I have been battling with hair loss for a long time. I tried many different products and eventually stumble across Lipogaine. I just wish that I have heard of Lipogaine earlier. I believe there are many people like me out there. This is the reason why I want to share my experience with you.
I have been using Lipogaine for men product for over 1.5 years. It has worked for me. I wouldn’t dish out $25 every month if I did not believe it was the single most important reason why I’ve been able to maintain hair in some areas of my head and grow it back in others. The biggest regret I have is not starting sooner because I would have been able to stop more hair from falling out.
A little bit about me… I am 25 years old and am a Norwood 2 on the scale. My hairloss started very early at age 16, but progressed slowly. I didn’t do anything about it until the age of 23, when I could no longer hide the bald spots on the left and right top corners of my head. I then did some research and bought my first bottle of Lipogaine. It’s been one of the smartest investments I’ve ever made. It works for me. It has largely stopped my hairloss on the left and right front corners of my head and it has restored all of my hair in the temple area. I recommend buying this product and trying it out for a minimum of 3-4 months to see if it will work for you too.
THE LONG VERSION
If you want to know more about my experiences and observations about this product in the 1.5 years I’ve used it, keep reading. I will write about some tips and observations about this product and other products I currently use.
OBSERVATION #1. The product WORKS, but has limitations. Is it able to STOP hair loss? For me, ABSOLUTELY YES (but every person is different). Is it able to GROW NEW hair? Well…KINDA. What I mean is that, in my experience, it can grow hair if the hair follicle in your scalp has not completely died out. In other words, if you have a completely bald spot that has been that way for the last two years, chances are that you will not get new hair growth there if you buy this product. The product inhibits harmful DHT hormones, thus allowing the existing follicles to grow mostly uninhibited. But it does NOT plant new follicles in your head. It is NO miracle cure, at least in my experience. What this treatment did for me is that all the hair that was ever going to grow back, grew within the first 3 to 4 months of using the product. After that, no new hair was growing. All the hair in my left and right temple area came back. 50% of the hair in my top right corner also came back. I wasn’t so lucky for the top left corner. That’s where I had the most dead follicles so only 10-15% of this hair grew back. But at least the remaining follicles grew thicker and stronger. I am happy with the results because at last now I can hide my bald spots in this area again. I SHOULD HAVE started this treatment as early as possible in order to prevent DHT damage to follicles that was irreversible before they died out. That is why here is my tip number one for you.
TIP #1: If you have already decided that you want to go down the minoxidil path for the rest of your life, start using this product ASAP, as early as possible. The longer you wait, the more damaged your follicles will become by DHT, until at one point the follicle will completely die out. When that happens, all the Minoxidil in the world won’t help you short of a hair transplant in that area of your head. So get on some sort of DHT blocker immediately if you don’t want to lose any more hair. I recommend using Lipogaine, but there’s much cheaper options on Amazon. Are they as effective? I don’t know. Are they as cleanly applied? No, Lipogaine has an advantage there if you have a busy schedule.
OBSERVATION #2: When you first start using the product, you will experience heavy shedding of hair. It will seem like the product is balding you even more. This is NORMAL and will go on for 2 to 3 weeks, if memory serves me right. It is a sign that the product is WORKING, so don’t freak out! As far as I understand, the reason why this happens is because the product speeds up the life cycle of some of these hairs, making them fall out initially. Don’t worry, they will soon be replaced by thicker versions of themselves. Stick with the product for at least 3 months before you chuck it completely saying that it doesn’t work.
TIP #2: Use the product DAILY, twice a day. I use it once in the morning when I wake up, and once at night before going to bed. I try to space out at least 8 hours between the two applications. Missing one application a day isn’t the end of the world (and I have missed one on many days), but you want to have the product be as effective as possible. I mean you’re spending $25 a month plus shipping for this little bottle. So try to stick to a set schedule. And be strict about it. To apply, use the dropper to pull out about 1.0 mL of Lipogaine solution and then apply directly to the scalp where you want your hair to stop falling and new hair to come out. Be sure your head is clean and dry. You want the liquid to seep into your scalp. Applying the product is a learning process, but soon you will get the hang of it. I put the dropper directly on the scalp so that as little as possible gets on my actual hair. You want your scalp, not your hair, to absorb this. If it starts to trickle down your forehead, just use a finger to gently rub it into the scalp. You want your scalp to be clean and dry for better absorption.
OBSERVATION #3: When you apply the product, you have about a 5 minute window until it dries, depending on how wet or dry your scalp is. The drier your head, the faster the product dries, which is good. You want a dry head of hair before applying the product so as to avoid the product climbing up on your hair follicles because it is being wasted there. Sometimes I will apply a little smidge to my actual hair because the product also acts as a gel and dries your hair in place. That’s a real plus so you don’t have to buy other harmful gel products, which I do not recommend that you use at all, especially if you have hairloss. Drop them right now and buy this product instead. This “gelling” ability is an advantage Lipogaine has over other minoxidil products.
