Hi everyone,
I don't know how many people of you are familiar with Rob's theories. (As he is also selling an ebook with a regimen suggestion - to which I will get in due time - I will not post a link to his website ("PHH") or blog here. We had enough trouble with monetization allegations here in the last couple of days).
I'll try to summarize his hypothesis: Rob argues - very convincingly, I even checked out his sources and read many of them - that DHT is a downstream effect of another inflammation process going on in Androgenetic Alopecia scalp. DHT has been known as a response of the body in the inflammation process. Depending on the kind of environment and reason for the inflammation, DHT summons TGF-B1 which is known to cause calcification and fibrosis. Usually, DHT summons TGF-B1 in processes caused by and/or around muscles. This has been shown in a bunch of other chronic inflammatory diseases involving muscles which - surprise! - also lead to fibrosis. As we all know, Androgenetic Alopecia leads to fibrosis as well. Additionally, DHT has been known as a fat killer and in Androgenetic Alopecia scalp, the subcutaneous fat is being depleted, which further derives follicles of nutrients on top of the problems with fibrosis and calcification.
His hypothesis elegantly explains the "DHT paradox": DHT leads to hair growth in most areas of the body (beard, chest, for some even the back) whereas in the scalp of men prone to Androgenetic Alopecia, it leads to the destruction of hair (due to fibrosis, calcification, and loss of subcutaneous fat). This happens because in the presence of chronic "tension" stress (like can be induced by or around muscles), DHT leads to TGF-B1 (see above).
This was just a very very short summary of his approach. I highly recommend reading his paper which connects so many dots in hairloss research:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987717310411
In his e-book (which Rob is selling, full disclosure) he argues that there are two main things which people should do to fight hairloss, by reducing fibrosis and calcification:
- intensive head massages
- nutritional changes
I read his blog posts on nutrition and they were, unfortunately, not remotely as well researched or argued as the ones on the physiological changes in the scalp because of DHT/TGF-B1 and their relation with mechanical/tension stress. I even found some of his nutrition advice to be wrong so I will not take his ideas on nutrition into consideration (except maybe the value of vitamin K2).
However, as I said,
his work on the physiological changes in the scalp is amazing and combines so many unsolved questions in hair loss research into an elegant hypothesis they are hard to dismiss. As I stated before, I highly recommend people getting famiiliar with his hypotheses.
Now,
why I opened this thread and wrote this lengthy introduction: In his e-book, Rob's main point are certain strong head massages. These can according to him alleviate the permanent mechanical stress on/by the involved muscles, relax them, and additionally break up fibrosis and calcilfication. If done as vigorously as he advises, they supposedly even lead to accute inflammation leading to remodeling of tissue and growth factor release - almost the same mechanism as dermarolling.
He has 7 success stories on his website claiming to be from massages over the course of 6 to 12 months. However, 7 success stories (for whom we don't know if they really only massaged and didn't use minoxidil or finasteride alongside) is too little for me to by his e-book. Also, one of the success cases only had regrowth after taking care of his vitamin D deficiency (so likely not really Androgenetic Alopecia) and another case (Rob himself) had such little hairloss he was almost a fullhead.
That is why I wanted to ask the community...
- what do you think about his theories?
- does anyone have any experience (mayb even results) with this method except for the alleged success stories on the website where he sells his e-book?
I actually already asked him in a comment under one of his articles whether he has any statistics on how many people exactly were successful by following his approach, but no reply from his side so far.
Personally I am full of doubt that vigorous massages can really do something but I added them to my daily regimen. If dermarolling already has zero results for me, adding another completely ineffective treatment can't make my hair worse
I still think his ideas warrant some discussion.
tl;dr: Yes, it's another massage thread. But it's based on a very well researched and convincing theory of how Androgenetic Alopecia happens, answering a lot of questions which were not answered in one consistent theory before.
