Comments on: Can weightlifting cause hair loss?

By: Bill aka - Falceros

Bill aka - Falceros — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:22:29 +0000

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

By: Tyler

Tyler — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:53:35 +0000

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?

By: PB

PB — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:49:39 +0000

“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?

By: JP

JP — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:55:19 +0000

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.