Are Men Losing Hair Earlier than in Past Generations?

The below post was originally written in January 2018.

Update — February 2021: Our hormones are out of whack. Sperm counts and egg quality have drastically worsened. Women reach puberty much earlier. Endocrine disruptors (in plastics and much more) may be to blame. Average sperm count levels in western countries have dropped 60 percent since the 1970s.

Update — November 2020: Hair loss epidemic in China fueling hair transplant boom. Especially among those born in the 1990s.

Update — July 2020: Increasing rates of hair loss at younger ages in South Korea.

Update — April 2020: A new CNN article analyzes the increasing rates of hair loss and balding in Asian men.

October 2019 update 1: Millennial Chinese men are going bald at younger ages. A number of such reports have come out of China in recent years, some of which I cover further below in this post.

October 2019 update 2: A new study from from South Korea suggests that overworked men are balding younger and faster. People in their twenties or thirties who worked at least 52 hours per week were twice as likely to develop alopecia in comparison to their lazier counterparts. It should be noted that stress has been blamed for hair loss many times in the past, so this is not an entirely new finding.

October 2019 update 3: Yet another new premature hair loss theory has came out and been widely covered by the global media this month. Apparently, worsening air pollution levels are causing higher rates of hair loss. I am not entirely sure if air quality is worse today than in the past. Factory emissions and car emission are certainly much cleaner compared to 50 years ago. However, at the same time, both human and car population levels are drastically higher in comparison to 50 years ago.

Fewer Balding Young Men in Old Photos

For many years, I have observed and felt that men are losing their scalp hair earlier than in past generations. Males 25 years and younger rarely seemed to go bald in the past, at least based on what one can see from older photos.

I have also noticed this increased hair loss phenomenon in younger women in more recent years. However, the generalized thinning type of hair loss in females is sometimes harder to notice from a distance.

My original observation regarding increased rates of hair loss in younger men was based upon three key factors:

  1. Seeing at least half the older men in my father’s and grandfather’s generations still having excellent hair in old age.
  2. Fewer young bald men in the past.
    No bald young men among college graduates in 1900.

    Seeing old group photos of people from 100 or more years ago from around the world having very few balding people. Sometimes none. There are also rarely any obese young men in such older group photos.

  3. Noticing NBA basketball players going bald at much more rapid rates than in the past. Because fully shaved heads in the NBA have become very popular over the past three decades, this point is hard to prove and I could be wrong. Afro hairstyles have almost gone extinct, but is that purely due to fashion? Or also due to the fact that very few men can grow Afros when most have some degree of hair loss? A number of basketball players have discussed their hair loss openly in recent years. Some after shaving it, and others while trying to hide their hair loss like Lebron James. NBA players are also more muscular than in the past.

The second point above is all the more impressive when considering the fact that no-one in those old photos would have had a hair transplant at that time. Moreover, hairpieces would have been far more obvious in that era and easily noticeable.

In modern group photos, it is quite likely that at least one person in the group has a had a hair transplant; or is using a hairpiece; or is using a hair loss concealer.

For example, in recent US politics, Donald Trump and Joe Biden come to mind as men in the upper echelons of power having had some type of surgery to give them new hair. Both of them when appearing in group photos are deceiving us.

More Evidence that Men are Balding Earlier

My above three original observations were further solidified by several further developments during the past decade.

Around 10 years ago, my older female hairdresser told me that she was seeing many male high school children going bald. She said it was quite shocking, and in the past she rarely saw men younger than 21 with any significant hair loss. My hairdresser did not mention younger females having thinner hair at a greater rate than in the past. I think that premature hair thinning is also happening to females more frequently.

In more recent years, I have read a number of articles discussing how Japanese men were going bald at much greater rates than in the past. In fact, it seems like balding in your 20s and early youth was an exceedingly rare phenomenon in Japan prior to World War II.

Are Bad Diets Causing Increased Early Onset Alopecia?

A famous scientist by the name of Dr. Masumi Inaba published a famous book in 1985 in which he concluded that after World War II, Japanese men were going bald at a much more rapid pace. He postulated that this was largely due to a westernized high animal fat diet. This was adversely impacting hormones and sebaceous gland activity. It should be noted that average height in Japan as well as the rest of Asia has gone up with dietary changes over the past century.

Other studies have shown that Japanese men who move to the western world start balding more rapidly. Some people think that bad diets are causing excess inflammation in human bodies along with insulin resistance. Both of these can adversely impact scalp hair.

While researching this post, I also found a 1990 paper from the Netherlands that immigrant communities were experiencing higher rates of hair loss than in their home countries.

Other Theories on Premature Balding

There are many other theories besides dietary ones as to why premature balding and androgenetic alopecia rates are increasing at younger ages. You will find at least a few studies on the below highlighted factors correlating to higher rates of hair loss. However, none of these theories are set in stone or conclusively proven. In many cases, the hair loss due to any of the below factors is temporary.

Low Vitamin D Levels, Hormone Alterations, Chemicals and Stress

Some scientists think that low vitamin D levels can cause hair loss. This is especially true in northern hemisphere western countries with limited sunshine for months on end.

Historically, Caucasians have had much higher rates of male pattern hair loss in comparison to other races. In the modern day, lack of vitamin D has been further exacerbated by heavily indoor-based lifestyles worldwide. Direct sunlight is the ultimate and most natural source of vitamin D.

Yet other hypotheses have focused on changing hormone levels in humans due to various chemicals in our environment, food and water. This includes effects of birth control medications, pesticides, herbicides and more in the water that we drink.

Increasing stress levels in modern societies have also been used to explain higher rates of hair loss. Steroid, growth hormone and testosterone supplementation have all also been blamed for increased rates of hair loss. Especially among athletes and body builders.

Online pornography addiction has frequently been blamed for hormonal changes and hair loss. Although I doubt there are any studies on this sort of thing, it would not surprise me if porn addicts had altered hormonal makeups.

None of these theories are set in stone of course. Moreover, it has not even been proven that hair loss rates are definitely higher in the current generation than in past generations.

Will Evolution Make all Men Bald in Future?

Evolution to balding alien look.
Evolution of male hairlines into an alien-like appearance?

