Survey: How's Your Diet + The State Of Your Hair?

[TanbarkBellss]

This dude's article really got me thinking, it looks like the acidic/alkaline balance of your body is a big factor in hair loss.
Here's the key quote: "The precise enzyme (5-alpha-reductase, which converts testosterone into DHT) which scientific studies have found to be responsible for hair loss cannot function in an alkaline cellular environment."

Read the article for more info, but meanwhile, i'm interested to see if there's any links here.

For the people here who have good hair, do you eat lots of veggies, nuts and seeds?

For the people who are thinning, do you eat lots of diary, grains, meat?

Also, what's your age?

 

[mdmnota]

22, eating a lot of diary, grains and meat

 

[tylerduren]

Just munched a donner kebab

 

[neodoxa]

I'll preface this by saying that my uncle and grandfather on my mom's side were bald by 30. I'm currently about a Norwood 2.5 with decent density on the rest of my scalp.

My diet was complete trash for about the past 10 years. I ate a ton of pizza, fast food, etc. I drank a ridiculous amount of alcohol, too.

About 6 months ago I changed my diet dramatically, started weight training, and I don't drink any alcohol anymore. I'm now eating mostly fresh veggies, fish, and a lot of soy milk.

Haven't really noticed any difference in my hair, to be honest.

I'm honestly surprised I'm not completely bald already like my family members were at my age.

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

I eat a mixed diet, each food group is present in my diet. No extremes. Diet includes meat, sugar, grains, alcohols, fruits, vegetables, nuts, dairy, etc. I do a lot of intermittent fasting.

I am balding with a receding hairline + diffuse thinning over the NW5 area. I'm now a NW2 with treatment, would be a NW3 without treatment. I'm 33. I do not take supplements but have taken some in the past here and there but never long term.

 

[TanbarkBellss]

22, eating a lot of diary, grains and meat

From what i've been researching (i've been glued to my computer screen for 2 days straight), those are some of the worst foods for hair loss. Especially dairy.
When you eat food it leaves metabolic waste, also known as "ash". There are two types: acidic ash, and alkaline ash. Acidic ash is the mother f****r we wanna avoid.
Eating foods that leave acidic ash puts your body's pH levels into an acidic state (rather than an alkaline state) which means your body has to get its nutrients from other areas to balance out the acid. Every body's different and does it in different ways. Some bodies store fat, some bodies excrete toxins through pores, some bodies take calcium from the bones, and in our case our bodies take nutrients from our hair follicles (and probably skin and teeth in some cases). Hair follicles are a great storage room for proteins, basically.

I'm new to this knowledge but the research i've been doing lately is linking up in a lot of areas, i really think there's something to it.

It'd serve you to google which foods are more alkaline and which foods are more acidic. Quick spoiler: basically most vegetables are the big alkaline winners, along with fruit, seeds, nuts, berries, spice. Biggest acidic ash producers are dairy, processed foods, grains, alcohol, meat, syrups.

Lemme know if you want links to check out yourself

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

From what i've been researching (i've been glued to my computer screen for 2 days straight), those are some of the worst foods for hair loss. Especially dairy.
When you eat food it leaves metabolic waste, also known as "ash". There are two types: acidic ash, and alkaline ash. Acidic ash is the mother f****r we wanna avoid.
Eating foods that leave acidic ash puts your body's pH levels into an acidic state (rather than an alkaline state) which means your body has to get its nutrients from other areas to balance out the acid. Every body's different and does it in different ways. Some bodies store fat, some bodies excrete toxins through pores, some bodies take calcium from the bones, and in our case our bodies take nutrients from our hair follicles (and probably skin and teeth in some cases). Hair follicles are a great storage room for proteins, basically.

I'm new to this knowledge but the research i've been doing lately is linking up in a lot of areas, i really think there's something to it.

It'd serve you to google which foods are more alkaline and which foods are more acidic. Quick spoiler: basically most vegetables are the big alkaline winners, along with fruit, seeds, nuts, berries, spice. Biggest acidic ash producers are dairy, processed foods, grains, alcohol, meat, syrups.

Lemme know if you want links to check out yourself

Honestly this does look like a lot of pseudoscience. I'd like to see credible references.

 

[TanbarkBellss]

Honestly this does look like a lot of pseudoscience. I'd like to see credible references.

https://www.hairIossrevolution.com/best-natural-dht-blockers/

 

[TanbarkBellss]

Not looking to get into a debate though. Just interested to hear about people's diet, the extent of their hairloss, and age. Probably worth mentioning key lifestyle habits like whether you party a lot or exercise or both.

If you haven't posted already, please don't be shy

 

[Afro_Vacancy]

@NicB,

I watched the first of the three videos you linked, along with its part 2. It is not as bad as I feared.

In those two videos he gives five "natural" recommendations to fight hair loss, says they're a sneak peak of hat you can find in his books, and claims that they're responsible for his regrowth. I will not buy his book. And there's no way to know what causes his regrowth or if that's even him. I'll just comment on the five solutions listed.

1) He suggests eating ~1,800 mg/day of fish oil, along with good sources of omega 6 fatty acids (walnuts, flaxseed, chia seed, etc). This is mostly reasonable. Fat consumption does affect hormones, and I've seen links between fish oil and hair health before, though I doubt it will have much impact.

That said, a far better option than consuming fish oil tablets is to regularly eat fish. I'll also note that this suggestion to eat fish runs contrary to the vegan dogma you're promoting in your top post.

2) He says to eat silica, because it promotes collagen production, blood flow. He sugggests choline-stabilized ortho-salicic acid. I have no idea if this is valid.

3) Coconut oil. I looked it up online an there seems to be modest evidence for this. The simplest solution here in my opinion is to heat some coconut oil until its liquid, and then dissolve it into your nizoral shampoo. That way there will be some coconut oil on the hair 3,4,x/week, for ten minutes at a time.

4) Gamma-linoleic acid.
You can find that in borage, black currant, or primrose oil. It's hard to find. He suggests 240 mg/day of supplements. Perhaps that works. Interestingly, DGLA is one of the ingredients suggested by Brotzu as improving blood flow around the scalp.

5) Topical panax ginseng.
Yeah sure, ginseng fixes everything lol.

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I think it would make sense for me to dissolve some coconut oil in my shampoo. Other than that I the procedures look very complicated.

 

[TanbarkBellss]

I'll also note that this suggestion to eat fish runs contrary to the vegan dogma you're promoting in your top post.

I'm not promoting any vegan dogma. I eat meat myself. The original intention of this post was to ask questions / survey. I have no agenda, you asked for my links. I'm only interested in exploring ideas about the human body and how it relates to hair loss. If there's anything i've learned in my years of researching hair loss stuff, it's that nobody really knows what the hell is going on. Even the top scientists don't even know how exactly DHT is responsible. So why not explore the edges of what we know about hair loss? It's the only way to progress. There's surely more to it than our current understanding

 

[DT23]

I eat clean - all natural food throughout the week and then go out for dinner or get a takeaway on a weekend. My hair's thinning and going fast. I don't think it has anything to do with diet personally, more to do with stress (none at the moment), genes (my dad's bald), personal hygiene (so far so good) and hormones (no idea, but I do suffer from acne).

Check my post out for pics of my hair so you can see for yourself.