TIP #3: Try to shower the product off every day after it has already dried on your scalp and been there for many hours. It has already served its purpose and you want to have the pores on your scalp be open and clean again for the new application of Lipogaine. I shower every morning. In my experience, if you just keep applying layer after layer of Lipogaine to the scalp without showering for more than two days, you will see that the product will start to flake off from your scalp and it will look like you have dandruff on your hair. It will also become kind of whitish on your hair and make you look like you have grey hair. At this point, you definitely need to go take a shower.
OBSERVATION #4: About 4 months into my treatment I was experiencing faster hairloss and the gains seemed to be reversing slowly. When I dug deeper into it, it seemed like the company had changed the formula. The story is the FCC prohibited them from using azelaic acid. Lipogaine denies this, but when you compare the product labeling one key ingredient *Azelaic Acid* became “DHT blocker proprietary blend with Azetinol”, and there’s no denying that. Many people claim it’s basically still the same thing. I’m not so sure, but continued use with this new version has at least been able to maintain existing hair follicles for me and I have seen some new growth in the form of thin short hair follicles but I do not believe they will grow into full mature healthy hairs. But if I had to choose, I’d want the old formula back.
TIP #4: Use Lipogaine Minoxidil solution in conjunction with other products. When you do this, you fight DHT in more ways and have a better chance of recuperating your lost hair. I will list here what I use in order of priority from most potent and important to least important:
A) MINOXIDIL Solution. I recommend Lipogaine. Yes, this is the most important weapon in my arsenal of fighting hairloss. Even if you don’t have the money for Lipogaine, then at least buy some sort of minoxidil solution. The longer you wait, the worse it gets for you. Each bottle lasts 1 month used twice daily. Each bottle costs $25 for a total of $300 yearly.
B) KETOCONAZOLE Shampoo. An absolute must have for anyone with hairloss would be a ketoconazole shampoo. Ketoconazole is the active ingredient in shampoos that fight against dandruff, but it has been clinically proven to effectively fight against hairloss. For me it is very important to use a keto shampoo. I have used Lipogaine Big 3, Regenpure, and a few others. I recommend these two, but there’s other options on Amazon. They each cost about $25 plus shipping and generally last me about 3 months per bottle if used every morning in the shower. Yearly costs will run you $100.
C) AZELAIC ACID cream. Since Lipogaine no longer has azelaic acid in this form, I have bought the cream myself from eBay. Just search on eBay for it and you will see several options. I am using Skinoren 20%, but there’s other options. I do believe it makes a difference. I recently started (2 months ago) using it on my head and have seen improvement on areas of my head that seemed to be hopelessly gone forever. There’s short thin follicle sprouts in these areas. They probably won’t ever grow to full mature hairs, but this is evidence that Azelaic Acid blocks DHT on that part of the head where I need it to work. Azelaic Acid is actually an acne cream. You can buy the cream for maybe $20 and it can last about 4 months. I use it once every night, because it does dry your scalp, so I leave it overnight and shower it off in the morning. Then I don’t apply it again until the next night. Yearly costs are about $60 + shipping.
D) MICRONEEDLE ROLLER. You can buy one from amazon for like $7 and it can last you up to a year. The one I bought has 1.5mm 540 needles. Why is it important to buy it? Well, because you can roll it on your scalp and create little microscopic incisions, which can make the lipogaine and azelaic acid better able to penetrate the skin and get deep in there to block the DHT under your scalp. I don’t recommend using more than once a day, but definitely more than 3 times a week, in my opinion. I spray alcohol to clean mine after each use. There’s an added bonus to the microneedle roller, which is that you can use it over your wrinkles to stimulate collagen production on your skin. Check out youtube videos about it. If you buy two a year, it will cost you about $15 total.
E) ARGAN OIL. I feel like this product has helped nourish my hair more than just cosmetically. Certainly if you use azelaic acid on your scalp, it can dry the scalp. So I use this product every morning after I shower. After drying my head, I put this on first, let dry for about 5 minutes and then apply Lipogaine. This product will last at least 4 months and costs about $20 on Amazon. Actually, when this bottle ends, I am considering buying the shampoo form of it and not buying the BIOTIN shampoo that I use in the shower addition to the Ketoconazole shampoo. But if you do want to buy this product (it has great amazon reviews), it will run you back about $60/year.