Genetic theories on hair loss have focused on the fact that balding can be passed on from either side of the family. And it does not require both male grandparents to be bald for a male grandchild to also be bald. i.e., balding is a dominant trait and therefore likely to increase in each generation.

However, the genetics of male pattern hair loss are not so clear cut according to this article. On many online hair loss forums, people have joked in the past that the final step in human evolution is when everyone (or at least all men) look like in the above photo. So from an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense that each generation is balder than the prior one.

More Younger Chinese and Indians Loosing Hair

The reason for my writing this article is due to yesterday’s news from the South China Morning Post that a shocking 60 percent of university students in China were losing their hair according to one survey with 4,000 participants. Per Dr. Fu Lanqin:

“My feeling is that this generation is losing its hair sooner than previous generations.”

China is the world’s most populous nation, and historically, Asians lose hair at much lower rates than Caucasians. However, a 60 percent hair loss figure for young university students in China seems even higher than what we would see today in the western world’s colleges.

India is the world’s second most populous country. In recent years, a number of articles from that nation’s newspapers have mentioned increasing hair loss in younger people. One of the more interesting ones found that young Indian men from the IT sector were especially prone to balding.

Koreans Too

An article published in 2018 suggests that Korean men are also losing their hair at an earlier age than in the past. The usual reasons of bad diets, stress and sedentary habits are given for this increase in premature early onset balding.

It seems like whoever finally comes out with a hair loss cure will have an unlimited supply of young clients.

149 thoughts on “Are Men Losing Hair Earlier than in Past Generations?”

  1. I agree with stress, crap gmo foods, low vitamin D levels and hormones in our water. Of course not everyone loses their hair but if you have the gene these factors may onset it much much earlier in your life. The good thing about this article is that money hungry companies will have a huge demand and clientele for mpb cures and treatments. So they better stop bsing and start releasing some treatments this year.

  2. I, and people I know, have also made this observation.

    I definitely think that the younger demographic and the “age of the selfie” have helped fuel the advancements in hairloss research we’ve been seeing the last couple years now.

    There is and will be a larger market for hairloss treatments.

  3. IMO, stress and hypertension are underestimated. It does not mean work pressure, but the constant fight-and-flight mode some people find themselves. Rats react by losing hair when constantly in fear.
    Also, IMO sexual activity, esp. a without partner, might strongly correlate.

  4. I agree with this. My father started thinning when he was ten years older than i was when i started thinning.
    A few things i have noticed…
    When i eat lots of sugar, things like chocolate and fudge i get an extremely itchy scalp the next day. Also extremely itchy around my face wherw my beard is.. Lots of flaking skin, its gross.
    Possibly the increase in sugar in people diets have an impact on hair. In saying that both chocolate and fudge are full of fat also so who knows.
    I am still positive that acne and hairloss are connected. I had mild acne as a teenager and now i have mild hair loss. My older brother had no acne and has no hair loss
    I posted about tretinoin before and how well it works to stop my hair loss.. This is an acne medication.. People also use azaleic acid and retinol with great success.. Both acne medications. I must also mention i was prescribed a topical ointment for the ingrown hairs on my neck. It was an anti biotic ointment that cleared up my neck in a week however that week i lost an unbelievable amount of hair on my head. It could be just a coincidence but who knows.. Zinc is also used to prevent acne when taken orally. Seems tobe good for preventing shedding too. Especially after fap

    1. Hey man, about acne (this is my case), I had no acne whatsoever during puberty and started balding around 16. It could very well be connected, but not in every case

        1. I can’t see a clear link between acne and hair loss. That said, tretinoin among other retinols are known to be DHT blockers (similar to Finesteride yet less potent).

  5. In India young people facing graying of hair at teenage. Now its normal. In past our parents scold us.. See your hair is graying. But now they also accept that every body has gray hair.

    I think the heavy use of pastisides in farms ruins our food. And that food we eats and its changes our hormone. May be baldness is inherited but that gene should activated at later age. In current time that genes are activated at early age is due to pastisides in food.

    Some time i also thinks that high testasteron level is due to telivision shows..
    Some creepy news and adult content which makes every peoples testasteron high. In older time there were not TV or Internet to see this type of content. Aggression is also high in young people.

    May any company crack the code asap.

  6. How about the effects of internet pornography? It has become a phenomenon in the 2000’s. Orgasm converses normal testosterone to DHT.

    Free internet pornography —> Lots of masturbation orgasms —> Lots of DHT —> More balding young men

    1. I was thinking of adding something related to that controversial theory to my post when I wrote it, but then decided against it. Moreover, some reports indicate that so much internet porn has led to sexual dysfunction in many people, and a rise in asexuality, herbivore men etc…

    2. But isn’t that an over-simplified view of hair loss based on what we know? MPB doesn’t happen because of “more” DHT, it happens because certain people’s genes are susceptible to being overly sensitive to that DHT.

      I suppose if you can broadly assume that masturbation and or sex habits are widely similar among large demographics of young men, then that increase in DHT could theoretically start a snowball effect that leads to hair-loss in subjects that also have predisposed androgen sensitivity. The problem is there are several dozen genes now “associated” with androgenetic alopecia, pointing to a much bigger, more complicated picture of that chain of events that kicks off MPB.

    3. Conversely, when DHT is suppressed via finasteride, people get the negative sexual/physical/mental side effects which are now becoming well-known.

      There’s nothing “abnormal” about DHT; it’s apparently a necessary part of men’s hormonal systems. What’s abnormal is the genetic condition wherein it triggers some (possibly inflammatory/autoimmune) process which results in the miniaturization of some hair follicles, but only in the characteristic Norwood pattern, and only on the head.

      One suspects that an effect this specific must have served some adaptive purpose at some point in human evolution, otherwise it would have been selected out long ago, because of its negative effects. Humans have much less body hair than almost any other mammal; presumably the reason scalp hair has been retained is for protection against heat, cold, and sunburn. If it sometimes refuses to grow, not over the whole head, as in alopecia areata, but in a very specific pattern, there must be a reason for that, or there must have been a reason, at some time in the past.

    4. To suggest that men masturbate more now than before is missing common sense. Come on guys… porn or no porn, all of us masturbate frequently.

      Also where is the science/ study that masturbation conversation testosterone into dht?

