18 With a receding hairline, recommendations for over-the-counter treatment?

[ddyer34]

Hey guys,

I am 18 with a relatively bad receding hairline, it sucks and depresses me almost everyday. My dad is 49 and has lost pretty much all his hair on the top of his head, but looking at pictures and talking with him it seems he didn't have a receding hairline as bad as me or one at all at age 18. I remember in 6th grade a kid making a comment on how i have a receding hairline, which is why I began to believe it was my natural hairline cause it was so early, but in the last couple months i've realized from the looks of that it must be receding.

I've been thinking about fin but I worried about the side effects so for now I want to try to get the best over-the-counter treatments for a receding hairline (I don't have any thinning at the crown yet). I've done a bit of research but cannot come up with a fairly conclusive list of treatments, this seems like a very reputable forum with people on here that care and know what they are talking about, so I was hoping to get some input on what my plan of action should be.

so far I'm thinking of:

-multivitamin and fish oil daily,
-saw palmetto supplement-would it be better topically?
-nizoral every other day - how come this stuff is so hard to find? Any stuff that you think might be the same typeof stuff but better?
-nioxin as main shampoo

I know rogaine is not supposed to work on receding hairlines, but is it worth a try? could it possibly cause more hair loss if i get on it and then stop using it?

is there anything behind using essential oils to promote growth like sage or rosemary?

if anyone has any ideas to add to the list please let me know, such as supplements or anything!

thanks
Dan