Scalp Massages To Stop/halt Hairloss 2020?

[Vins7]

To add. Somewhat annoyingly, the women seem to respond better to the massages than the men do ... insult to injury.

However, there are still quite a few promising success stories there. The only thing is, are they 1/10, 1/100, 1/1000? How many people have done everything right without seeing re-growth - not easy to tell.

Rob has a graph somewhere plotting "perceived hair improvement" on the y axis, and "total time spent massaging overall" on the x axis. He claimed the results were really positive, but I think it looks like a very mixed bag...

From his website:

View attachment 45550

Trendlines suggest that the more total hours put in (let's say 100 hours = approximately 4 months of 45 mins total per day (roughly)), then the better the *perceived* hair change in the participant with vertex thinning. and or hairline recession (green and blue lines). Those with diffuse thinning tended to give up way earlier, probably due to the difficulty of the task.

This data seems to suggest that: after 4 months of works (100 hours), there is a pretty even spread between good(+1), no change(0) and bad(-1) across the group - 33% chance of some success. After this point, those with -1 tended to drop off and quit.... perhaps they were not doing it hard enough, not as dedicated as they reported, or they did everything right but had some other hair problem.

Those who stuck with it for 200 hours (call it 8 months) also tended to show a pretty even spread between good(+1) and no change(0). If you notice, after about 150 hours (6 months) those who were not seeing any benefit tended to quit, leaving only the good(+1) and no change(0) left in approximately a 50:50 ratio by 200 hours.

This means that, even with those who persist til 8 months, it's about a 50:50 chance of seeing any "SELF-PERCEIVED" benefit. The study also does not make clear what +1 means.... an 5% increase in hair count? Full recovery? this is unclear. Also, if you exclude all the (-1) because they left the study, you obviously are only going to see the good(+1) and nochange(0), so the trendline will always be positive........

The chart is overall quite damning. To me, it suggests that hair volume may improve in around 33% of people who attempt this, and even then, we cannot expect full coverage.

If you are in a position where you are noticing some minor thinning and want to stop things in their tracks NOW. I would suggest:
(i) Working in the peat paradigm to prevent / minimize your hair shedding as much as possible. Obviously very hard to do sometimes.
(ii) With this shedding minimized, it is likely that you are in a more healthy metabolic state and your hair is being retained as a result.
(iii) Then, it may be worth keeping that lifestyle going, and incorporating said massages for a solid 6-8 months. If you do not notice any improvements at all after 6 months, then it is possibly unlikely that things are just going to magically start responding at 12 months.

Note though: the resting phase of a hair is 100 days - just over 3 months. A hair that has just fallen and is "resting", coupled with any miniaturization that may have occurred, could in theory take WELL OVER 6 months to see any benefit => a few months to repair the follicle, a couple more months for the follicle to kick it self out of the "resting" phase (even once function is restored), then the hair has to grow itself out (approximately 1-1.5cm per month... this is why 1 year is recommended.

Thank you for this elaborated explanation man

 

[BigShoes]

So you guys want to say that you can just massage skin any where on you body and it will start growing hair ?
Will it be like real hair or beard hair or pubic hair .
Do you really believe that ?

That's not what what we are saying, and you know it. Don't be facetious.

The theory for detumescence therapy is out there ("massage" is the wrong word - it's acute minor wounding via pinching, pressing and stretching), with solid logic behind it, and a number of successful data points and anecdotes to back up its potential for success - including studies. See the links for yourself.

Whether this theory / evidence is truly viable or not as a solution for everyone, I do not know (and I am even skeptical of, as my above post showed). However, in a situation where we are trying to improve / prevent a negative outcome, when little else seems to be working - it may be beneficial to experiment with it and put some serious thought and effort into it.

However, we must also be careful not to expect miracles. I am usually a very "plan for the worst" type of person... I am willing to try this out (once I have reduced my hair fall from diet / lifestyle tips from this forum and peat-world) to see how it may change things.

You can already see my level of hair loss on one of my earlier threads, I also have some video evidence of "before" that I will post if I have a successful "after".

 

[mrchibbs]

@BigShoes

Your attitude seems perfect. You are rightly skeptical and realistic but also have a healthy degree of optimism and willingness to experiment, which is the cure for the learned helplessness we see with balding guys. In other words, actively doing something to tackle the factors leading to hair loss is the best thing to do.