I Was Voted Best Hair in High School. It Took Me Twenty Years To Learn Why I Started Balding.
The same hormone that grows a beard was thinning my scalp. The difference comes down to one signal nobody ever told me about.
I Tried Everything On The List, In The Order Everyone Tries It
The photo on the left is me in my senior year of high school. My graduating class voted my hair the best in the school. The photo on the right is a few years later at Michigan State, after my hairline started moving in my second year and didn't stop.
I would wear hats all the time and I would act like it didn't bother me, but it destroyed me.
My mother is a pharmacist and there are three doctors in my family, so the advice came to me at Thanksgiving: minoxidil and finasteride, the two drugs everybody gets told about. I used them every day, and my hair kept thinning anyway.
So I did what you do next. I bought every shampoo on the market and every hair vitamin, and I imported herbs from China because a book said they worked. Then somebody told me a transplant was the real answer, so I had one. A transplant moves hair from where you still have it to where you don't. It was never designed to stop what's causing the loss, and I kept losing my hair.
- Minoxidil and finasteride
- Every shampoo on the market
- Every hair vitamin
- Herbs imported from China
- A hair transplant
Twenty years in, the one thing nobody had given me was an explanation.
So I stopped shopping and started reading: the journals, PubMed, and the patent office. What follows is where that reading leads today, in plain English, and it's simpler than this category makes it sound.
DHT Isn't The Enemy
Almost everything you've heard about hair loss is about DHT, a hormone your body makes from testosterone. Men and women both make it.
But DHT belongs to the same family of hormones that grows a man's beard. The same kind of hormone thickens hair on the face and thins it on top of the head. Researchers writing in The FASEB Journal in 2018 called it a paradox.1
So it isn't about the hormone. It's about how each follicle responds to it.
What runs in families is how sensitive your scalp follicles are, and that's the part you inherit. What happens next, inside the follicle, is the part you can work on.
In A Sensitive Follicle, DHT Switches On A Shut-Down Signal
At the bottom of every follicle is a small control center. It tells the follicle when to grow and how thick a hair to make.
In people whose scalp follicles are sensitive to DHT, DHT reaches that control center and switches on a protein called DKK-1. DKK-1 is a shut-down signal: it turns off the pathway that keeps the follicle in its growing phase.
A study in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology measured it in follicle cells taken from balding scalp. DHT raised DKK-1 more than fourfold, and there was more of it in bald scalp than in scalp that still had hair.2
Researchers still describe it that way. Here's how a 2021 paper in Molecules summed it up:
That signal is the enemy. Not the hormone, and not you.
Then The Signal Reaches The Follicle's Lifeline
The control center has its own tiny blood vessels running into it. They're the follicle's lifeline, because they bring the oxygen and nutrients a growing hair needs. While a follicle is growing, it tells those vessels to grow bigger and reach in.
In 2022, researchers publishing in the same journal looked closely at balding scalp and found DHT's signals were shutting those vessels down. The follicles that had lost them were the ones that had started to shrink.3
That's what thinning actually is. With each growth cycle the follicle gets a little smaller, its growing phase gets a little shorter, and the hair it makes comes in thinner.4 That's why hair loss shows up as a see-through crown, thinning temples, or a wider part long before anything looks bald.
Your body keeps making DHT, so the signal keeps coming back. That's why this moves slowly, and why it doesn't stop on its own.
Why The Usual Answers Only Ever Got Me Partway
Once I understood that, twenty years of my own experience finally made sense.
Almost everything in this category works on one question: how do you get less DHT? That's a real lever. Finasteride and dutasteride lower how much DHT your body makes,5 and a licensed provider can add either one to the formula we make. But neither one takes DHT to zero, and a sensitive follicle keeps responding to whatever's left.
Minoxidil works on a different piece. It turns up the signal that tells the follicle's blood vessels to grow. It's useful, and it's in our formula. It was never built to do anything about the shut-down signal itself.
The question nobody was asking was how to change the follicle's response to DHT.
The answer I kept finding in the literature was two fatty acids, linoleic acid and oleic acid. They'd been studied, they weren't exotic, and nobody sold them in a form built for this. The reason is economics. Anything sold for hair loss in the US has to go through drug approval, approval costs a fortune, and you can't patent something that's already been studied. So nobody pays to develop it.
