Hey buddy (firstly, sorry if this is too long to read),

Hope all is well on your end. I can understand what you may be going through; although truthfully we experience things differently as individuals. Some of us may not think too much about this issue while others may want to resolve it to the best of their abilities.

Firstly, may I ask how you know you are experiencing male pattern baldness? Did you consult with a dermatologist or was it mainly googling about male baldness and looking in the mirror?

I am no expert in this field but I would like to share a little of what I've experienced with this issue.

My first recommendation is to go see a dermatologist; because that is what I did.

I've always had a widows peak (and still do) and I'm not sure how to describe my hair type but I guess you could say that it is moderately thick but the individual hair strands are fine. You'll see others with a lot of hair AND their individuals strands are super thick like fibre optic cable thick (a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea). Those guys are blessed, let me tell you that.

So when I was younger like in my teens, I didn't know what a widow's peak was and I when I reached my mid to late teens my friends kept teasing me that I was going to lose my hair by my mid 20s because of the widow's peak 'v' line they saw on my hairline. Most of my friends had straight hair lines so maybe that's why my widow's peak kinda stood out?

Anyway, I didn't do much research but instead got worried about losing my hair by my 20s. So I tried all sorts of stuff, from thickening shampoos to ointments to hair tonics and on the diet end I ate biotin, lots of greens, soya milk what have you.

Thankfully my hair stayed with me throughout my 20s and I figured maybe it was because I tried all that stuff - is why it stayed with me.

Then there was a particular time in my late 20s just pushing 30 that work got really stressful and I myself noticed my hair thinning. I panicked of course, I thought heck, maybe my friends were right but they were just a decade wrong on the timeline haha.

First thing I did was went to the hair care centres and it may work for some people but I highly doubt those who diagnosed me were doctors or dermatologists. All they did was take the magnifier and look at my scalp, told me something along the lines of 'most people with thick hair have two or more strands per root' and I only had one strand per root and it is a sign of balding/thinning. But their package and treatment cost too much so I didn't even go for it.

I decided to do something about it and visited this dermatologist in KL, on Jalan Imbi. I can give you the name via PM if you'd like, or if you google 'Jalan Imbi Dermatologist' the clinic name will show up. He told me that actually it is hard to say whether I am truly experiencing male pattern baldness, but that there definitely is some thinning going on. He said not to worry and prescribed me with 5% Minoxidil to start with.

Thankfully the Minoxidil worked because my family and friends actually noticed something different about my hair although they kept saying they could not really pin-point it. I only went to the dermatologist a second time for a follow up consultation and second bottle of minoxidil. After that I bought minoxidil from Mudah and thankfully no issues so far.

If you are concerned about side-effects, it's better to see a dermatologist, thankfully I had none except that my eye brows got thicker and longer  which I'm not complaining about. Also, about how long you have to use it, well, they say basically it's not a cure and you'd have to keep using it or the thinning will start again. There was a period between 2014-2016 that I didn't use it for close to a year and a half because I wanted to test whether the thinning would start again and thankfully it didn't. Now I use it sparingly, like 2-3 times a week sometimes I skip a few weeks.

At the same time, I was also researching shampoos to combat thinning and among the many options, I tried Nioxin. So far these two have worked for me. The Nioxin I don't use everyday because it is expensive for a shampoo, I use other brands on the days I don't use Nioxin.

Diet wise, biotin I have stopped because I didn't really see the differences.

Hope this helps bro and again, sorry if too long to read.

PM me if you have any questions.

All the best and I hope you manage to find a solution.