Most men will deal with hair loss at some point in their lives. It is not a question of IF but a question of WHEN.
It is not too big of a deal for older men because pretty much everyone expects them to have less hair, but some unfortunate men start losing hair while they are still young and in their 20s and 30s.
It starts with some hair thinning, progresses to mild hair loss, and then progressively gets worse and worse, following either of the 4 common patterns:
First of all, figure out WHY you are losing hair
The most common causes are:
1) Bad nutrition.
You will need to get a blood test done to see if you have any nutritional deficiencies that could be causing the hair loss. If you have a deficiency in iron, vitamin D, zinc, or one of the B-vitamins, that could be the cause.
Fortunately, this is easy to fix with dietary changes and supplements. Targeted supplementation is the fastest solution but unless you fix your diet, the deficiency will return.
Goat meat is one of the best sources of iron and you should eat it a few times a week. Meat contains heme iron while plant foods contain non-heme iron. Heme iron is absorbed 5-10x better than non-heme iron.
Eggs are also a great source of most essential vitamins and minerals. Buy the highest quality of eggs you can afford (free range is best) and eat 4-6 eggs a day.
2) Bad shower water.
If you started losing hair after you moved to a new home, it’s possible that the problem is the shower water. A friend of mine started shedding hair during COVID when he moved to a farmhouse away from the city.
As it turns out, the shower in his bathroom was hooked up to a supply of hard water. Hard water has lots of calcium and magnesium and leaves a mineral buildup on the scalp which is not great in the long run.
If you just moved to a new location before your hair started falling, get the water tested. If it’s hard water, you need water softeners or you need to use bottled water to wash your head.
3) Diffuse shedding.
If you have a significant health event like a major illness, infection, surgery, starting/stopping some medications or hormones, or spend a prolonged amount of time under high stress or on a low protein diet, you can lose hair for months and months after your body fully recovers.
All you can do is eat well and relax. Learn to de-stress and relax your mind. Your hair will eventually return.
Chronic stress is a silent poison for the body. It slowly kills you.
Note that if you’re losing hair primarily from your temples or the crown of your head, it is NOT diffuse shedding. With diffuse shedding, you lose hair all over your head evenly, not just from a few places.
4) Medical problems.
There are medical issues that can cause you to lose hair. Like problems with your thyroid. You need a T3/T4/TSH blood test to see if everything is fine, and if not, you need medical help.
If you’re losing hair, you probably should go to a doctor and get full labs done. You might have some medical problem developing that you don’t know about (thyroid is the common one).
5) Genetics/male pattern baldness (androgenetic alopecia).
The telltale signs are a receding hairline, hair thinning at the crown, and a family history of baldness. It means your hair follicles are sensitive to DHT and miniaturize over time and keep getting thinner and shorter.
Unless you do something about it, it will eventually make you fully bald.
Unfortunately, this cannot be fixed with lifestyle and diet changes alone. You need medical intervention.
If it’s genetic, consider the drugs
The two common prescriptions are Minoxidil (sold as Rogaine) and Finasteride.
Minoxidil is a foam/liquid you apply to your head and I have many friends who swear by it including my friend Arman. Finasteride is a pill.
From what I can tell, Minoxidil is relatively safe (it’s a topical foam with low systemic absorption) although some unlucky people get blood pressure related side effects from it.
Minoxidil will promote hair growth and drastically slow down the progress of alopecia, but you need to keep using it to maintain the results. If you stop using it, alopecia will start progressing again.
Finasteride seems to be much riskier as it’s a pill that enters your bloodstream before it gets to the target area. It can produce some horrible sexual side effects which usually go away when the pill is stopped but some men report the effects are permanent.
Some guys even say it has a strong feminizing effect on the body. It’s hard to know what to make of it.
The reward of using finasteride does not seem worth the risk it brings. Your penis working correctly is more important than the hair on your head (at least for me. I’d rather lose all my hair and my left hand than lose my penis).
Note: I’ve seen some guys say “Don’t use finasteride because it’s risky and just get a hair transplant instead.” The thing is that if you want to keep the hair you didn’t get from a transplant (the native hair), you will need to take finasteride and other medication anyway. Otherwise the non-transplanted hair will fall off.
Get a Better Haircut
INVEST in a good haircut from a trained barber. You do not want to skimp on a haircut when you are balding.
Some haircuts are better at hiding a receding hairline than others. Shorter haircuts with a fade tend to look better than longer haircuts that highlight hair missing on the crown.
For example, take a look at this picture of Andrew Tate (left) and Tristan Tate (right).
Andrew’s hair loss is less noticeable because he has shorter hair. On the other hand, Tristan’s haircut highlights his receding hairline (he has since had a hair transplant).
Shave it off
After a certain point of hair loss, better haircuts don’t cut it and you look better without the hair than by keeping what you’ve got left.
Look at the guys above. They all had very receded hairlines. They look MUCH better after shaving it off.
Bald men are perceived as more masculine and dominant than guys with thin receded hair.
If your hairline has gone back quite a bit (like the guys in the photo above), bite the bullet and SHAVE IT OFF.
You WILL look better.
Most Importantly, Get Jacked
This is extremely important for anyone who’s balding or decides to shave off their head.
You MUST get jacked. Otherwise you will look bad.
Look at this picture:
What do you see? The first things you notice are his arms and wide shoulders. Then you look at his face and notice that he’s bald.
His musculature distracts you from his baldness. It also enhances the masculine look that baldness brings. You don’t notice his bald head as much.
On the other hand, look at this picture:
Because he is fat and lacks the muscular look, your eyes immediately go to his head. In fact, it’s hard to notice anything other than his big bald head.
It makes him look like shit.
End of the day, the hierarchy is something like this:
Lean and muscular + has good hair = Great! Women love it.
Lean and muscular + bald = Good! Women like it.
Overweight + has good hair = Average look. Considered below average by women. (Data from dating apps shows that women consider the average man to be below average in attractiveness).
Overweight + bald = Bottom tier. You will be treated like trash.
Since you can’t control the fact that you are bald, that leaves you with the choice of losing fat and gaining muscle.
That is the only variable you can control here.
Take the Live Intentionally: 90 Day Self-Improvement Program and see how fast you drop fat and how much muscle you gain.
You can significantly change your appearance in a few months of hard effort. Thousands of men have used the program to change their entire lives.
So can you.
That’s all for this piece.
See you in the next one.
Your man,
Harsh Strongman
