I paid $1,500 to save my thinning hair. Was it worth it?

I’m lasting extracurricular my ablution and I don’t privation to spell in.

I’m not bushed oregon successful a rush, simply avoiding the reckoning of however overmuch hairsbreadth I’ll suffer this time. This dread has been my changeless companion ever since I lathered up, rinsed and watched handfuls of soiled blonde strands ellipse the drain 3 weeks ago. It wasn’t the mean 100 to 150 strands everyone sheds daily; these were heavy clumps of thing I ne'er imagined I could lose.

I comb the conditioner done mildly and travel distant with more. And more. I consciousness fragile, terrified to propulsion my hairsbreadth up. Even laying my caput connected my pillow feels similar a risk. “This can’t beryllium happening,” I wail, my hands shaking arsenic I consciousness the unprecedented thinness of my ponytail. My caput searches for answers: Is it the creatine? The estrogen cream? The trendy hairsbreadth vitamins from Erewhon I’ve been choking down religiously?

Turns out, I’m not alone. More than 85% of men and 33% of women acquisition hairsbreadth nonaccomplishment successful their lifetimes, but I ne'er thought I’d beryllium 1 of them. Between aging, accent and the emergence of GLP-1s (aka Ozempic) hairsbreadth nonaccomplishment has ne'er been much common. “I’ve seen much clients experiencing shedding and thinning implicit the past fewer years,” says Liz Jung, a Los Angeles-based hairsbreadth colorist. “It utilized to travel up occasionally, but present it’s portion of astir each consultation. I’ve seen confident, radiant women commencement hiding nether hats due to the fact that they don’t consciousness similar themselves anymore.” Yep, that was me.

My panic began with ChatGPT, wherever I diagnosed myself with everything from hormonal imbalances and thyroid issues to robust deficiency. Then I spent hours scrolling Instagram studying posts from hair-obsessed influencers similar @hairlossgirlboss, @Sofiahairhealth and @AbbeyYung. I doubled down connected biotin, Amazon-Primed pumpkin effect lipid supplements and surgically applied Epres enslaved repair attraction 3 times a week. When the fistfuls of hairsbreadth persisted, I tore done Los Angeles for someone, anyone, who could archer maine wherefore this was happening and however to marque it stop.

I saw 3 doctors successful 5 days. Each came highly recommended, yet their prescriptions couldn’t person been much different. The archetypal prescribed an oral pharmaceutical blend with minoxidil, the golden modular for hairsbreadth growth, that I’d request to instrumentality for life. The 2nd championed 3 sessions of a buzzy noninvasive attraction that uses a handheld instrumentality to nonstop ultrasound waves and aerial unit to stimulate dormant follicles. The 3rd swore by the large guns: PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injections combined with exosomes — tiny vesicles derived from stem cells that present maturation factors straight to the roots, fundamentally telling them to aftermath up and grow. Desperate for a solution, I was drawn to the assertive approach, but I chose the 3rd doc for a much telling reason. He was the lone 1 who required my humor enactment first.

The chosen one, Dr. Jonathan Shalom, a Beverly Hills-based board-certified doc and hairsbreadth transplant surgeon besides known arsenic Dr. Hair 90210, was each concern arsenic helium withheld a diagnosis until I was successful his seat with his trichoscope successful manus — deliberation high-powered magnifying solid for your scalp. Unlike familial oregon hormone-driven loss, I had a textbook lawsuit of telogen effluvium, oregon accent shedding. Sigh.

“Good news,” Shalom said arsenic helium finished his examination. “Your hairsbreadth isn’t dying, it’s conscionable sleeping. We tin aftermath it up, but we request to beryllium aggressive.” Evidently, telogen effluvium happens erstwhile the assemblage undergoes emotional, carnal oregon hormonal daze and pushes much hairs than accustomed into the resting phase. What I didn’t recognize was that hairsbreadth doesn’t autumn retired due to the fact that of what happened yesterday, it’s what happened 3 months agone (a markedly stressful clip successful my life) — which is wherefore the monolithic nonaccomplishment wholly caught maine by surprise. It tin past 3 to six months but the metallic lining is that telogen effluvium tin beryllium reversed.

“Just cognize that reversing hairsbreadth nonaccomplishment is simply a agelong game,” Shalom said. “We’re talking six months minimum.” Oh, hellhole no was my gut reaction. After a litany of stressful events, I couldn’t grip much handfuls of hair. If I could velocity this up with immoderate modern-day medicine, I was game.

Since my hairsbreadth was “stuck” successful a resting phase, my attraction was designed to reset the scalp situation and nudge the follicles to turn again. I reclined successful the exam seat arsenic Shalom parted my hairsbreadth into sections and cleansed the country with an antiseptic liquid. The archetypal measurement was injecting my scalp (many times) with PRP created from my ain blood, which contains maturation factors the assemblage uses for healing. Shalom swears by his double-spin, double-chamber PRP system, which helium says yields a cleaner, higher-concentration product. My scalp was a small bloody, but acknowledgment to a fewer pokes of lidocaine, the injections were comparatively painless. But just warning, the temple country tin beryllium a small spicy.

Next came stamping my scalp from hairline to crown with a medical-grade microneedling device, creating microchannels (or mini-tears) to stimulate collagen and humor travel portion expanding absorption of the leader ingredient: proprietary exosomes. Shalom rubbed the liquid, stored successful a tiny vial, into my scalp with his gloved fingertips. Once attraction was complete, my hairsbreadth looked bedewed with a faint blood-red hue and felt a spot sticky, but it was thing a shot headdress couldn’t hide. Aftercare instructions were simple: Don’t lavation for 24 hours and instrumentality with the ketoconazole shampoo, which I’d already been utilizing 3 times a week to forestall further thinning. “PRP and exosomes are 1 of the astir precocious regenerative combinations we person successful hairsbreadth restoration close now,” Shalom said. “It’s minimally invasive, biologically earthy and designed to assistance the scalp relation optimally.”

But exosomes travel with caveats. They aren’t FDA-approved for hairsbreadth loss, and the probe consists mostly of tiny studies involving conscionable a fewer patients. The contented isn’t safety, but uncertainty. Experts don’t afloat recognize what is successful exosomes oregon what causes their effects. With treatments moving upward of $1,500 per league (which is what I paid), immoderate critics telephone it an costly gamble. Still, frantic and fearful, taking enactment outweighed the risk. I was consenting to effort anything.

So, did it work? Nothing happens overnight successful hairsbreadth restoration, truthful each I could bash was wait. A week later, the shedding slowed to half. Two weeks in, my hairsbreadth felt stronger — and truthful did I. For the archetypal clip successful months, I wasn’t acrophobic to propulsion my hairsbreadth backmost oregon tally my fingers done it without counting what came away. At my 1 period follow-up, Shalom pointed to his trichoscope screen. Baby hairs. Lots of them sprouting up each implicit my scalp. The hairsbreadth was coming back. And with it, the assurance I thought I’d lost.