Between 2014 and 2020 I spent more than a million dollars of my own money working with chemists, formulators, and manufacturers around the world. I sold my house and my car, and I cashed out my 401k. What came out of that is ARB.
ARB Is Built To Turn The Shut-Down Signal Down
ARB is our own blend of linoleic acid and oleic acid, and you can't get it anywhere else. The two acids do two different jobs.
- Linoleic acid works on the signal. In lab studies on human follicle cells, it significantly lowered the DKK-1 that DHT had switched on. In separate lab tests, it switched on the follicle's growth pathway and turned up the signal that tells its blood vessels to grow.6
- It held up with the hormone present. In a study on mice with hormone-related thinning, linoleic acid applied to the skin switched the growth pathway back on and helped follicles get back into their growing phase.7
- Oleic acid carries it in. It loosens the skin's outer barrier so more of the formula gets through to the follicle.8
Here's the linoleic acid finding from the study itself, published in Molecules in 2021. The researchers grew human follicle cells in the lab, added DHT, then added linoleic acid at three strengths and measured how much DKK-1 the cells made.
In the paper's own words:
LA treatment significantly inhibited the expression of DKK1 increased by dihydrotestosterone treatment at a concentration of 30 µg/mL.
Here's what that looks like in the numbers.
Read it left to right. The first bar is the cells on their own. Add DHT, and the shut-down signal goes up. The low and medium doses of linoleic acid barely moved it. At the highest dose, it came back down below where it started, and that was the result that held up statistically.
That's the finding ARB is built around.
ARB doesn't lower your DHT. It's built to change what DHT does once it reaches the follicle.
That leaves one practical problem. Your scalp is built to keep things out, and ARB can only help if it gets there.
Three Steps, Each With One Job: Get ARB There, Then Back It Up
That's why this isn't one bottle. It's a three-step system, and every step exists either to get ARB to the follicle or to back up what it does there.
Step one. ARB reaches your scalp.
The brush clears the oil and dead skin sitting over your follicle openings, and working the lather in for five minutes pushes it down into them. Research on shampoos shows ingredients can reach the follicle within minutes.9
The shampoo also carries caffeine, which in lab studies on human hair follicles pushed back against testosterone's effect on growth.10
Step two. The door opens.
Down the road from me, they aerate the golf greens before they fertilize them, so the fertilizer goes into the turf instead of sitting on top. The roller's tiny needles do the same for your scalp. They open short-lived channels so more of the topical gets through.
Your skin also reacts to those channels the way it reacts to any small injury. It brings more blood to the area for about a day, and it turns up the same signal that tells blood vessels to grow.11
Step three. ARB goes to work.
This is where ARB does its main work, because it stays on your scalp. Minoxidil backs it up by turning up the blood-supply signal.12 Adenosine turns up the same signals, and in small studies in people it increased the number of thick hairs.13 Tretinoin, a prescription retinoid, is there to get more of the formula through your skin. In a study of skin absorption, it nearly tripled how much minoxidil got through.14 It also helps your scalp turn minoxidil into its active form.
If a licensed provider approves it, your formula can also include finasteride or dutasteride. Then the system works on both sides: less DHT, and a follicle that responds differently to what's left.
The brush and five minutes of lather push it in, the roller opens the door, and oleic acid carries it through.
ARB's linoleic acid, in both the shampoo and the topical.
ARB, minoxidil, and adenosine in the topical, with the roller helping.
I regrew my hair at my temples doing this, years before there was a company. That was the first time I believed any of it.
Why It Took Building A Pharmacy To Make It
The tretinoin in step three is the reason this formula was so hard to make. It's prescription-only, so no store can sell a product with it inside, and no over-the-counter product is allowed to combine this many actives in one bottle anyway. The compounding pharmacies I took the formula to couldn't make it, or wouldn't.
So from 2020 to 2026 we built our own, with no outside investors. Today every Adegen topical is compounded at Adegen Pharmacy, our own state-licensed pharmacy here in the US, and a licensed provider reviews every order before anything ships.
This is medicine, not a supplement. The prescription is what lets the formula be the formula.
I Never Asked Anybody To Post Their Pictures
I started a Facebook group so customers could compare notes with each other. I never asked anyone for a photo, and they started posting before-and-afters anyway.
