My story: Through a healthy lifestyle I managed to stop my hair loss and regrow hair

[Beating Baldness]

Hey everyone, I’m David, I'm 29 and I have been fighting hair loss since my early 20s. I didn’t used to live very healthily. Smoking/drinking/eating rubbish. I wasn’t particularly active and I rarely felt 100%.

I started losing my hair when I was 23/24. I've been researching ever since. I bought all the pills, shampoos and medications as well as looking at these forums. I was stressed out and embarrassed. I was studying at the time and it really affected my grades and communication with people. I began to change my lifestyle into a more healthy one and I started to see improvements. I do take Saw Palmetto and Ashwagandha supplements - but I mainly listen to my body more and try to eat well and exercise frequently.

I have genuinely managed to halt my hair loss and regrow hair - especially at the frontal region/hairline. I don't think my crown was ever much of an issue - although i notice that my hair is in much better condition all over.

I'm still trying to improve my hairline and I hope to share this progress with you. Overall my hair has become thicker, healthier and still improving. I feel so much better about it. I want to share my story in order to help others. Feel free to contact me if you would like to know more! If you have had any success with natural remedies and positive lifestyle changes, I'd love to hear about it.

Good luck to all of you.

[jamesst11]

Do you have any before and after pics you can provide, please??

[Beating Baldness]

Hey James,

As unconvincing as it may sound, I do not have any before pictures. I definitely did take photos during my worst stages but the digital camera/memory card I used at the time - is lost. I have looked for it and really hope that it shows up soon. I will absolutely post the photos when I find the camera. I do remember feeling pretty disgusted with the way I looked at the time. It was a pretty shit experience - I remember deleting a lot of photos because I was embarrassed/ashamed by them. I didn't really consider posting them online back then - I realise how encouraging they would be if I had them now.

I will say, however, that for me, a natural approach really helped. I remember the hair loss slowing down and then stopping after a few weeks and started to see some regrowth results within half a year or so. I wasn't 100% sure what I was doing at the time - but I eventually figured out the most essential aspects of the regimen. A lot of it has been mentioned, sporadically on this forum over the years - and it was here and one of the other main hair loss forums that I got a lot of the information on how to build my regimen.

I really hope to find the camera and will find this thread to post them when/if that happens.

Feel free to contact me if you want to know anything else.
David

[Thinning@30]

I see you're new to the forums. This is reads like a typical newby post: "I started doing X and it totally stopped my hair loss!"

The reality is that you have no way of knowing this. You have no objective measures to indicate whether your hair loss has stopped or even slowed down. You don't have detailed photos, hair counts, etc., that demonstrate anything, just your subjective opinion that your hair looks better now. Unfortunately, people are masters of self-delusion.

MPB may not be fully understood, but it seems to have very little to do with diet and exercise. There are plenty of fit people who are balding, and there's no shortage of overweight people, alcoholics, and drug addicts with great heads of hair. We do know that once MPB gets started, it is there to stay. There is virtually no medical literature of MPB spontaneously reversing itself (AA yes, but MPB no). Some people advance up the Norwood scale faster than others, and some never become full NW 6s, but getting MPB is like becoming an amputee. Once the hair is gone it doesn't just grow back.

At any congrats on your new healthier lifestyle. If you feel it's helping you, by all means continue, but do it for your health, not necessarily because you expect any results when it comes to your hair.

[Beating Baldness]

Hey Thinning@30,

Thanks for your comment. You made some great points.

Although I am new to the forums with this username, I was regularly here over the past 5 or so years as a visitor. I went to see doctors and dermatologists during my worst stages and they suggested that I was suffering from MPB. They recommended two possible actions: propecia/minoxodil or to just let it take it's course. I wasn't satisfied with these answers. I don't think they were particularly knowledgable about hair loss - it just encouraged me to look for alternatives. I spoke to hair specialists and discussed my situation, I took blood tests and I made drastic lifestyle changes.

I don't mean to offend anyone by joining the forum and sharing my story. I believe that hair loss, or at least the rate of hair loss, is highly dependant upon how well our body is functioning. If we can prevent stress, anxiety and frustration over hair loss, we can reduce cortisol levels - which are proven to be connected to hair loss. I use Saw Palmetto and nettle to reduce the conversion of testosterone into DHT instead of Propecia. I do regular scalp exercises in order to stimulate the scalp and increase blood flow. Diet and exercise are a big part of getting our body to function at it's best.

