The Best Hair Loss Treatments That Actually Helped Address My Thinning Hair

21.08.2026, 19:07 allure.com

At first, I thought it was stress. Or maybe hairstyles like tight ponytails. I was seeing more hair in the shower drain, more scalp peeking through my part, but I figured it was temporary. I was wrong. Hair loss doesn’t come in loud—it creeps in. By the time it’s visible, it’s already settled in like a long-term tenant.

My dermatologist diagnosed me with androgenetic alopecia—a fancy way of saying “your hair is genetically programmed to peace out early.” (It’s different from alopecia areata, which is an autoimmune disease that causes baldness, as well as frontal fibrosing alopecia, a rare new form of alopecia that can occur during menopause.) Even though androgenetic alopecia is known as male-pattern baldness, it’s not just a guy’s issue. This type of hair loss is the most common type of hair-loss in women, according to the American Academy of Dermatology—which isn’t surprising once you factor in iron deficiency, vitamin D deficiency, stress, and hormonal changes. Lucky me, I had all of the above.

I thought I could reverse my female-pattern hair loss with over-the-counter supplements or less heat styling. Turns out, that’s like trying to fix a broken bone with a Band-Aid. Hair loss is a medical condition. And if you’re dealing with it, you’re not curing it. You’re managing it—daily—for the long haul.

There are a lot of treatment options for hair loss out there, from the painful (like platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, to the drastic (see: hair transplants). These days, my hair-loss treatments are somewhere between clinical protocol and beauty ritual. Each morning starts with popping pills that I call hair candy, and they carry hormonal weight. I take OTC vitamin D3 and iron supplements every morning. Bloodwork revealed I had a nutritional deficiency in both—classic causes of hair loss. I also take spironolactone 50mg daily, a prescription medication that blocks androgens (the hormones responsible for miniaturizing hair follicles, which include dihydrotestosterone, or DHT). Think of it as HRT for your scalp. Then there’s oral minoxidil, essentially the oral version of Rogaine. It’s off-label for women (meaning it’s not FDA-approved for this purpose), but game-changing. Hello, fluffy new hair growth on my temples.

Then there’s the minoxidil foam, which fizzes into my scalp like it’s doing something profound. My shampoo is vaguely medicinal, and I apply it only to my scalp, as directed by a dermatologist with a hair-loss specialty. I also wear a red-light therapy helmet that makes me look like I’m training for space camp. It’s a process. But it’s working. Here's what goes into my routine.

Blitzer before and after starting her hair-growth routine.

John Frieda

Walmart (Shampoo)

Amazon (Shampoo)

Walmart (Conditioner)

Amazon (Conditioner)

Why I love it: On wash days, I shampoo with John Frieda ULTRAfiller+ Thickening Shampoo and Conditioner to give my hair extra fullness. These 2025 Allure Best of Beauty Award winners plump and give fine, thin hair extra body with hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (a plant-derived polymer), biotin, hyaluronic acid. With both, my fine hair can fake confidence.

Style Edit

Amazon

Why I love it: Let’s be honest: sometimes you want instant results. That’s where touch-up powder comes in. Style Edit Root Touch Up Powder is basically matte tinted makeup that clings to your scalp and makes thinning patches disappear. Poof! If it’s a trick, it’s a good one—and I’m not above sorcery. I keep one in my bag, one in my desk, and one in my bathroom. It looks like matte dark brown eyeshadow and blends seamlessly with your natural hair color. I use the Dark Brown. It comes in four shades.

Rogaine

Amazon

Walmart

Why I love it: Every evening, I massage Rogaine Women’s 5% Minoxidil Foam—a longstanding Best of Beauty Award winner—into my scalp. It’s a little sticky but worth the slightly textured roots. Topical minoxidil works by keeping follicles in their growth phase. Stop applying it, and those hairs fall out. This is forever maintenance to prevent further hair loss. Applied daily, this mousse-like foam can increase hair density over several months.

Nizoral

Amazon

Walmart

Why I love it: When my scalp feels itchy, I reach for Nizoral Anti-Dandruff Shampoo 1% Ketoconazole, which has anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory benefits. It’s formulated for dandruff, but the 1% ketoconazole helps with thinning hair by reducing scalp inflammation, which can contribute to hair shedding. I massage it just to the scalp, not the hair, and let it marinate for five minutes while I shave my legs. The medicinal smell is oddly reassuring.

CurrentBody

CurrentBody

Why I love it: My scalp and I both have therapists. LED therapy is now part of my routine. Every night, I strap on the pricey-but-totally-worth-it CurrentBody LED Hair Growth Helmet, which makes me look like I’m training for NASA. It's an FDA-cleared device that stimulates follicles with red light (in the 650nm wavelength range, specifically), which helps increase hair density and reduce shedding.

Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) has solid science behind it: It penetrates the scalp and stimulates hair follicles at the cellular level by increasing ATP (energy) production, improving blood flow, and reducing inflammation—factors that can contribute to hair growth. I use it for 10 minutes a night while watching reruns of The Real Housewives because, like those women, my follicles thrive on drama and attention. [Editor's note: Red light therapy devices can be hit or miss, but CurrentBody did third-party clinical testing that showed improvements in hair growth and hair density, as well as a reduction in hair loss. However, this was not a double-blind, randomized study, which Allure considers the gold standard.]

So, what’s my hair like now? That’s complicated. It’s better, definitely. But we’re not in voluminous shampoo-commercial territory. At its worst, my strands were shedding faster than I could vacuum them up. I had sparse hair everywhere, with extra thinning along my part and temples. But baby-fine hair growth around my hairline started to give me hope. It was giving “barren lawn with patchy new grass,” not “lush summer meadow.”

The most important thing I’ve learned? You can’t phone this in. It’s a lifestyle, not a quick fix. Hair restoration is slow, incremental, and requires commitment. I’ve learned the hard way: Slack off for a few weeks, and the hair fall returns like it never left. But it works!

Santa Monica-based board-certified dermatologist Karyn Grossman, MD, put it best to me, saying: “Hair is like a garden. You water it. You fertilize it. And you keep doing that even after it starts to grow.” That advice lives rent-free in my head. My hair isn’t where it was in high school, but it’s thicker, stronger, and still growing. I can wear it down without checking my part in every mirror. The progress is real—and it’s powered by a routine that’s worth every step.

When Allure tests a product, our editors look at it from every angle in an effort to best serve you. We are particularly discerning when writing about devices. This is because of the increased risks and, in many cases, the high price points, that accompany at-home dermatological tools and devices.

Each device we test undergoes extensive testing and vetting, and must be approved by senior members of our beauty team prior to appearing in Allure. For this story about the best hair loss treatments, our writer, Polly Blitzer, sought out different types of products (with the guidance of board-certified dermatologists) to treat her hair loss. Blitzer is experiencing female pattern hair loss in her 40s, and is the exact kind of customer who would buy and benefit from this type of advice. This was important to us for our review, as we don't want someone who isn't currently experiencing hair loss to be the primary tester.

Additionally, our editorial team consults board-certified dermatologists and cosmetic chemists about the science behind product claims and independently reviews any studies cited by brands. To learn more information on what's involved in our reporting, check out our complete reviews process and methodology page.

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