This is my first visit to this site. I came for the hair scalp massage stuff but I found what you said about diffuse thinning masking itself as AGA extremely interesting.

I believe I might very well be a “diffuse thinner” case rather than AGA, based on the following evidence:

1. I had a sudden episode of “hair fall” (that happened over a span of 2-3 months) when I was 19 years old, which affected the entire vertex and a bit of the temple. I am 41 years old now, but since that sudden “attack” my hair has remained more or less the same density as it is now. (“more or less” because I believe it waxes and wanes in density a bit over long periods of time, but I haven’t kept proper track.)
2. MPT doesn’t appear to run in either side of my family (judging from relatives such as uncles and cousins)
3. Visually it looks like Ben M’s case that you talked about, although maybe I am in a better situation than what he shows at 0 months. (I don’t keep my hair that short so it’s hard to say, but I’m pretty sure it’s no worse than what his photos show.)
4. I have not had any treatment for it at all. It’s been 21 years now; I think if it was MBT it would’ve gotten worse without any treatment.

It’s something I’ve always believed – that I’m not an MPT case – at some point gave up finding the right course of action to treat it. I was never interested in going the minoxidil/finasteride route and I never will. (Actually had to look up how to spell those words lol.)

I may be wrong about my case and at this point I should perhaps stop caring, but if it’s something that can be corrected even at this late stage I would be happy to know how I should go about investigating it. (Once every few years I get the urge to do something about it, like right now, but I never really get anywhere!) I think the prevalence of MBT puts guys like me at a diagnostic disadvantage (assuming I’m right about myself in the first place).

I do wonder if I have a bit of subclinical hypothyroidism (my body temperature runs lower than normal – I have measured myself at ~35 Centigrade immediately on waking up).

I would be happy to send photos to someone who was in a better position to judge, and would even be willing to spend a moderate amount of money on it, but it’s hard knowing who to talk to.

Best,
Akiel

Hey Steven,

Great question. And yes! We did discuss this in detail. I believe our statisticians also had discussed/experimented with models to account for dropout bias – i.e., Bayes’ theorem. Although I don’t believe any of the alternative models led to different results, the possibility of bias still exists – regardless of whether it is quantifiable.

Currently, we don’t have plans to launch a new study to quantify new response rates from the updated massage routines. While I believe the new routines are leading to higher response rates, the way we rolled out these new routines (i.e., inside a membership community versus a standalone download) creates some problems with future survey data analyses. For example, in our massage survey study, participants were siloed (as in, incapable of communicating with one another). But in any future survey, participants would be community members, and thereby have an opportunity to connect with one another through our message boards. We do plan on launching more surveys to do internal analyses (and make future changes to the regimen). But it’s unlikely that we would publish these results.

Best,
Rob

Me too Seth, I have more shedding on my frontal region since I started two moths ago. How is going for you now. Is it normal or should I stop?
Thanks,
Nani

Hey Adam, I was wondering if your prediction was correct after all? Seems like it’s been a year since your post. I’m very keen to learn your progress!