Hello. I am 26 years old. My hairline has been receding for about 6 years at the left and right temple areas. I still have the middle section of my hair (I’m not sure of the best way to describe it). Anyway, when I closely inspect my scalp, the entire receded area is still covered with VERY small, fine, fuzz-like hair. At a quick glance it looks bald, but upon closer inspection the hair is still there.

My question is, do I have a good chance of growing the lost hair back? I don’t know how long it takes for a follicle to completely die, but I would imagine that if that had occurred, there would be no hair visible in the area at all, right?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Hi and thanks for your question.

If you examine any part of your skin (except your palms and the soles of your feet) closely enough you will see tiny, almost invisible, transparent hairs. These fine hairs are known as ‘vellus hairs’.

A hormone by-product called DHT causes the tiny vellus hairs on the arms, legs, faces and other areas to grow thicker and darker during puberty. The same DHT has the reverse effect on the hairs on the head, later in life.

In order to save these tiny vellus hairs from total extinction you need to reverse the miniaturization process by reactivating the vellus hair follicles. In cases where the hairs have become almost invisible, your hopes of reactivating them are slim, but it is possible – providing you work fast; which is why starting a good hair regrowth regime before your hair loss gets too bad is always advisable.

How do you reactivate these dormant hairs?

In order to bring these hairs back to life you need to follow four important stages:

1. Reduce DHT levels going to the scalp
2. Remove DHT already present in the scalp
3. Increase blood flow in the scalp
4. Increase nutrient supply to the hairs

DHT is what causes the hair follicle miniaturization in the first place (in most cases), so that’s the first thing to deal with. Then it’s a case of getting the blood and nutrient supply to above and beyond the levels required for a terminal hair (normal thick hair) to grow healthily. Once DHT is eliminated from the equation and nutrient and blood supply are charged up, the hairs can begin to regrow.

There are a few other tricks that can help. The scalp needs to be shocked back into ‘hair growing mode’. It may have been in ‘hair loss mode’ for a while, so it needs something to spark it back into life. This is a fairly simple process that can be completed from home.

To learn how I reactivated my dormant hair follicles using my personal hair loss strategy, download my eBook today.

During sex or masturbation testosterone levels increase and at the point of ejaculation, some testosterone is converted into DHT. If the DHT makes it to the scalp and the scalp is sensitive to DHT, the result could be increased hair loss.

What is the solution?

There are several ways of combating this problem. You can stop masturbating or having sex (at least to the point of ejaculation), you can inhibit DHT production using saw palmetto, prescription hair loss medication or with dietary changes, or ideally, you can stop the DHT from reaching your scalp by making your body’s hormonal processing system more efficient.

My personal approach is a mixture of the latter two options. I’m not a fan of the prescription medication approach and I feel that taking saw palmetto supplements everyday for the rest of your life is not a satisfactory solution to stopping hair loss, since it relies on continued use of a supplement.

I think that for the average person a saw palmetto supplement is an adequate short-term solution. However I would advise that if you want a more complete solution you should aim to solve the problem at it’s root, by improving the efficiency of your body’s hormonal processing capabilities.

To learn how to do this download my hair loss ebook today.

What causes acne?

If you look at the causes of acne, you’ll see that they are very similar to the causes of hair loss:

• hormonal changes
• poor diet – too much of the wrong types of fat and sugar
• stress
• incorrect skin care
• inefficient liver

I’d like to highlight the first and last points in the list above. All of the causes listed above are in fact interlinked, effecting each other, but I’d like to explain the points about the liver and hormonal changes further.

The liver processes hormones, fats and toxins. If the liver lacks sufficient levels of ‘coenzyme A’ (a fat metabolizing coenzyme), the body recirculates fat in the blood, which may then be secreted through the skin via the sebaceous glands. This oil (which causes greasy skin and the shiny scalp effect common in balding men) is known as ‘sebum’ and is thought to be a major cause of acne. In fact the evidence is so strong, that in a study, simply increasing coenzyme A levels in the body was shown to have a massive positive impact on acne, simply because skin sebum levels were reduced.