    1. Did you know there is pretty much zero iodine in australian soil? So you are not getting it in the foods in australia. Try an iodine supplement

    2. I live six months a year in Europe and when I’m there my hair loss gets worse.
      I think it has to do with climate or water quality.
      The other six months I live in California.

      As someone wrote before .. sugar does not help balding, nutrition plays a fundamental role in hair loss.
      if we are genetically predestined to lose our hair we will lose them, but with the right nutrition we can do a lot to slow down the process.
      2018… Shiseido should give us a good news …

  7. I have noticed in Ireland more bald men now than in old photos, including family photos. Also poorer countries have less bald men, even accounting for age demographics. The link between poor countries today and Ireland of 1800s is social mobility. Social mobility for most people in Europe started in late 1800s. I don’t know if it is the stress, or perhaps using a part of the brain not used historically. Academics, also seem to go bald. Almost every famous scientist and economist had some hair loss. Even those without the distinctive pattern of MPB.

  8. Well if it’s distributed world wide equally regardless of diet ethnicity air etc etc etc etc what could it be? Radiation pollution from fukushima and chernobyl is the only new atmospheric addition to the globe at large.

    Maybe when the pentagon gets done disclosing aliens we can ask them.

  9. this is definitely something we can never prove.
    what we can prove is that men in this generation living longer than past generations all because of advanced medicine.

    I think with fin and minox and other hairloss products, this generation must be lucky than the previous ones.
    but again this is indeed neither nor statement. we can not statistically prove it for hairloss. however definitely we live longer than people from 200-300 years ago

  10. Makes sense, if premature balding is a warning sign for T2 diabetes/metabolic syndrome then it would follow that we see more of it with the increase in those conditions. I bet there’s some insulin-related trigger that makes you more sensitive to androgens.

  11. Both my grandfathers were completely bald. My father is bald and my brother started balding in his 20s. I’m 37 and only the last 2 years have I noticed my hair starting to thin (but not really gray or recede yet). 23andme says I have an 80% chance of not balding. So… I seem to have bucked the trend so far though I’m guessing I’ll join the ranks in the next few years. I think much of it has to be due to trends in inflammation.

  12. I so wish we knew more. I feel I started balding very young, definitely younger than my dad. He held onto his color longer too. I have so many dreams of a brighter future. We gotta keep holding on, while always appreciating what we DO have. If I were to lose my loved ones tomorrow, or suddenly find myself terminally ill, I’d deeply regret spending the precious time I have now wishing for more hair. I gotta remember to keep things in perspective.

    1. That is where I am currently at, Daniel…trying to keep things in perspective and not lose/waste more precious time like I have been.

      But a few things I continue to come back to when I start thinking that I’m eating, drinking, thinking or breathing wrong…for the most part, hair on the top of the head is what is in jeopardy (in a very common exact pattern) while the sides can look healthy as can be(and they survive just fine when transplanted to the top). I just don’t see why that area should be in jeopardy at all…ever. BTW this is one of the best, down to earth threads I have come across with realistic, interesting views.

  13. so this past week it was confirmed i have chronic inflammation. I was already genetically predisposed to having mpb as it was slowly occurring from age of 16 however the last 2 years it took a very severe and aggressive turn even with taking finasteride. I do not think it is mere coincidence i’ve felt the effects of chronic inflammation for about a year and half and hair being lost in the traditional mpb pattern but the process being sped up very fast.

  14. How about this for a controversial thought. If it is becoming more and more common due to all the possible reasons above then do we still need a cure for hair loss? Social exclusion affects the few, not the many.

    1. It thinks it’s also about how you feel about yourself and not societies view on it. If being bald causes you to look significantly worse or emphasises perceived defects in your visual appearance I don’t think society being ok with it would help your view of yourself.

      There a millions of people in the world who look normal to society (whatever normal is) who have a bad self image which causes pain in their life.

      There is societies acceptance and there is your own acceptance of yourself.

      A hairloss cure , forgetting society, will benefit people’s own views and beliefs about themselves.

  15. Off topic…it’s been exactly two weeks on Rogaine liquid and my hair seems thinner. I only put a few drops on the right side of my scalp where im thinning. Now it seems my left side is thinner in density avd hair like took a hit. I’ve noticed shedding start 4 days into treatment. Nothing crazy but more than usual. Is this a good sign or should I drop it? Oh plus my dandruff kicked back up since starting liquid Rogaine…

    1. I tried the liquid for a bit and my overall hair was a lot thinning and it just felt awful aswell. Since switching back to the foam it seems to be of much better quality and slightly thicker (although this may just be an illusion). I personally seem to get on with (and prefer) the foam to the liquid

    2. Dude, I used minox for about 7 months before I got thickening. It was weird, I figured I wasn’t responding because I was getting thinner like you and then randomly it was like all of my hair was looking great. Give it a little longer

  16. Inflammation.

    Anyone here using stuff like Ibuprofen for a longer period of time? I wonder if using Ibuprofen will stop the inflammation on a cellular level and therefore the balding process.

    1. It was just a thought. Never mind, there are more websites stating that painkillers may cause hair loss, instead of preventing it. Pretty weird

    2. Raw pineapple is almost as good for inflammation as these drugs and you don’t want to end up like Whitney Houston dead in a bath tub, so if you think there is something in it then eat/drink raw pineapple every day, not the drugs. After doing it for a number of years though it did nothing for my hair.

  17. The stRands of my hair feel thicker though since being on liquid which is the funny thing. Rogaine is so confusing. Thickens up hair, thins out other parts, giant mess as a hair loss treatment. I wish it would either thicken up and grow hair without shedding phase or just not work at all. Making hair worse is just unacceptable. I never shed hair when starting fin. It just stopped my hair loss in a month and grew back some and maintained for years. Rogaine foam and liquid both thin me out then thicken other parts then diffuse where I apply it. It’s like what do you do? Come on sisheido, follica!

  18. @Farhan, that’s same with me too before moving to Australia my hair was healthy, soon after landed in Australia my hair went downhill straight away dandruff, thinning, hair fall, grey hair. Not very sure if the food in here or what.

    1. I noticed mine picked up when I travelled . I put this down to a drastic change in temperature which may have caused some normal summer shedding, but due to MPB the regrowth of the hair was less dense and so I believe the heat has caused follicles to shed and then regrow but with the affects of MPB

  19. I think acne and hair loss is correlated.

    I also think the anti biotics I took when I was younger for my acne triggered my hair loss.