Lots of people don't understand this and think that food is food. Due to increasing amounts of pesticides, GMOs, growth hormones, and various other chemicals used in standard food production today - I believe this really isn't the case. People are more sick, have more allergies and are at higher risk of infections and terminal illnesses than ever before. They are then propped up by more chemicals than ever before - and I don't want to be a part of that.

I think the main thing to remember here is that some people are pre-disposed to hair loss and pattern baldness and some people aren't. There are plenty of people who seemingly do zero exercise, eat what they like and have perfect hair. There are also people who do live their lives this way and have no problem with weight - we know that genetics, body function and metabolism, for example, have a lot to do with this.

I disagree that our hair is unaffected by our health. I am not suggesting that what I have done will work for everyone. However, I do believe that everyone can improve the longevity of their hair by improving their lifestyle.

I am totally open to discussion on this. It would be great to hear back from you.

[Thinning@30]

I actually agree with you somewhat that certain processed foods are the likely cause of many chronic illnesses, although I think the label of GMO is arbitrary and meaningless. I used to be a very healthy eater, but fell of the bandwagon at about the same time I noticed my MPB developing. Shortly thereafter I experienced some career and personal setbacks, and the thought process was "Why bother with a healthy lifestyle? Everything is going to hell anyways." I'm now trying to redevelop the healthy habits I once had. There is not much I can do to control my MPB, but I can choose to be a slim and otherwise healthy NW 6 rather than an obese one. I tried finasteride and minoxidil and had bad reactions to both of them, so they're not an option for me.

When it comes to MPB, I'm just not convinced that diet, exercise, and other lifestyle factors have anything other than a very slight influence. If they were significant contributors, I think we would see much more variation in the frequency and severity of MPB among the populations who are genetically prone to it. From what I understand, MPB is well documented throughout certain populations. It existed throughout recorded history (fun fact: men used hair systems in Ancient Egypt and hieroglyphics even depict various "remedies" for baldness. Instead of snake oil they used crocodile fat!). I'm unaware of any evidence to suggest frequency and severity differ among genetically similar populations, e.g. men with European ancestry living in the U.S. vs men living in Western Europe. Anthropologists have documented MPB among the remaining hunter-gatherer societies. MPB is even known to occur in select species of non-human primates even when they live in the wild.

I think it is very tempting to look for some aspect of our lives which we can "blame" for MPB. It is just human nature. We want to think that bad things don't happen to good people and all that. To me, this type of thinking leads to something akin to the bargaining stage of grief. "If I just give up gluten/refined sugars/soy/carbohydrates/dairy/smoking/alchohol or whatever, maybe my MPB will stop." The problem with is that there is harm in making all kinds of drastic and expensive lifestyle changes on the basis of flimsy evidence. The reality for most of us is that MPB is just our genetic and epigenetic destiny, and I think we're better off coming to terms with that.

Incidentally, if that is you in the picture, it just looks like you have a mature hairline.

[GSD]

ok nice for you, but you never had MPB. MPB isnt the only reason for hairloss

[Soonbald]

I would like to Contact you on this matter via Youtube or email... hör av dig!

[FlightTL]

Hey everyone, I’m David, I'm 29 and I have been fighting hair loss since my early 20s. I didn’t used to live very healthily. Smoking/drinking/eating rubbish. I wasn’t particularly active and I rarely felt 100%.

I started losing my hair when I was 23/24. I've been researching ever since. I bought all the pills, shampoos and medications as well as looking at these forums. I was stressed out and embarrassed. I was studying at the time and it really affected my grades and communication with people. I began to change my lifestyle into a more healthy one and I started to see improvements. I do take Saw Palmetto and Ashwagandha supplements - but I mainly listen to my body more and try to eat well and exercise frequently.

I have genuinely managed to halt my hair loss and regrow hair - especially at the frontal region/hairline. I don't think my crown was ever much of an issue - although i notice that my hair is in much better condition all over.

I'm still trying to improve my hairline and I hope to share this progress with you. Overall my hair has become thicker, healthier and still improving. I feel so much better about it. I want to share my story in order to help others. Feel free to contact me if you would like to know more! If you have had any success with natural remedies and positive lifestyle changes, I'd love to hear about it.