So we can see how by making a change in the liver, we can effect the skins surface. Clearly the liver is an important factor in both acne.

But what has sebum got to do with hair loss?

Well, if we can effect skin sebum levels by giving the liver a helping hand, you can imagine what we can do for your hair, if you just apply some more logical science along the same vein. Sebum contains DHT. DHT is by far the most significant cause of hair loss. So if you suffer from elevated sebum levels, you need to give your liver a helping hand. It’s likely that it was your liver’s inefficiency that caused your acne when you were younger. And now the same thing is a causal factor in your hair loss.

The answer is to get your liver working at optimal levels, to increase coenzyme A levels and to remove any impacted sebum from your scalp to clear the pores, allowing new hairs to grow.

However there are several other factors that effect the liver. After all, why do some people’s liver’s become less efficient in the first place, while other peoples liver’s don’t? Stress, poor diet and hormonal imbalance can overstress your liver. By fixing these problems you can have a positive impact on your liver and your hair.

There’s another twist to the story

Stress can have a massive impact on your physical health. It can effect your hormonal balance and the health of your liver. So if you are badly effected by stress, it’s likely that anything you do to improve your liver, will be a waste of time, until you properly deal with the route cause of your problem – the stress itself. Acne, like hair loss, is often worsened and even caused by stress, but the stress is strongly interlinked with hormonal balance. Both feed back on each other. In order to properly cure the acne or the hair loss both problems must be dealt with in a comprehensive manner.

To learn more about stress, the liver, hormonal balance, sebum, DHT, hair loss and how to properly eliminate each of these underlying causes, step by step, download my hair loss eBook today.

In fact it’s important that you keep your scalp clean if you want to do everything you can to prevent hair loss caused by DHT. DHT is present in an oil called sebum, which is secreted through the pores in the scalp. There is often a correlation between increased sebum on the scalp and hair loss. In fact the two are related in many (but not all) hair loss cases.

It’s important for the health of your hair that you keep your scalp as free of sebum as you can. Sebum contains DHT, which attacks hair follicles as though the hairs were foreign bodies.

If sebum isn’t cleaned from the scalp daily it can build up and combine with dead skin cells and other pollutants (such as dust, air pollution and hair gel). If this build up continues (which it easily can and often does) the sebum can harden and embed into the scalp, clogging the scalps’ pores – this is what causes the shiny scalp effect, common among hair loss sufferers.

Washing your hair might not be enough

Unfortunately, if sebum and other materials are allowed to build up and embed into the scalp, shampooing is not likely to be enough to properly clean the scalp of the shiny hardened layer.

It is very important that this layer of sebum based ‘plaque’ (for want of a better word) is removed from the scalp in order to clear the pores, remove DHT and allow new hairs to emerge freely. Unfortunately this isn’t easy. But it’s a crucial first step to stopping hair loss and regrowing hair. That’s why it’s the first step in my eBook.

To find out how to remove this hardened layer of sebum based plaque from your scalp, download my hair loss eBook today. If you don’t remove the plaque from your scalp, forget about stopping your hair loss.

Testosterone is a male hormone but it is also present (in lesser amounts) in women. Generally speaking the more testosterone in the body, the more extreme the male characteristics will be. If you look at a bull and a cow, the bull is far more muscular and far more aggressive. Both bulls and cows have the same diet. The difference is the bull has far higher testosterone levels.

DHT: a by-product of testosterone

It’s clear that men tend to experience hair loss more so than women. That is because men tend to have more testosterone in their body’s. DHT is a by-product of testosterone. In general, as we age, more DHT is produced from testosterone. DHT seems to cause hair loss and also body hair growth.

Some people’s hair is more susceptible to the effects of DHT than others. Some people’s body’s tend to produce more testosterone than others. Some people will experience more of an elevation in testosterone as a result of starting a weight lifting/body building routine, while others will not experience much of a change. And some people seem to produce more DHT from testosterone than others.