    Am I crazy to think this?

  20. This “masturbation causes hair loss” myth needs to DIE. Why do people keep repeating this? There is no scientific or logical reason why people still believe this.

    1. These myths, just like the “sex with a virgin cures AIDS” myth in Africa, exist because there is no cure; only hope.
      Until Aclaris or Shiseido nail the cure the hair loss myths will persist. And then once there is a cure, nobody will care what causes it. Nobody cares about how yellow fever and typhoid are caused; why should we, we have vaccines for them. “Stop boring me, just give me the shot” :-)

      1. Aclaris will soon start the trials for AGA. Hopefully we’ll know the outcome after 6 months since start of trial/

  21. Do you guys think Follica will start it´s pivotal trail first half of 2018 or already has maybe? I really hope they won´t delay again. But still we cannot really expect any remedy to hit the market in 2018. So sad.

    1. While we may not be able to expect a remedy (maybe shiseido) for 2018, a number of hopefully treatments will have data readout that could show an effective treatment. For me knowing that a product has been verified as a cure will remove the anxiety associated with hairloss, then I will happily wait until a release date

        1. That’s right, if you can’t produce the slightest shred of evidence to support your claims, then insults will have suffice.

          Notice the quick retreat, when challenged, from “it’s all to do with”, to “less rapidly”, typical of people who realize that they have no argument, but don’t want to admit it, for fear of seeming like knuckle-draggers.

    1. Apparently his son beps was on hlt with some cryptic message. Sent the thread into a frenzy, same with both Italian forums. Nobody knows what he was trying to get at. Then he said they are working on the final stages of stabilizing it. On what is the question. So really nothing new, could be some guy sitting back getting a laugh

      1. Really strange. He also posted some study about topical cetritzin. The question is why?? I hope he is just a troll, but if he is true and they are still not done with their stability study it will take at least until 2019 to be released. Marketing etc. will take a lot of time.

  22. Admin, off topic. I’ve been using dry shampoo between hair washes. I have an oily scalp but don’t like to wash my hair more than once per day. The dry shampoo definitely gives an appearance of thicker hair and absorbs oil so may have a small anti DHT action. I also use Nizoral once or twice a week for the same reason.

  23. guys
    R&D is not something done in behind doors anymore. there is no door even no walls anymore. What does it mean in plain english? It means its progress monitored daily by CEO of the company. And we all know how CEOs react to it. they have 1 hair to 100 because at the end they need to collect money from shareholders. no one would say my company is not worth investing. – if we all agree until here then…

    if Aclaris or any company actually found something of a cure like, we would see the CEO in every channel, newspaper and magazine cover… I mean he would be more famous than John Snow nowadays. do we see him? No! then it means there is nothing significant around.

    Again, why we should be seeing him? Because CEO nowadays are all doing PR for its upcoming products. If you really see a chicken hatching golden eggs, trust me, they will be all over the news to collect funding.
    p.s. my comments are not for Shiesido. Japan culture is different than europe and america

    1. Well they haven’t started phase 2 trials Donitello. Once they actually test it on mpb patients then we will know if it’s a blockbuster or not. When they tested it fit Areata it was during their phase 2 trial or phase can’t remember Im sure Nasa knows but it showed dramatic restoration of hair growth and it was all over the news. Now if Jak can do this for mpb this spring during phase 2 then I’m pretty sure it will be all over the news.

  24. I’ve mentioned the McDougall diet (70% starch and NO oil/animal products) re curing dandruff, when I did it it also cured my oily scalp.

    The starch diet is about eating food that doesn’t go above the density of starch (which is generally 1 calorie per gram). Oil and protein is much higher than this. It’s as though the body is put under strain to process anything denser.

    I’ve read here and there of an oily scalp causing hair loss but there doesn’t appear to be any science to back up that theory. Intuition tells me there’s a connection. I ate a lot of junk food and protein shakes around the age of 20, and rarely cooked for myself, which is when my hair loss began. I would eat a lot of incredibly high calorie dense food – proteins and oils.

    From a ‘use it or lose it’ perspective the body might say “you’re clearly well looked after with all these rich foods you’re eating, i’ll divert resources from keeping your hair to processing it all”.

    He does mention the Japanese study also: https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/education/health-science/common-health-problems/hormone-dependent-diseases-male-female/

    Re the dermatological problems for immigrants the fact is the modern ‘western diet’ is rich in oil and protein, so that’s what we’d be looking at if we’re talking about diet. One of the Mcdougall’s pieces of evidence is the general health issues that later generations of immigrants to the West (he rarely mentions hair loss).

    Either way the starch diet is healthiest in my opinion and I recommend trying it for general health. It can be a tough diet to follow initially but it’s very easy (and cheap!) to follow it for about 90% of the time. I am embarking on a stricter version of it shortly.

    IMHO if there is a non-genetic component to MPH (which there must be if it is occurring more frequently), this is a significant one. Regarding stress, IMO the diet helps with that too.

    Just a thought!

    1. I’ve read here and there of an oily scalp causing hair loss but there doesn’t appear to be any science to back up that theory.

      This is a commonly observed correlation, but so what? What causes the oily scalp? Why does it almost always occur in the same pattern, as in “male PATTERN baldness”? Either something causes the oily scalp, which then causes MPB, or something directly causes both oily scalp AND MPB.

      In either case, what is that something? Why is this genetic trait so common? Why does it persist, rather than having been selected out, soon after it appeared? Why are there no answers to these questions?

      1. Yes I was a bit lazy there in my phrasing. I really meant there is a correlation between the two.

        But to answer the question of what causes an oily scalp…it’s oil.

        1. Even if true, that still doesn’t explain the characteristic Norwood pattern, or why some men don’t go bald no matter what they eat.

          By most accounts, the diet that humans evolved to eat over hundreds of thousands of years contained less carbohydrates, and more meat and fat, than what most people currently eat, so claims of an all-starch diet being inherently more healthy or natural, seem rather implausible.

          If there really is a correlation between MPB and diabetes, as has been suggested, it’s excessive consumption of starch (see “glycemic index”) that promotes that, rather than fats and oils.

