Hey Arthur,

Thanks for reaching out. To answer your questions–

1. It depends on your starting hair density. In general, 50+ hairs feels a little high… although if you’ve got great hair density and normally shed 200+ hairs daily in the absence of AGA, then this isn’t necessarily problematic.

2. You can absolutely continue with the old techniques if you’d like. These older techniques are the ones that we investigated in our 2016 study – which found a response rate of ~75% for those committing 8+ months or longer. The new techniques are bit more refined and updated based on the learnings from that study. They’re only available inside our membership, and while I’d love for you to join so that we can interact more and connect one-on-one (or through the forums), I have zero interest in pressuring anybody to become members who don’t want to, or are already seeing success with the free materials.

3. This sounds like AGA, but it may be a combination of both AGA + telogen effluvium. To gain better insights into that determination, we’d need to have a longer-form discussion to learn more about the type of hairs you are shedding, the presence of miniaturization, your health history, etc.

4. I think they work great for some people! We actually have an Alternative Massage Technique video inside the membership, too – which covers these types of exercises. One of our members (Jenna) saw really impressive improvements with a bamboo brush. But they’re great so long as they don’t evoke excessive shedding.

I hope this helps!

Best,
Rob

I started doing the detumescence therapy from 2016 video and I have some questions for you:

1. Is it normal to lose between 30-50 hairs per session? I have noticed that I’ve lost a little bit of density but I’m not sure because I haven’t cut my hair since January because I want long hair, and even longer hair seem thinner.
2. Is there a big difference between 2016 techniques and the actual ones? It will work for me if I continue with the old one?
3. If my temples have receded a bit, also my crown and I’ve lost density in general on the top of my scalp, is this an AGA or it is a type of diffuse thinning? For me the most noticeable thing is the lost of density (on the top, not on the sides). Is like if the hair on the top was “dead” or with “no life”, and the sides and the back are full of wavy/curly hair.
4. What do you think about brushing with a wooden brush, like Dmitry Tamoikin’s technique?

Thank you Rob, you’re doing a great job!

Hey Jasper,

It’s nice to hear from you. Great question.

To my understanding, muscular atrophy would actually reduce muscle tension in these tissues (that’s part of how Botox works; it immobilizes the muscle so that it cannot be used, which leads to atrophy over time). The only scenario where this wouldn’t be the case is if the atrophying muscle was also actively contracting and at significantly more force than before its atrophy. But that scenario feels a little unlikely for those with hypothyroidism.

I hope this helps!

Best,
Rob

Hey Holta,

Thanks for reaching out. There’s some evidence that stinging nettle has anti-inflammatory properties, as it can reduce the expression of a pro-inflammatory signaling protein known as nuclear factor kappa beta-1. There’s also some evidence that stinging nettle may help DHT levels, as the plant contains beta sitosterol (which likely helps reduce 5-alpha reductase activity – the same enzyme that converts testosterone into DHT). So, you could point to that evidence and say that because stinging nettle helps reduce inflammation + lower DHT, it probably will help with pattern hair loss.

At the same time, the evidence supporting those claims comes from cell culture studies and mouse models. So, there’s really not much data available to answer your question.

Moreover, many of the volatile acids inside herbal extracts have short half lives. This means that while they might help lower inflammation and/or reduce DHT, they only do so for a relatively short time period (at least compared to something like finasteride). This means usage frequencies for natural topicals need to increase – with applications 2-4x daily to see significant effects. At that rate, natural topicals become pretty expensive. So, if you’re thinking of using stinging nettle, you may want to consider this.

Long-story short: stinging nettle might help a little, but there’s not enough evidence to confirm this. In any case, I probably wouldn’t rely exclusively on stinging nettle as a hair growth agent. Rather, I’d also want to combine it with other things.

Best,
Rob

Of course! I’m happy to answer any other questions as well.

Thank you!

Hey Aslan,

The membership site includes a lot of information about gut health, its relationship to a variety of hair loss disorders, and which steps you can take (based on clinical data) to improve your gut as a means to potentially improve your hair loss.

Best,
Rob