So in answer to your question:

Yes, weight lifting or body building may cause an increased rate in hair loss, IF you are one of the people who is both susceptible to the negative effects of DHT and your weight lifting/body building routine results in an increase in testosterone levels.

From what I know about body building, most people who work-out hard will experience an increase in testosterone but not a massive one. In fact there are many things that cause elevated testosterone levels.

For example, a study discovered that men whose football team won a match had more elevated testosterone levels after the game than the supporters of the losing team. This study shows that the mind is a key controller of hormonal balance and this is one of the key parts of my hair loss eBook.

It shows that it is possible to control your hormonal balance if you are able to take greater control of your mind and your feelings.

In conclusion

It’s my opinion that you don’t need to worry about the effects of body building on your hair, unless you are taking supplements that are designed to increase your testosterone levels. I don’t even need to say that you shouldn’t be taking steroids if you want to be healthy.

If you’re taking steroids and you are one of the millions of people whose scalp is sensitive to DHT you will probably notice an increase in hair loss. Just don’t take them.

However if you’re not taking steroids and you’re working out pretty hard you should be OK, providing you’re following the instructions in my eBook – and so keeping your mind in the right place, keeping your body working at super efficient levels and keeping your scalp clear and free of DHT.

I work out as often as possible – about three times a week and I hit the weights quite hard. I’ve got a pretty muscular body – in fact I’m in great shape – low fat levels, good muscle tone. But I’m highly aware that with exercising and weight lifting you can do things the same way as everyone else or you can use your intelligence to get ahead of the game. And I’m fortunate enough to know about nutrition and how to gain the most benefits from food.

I hope this helps. Thanks for your question.

Chris

I would recommend that you examine your scalp very closely under a good light. If you can see any abnormalities in the skin, or if the skin looks unhealthy in some way, email me back describing the symptom you have observed and I will advise you further. If you don’t notice any abnormalities from your visual examination of the scalp, it’s likely that DHT is your primary cause of hair loss.

I would also recommend giving your scalp a very good wash with a shampoo containing salicylic acid, in order to remove some of the dead skin cells to give your scalp a breather.

But in answer to your question; without any more information all I can tell you is that it is likely that DHT is a cause of your hair loss and if you don’t do anything about it now you will start to notice a reduction in the diameter of individual hairs over the next year or so.

All the best,

Chris
support@nicehair.org

However gel may have an impact on hair loss.

Here’s why

Hair grows in phases. Each individual hair on your head grows for a period (several years), then it goes into a resting period for around two weeks, before it falls out. The hair that has been shed will be replaced with a new hair. This is why it is important to keep the scalp clean and the pores clear and unblocked.

Ever noticed bald people often have shiny scalps?

You may have made the observation that many bald people and people with receding hair lines or thinning hair, often have shiny scalps. This shiny layer is caused by a build up of an oil called ‘sebum’, which combines with dead skin cells, cosmetic styling products (such as hair gel) and other pollutants. This oil layer builds up and becomes embedded into the scalp, making it impossible to wash out using conventional shampooing methods. The hardened embedded oil fills in pores around the edges, eventually entirely filling the pores. This causes hair follicle miniaturization and eventually can contribute to total hair loss.

So, while hair gel does not cause hair loss, it may be a contributing factor, especially if you have used it for years without being careful to wash your hair and scalp daily, particularly before bed, in order to prevent the clogging of your skins pores.

Examine your scalp under a good light. Is it very shiny? If so it may be coated with a hardened and embedded layer of sebum based plaque.

What can you do about this?

Unfortunately in many cases the plaque layer is so embedded into the skin that no shampoo can remove it. In fact there is really only one way of effectively removing it and clearing the pores.

In step 1 of the nicehair.org Hair Loss eBook I provide detailed instructions explaining exactly how to fully remove the embedded layer of plaque, in your home, using the only known method for achieving this vital objective — to the fullest extent, making your scalp absolutely like new. This will revitalize and invigorate your scalp, encouraging blood flow and cell production.

