Hey. Sorry about the shedding. I know the pain as I'm slowly losing mine as well.
I am far from an expert, so I may not have the most thoroughly correct understanding of the subject matter, but I will share my layman's thoughts with you in hopes that they may help.
1. You could just be in a shedding phase. Every hair on your head passes through four stages: anagen, catagen, telogen and exogen. On average 90% of your hair is in the growing (anagen) phase while the other 10% is either resting (telogen) or shedding (catagen -> exogen). I notice that I go through a shed every 3-6 months. I have mistakenly blamed these sheds on various supplements and/or diet changes in the past, when in reality, there's nothing one can do to stop them from happening.
2. As for the ingredients:
-Lodhra and Anacyclus Pyrethrum both have data showing they can potentially increase test. Inevitably, when you increase test, you increase your chances of 5-alpha reductase turning some of it into DHT which can exacerbate balding. However, it is unlikely they could increase your levels enough for this to have a dramatic effect.
-Cistamax is Cistanche. Cistanche is somewhat puzzling here because while it does appear to be an androgen agonist, (of what potency I'm not sure), there's also some data showing it may actually promote hair growth. There's even a human study, but it adds in Laminaria japonica, and I haven't seen the results repeated, so take it with a grain of salt.
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The point though, is that if it does work through decreasing inflammation and increasing blood-flow in the scalp, then it could cause a shedding phase similar to how Minoxidil generally causes a shedding phase at the onset of treatment. Again, this is probably not very likely.
-Forskolin, while a cAMP accelerator (which can maaaaaybe have a tiny effect on inhibiting hair growth), should not be an issue when you consider its ubiquitous use and no reports of hair loss from it. It can also increase test, but again, the amount shouldn't be enough to cause noticeable hair loss.
SO, to what conclusion(s) do we arrive?
In descending order of plausibility:
1. You coincidentally happen to be in a natural shedding phase at the same time as you've begun taking ABE.
2. You coincidentally happen to be entering the next stage of your male pattern baldness at the same time as you've begun taking ABE. (If you're prone, the loss is going to accelerate sooner or later...)
3. There's another, unconsidered variable at play, (stress/diet/new-shampoo/city-water variation in hardness/etc)
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4. The overall test increase and androgen agonization from the product has raised your DHT and thus accelerated shedding.
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5. Cistanche's hair-growth promoting potential has caused a new shed as old hairs make way for the new growth.
These are just my general thoughts. I'm curious how far into the bottle you are.