          1. My guess is that humans eat more carbs, more fat and more protein than our ancestors.

            I hope to try intermittent fasting this year and emulate what our ancestors were forced to endure.

          2. Here’s another account of our ancestor’s diet:
            https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2012nl/jun/paleo2.htm

            It’s not GI but density that we should perhaps be looking at. The GI index misleadingly places a mars bar below a baked potato!
            https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2002nl/apr/potatoes.htm

            As for why some do and some don’t, sure genetics must have its part, some might be able to cope with harsher environmental factors (perhaps they are the ones that inherited the ‘paleo’ genes).

            Eat potatoes for a week and you’ll see your body just feels calmer.

  25. dutasteride gel /
    Since dutasteride is superior to finasteride
    Is there a member Forum Use this product?
    What are the side effects of gel; far less than topical?

  26. Never too old to regenerate? Wound induced hair follicle neogenesis after secondary intention healing in a geriatric patient?
    Wong TW1, Hughes M2, Wang SH3.
    Author information
    Abstract
    Wound healing is a natural process to restore the structure and function of injured or diseased tissues. Repair of a skin wound usually leads to a scar while regeneration implies fully recovery of function and structure of the damaged tissue. Adult skin wound usually heals with scar while fetal skin heals scarless. Hair regeneration in elderly scalp wound has never been observed. We reported an 80-year-old patient with a large wound on the scalp after excision of a basal cell carcinoma healed by secondary intention wound healing. The patient’s wound healed very well aesthetically. Interestingly, on approximate post wound day 180, a hair was observed to be growing towards the surface and eventually erupted in the center of the wound. The hair remained black at 42-month follow-up. This case demonstrated that neogenesis of hair is possible even in geriatric patient. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of hair regrow in human skin after wound healing.

    1. Very interesting, although 1 hair seems a bit too little to get excited about.

      I have even read in the past that some people grew new hair after they were in a cast and the cast was removed.

      “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of hair regrow in human skin after wound healing.” — sounds hard to believe that is a first ever report.

    1. Total snake oil scam. 200 bucks too. These con artists are upping their game. The fda really needs to shut these people down.

  27. I wish the TGA here in Australia would shut down or enforce tougher labeling requirements for things like évolis, Viviscal, Fushion Hair Tonic, Saw Palmetto supplements, LLLT, PRP, etc that all claim this, that and the other unless there is SOLID evidence of efficacy-and not vague misleading results from a university study from god knows where?! I personally don’t know ONE person who ever experienced regrowth or maintained one lousy hair from any one of these products or procedures?

    1. I agree with this. Advanced hair studio is a total scam. Also ashley and martin is way over priced! The only australian product i have used that has actually worked is activance. And even that just speeds up hair growth but does not grow any new hairs. It could be possible that activance speeds up the time it takes for new minoxidil hairs to show up but im not sure.
      It contains rhodanide, something that i feel all hair loss shampoos should contain.

      1. I agree with the comment on advanced hair studio, as a very stressed out early twenty something my dad in trying to help me researched advanced studio and even paid for me to use their services as he could see what an impact this was having on me. I was literally only in the very early stages of losing my hair, receding but hidden quite well under curtains (my hugh grant years) we thought it would be the strand by strand procedure but they basically just glued an entire wig over my exsisting 95% head of hair. I got ten minutes away from the place and broke down on him, u could stick your fingers underneath my new scalp. We turned round went back and I had it removed. I actually came away with less hair as the glue they had used wripped it all out during removal. That was 20 years ago, hair loss is crap it sucked my confidence away in all aspects off life, I know there are many worse things but this really has affected all of us. I believe a cure is on the horizon to what extent remains to be seen. I just hope it’s soon as would still like to look my best before Father Time makes it irrelevant. Great blog

  28. We are in the worst industry right after weight loss industry. Both huge scams that will probably never release a full cure do to all the money they make from scams above. Sad. The govt needs to ban all fake treatments.

    1. At least with weight loss there are many success stories of people tackling the root cause. No one can do that with hairloss.

    2. A full cure to weight loss has always been present. Baldness is losing the genetic lottery, but obesity is a choice.

      Look at black and white photos of our grandparents and their parents. Very few fatties; it kills the genetics argument stone dead. Go to rural China or Uganda or Kenya today and compare them with their counterparts in the US. Little or no meat, little or no dairy, and plenty of rich plant-based foods. Read the China study. The biggest guy in my home town today would have been one of the worlds fattest men 100 years ago.

      Baldness however affects both sets of people, so its a choice between fat bald and skinny bald :-)

    1. I agree Daniel. Much more effective success stories with weight loss. You can simply put the fork down and get that stomach bypass surgery like Al Roker and lose 200 lbs. We just have ht and you can end up scarred, lose more hair to shock loss and if it works it’s for the very few with solid thickness with some receding or crown balding. Not for nw5 or higher.

      As for brotzu…I’m surprised this is even being discussed. I’m calling 90% ineffective treatment hyped up by forum members and not fidia. I won’t be upset with fidia if they say it doesn’t work it’s the people in the other hair loss site that have 600 pages of bs and some dude claiming to be bronzu son haha. I mean if that doesn’t scream catfish or scammer then I don’t know what does. Why would his son go against fidia and give out secrets to his dad’s potential baldness breakthrough….people can be very naive when desperate.

        1. Its not going to work man. It’s made up hype. Just like the Turkish foreskin lotion. Let’s not kid ourselves with brotzu. Let’s ficus on the real players like follica, sisheido, riken, aclaris.

  29. First US Provisional Patent filed July 2017 for hair re-growth.using a Nano-protein (as used for 3d printing of body parts) with PRP, directly injected into hair roots. 100% successful hair regrowth in over two hundred patients on study . Study uses Hair follicle as an organ, to document this Technology, for future age reversing Bio-genetic developments .Technical information can be found on company’s web site DNAhairRegeneration.com

  30. It took a while for me to realize that out of all of the drugs, lotions, potions, etc. that claim success that if ONE, just ONE was totally effective as in a full head of hair again, threads such as this would not exist.

    As of now, my hopes are in the “take hair cells and multiply them in a dish, then inject back into scalp” method. No taking from back of head and there would be enough to do the full job. No drugs….just new, plentiful uneffected hairs.