Once the coating has been removed you will learn how to reactivate the dormant hair follicles and you will start to see new hair growing within a month or so.

Then you will learn how to stop the the sebum based plaque layer from reforming by normalizing your sebum levels.

That’s the first step of the book. There are six steps. After you’ve completed step 1 you will go on to learn how to eliminate stress, making yourself a calm relaxed person using our free audio files that you can listen to at any time, without any effort. These files will bombard your brain with positive messages that will gradually change the way you think, making you a calm individual who reacts to stressful situations in a relaxed manner.

In steps 3 to 6 you will learn how to normalize hormonal balance (a key factor to stopping hair loss), improve the efficiency of your liver (another key factor), turbo charge your hair growth with a key food (eaten at a specific time in combination with several other key foods) and finally you will learn how to turbo charge your circulation to get an abundance of nutrients to the newly re-activated hair follicles.

This six step programme will change the ‘mode’ of your body from one that is experiencing hair loss to one that naturally grows hair.

Thanks for your question.

Yes. Hair sheds on a daily basis and this is natural. Noticeable ‘hair loss’ occurs when new hairs fail to replace the shed ones. Therefore our main objectives are:

• to make sure shed hairs are replaced by new ones and
• to prolong the length of the hairs natural growth phase.

By doing so you effectively stop hair loss.

Can you regrow lost hair?

Yes it is possible to grow your hair back after experiencing a period of noticeable hair loss. In order to do this you have to re-activate dormant hair follicles. However if the scalp becomes bald for a long period it may be the case that the hair follicles have completely died and are no-longer present. In such cases it is not possible to re-activate dormant hair follicles, as there are no-longer hair follicles present. Therefore it is important to re-activate the dormant hair follicles as soon as possible; before they die.

Thanks for your question.

Unfortunately hair follicles do ‘completely die’ in time. But if you have only lost 40% of you hair you have a good chance of growing that back. Hair loss surgeons tend to believe that most people only notice their hair loss when they have already lost 50% of their hair.

This leads me to believe that you might mean your hair has receded to the extent that 40% of your scalp is completely bald – perhaps you can verify this using the comments. If this is the case then you may need a hair transplant to recover a large proportion of that lost hair.

It is generally far easier to restore the thickness of thinning hair than it is to restore a receding hair line. That said it is possible but will take a lot longer.

My method does work to restore the hair line but it has it’s limits. It is more effective at improving overall hair density than it is at restoring the hair line – that said I have had noticeable hair growth along my frontal hair line for about a year now. However my hair line was not vastly receded in the first place. If your hair line is receded to as far as half way back (in line with your ears) that is likely to take more drastic measures.

If you have a large bald area that has been bald for several years it is likely that the hair follicles are not dormant but are in fact no longer present. In which case the only way to replace the lost hair would be to have hair transplant surgery.

Yes, smoking does cause hair loss.

Smoking causes hair loss in two ways:

• It reduces circulation to the extremities
• It pollutes the blood, which impacts the liver

It may also have some minor clogging effect on the scalps pores when combined with sebum.

You should quite smoking. But not because it causes hair loss. The impact smoking has on hair loss is almost insignificant in comparison to the impact hormonal imbalance and stress have. So if you’re looking for the primary cause of your hair loss, smoking is almost certainly not the one.

Recently a study found that people living in highly polluted areas experience a greater rate of hair loss. This is likely to do with the same reasons as smoking – so the impact of polluting the lungs with chemicals and smoke is measurable in terms of hair loss.

You should try to quit as it will benefit your health greatly, especially your long term health. But don’t expect your hair to grow back when you quit. You’ll need to do more than that. For example, you’ll need to re-activate your dormant hair follicles if you have already experienced some hair loss.

If you’d like to see some horrifying pictures check out this page on smoking and circulation.

Once again, thanks for your question and feel free to comment on my blog posts.