More than 50,000 customers have used Adegen, and a lot of them arrived the way I did, at the end of a list of things that didn't work.
I've been using minoxidil for well over 10 years, which slowed my hair loss, but didn't stop it. I started trying Adegen recently and can honestly say it has stopped my hair loss and I have regrown some hair. I likely won't get all of my hair back since it's been such a long time, but I've had people notice that my hair is now fuller.
I have been using Adegen since October 2024. I've tried so many other treatments over the last 15 years. I have also seen at least 5 specialist who had no answers. … I have been very diligent with the Adegen protocol. It's so exciting to see the hair growth that I was told would never happen! Even my dermatologist said he sees a difference in my hair, and asked what I am using.
I've only been using the products for just under 5 months and I have noticed a big difference in the thickness of my hair. New hairs have began to grow and the thinning areas are filling in particularly on the crown and the front of my head. I have been following the protocol and it works great. At 64 years old, I didn't think this was possible.
Everything On This Page Comes In One Box
The three steps you just read about are the Complete Regrowth Kit.
- ARB Shampoo+ and two Scalp Exfoliation Brushes, for step one
- The Microderm Roller, for step two
- Your ARB Topical, for step three, in 5% or 15% minoxidil, with or without finasteride or dutasteride
The brushes and the roller ship once with your first kit. They're yours to keep, and they're not part of the recurring order.
That's about $3.40 a day for the whole system, and 90-day kits ship free. A 30-day kit starts at $118. The exact price depends on the formula you choose.
I'd start with the 90-day kit, because a hair cycle runs about that long, and it's the shortest window in which you can judge any of this.
There's no money-back guarantee, because medication compounded for one person can't be returned. What you get instead is this: you never pay for anything a licensed provider hasn't approved.
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You choose your formula
On the kit page, pick your minoxidil strength and whether to include finasteride or dutasteride.
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You place the order
Your card is authorized. Nothing is charged yet.
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You complete a medical questionnaire
About five minutes, online, with no appointment.
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A licensed provider reviews your case
They check it against your history and your medications, then approve the order or recommend a different formula.
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If it's approved, it ships
The payment is captured and your kit ships from our US-based pharmacy. If it isn't approved, the hold is released and you pay nothing.
Adegen is LegitScript certified. LegitScript is an independent company that verifies telehealth providers and pharmacies, and Google requires that certification before a company like ours can advertise at all. It isn't a government endorsement or an FDA approval. It means somebody outside this company checked who we are and what we dispense. You can look us up in their public directory.
Every formula and its price is on the kit page. Pick the one that fits you, and a licensed provider reviews it before anything is charged.
Nothing is charged until a licensed provider approves your treatment.
What Actually Happens In The First Hundred Days
I'm going to set this expectation low on purpose, because I'd rather you be pleasantly surprised than quietly angry at me in four months.
Hair grows in cycles, and a follicle rests for two to three months before a new hair starts. No formula skips that. So three months is the minimum window for visible change, and months three through six are the real test. Individual results vary.
Day 1
Starting point. Thinning at the crown, where follicles have been shrinking a little with every cycle.
Simeon, photographed by himself on the same schedule. One person's timeline, not a forecast of yours.
Some people shed more in the first few weeks. That's usually follicles finishing an old cycle and starting a new one, which pushes old hairs out on the way. It's unnerving if nobody warns you, and it isn't the system failing.
The first thing most people notice isn't new hair. It's less hair where they normally count it: the drain, the pillow, the sink.
Day 100 can be underwhelming. Our own community says that to each other constantly, more bluntly than we'd ever say it in an ad.
Then there's the part that's on you, and I'm not going to soften it.
Don't buy this if you're just going to wing it and half-ass it.
If you're not going to do this most days for three months, the money is wasted and I'd rather you keep it. Consistency is the variable that decides the outcome. Every result on this page belongs to somebody who was boring about it.
I've been taken advantage of. I don't like it and I want to help people. The last thing I want to do is over-promise and under-deliver.
The product works. With so many product promising results and not delivering this one pulled through for me. I consistently used the product daily. Shampoo w/ scalp massager allow to sit for 5 min. Every day. MWF used the roller. Then applied topical directly after drying hair and/or using roller. I'm 48m and it worked for me.