  31. I’ve been dealing with hair loss for a long time. I’ve also observed that it seems to be happening aster now then older gens. I’m starting to call BS on it all being linked to DHT. Guys with higher dht levels with full head of hair are walking around, but I’m still losing my hair?? Tried finasteride but can’t deal with the side effects, minoxidil doesn’t do sh**. The difference between older gens and us May be stress and diet, both of which are leading to tighter scalps and less blood flow, dht doesn’t mean shit if there is poor circulation to your scalp. I’m starting a new approach, going on very clean diet, increase water intake, inversion techniques, scalp massage and gonna get back into daily meditation to reduce stress. We are all just over thinkin this, the drug companies want us to think we need fin and min so we can keep forking out billions to them. It’s not profitable for science to tell us that we have more control over this then what we think. Gonna get the blood flowing again, wish me luck!!

  32. I don’t know about these claims, as we’ll have to wait until time machines are invented to make accurate comparisons across the centuries.

    The good news is time machines will probably be invented before a cure for hair loss is discovered.

    However, I would be very much surprised if the endocrine disrupting compounds in plastics didn’t play as much of a role as stress or air pollution in hair loss. That stuff is nasty, and Big Plastic works hard to obfuscate the science and muddy the research.

  33. Remember the Matrix film when Morpheus has the blue pill and the red pill? If you were offered these and one of them gave you definite full head of hair for the rest of your life and the other was lethal cyanide, how many of you would risk taking one?
    I am curious as to how far this mental effect is for some of you. I am not out to ridicule anyone, just plain curiosity. If I could also have the good pill give me the parkour moves I am training for, I would risk it.

    1. I can’t answer that but I can give you a personal story:

      Two summers ago I had a sudden serious internal bleed (Dieulafoy Lesion) and was taken by emergency straight onto the operating table. Just like a movie, I was being rushed down a hallway looking up at the staff and the large circular mirrors along the hallway and I vividly recall seeing how bald I looked in the bright light—diffuse 4 looked essentially 7—and how disappointing and humiliating it was. The procedure failed (it took 3 before they saved my life).

      On the whole, I spent two weeks in intensive care. I spoke to an end-of-life female counsellor and, among other things, told her how I let my hair loss get the better of me. Her eyes widened and she admitted she had no idea men suffered over hair loss (seriously!).

      When I spoke to the 30-ish male psychiatrist, I told him that if I knew hairloss would have impacted my life so drastically I would have bought a wig—”Or wear a hat. That’s what I do.” He said with that familiar tone of defeat. He tilted forward, diffuse 3 perhaps. But like me, he just has to act the part and suffer silently.

      I’ve thought a bit about the relation of baldness to disgust sensitivity (particularly the association with pedophilia) and mortality salience (symbolically seeing your skull through your scalp). I believe if you test high in neuroticism or are on the autism spectrum there is a greater likelihood of being adversely affected by hair loss; the counteraction being some activity that gives you a feeling of control. Otherwise—and I speak from personal experience—even on your deathbed, it will drag you down.

      (Let me also take this opportunity to thank Admin for his amazing dedication to the good and all of you reply-guys. It certainly has made my suffering feel less isolating)

        1. Thank you Admin. I left the hospital with such hope that my beating death would act as the catalyst for a grand second act—as I often saw on television; people surviving cancer going on to climb Everest, you know—but the motivation to just live free! Free! Carpe Diem! never arrived, perhaps life became even a little bit more absurd. This is all on me. I’ve allowed myself to be less pragmatic and more pathetic than is necessary and have fallen into such a state that I will often drive into town and walk around the hospital area asking myself why everyone went to such trouble to save my life. The answer feels so empty. Seems I lost my will to create a purposeful life along with my hair—so pathetic!

          I should note, I lost my hair around 20, my friend cut my hair (she was a competitive stylist) so I always had the trendy chic flashy hairstyles. She first noticed the loss. I shaved it then-and-there, I hated my new look but thought I would eventually figure it out. 15 years later and I am still unrecognizable to myself. All the fun-loving social graces gradually drained away and I’ve never been able to create a new persona around the middle-aged bald-guy look. … I still can if I can adopt a buddhist-spiritual type or firm military man persona. And really, an attitude of strict discipline and a stoic resilience to tragedy is the best angle to save me from despair. *And the tough bald guy look is in.*

          1. Oops. I wrote “shaved it” I meant “buzzed it”. I have been buzzing it down to 1 since I first noticed the loss. I have a slick crown and a widow’s peak with the upper band in the middle being diffuse. I *have* shaved it slick bald, but I’ve not committed to that look. And I hope I won’t have too. That’s why I’m rooting for… 20, 21, 22, whenever, whatever.

          2. Yeah I often see videos of people much worse off than me still going all out, especially after getting a second chance…I get motivated by the story for a week, and then back to status quo lol

            Going to sleep now, but glad you commented today.

      1. I also started losing my hair in my early twenties, I was the good looking guy of the group, the cool guy that everyone looked up to, you could be an actor they used to say…but shortly after when my personality wasn’t even fully developed I ended up in the darkest area of my mind, I had discover that endless feeling of anxity, that sense of nudity as my forehead kept getting bigger and bigger. Later on things got a bit better thanks to drugs like minoxidil and finasteride, but to this day in my mid forties I still feel very uncomfortable and self-conscious about my hair. The only positive thing about loosing a big part of my hair was/is a better sence of empathy with those who struggle through life.

  34. Yes lorence, empathy is very important in this world.wish more had it. Unfortunately the better looking people have less of it. Sad…and guys, if you get your hair back please dont forget where you came from and how you felt. Help other people that are kicked down by life, not just the guys losing their locks. This is important!

  35. Good to log onto the site and see raw but nice comments from Lorence, Tom Jones, Toccata and heck, even the admin.:-) Rare for a hairloss site, there’s a lot of vitriol on the web. The only advice old Yoda can offer is do your best to keep your head up and most importantly be proactive with your life. Seek answers, be positive while remaining realistic. And we are truly our own worst critics, the pimple on your forehead may seem huge to you but no one else may even notice, especially with great men like you!

  36. Who really cares if men are going bald earlier? Id imagine figuring out exactly why and how it happens is more important. Pointing out the obvious doesnt really help solve the problem. Curing it is more important than telling me about how it happens to many men. Yeah I am aware.

