Tue 19 Sep 2006
I was wondering if weightlifting causes hair to fall out. I am a 33 year old
mail with a full head of hair. I go through a period of shedding after I
work out for a few months. Once I stop working out and stop taking creatineand protein, a few weeks after, the shedding stops. All year I’m fine until I start working out again. After three or four months I notice some
shedding again. The strange part is that it happened around the same time
of year last year, July – September.I’m not sure if weightlifting is causing my hair loss or high protein intake or creatine. I do not take creatine or protein during the year when I am not lifting. The only problem is that I hear people say that weightlifting doesn’t cause hair loss because it doesn’t raise t-levels enough to do so.
Thank you for your help. Dan
Dan, You ask a good question. But I don’t have a clear answer. If the creatine combined with the protein alters your hormone levels then perhaps it could be a factor in your hair loss.
I did do a search on our hair restoration discussion forum and I found an interesting post about the possible effects of weightlifting on hair loss. In short this person makes the case that the effects of strenuous lifting could increase DHT levels.
Comment by poster:
“Lifting weight in itself doesn’t increase hair loss. No kidding. However, resistance training causes muscle tissue to break down. That muscle tissue has to be repaired, right? The body synthesizes dietary protein into amino acids and building blocks (other proteins) that result in muscle cell regeneration and growth.
Okay, you know what triggers that protein synthesis? Ahh yes, it’s our good ole friend the happy hormone testosterone. And it becomes a supply and demand thing. If I have a lot of muscle to repair because I’m doing resistance training, then the body responds by pumping out more testosterone.
But where in all this does the body say: “Okay, I need more testosterone to rebuild damaged tissue, but in the mean time, is okay to curtail testosterone to DHT conversion?” DOESN’T work that way. Unless you have a genetic resistance.
To say generically “lifting weights absolutely cannot lead to more rapid hair loss” is a false statement. It can for the reasons I’ve stated.
If you’ve got “super hair” that’s genetically resistant to falling out, then your statement is correct. If not, then exercising MIGHT in fact speed up hair loss because of increased DHT levels in the blood stream (which triggers hairloss in some men, like us).
Hope that clears this up.”
To read the whole discussion topic please click here.
Best wishes for restoring your real hair.
Pat, publisher of the Hair Transplant Network and the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center
Technorati Tags: hair loss, hair restoration, DHT
December 17th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Here’s something crazy… It’s a widely known fact that stress can cause hair loss. This is supposedly due to excessive tightening of the scalp from straining. I noticed hair loss at my hairline after about 2 and half years of serious weight training — mostly grueling, high rep stuff. It got really bad after I changed my routine to include a lot of core exercises.
I changed my supplements and diet and bought all sorts of hair growth products. Some of this actually helped. But was ultimately did the trick was changing the way I breathed, and making sure I kept my face muscles at rest during the exercises. I was straining too much, causing tightening of the scalp and leading to chronic tellogen effluvium, that is, rapid non-hormonal hair loss. I also started doing some scalp massages.
The bottom line is that hormones can cause hair loss, but some of us are surely losing hair from weight lifting by an entirely different vector! Best of all, this is super-easy to do, and definitely worth trying if you are a weight lifter with thinning hair.
February 13th, 2010 at 1:49 am
“But was ultimately did the trick was changing the way I breathed, and making sure I kept my face muscles at rest during the exercises. I was straining too much, causing tightening of the scalp and leading to chronic tellogen effluvium, that is, rapid non-hormonal hair loss. I also started doing some scalp massages.”
JP-
In the last two years I went from having a full head of hair to completely bald. I am 21 years old. In the last two years I have also been working out, and lifting weights pretty heavily. Until today, two years later, did I realize that the way I was breathing was completely unhealthy. I was scrunching my face, holding my breath, and building pressure in my head. From reading your post I’m starting to think that may be the reason for my quick hair loss. My question is, when you started to breathe better, did your hair grow back? Or was it permanent?? I know that Telogen Effluvium is usually only temporary. But what happened in your case?
March 6th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
So what does that mean? Stop lifting weights if we don’t want to lose our hair? Or just lift less? Not enough information on this is given in this article. And to start off with, “But I don’t have a clear answer.” Then why answer it if you’re unsure?
March 15th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Tyler,
In doing research on this subject, I’ve seen no evidence to suggest that weight lifting and healthy living can cause hair loss. The only question is whether or not such a small and temporary boost in testosterone during one’s workout can produce more DHT and potentially accelerate pattern baldness. I’d suggest this is highly unlikely. However, even if it does, it’s doing nothing that your genetics haven’t already determined was going to happen anyway.
In my opinion, it’s a whole lot better to live healthy and work out than worry about whether or not you may lose your hair a tiny bit earlier assuming you have the hair loss gene to begin with.
Best wishes,
Bill Seemiller (Falceros)
Managing Publisher of this Community