Hey Ben, have you red Folexin ingredients? A lot of vitamins are synthetic, peace of **** for sure.

I had done this last year for 4 months, I decided to stop to see what would happen over the next 6 months. The new body hair “miniaturized”, eventually fell out and didn’t regrow, including my nose, eyebrows, and knuckles. My facial hair did not change at all, the new growth I experienced might have been from age as I just turned 25. My scalp kept shedding hair and it felt as if new hair wasn’t growing at all, I lost 2 millimeters on my hairline and only saw a few “peachfuzz” hairs where the normal hairs should have started growing again.

Now for the last 2 months(since September) I started taking moringa again but this time, I had started consuming 10g of freshly ground flax seeds daily 2 months prior(Since July). A couple of weeks in, I did notice body hair growing again but it’s less intense on the inside of my forearms and upper arms/shoulders and more intense on my groin/pubic hair. There is a lot more peachfuzz on my scalp. My hairline has a few normal hairs poking out that are 5-10mm long, I can see these up close in a non magnified mirror. The clusters of peachfuzz hairs from before are growing longer and some are darkening at the base but not to the level of the full size hairs, can only see them up really close from a magnified mirror with direct lighting.

As for libido/athletic performance, I haven’t noticed any difference, and in general I don’t feel any different with or without moringa. This is what confuses me, I am taking such a small amount and don’t feel any different yet I am growing hair/body hair where I never had any or very little and it stopped after I stopped taking moringa.

This article looks good but I don’t know enough to guess what could be causing my results. Could such a small dose have such an affect? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5745501/

Also I really appreciate your site and efforts to highlight how complicated hair loss is and that there are many causes.

Now coming across reading this article I’m pretty much certain that my corner recession/hair shedding is a result of taking Accutane. I commented on another article of yours where I stated that I had very thick hair. About 3-4 months in my accutane treatment I noticed my hair starting to thin at a rapid pace. Its now been 3 years since I stopped using accutane and my hair only got thinner and brittle during that span. I can see my scalp in certain parts. I have a lot of hair but it’s just very thin.

I’ve herd of people getting permanent side affects because of Accutane. I wish I had done more research on this drug. I’ve also seen countless testimonies of people saying their hair loss recovered several years later after stopping accutane, which gives me hope. It is because the Vitamin A toxicity can stay in your body for years? It could also be that I have chronic telogen effluvium because of the accutane.

I’m a healthy guy and follow a healthy diet as well as exercise often. I’m currently taking Folexin and applying rosemary oil. I will try derma rolling too. I’m curious if following a Vitamin A deplete diet would work.

Thanks for another couple of great articles! Quick question, along with the massages, I have found a need to moisturize the areas on my scalp temples, but have been using several different collagen / retinol creams. I have found daily use of these creams beneficial for keeping the scalp tissues moisturized. I know this article goes mostly into “oral” supplementation, but are you aware of any evidence that would indicate that “topical” application of these sorts of creams would be either damaging or potentially counter-productive for achieving regrowth?

Example of a retinol cream: https://amazon.com/gp/product/B076KNVTHQ

Thanks in advance!

Matt W

Hey Jasper,

It’s great to hear from you. And yes! That person’s name is Grant Genereux. He seems to have had great success on a vitamin A-deplete diet, and he’s gone so far as to put gerbils on the same diet to prove its safety.

At the same time, it seems like vitamin A might play some pretty important roles in neonatal development. This is evident in infants born with genetic mutations that prevent them from converting beta-carotene into retinol. Sadly, these infants are often also born mentally disabled.

So, maybe it’s that we do need a bit of vitamin A throughout development, but that we don’t need anywhere near the amount that most adults consume.

Best,
Rob

Hey James,

Thanks for reading!

Accutane has been implicated in a form of hair loss known as telogen effluvium. This is a hair shedding disorder; it’s temporary, and it often reverses after someone removes the cause of the shedding (in this case, Accutane®).

At the same time, if you’ve got a genetic predisposition for male pattern hair loss, then Accutane® use can trigger a bout of telogen effluvium, which can then accelerate the onset of male pattern hair loss. Male pattern hair loss is chronic and progressive. So, depending on how your hair loss is presenting (and progressing), your best path forward might be a bit more nuanced than just tackling the potential vitamin A toxicity.

I’ve read of some people seeing great success by following a vitamin A deplete diet. I’m hesitant to outright recommend this to people – mainly because the science supporting it highly anecdotal. But it is entirely possible to design a diet that is (1) vitamin A deplete, and (2) otherwise nutrient replete in all other micro- and macro-nutrients. It just requires you to eat a lot of rice, beans, and low-vitamin A meat products (among other foods).

Otherwise, for many people, it seems like stopping Accutane® stops their telogen effluvium-related hair loss from worsening, and in some cases, the hair loss grows back. For those who don’t fall into this category, I’d explore whether you’re also dealing with something like male pattern hair loss.

Best,
Rob