    1. @joe if it is happening to men earlier, more people become affected, which then reduces the stigma/negative stereotype. Social out-casting always affects the few, not the many, and this applies to any defect without exception. I am not saying this is right, but just how it is.

      1 in 500,000 people have a near photographic memory, but because the majority do not it is considered a gift to have it rather than a defect not to have it.

    2. Recognizing that it is happening earlier (IF it is happening earlier) means that the environment or current living conditions and habits are playing a role (extrinsic causes). Most theories currently consider only intrinsic (genetic) causes for androgenic alopecia (not so for autoimmune alopecias, which can be triggered by infections, aka antigenic mimicry).

      Information and observation are key to figuring out “exactly why and how it happens.” If environment does indeed exacerbate or trigger underlying intrinsic causes, then there is a good chance medical interventions could utilize the same pathways for more effective treatments.

      1. Even if this is true, people won’t give up the luxuries of modern life to hang on to their hair a bit longer. Would you give up WiFi for hair?

        1. It’s true. Without WiFi, how could I read this blog?

          You’re right, though. The obesity epidemic demonstrates that it’s hard for some (lots) of people to make beneficial lifestyle changes.

  37. Hey everyone I just got back from a vacation to Spain and France visiting relatives. I noticed that my hair was stronger, healthier and easier to style than at home here in Philly. I noticed that I rarely used my cell phone, wasn’t in front of a computer for hours and no stress for those two weeks. Now I’m not saying cell phones, computer screens and stress is causing my hair loss but those two weeks without it made a noticeable difference in how my hair looked. I didn’t grow more hair lol but it just felt and looked better. I do noticed that the water in my home is very hard and a smells like sulfur at times. Neighbors say it’s due to cleaning water from the county. After 4 days of being back my hair feels lifeless and dull like how it was before I left. I think environment and stress plays a role in hair health…..anybody else experience this?

    1. Welcome back! When I went to Africa a few years ago, my hair felt so much better. Was also hot and humid over there and I walked a ton outdoors.

      1. Thank you admin. I was also outside walking all over the place in the sun. All day. Weather was 80s and nice. I also drank a lot of spring water from the mountains at my aunts village daily. Maybe it had minerals that provided extra nutrients. All I know is that my hair is back to crap. I’m going to invest in a water filter and try to limit my computer usage and be outdoors more. It was a fun and relaxing two weeks. Now back to the grind lol

  38. Yes environment plays a role. When I go to my siblings place a few hours away I always have extensive shedding and scalp itch. It’s like a bug is crawling around under my scalp or something lol. And when I shower there I have massive amounts of hair in the drain and my hair is lifeless. After I get home a few days later it’s back to my regular amount of hairloss. I get bad anxiety about visiting them casue I have to deal with this. In my case it’s something in the air there that is causing this reaction because the itching begins when I’m getting closer to their house. Initially I thought it was the water but I’ve tried visiting for 2 days and not washing my hair until I hot home and it was the same reaction in the shower when I got home (from the damage that environment causes my scalp).

  39. I hope that this sudden silence on the part of science is only the silence before the big beng that will give a new life to our hair

  40. I am 28 y.o. and definitely think stress accelerates hair loss and triggers balding genes earlier.

    ^Admin. On another note. I know I’ve talked up about the topicals I use for treating my hair loss. Including Follics (https://www.follics.com), in which I use FR10 which contains bimatoprost. BUT GET THIS!! The parent company, SAPPHIRE HEALTHCARE, also came out with a new brand, Regrowth Labs (https://www.regrowthlabs.com), and they sell topical dutasteride, topical spironolactone, nizoral 2% shampoo, among other products.

    I recently purchased the topical dutasteride 0.5%. Can’t wait to start using it. Side note: I also use Juvetress revitalizing Hair Therapy to style my hair, and it definitely creates the illusion of healthier, thicker hair.

    – Phil Collins
    Pharmacologist | PharmD

    1. Yoda uses the Follics (formerly Polaris Labs) products. It’s as good or better than anything out there since Dr. Lee’s stuff and priced fairly. I used Murray Ave RX before this, while I feel the ingredients were quality they were more expensive and I don’t believe penetrated as well.

        1. CT, I had put the website but apparently it was “censored”. The company is called Minoxidil Express. Admin, if this get’s censored can you let me know why? I’m not selling anything, just trying to help a brother out.

            1. Thanks for the response admin, appreciate it. CT, I’m sure if you Google the name of the company I provided and Follics minoxidil you’ll find your way. This is what I was inferring when i mentioned in an unrelated post about being “proactive”, take control of the situation as best you can. That’s what has helped keep hair on Yoda’s noggin.

              1. Thank you Yoda. You have actually been a huge help in spreading some great information, so I appreciate your proactivity. I started using Murray avenue a few months back from a post that I saw you made. The only reason I asked about this one was because the link that was given in a few comments above didn’t allow shipping to the US. It’s always nice to find some hidden gems that you don’t usually see or find so easily on google so I appreciate your help.

                1. Happy to help where I can CT. After Dr. Lee’s Xandrox went kaput, which I’d used successfully for years, I bounced around. Dualgen 15, Formula 82M, Dr. Klein Promox, Minoxidil Labs then Murray Ave. None matched Xandrox, some were more costly and more of a pain to obtain. I think Murray Ave uses quality ingredients but is inferior with penetration. It was also off-putting that I found the owner to be BS-ing me on a few occasions about their history with Dr. Lee and that you can’t get 15% minoxidil into a liquid…not true. Follics is as good, or better than anything I’ve tried, reasonably priced and not to much of a hassle to obtain. Good Luck!

                  1. I want to clarify, Follics is as good or better than anything else I’ve tried since Xandrox but not including Xandrox. Definitely in second place and with some of their new additives fingers crossed for even better results.

  41. Admin, I am wondering if when you circle back to your next post on Breezula, your trusted sources can shed any light on how they read the drop off in effectiveness between the 6 month and 12 month effectiveness? I think we would all be curious as to what they think causes the drop off and whether they think the decline in effectiveness would continue or if it would stabilize. I am not sure what it means if anything, but I noticed that the vehicle in their Phase II followed the same pattern of decline as the active concentrations from the 6th to 12 month mark.