Good luck to all of you.

I have heard an anti-inflammatory diet and scalp exercises can regrow hair.

[Notcoolanymore]

I have heard an anti-inflammatory diet and scalp exercises can regrow hair.

Try it and report back to us with your findings and provide plenty of before/after pics. Thanks.

[sagat]

It's 2015 and we still get these groundless posts.

[Notcoolanymore]

It's just ridiculous because they make it seem like they stumbled upon something ground breaking. Millions have tried to go the "natural" route to treat their hair loss and have failed. I am happy that a select few have cured their baldness through diet, but I am not going to overlook the millions that have failed going the natural route.

[Soonbald]

considering that this guy was drinking and smoking and eating a bad diet...that explains alot.. -_- I dont smoke I dont drink I dont eat rubbish food...sure I dont exercise but who said exercising will magically grow my hairline back? no no...

[Thinning@30]

Soonbald

considering that this guy was drinking and smoking and eating a bad diet...that explains alot.. -_- I dont smoke I dont drink I dont eat rubbish food...sure I dont exercise but who said exercising will magically grow my hairline back? no no...

Yesterday 11:17 PM
Notcoolanymore

It's just ridiculous because they make it seem like they stumbled upon something ground breaking. Millions have tried to go the "natural" route to treat their hair loss and have failed. I am happy that a select few have cured their baldness through diet, but I am not going to overlook the millions that have failed going the natural route.

This and this. Exactly what I think is wrong with the thread. Although to be clear the OP hasn't "cured" anything. The OP appears to be naive and has deluded himself into thinking he's reversed his hair loss. More likely it stabilized, as happens to many MPB sufferers, or hasn't even slowed down at all, and OP is engaging in wishful thinking.

I think there is harm in these "I tried X and it stopped my hair loss!" threads that pop up from time to time. Even when the posters aren't shills, but merely naive people, they give false hope to others who are new to hair loss, and they encourage people to waste time and energy making all kinds of lifestyle changes that won't get them their hair back. What's more, I think posts like the OP's encourage self-blame. It almost gives the impression MPB is a character flaw for people who don't practice "clean living" whatever that is.

[Beating Baldness]

I totally understand where all of you are coming from. Some of you may have tried to go the 'natural route', incorporate regular exercise into your weekly routines and learn to relax. I never said I had a ground breaking magical cure - I think this option is only viable for people at the early stages of hair loss. I am attempting to help people with what seems to have worked for me. It has worked up until now and I hope it continues.

Every one knows that they should eat healthy, yet obesity is increasing. Someone on here mentioned that I was deluded for bringing this up - how many people delude themselves into thinking they live healthily by eating a salad every now and again, or going for a run once a week? I have tried to help people before and most of the time they can't let go of things like smoking, drinking, occasional fast food, white bread, candy, fizzy drinks etc.

I went to the doctors and they told me I had MPB. I researched it for ages but it didn't take me long to see a connection with lifestyle and the negative effects on the body - potentially the hair. And man, I decided to do EVERYTHING I could in order to maximise the chances of stopping my hair loss. And it was really difficult at first - I continued to smoke occasionally, I tried to eat healthier but it seriously is a massive learning curve to re-wire your eating habits and actually think about what those foods are doing to you.

I know I am lucky, but I don't think I'm the only one who can benefit from these changes. As someone else said, even if you don't regrow your hair you will feel 100 times better with those lifestyle changes. And regarding the added cost of living a healthy lifestyle... That's penny wise and pound foolish. I know I'd rather feed myself with the best food possible and pay a little extra over time than have to end up paying for huge medical bills, medication costs, hair transplants and whatever else.

I don't expect everyone to take me seriously. Thinking back, the thing that clicked for me was the image of 'hunter gatherers' with full heads of hair, pictures from the 30s - 60s where people seem to have much thicker, longer hair. The main things that stick out to me about those things are a less stressful lifestyle, less alcohol and drugs, eating better quality food and more exercise. Absolutely not in all cases, but I reckon there's something to it. I just changed my lifestyle to be more like that - it's not even hard anymore. I know why I'm doing it and since I quit smoking in 2013 - I've not felt like I've sacrificed anything.

Finally, I think rejecting my opinion/story does even more harm - some young person could read this and make huge changes to their life. Possibly manage to keep their hair. I think it's worth a shot, don't you?