F) BIOTIN shampoo. I use the Nexxus VitaTres Biotin ONE and it makes my hair fuller and gives it biotin, which is essential to the health of your hair. I use two shampoos in the shower, the ketoconazole shampoo (Lipogaine or Regenpure) and the Biotin shampoo. As I said above, I’m thinking of swapping the biotin shampoo for the Pura D’Or argan oil shampoo. The Pura D’or shampoo is a bit more expensive, but then again I won’t have to buy the additional argan oil bottle. So I’d be spending less in total. But if you want a volumizing to make your hair look fuller, consider this one. If you get the pack of two deal at $30, that’s all you need to spend for a full year, since each bottle lasts me about 6 months.
G) OTHER PRODUCTS. As you can see, there’s six products that I use on my hair listed in order of importance. I don’t necessarily think that you can’t stop your hairloss unless you use all of them. If you’re on a budget, just buy a cheaper minoxidil product and a ketoconazole shampoo and that alone will help considerably. But if you’re able to spend more, then consider these other products which I have tried and which have given me results to various degrees. They’re all well-regarded products on amazon. I have also bought biotin pills, but found that, apart from making my nails stronger, they didn’t have any visible effects on my hair, which is also why I will probably not buy the Biotin shampoo after I’m done with it and go straight for the Pura D’Or shampoo. Some people choose to take more drastic actions and ingest more potent pills like FINASTERIDE instead of sticking to the topical treatments like me. After doing some research on FINASTERIDE and reading that it could lead to impotence, I decided to steer clear of it. There is only a small chance that it will have this side-effect, but I am not willing to take that risk since my manhood is more important than my hairloss. Each person should do their own research on finasteride and all these other products I’ve listed above before making their own choices.
TIP #5: Now, since you have a listing of all my products I will tell you my daily routine. Basically, I shower in the morning, first applying the KETOCONAZOLE shampoo and leaving it for about 4-5 minutes on my head while in the shower. I usually brush my teeth or scrub my body in the meantime. Then I rinse the Ketoconazole off and apply the BIOTIN shampoo. As I said above, I will probably swap this with the Pura D’Or in the future. I use this second shampoo as a conditioner. Leave it on for 2-3 minutes and then rinse your hair out completely. After jumping out of the shower and drying my hair as well as I can, I apply the ARGAN Oil. I leave that for five minutes and then apply the LIPOGAINE and quickly style my hair.
At night, if my hair is stuck in place due to the minoxidil, I will wet my hair and gently rinse it off. After drying it, I take my microneedle roller, sterilize it in alcohol, rinse, and then apply the microneedle to my scalp in a diagonal fashion. I sterilize it again after I’m finished with it and then apply LIPOGAINE. After 3-5 minutes I will take just a little smidge of AZELAIC acid cream and rub it into my scalp. I put the azelaic acid second on my scalp because I don’t want my pores to be blocked by it.
OBSERVATION #5: Before you buy this product you have to think long and hard. This is something that once you start, you have to stick with it for life or at least until science and medicine find a better solution to hairloss. If you stop using it, all the hair you were able to save during all this time will eventually fall off. That’s a waste of money and money is important factor here. The yearly costs for this hair treatment come out to be around a minimum of $300 plus shipping at $25 a month per bottle of Lipogaine, and this is just for the minoxidil treatment alone! You gotta think long and hard if that’s something you can afford. And if you want to buy the other products I suggested, costs will run you back $600 every year. This is definitely something you want to keep in mind. I always buy products in bulk so as to get free shipping from amazon.
CONCLUSION: I have been using the product for over 1.5 YEARS. The product WORKS, although it is more effective at STOPPING hairloss than REVERSING it. Hairloss for me has almost completely stopped and I was also lucky to experience some new growth, but for areas where I had been bald a long time, there were no results, although some of these areas do show thin hairs about a quarter of an inch long, but I do not believe that they will grow to mature hairs.
You will experience heavy shedding INITIALLY. This is NORMAL and it means the product is working. This hair will come back soon in a fuller and stronger form. Stick with the product for at least THREE MONTHS before saying it doesn’t work. Apply Lipogaine DAILY to a DRY scalp, 1 mL TWICE A DAY with at least 8 HOURS apart between each application. Shampoo your hair daily. I would encourage you to use the OTHER products I mentioned above so that you have a better chance of fighting DHT, stopping hairloss, and getting back new hairs. The product dries fast and can serve as a type of GEL. Do not use other styling products on your hair.
Think long and had if this is something that you want to go into. Once you start the treatment, you CANNOT STOP or the hair that you gained while on the treatment will fall off. COSTS per year for this product are at least $300. Try to get deals for FREE SHIPPING by buying in bulk. For me the costs are totally worth the head of hair that I have now and I do not regret going down this path. My biggest regret is not starting SOONER because I could have saved more hair follicles before they died out completely. Hope this review helps you make your own decision. GOOD LUCK with your hair loss.
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