    1. They were excited based on their viewing a presentation, and possibly colleague feedback. Doubt they looked into dosages and time frame, but will ask!

  42. Hey Yoda…..I’m using 82M for a couple years. It worked great at first, thickened up my hair better than Rogaine foam. Which polaris solution are you using ? Looking to add a new topical to replace 82M since it’s not as powerful as it was.

    1. I tried 82M a few years ago, wasn’t impressed. I use FR12 and just started FR10 a few months ago. I’m going to try the regrowth labs for pm and FR-10 on my next order.

  43. I think this summer (six months from now) we find out that Aclaris JAKS for AGA grows a fair amount of hair on a High Dose. That is going to have Big repercusion not only with the FDA but each of us. The FDA may not allow such an incredibly strong drug to be used by tens of thousands of men for a cosmetic purpose. However a BlackMarket could quickly develop. It will be interesting.

    I Strongly believe that we will see considerable growth under the High Dose scenario but that drug they are using is dangerous to life. I would give almost anything to have my hair back and I have waited Forever long enough. Tough choice. Just my opinion.

    1. The test subjects were no further than a Norwood 3. They are stacking the deck in their favour because they know it is futile.

  44. NASA I love you bro but please stop with the jak hype. It’s done, over, forget about it lol. Plus that crap will never get approved for hair loss due to the immunosuppressive side effects. It’s good that it doesn’t work that well. Imagine if it grew back 100% regrowth but side effects were cancer and autoimmune issues and fda wouldn’t approve. That would be a bigger disappointment than it not working. Let’s focus on SM and Follica as they are more advanced in clinical trials and could be released in 1 to 3 years.

    1. @mjones – in the scenario of 100% regrowth with a risk of cancer, I think a few people on here would still take the chance.

    2. Agreed..Just look back at the comments from 18 months ago, we were supposed to get results in 6 months everyone so hyped ..All fizzled out because it’s bs, doesnt work for AGA clearly

  45. – Is there more air pollution now then there used to be?
    Are you kidding me. Of course there is. Capitalism is destroying the planet at a vast pace. Millions of people are sick. In a lot of ways it is ridiculous to worry about hair loss.

    – Recessive or dominant: as far as my biology knowledge goes, it is a myth that a dominant trait wipes out a recessive trait.
    The recessive trait has an equal chance of being passed on.

    1. Actually, there are numerous studies and articles that suggest that air pollution from factories and cars is much less today than in the past. Due to much improved technologies, less diesel, stricter emissions laws in factories etc… Water pollution is also less than in centuries past. In the developed world for certain, but also in China where their populace is richer and demanding cleaner air and water. Alternative energy, electric cars, fake meat and more are all now also making positive impacts. The ozone layer has also been recovering in recent years due to better emissions control.

      https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/05/ozone-layer-healing-after-aerosols-un-northern-hemisphere

      Perhaps these things will be cancelled out by rising population levels for now as I mentioned in the post. But even there, outside of Africa, almost the entire world is now at close to or below replacement levels (2.1 children per family).

      1. There is also significantly more trees than there were 100 years ago. Coal and wood are not major fuel sources anymore and CFOs have been banned since the 1970s. The hottest summer in the UK was way back in 1976.

        1. I am not sure if coal power will decline in large parts of the developing world anytime soon, but it is slowly going extinct in the developed world.

  46. I find it interesting that follicum and follica both are working on products with the name fol-005…please correct me if I’m wrong.

  47. Just my 2 cents, but I don’t exactly buy it. London was the dirtiest city on earth in 1910. There didn’t seem to be a massive bald epidemic worse then than now. Google Roosevelt with the Harvard Crew team and you will see that 2 in 3 men in the photo were clearly on the norwood scale by their early 20s. Telogen effluvium has been documented. I don’t see how stress would put one on the norwood scale. My hair loss is so mild (< NW2) and yet with the internet it has been enough to completely compromise my mental health and send me into a cascade of worry.

    1. I wouldn’t even count that as loss being less than a NW2. You can’t expect to look like a 14 year old your whole life.

  48. I have come to believe that probably no single drug is going to ever work. That hairloss is caused by a number of different things happening at once to produce the No Hair result. I do think that JAK along with several other drugs is what it will take where each one corrects a specific imbalance that leads to hair loss. That’s why it has been this difficult to find a treatment that they are trying to open up a lock knowing only one code, but you need four different codes.

    Anyways back to my hype that most claim. Aclaris has been true in their timeline and they have said by early summer we will get the high dose results (around June 2020) then the results are what the results are. We can only hope for the best. As far as the cancer goes lets just see if it can grow modest amount of hair first then we can figure out the risk.

  49. Adding maybe the low-dose JAK works but takes 2 to 3 years to grow a substantial amount of hair we did not lose hair overnight so why should we expect it a full set of hair overnight there’s still lots of hope that low dose JAK will work.

    then there’s high does JAK with results out in six months.

    Those who have given up on JFK it has proven to be the only drug to grow hair all over your head but for the first logos trial over six months it was not that much hair but it could greatly increase over time. I say it will WORK.

  50. In my case, the low level of vitamin D was probably a cause of thinning my hair. After three months of sunbathing 20 minutes a day, more daily massages and dermaroller every two weeks, I have been recovering thickness in my hair.

  51. Human exposure to increasing levels and duration of electromagnetic fields (EMF/EMR) from wireless transmission sources is a contributing factor in the breakdown of the body’s natural functions and restorative capabilities. Premature hair loss and graying relative to past generations are among many symptoms of accelerated aging due to the oxidative stress and dna damage these technologies cause. Wireless industry stance is that the technologies are biologically safe as long as thermal effect (tissue heating) is minimized. Studies disprove this:

    http://www.jmau.org/article.asp?issn=2213-879X;year=2017;volume=5;issue=4;spage=167;epage=176;aulast=Kivrak
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935118300355?via%3Dihub
    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ics.12286
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30533171/
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8061243/
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6025790/

  52. Eh I think your back to the genetic vs environment debate because that region could simply have greater numbers of recessive MPB genes floating around hence increased rates of MPB. Correlation vs causation.
    The problem is that without understanding how MPB works at a genetic level its always just random guesswork, and random observations which can always be misleading.

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