Bemoaning Baldness: Male Confidential

Happy Father’s Day to our devoted, loving menfolk.

In clinical conversations with my male clients, I find one point of confidential concern has been balding and hair loss. Ladies, we know how devastating thinning hair can be. Why would we think the emotional toll is any less for our men?

As you know, I have always cheered for the great men in homeopathy and our personal lives. Societally, men have been given short shrift as of late. I, for one, am a fan of and grateful for men's colossal achievements. So I'd like to help them when I can.

One of my students recently asked, “Is the protocol for male baldness the same as alopecia for women?”

Thank you for that question, as it provides me with two excellent teaching moments.

First, homeopathy is generally the same for women, men, babies, seniors, dogs, cats, cows and giraffes.

Granted, a few exceptions exist where a particular protocol may have historically been utilized in one gender over another. However, homeopathy is more often than not an equal-opportunity medical paradigm.

In other words, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander (and actual geese).

Secondly, an understanding of synonyms can be vital in homeopathy. (Yes, even for common words like baldness.)

You might be wise to keep a thesaurus right next to your repertory and materia medica in your homeopathic library.

In the year of Mastery™ following my Academy of Practical Homeopathy®, students and I spend a great deal of time “wordsmithing” as we look up definitions and synonyms of conditions and symptoms. While our language can be exceedingly nuanced, at the end of the day, many differing terms are just alternate ways of expressing the same thing.

For instance, is there a radical difference between indigestion and reflux?

Some people use the term quinsy instead of sore throat.

Do you call it eczema or contact dermatitis?

I prefer otitis media over ear infections.

A rose is a rose is a rose. There are many words meaning the same condition or symptom. Sometimes, the Practical Homeopath® needs to differentiate; sometimes not.

Indeed, in this case, alopecia, baldness, hair loss and hair fall are relative synonyms — all tantamount to the same pathology. When choosing a homeopathic medicine for this condition, we don’t necessarily need to split hairs (pardon the pun).

So, to answer my student’s question, yes. The protocol for male baldness would be the same as for female alopecia.

Usually, by middle age, men have adjusted to the inevitability of their burgeoning scalp and have given up. Consequently, I have no experience with a more advanced case of male pattern baldness, so I cannot guarantee the protocol’s efficacy at that point.

Homeopathy can address male hair loss.

Borrowing from the Drs. Banerji, I have found in my clinical experience that the protocol of Ustilago maidis 200 (once daily, until very much better) has worked well with younger men at the onset of hair loss. I’ve written about this protocol before.

I’ve successfully utilized Equisetum mother tincture, commonly known as horsetail, both personally and professionally. I put 15-20 drops in my beverages one to three times during the day. (Mighty Members can find more specific information in several of my weekly Memos by searching the archives for “Equisetum” on their Mighty Members page. If you’re not yet a Mighty Member, what’s keeping you? Join us for more candid educational conversations tinged with a personal touch.)

Joe DeLivera, a homeopath known to the internet as JoePathy, also recommends Arnica montana 30, prepared as a water dose and spritzed on the hair’s problem areas. (Learn the specifics of preparing JoePathy’s water dose in my blog post, When in Doubt, Arnica.)

With any of these methods, you’ll also want to add a “tincture of time.” By that, I mean that restored hair growth won’t necessarily occur overnight! But within months, one might expect to see:

1. A halting of the progression of hair loss
2. A reversal of the hair loss
3. New hair growth

Ladies, today, we will spend time appreciating our men. But let’s not reserve that effort for only one day. Let’s join together to help make our men’s lives better every day by helping them through the inevitable injuries, diseases and annoyances that can weigh heavily on them.

How? By passing on the good news of Practical Homeopathy®, of course.

Happy Father’s Day, men. As always, we love and admire you!

Warmly,