How do I deal with Malzahar toplane??

I've dealt with this a couple of times this last week, and granted it's usually when I'm trying something outrageous (that would totally work if it wasn't him), but still even when I'm playing something fine, how do I deal with this? He just spams ranged harass, so if I'm not playing a ranged toplaner (I'm a tank main), then I can't poke him back and/or he keeps me from farming. When he hits 6, it's gg, as he just presses r to win any trade. I'm sick of people telling me to "pick this champion to counter or "build this item" to counter something. If I've already locked in my pick, telling me to pick something else doesn't help, and telling me to build items that don't go with my build doesn't help either (i.e. building zhonyas on an ad midlaner against zed, or qss as an ap/tank toplaner against malz). What are actual laning strategies against this?

Now granted, for I believe 2 of those games, I was trying out (hear me out) tank Nidalee. Before you bash on me, it works, it's just very situational and sometimes you need help from your jungle early to get a lead, which I didn't get. My jungle was an Ivern who ganked half the times the malz jg did, and when he did he did nothing to help the lane other than pop in and say hi. Late ganks don't help. I digress, however. What do I do against this?