting them normally, it is not worth it, because it defeats the purpose of trying to regrow hair in the first place. 

At that point, I would just go bald. 

My dermatologist prescribed it to me and I was going to do the topical one, but there just isn't enough evidence yet for the lack of side effects. Very small sample sizes in the studies. Thanks, but no thanks. 

But if you look up stuff like laser light therapy, almost all of the people have been sponsored. Or the before/after pics have the before picture wet, and the after picture dry. 

The derma needling stuff just seems painful, and you have to sanitize very carefully to avoid a risk of infection. 

But apparently without the stuff that gives you ED it isn't worth trying anything? I doubt it. 

If you pay 25K or whatever for a hair transplant? You've still got to get on the pills that kill your boners, after finishing. Screw. That. 

There are SO many products and things out there. And there's no foolproof way of verifying that any of them aren't complete and utter useless garbage. 

I got really sidetracked today, thinking of trying a laser cap and then leaving an HONEST, unpaid review about it, on my blog and maybe on YouTube, after the recommended amounts of time. I don't know. 

The problem is that those stupid things cost thousands of dollars. The cheaper ones have less diodes, and I can't find any definitive information on what's better or worse in that regard. 

Also, the laser caps are sketchy because you're not supposed to use them if you have increased sensitivity to light. I technically do, because of the Bactrium and Retina that I take for acne treatments. But then again, the same warning comes on SAD lamps and I don't have any issues with my Verilux, plus I spent all day outside on many a summer Saturday -- again, no issues. I could just wear it after my daily sunscreen application. 

I think at this point, I will either get an iRestore or a Kiierr device, and just do some sort of experiment to measure if it does anything with my hairline. If anything, I'll be helping others who need additional data.  I'm leaning towards iRestore right now because Kiierr looks like one of those sketchy Utah MLMs, and they only have reviews on their website. This screams bias and filtering out negative reviews to me. 

If it doesn't work, I guess the Rock still looks good bald. Of course, he is probably on steroids, which usually have similar sexual side effects to the sketchy DHT blockers. I really don't want to shave my head though, so I'd probably just leave it as is. You know what they say, after all...Life sucks and then you die. I wish I had the hair I did in high school...I was just so shy then. It's a curse that when I finally started to get over that, my hair started falling out. And in my early 20s too. The maternal grandmother thing is complete BS! 

I'm at a loss. But I can't keep wasting time going down internet rabbit holes, trying to avoid every possible scam. As a result, I'll probably just drop some money on a cap and run my own little experiment to see what happens. Make a decision and stick to it -- stopping with the analysis paralysis. After that? I don't really know.