It took about two months of really following the program to see my shedding almost stop and baby hairs start to grow. Since then it's gotten better and better.
If you're ready to run it properly for a full cycle, start with the kit.
90-day kits ship free. Nothing is charged until a licensed provider approves.
Questions People Ask Before They Start
No. Minoxidil is in the topical and it earns its place, because it turns up the signal that tells the follicle's blood vessels to grow. What it was never built to do is turn down the shut-down signal that DHT switches on. That's ARB's job. Tretinoin is there so more of the formula gets in and more of the minoxidil becomes its active form.
The topical comes in 5% or 15% minoxidil, with or without finasteride or dutasteride. You choose on the kit page, and a licensed provider reviews that choice against your history and your medications. They'll approve it or recommend a different formula, and you can accept or decline the recommendation.
Yes. Women make DHT too, and the same shut-down signal applies, though the pattern usually looks different: a widening part or all-over thinning rather than a receding hairline. Many women start on a formula with no finasteride or dutasteride in it.
Finasteride and dutasteride are not for women who are or may become pregnant. The provider confirms eligibility during the review.
Because of what's in it. Tretinoin is prescription-only, and it's in every topical because it helps the formula absorb and helps minoxidil become its active form. No over-the-counter product is allowed to combine this many actives in one bottle, so the prescription is what lets the formula exist.
Nothing is charged. Your card is authorized at checkout and captured only after a licensed provider approves your treatment. If they don't approve it, the authorization is released. Sometimes the answer is a different formula rather than a no, and you can accept or decline it.
Your body keeps making DHT, so the shut-down signal keeps coming back. If you stop entirely, the process that was running before will resume over time. What maintenance looks like once you have what you want is a conversation with your provider, including whether a lighter routine makes sense.
After your first kit, the shampoo and topical continue on the schedule you chose, at the same price. You can change your formula, skip a shipment, or cancel from your account or by emailing our team. There's no contract.
The United States only. We don't ship internationally.
We can't ship any product to Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Delaware, or South Carolina, or to US territories and military addresses. Massachusetts can receive oral medications, shampoo, and accessories, but not prescription topicals or the complete kit. Checkout will tell you before you get far.
Every formula and its price is on the kit page.
Nothing is charged until a licensed provider approves your treatment.
- Miranda BH, Charlesworth MR, Tobin DJ, Sharpe DT, Randall VA. Androgens trigger different growth responses in genetically identical human hair follicles in organ culture that reflect their epigenetic diversity in life. FASEB J. 2018;32(2):795-806. PubMed
- Kwack MH, et al. Dihydrotestosterone-inducible Dickkopf 1 from balding dermal papilla cells causes apoptosis in follicular keratinocytes. J Invest Dermatol. 2008;128:262-9. PubMed
- Deng Z, et al. Androgen receptor-mediated paracrine signaling induces regression of blood vessels in the dermal papilla in androgenetic alopecia. J Invest Dermatol. 2022;142:2088-99. PubMed
- Devjani S, et al. Drugs. 2023. Lee JH, Choi S. Exp Mol Med. 2024;56:110-7. PubMed
- Drake L, et al. J Am Acad Dermatol. 1999;41:550-4. Clark RV, et al. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2004;89:2179-84. PubMed
- Ryu HS, et al. Activation of hair cell growth factors by linoleic acid in Malva verticillata seed. Molecules. 2021;26:2117. PubMed
- Truong VL, et al. Molecules. 2017;22:1505. PubMed
- Abd E, et al. Pharmaceutics. 2018;10:19. Mak VH, Potts RO, Guy RH. Pharm Res. 1990;7:835-41. PubMed
- Otberg N, et al. Skin Pharmacol Physiol. 2007;20:195-8. PubMed
- Fischer TW, et al. Int J Dermatol. 2007;46:27-35. PubMed
- Hackethal J, et al. Skin Res Technol. 2021;27:15-21. Liu X, et al. Sci Rep. 2022;12:18115. PubMed
- Lachgar S, et al. Br J Dermatol. 1998;138:407-11. PubMed
- Oura H, et al. J Dermatol. 2008;35:763-7. Watanabe Y, et al. Int J Cosmet Sci. 2015;37:579-87. PubMed
- Ferry JJ, et al. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 1990;47:439-46. PubMed