Joel Santorini
If you are losing your hair, you will listen to almost any advice on how to stop it or even get it back. It doesn’t matter how ridiculous it is or who gives the advice. If the local garbage man told you that if you went into your backyard and ate worms that it would regrow your hair, you would give a bit of a chuckle and maybe make some sort of joke. But come evening, you would be behind your house with a shovel and a flashlight eating worms like your life depended on it.
So it is with great delight that I answer this question that has been floating around for years now. Does masturbation cause hair loss? My short answer is not unless you are doing it some weird sort of way that I don’t know about.
So, Does Masturbation Cause Hair Loss Or Not?
Belgravia Centre, the leader in hair loss treatment in the United Kingdom with two clinics in London, states that high testosterone levels are not the root of the problem (pun intended). Masturbation does raise the testosterone level for a bit of time, and leads to more production of it. High testosterone is not what promotes dihydrotestosterone (DHT) to cause hair loss. It all comes down to your genes. Some men are just genetically predisposed to hair loss. It is in their DNA. If you don’t believe it, stop masturbating and having sex and see if your hair magically comes back. After a year, not only will you be the crankiest guy in the world, but you will still be balding.
Dr. Jae Pak, a well-known Los Angeles hair restoration surgeon, has heard this myth frequently. “I think I’ve answered over 100 questions about masturbation and hair loss on Baldingblog. Masturbation does not cause genetic hair loss,” he said. “Your genetic makeup is what determines male pattern balding.”
Where Does The Myth Come From?
I am guessing that this preposterous myth was created by an anxious mother at some point. Or maybe it was a group of mothers that wanted to keep their sons their little boys a bit longer. These mothers probably meant their best, but it is these types of blatantly made up lies that will turn their sons into future Norman Bates. Remember when the myth was if you masturbate that you will go blind? We’d have a lot of bald blind men walking around on the streets today!
Let’s remove the masturbation part from it because masturbation and sex ends the exact same way. So that means if someone has a lot of sex, they should be walking around as bald as a bowling ball. But quite a bit of the time, these people that are having so much sex have nice, thick, full heads of hair. So without having to do a six-year research study on this topic that costs millions of dollars and strangely has men marking down on a sheet of paper when and how often they masturbate, common sense should tell you that this is a myth.
So What Actually Causes Hair Loss?
It is normal for a person to lose fifty to a hundred hairs a day. Noticeable hair loss occurs when those hairs stop growing back. The hair growth cycle is interrupted and it might never start back up again. It can actually take a bit of time before a person even realizes that their hair is not growing back anymore.
There are several reasons why a person may be suffering from hair loss. According to the Mayo Clinic, thyroid disease can leave you with a loss of hair. Anemia and protein deficiency can have that same effect. Chemotherapy often causes severe hair loss, but the hair usually starts to grow back afterwards. Low vitamin levels could be making your hair fall out as well. There is also an autoimmune disease called alopecia that causes hair loss.
However, most people lose their hair and start going bald because of one of the following reasons. Genetics plays a huge role in hair loss. My father has quite a bit of hair loss, my grandpa was quite bald, my oldest brother is very bald as well. But sometimes it can get a bit tricky. I have another older brother that has a full head of hair and he is well into his forties. I have a brother that is a few years younger than I am, and he has quite a bit more hair than I do. If you are wondering if you will ever be bald later on in life, just take a close look at your family tree.
Age Does Play A Role
Age definitely plays a role in hair loss in both men and women. As we age, our hair generally becomes thinner and grows at a slower rate. Our hair will also start becoming gray or white. Stress will have much the same effect on us as well.
The main cause of most hair loss for men comes from the androgen dihydrotestosterone (DHT). It causes hair follicles to grow smaller on our heads, and then this leads to male pattern hair loss. If it is severe, the man is left with the horseshoe look. This means that there is only hair really on the sides and in the back.
If you are severely balding and want to hear more bad news, many sources show that by the age of 50, a little over half of the men in the United States is experiencing hair loss caused by DHT. Wouldn’t it have been great to not lose any hair until you reached the age of 50? If you are reading this article, there is a good chance that you started balding way before that. We had a 50/50 chance of having a full head of hair late into our lives, but we lost the coin toss.
Prevent It from Happening to You!
There was an old cartoon I remember seeing when I was a young boy that I thought was quite funny. A man was talking to his barber and asking him if there was a way he could keep from losing his hair. The barber, in turn, gives him a small box to keep it in. Once again, I thought it was funny when I was a child. Now that I am an adult and facing this problem, too, this comic can almost bring a tear to my eye.
However, if you feel there is a good chance that you will be suffering hair loss later on in life, or perhaps you are already dealing with it, there are a couple treatments that have been thoroughly researched and might be able to help you. Basically, the only two medicines that have been proven to work for some suffering from male pattern baldness due to DHT is minoxidil and finasteride.
Minoxidil
Yes, Minoxidil is the generic version of Rogaine. Always purchase the generic version because it will be much cheaper. Plus, since you will have to use it twice a day for the rest of your life, it can quickly add up in cost. The sooner you start using minoxidil when noticing hair loss the better. My first hand experience with it varied. I tried it in my early twenties and put it on my scalp twice a day. After two years of it, I never noticed any additional hair growth, but I did notice that my hair loss had slowed down a bit. Still, it had not slowed down enough for my liking, so I quit using it.
Then in my late thirties, when I started shaving my head, I started using the foam version of minoxidil. I thought with a shaved head that it might start working a bit better so it could directly go on the scalp without an issue. Once again, after a year and a half, it did nothing for me. However, I have had friends that virtually regrew half of their hair from minoxidil alone. Those are the friends that I hate.
Finasteride
Finasteride is the generic version of the oral medicine Propecia. Once again, it is something that I have tried. It is a pill that you take once a day. I did this for a year. Unfortunately, some experience sexual side effects from this drug, and I was one of them. While it did not regrow any of my hair, it did help me lose less. Although, it was not enough to ignore the side effects. I stopped it after that year of having a bit of a problem in bed.
In Closing
Don’t worry about masturbation affecting your hair loss. It won’t. Hair loss is caused by genetics, DHT, and a few medical issues. There are things you can do to prevent or slow down the hair loss. Try using them as early as possible. If all else fails, take out the electric hair trimmer or razor and keep your hair extremely short. More and more are going with this look. Start hitting the gym as well. A bald head and muscles is a good look to have!
