cl-user
#461
Last week I put 500mg of L-tyrosine and 500mg of inositol into an hair serum and it looks like it’s already starting to darken. (Maybe wishful thinking).
I will tell you how it worked after 2 or 3 weeks.
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As far as i know the reversal of HF miniaturisation is very rare. I have managed to do this by a combination of improving mitochondrial efficiency and increasing the transcription of long genes (citrate protocol).
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DrT
#464
So how does your hair look?
Any photos?
The process is really quite slow. In a sense starting with this photo from 2019 is a good starting picture. I did not start reversing balding until 2022, however. Hence hair was still falling out.
These photos show some changes, but again it was not until early 2022 that the hair regrowth started.
It does not look that impressive from the front yet.
However, this is new growth going forward
You can even see a couple of isolated pigmented hairs here
It took about 20-30 years for me to go bald. If a lot of this reverses in about 5 years, I think that is positive. However, I was not particularly concerned about going bald. I am more interested in how this demonstrates changes both in terms of mitochondrial efficiency and also in terms of transcription function.
The above patch is a useful example. In May 2023 there was one hair. It is still quite bald, but you can see new hairs developing.
In the above photos it is possible to see the development of vellus hairs which are a very fine type of hair, those then become terminal and are fine, but pigmented. At times you can see hairs start out quite small, but then become stronger. Those are as a result of the deminiaturisation of a hair follicle.
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DrT
#466
Thanks for taking the trouble to post the photos. You are right; not much is discernable from the front.
At risk of being overly-critical, it would be helpful if your photos were taken under standard conditions (light etc), of the same patch of scalp each time and date-stamped.
I have a timestamp in the file name. I do try to photograph this spot to be comparable. This is this morning.
This is May 2023.
The hair that is just starting in the May photo is the same hair as is out of focus on the bottom left of the May photo. The depth of focus of the camera is not that good and I have been trying to pick up a few fine pigmented hairs.
In the end it appears that the process will continue to something like the hairline I had to start out with. It is, however, quite slow. I like monitoring hair because it is an easy way to see changes compared to blood tests.
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If we take the three biomarker tests the Xprize intends to use, cognition, immunity and frailty and compare them in priority to hair I would think all three are more important than hair.
It is, however, still mainly hairs that are on the top of my scalp rather than the front. (this photo is October 2023)
The process of advancing occurs in reverse of the process of receding. Hence where receded most recently is the area advancing.
This photo is July 2022
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A strong enough anti-androgen therapy can regrow quite a bit of hair. There is a linear relationship between scalp DHT suppression and hair regrowth with 2.5mg of dutasteride (80% scalp DHT suppression) regrowing nearly double the amount of hair compared to 1mg of finasteride (40% scalp DHT suppression). Transgender women can even have full regrowth with additional therapies that cis-men cannot use.
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In the end, however, I am looking for mechanisms to monitor general improvements in cellular health. Hair is not my priority. It is primarily a tool for measuring the effect of a more general protocol on hair follicles. Hence I am not using dyes.
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DrT
#471
The difference seems to be more visible between those 2 photos 15 months apart. However, there’s still a difference in lighting as one was taken indoors and one outdoors (or so it seems to me.)
I still believe a “top down” view would be more informative. You would likely need the help of another person to take such a photo from above.
But very informative all the same! Well done!
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I just think it is going to be a really slow process. I don’t know at what point it will stop, but it took a long time to go bald.
The question as what causes cells to stop functioning properly and what can be done to improve this is a difficult. I think there are some clear answers to this.
When it comes to hair I would rather take it slowly and know what is going on rather than try to rush things and potentially cause wider difficulties. It may if I took finasteride or dutasteride things would accelerate, but those are not molecules I wish to try.
The issue with DHT is that it will continuously damage your hair faster than it can regenerate itself. Given a total absence of DHT around your hair follicles (e.g. taking high dose dutasteride), one would need to wait 2-5 years for their body to “naturally” recover all the hair follicles it can and only then introduce chemicals that support mitochondrial function to see if they work.
That is an alternative approach. However, hair is not my “top” priority. What I am looking for is a mechanism to measure improvements of mitochondrial efficiency. Hair regrowth delivers that.
tfl.phd
#475
I don’t know how effective hair growth is at measuring mitochondrial efficiency. At the end of the day, hair loss and MPB is genetic as the follicle is genetically coded to be sensitive to DHT and hence miniaturizes. I am in perfect health but have lost a lot of hair before my transplant. I would not consider it a measure of health but rather genetics. Now after my transplant my hair looks perfect as if I was 18 again, so I’m pretty sure the hair growth from the transplant didn’t improve my mitochondrial health. The mitochndrial efficiency cannot possibly explain why so many homeless people have a perfectly full set of hair.
Are people who take dutasteride and finasteride to improve hair growth improving mitochondrial efficiency? I don’t see how. DHT and genetics are the culprit.
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If you transplant cells you are also transplanting the miochondria. To reverse hair loss without transplantation needs at least in part some change to mitochondria.
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tfl.phd
#477
DHT is causing the mitochondrial dysfunction as clearly explained in the study. If you improve mitochondrial function but still have DHT, you are not fixing the problem as the DHT will continue to induce the damage. Hence, you will still have hair loss.
If you lower DHT or implant non-DHT sensitive follicles, you will remove the culprit that are causing the mitochondrial damage. It doesn’t work the other way. The study specifically points that out. You cannot just improve the mitochondria and expect hair loss to stop without specifically addressing what is causing the hair loss.
“The overactivity of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) produced by 5-α-reductase in human hair dermal papilla cells (DPCs) has been implicated as the main cause of AGA [1].”
“Therefore, understanding the mechanism of DHT-induced mitochondrial dysfunction provides a promising strategy for new AGA treatments that minimize senescence of DPCs exposed to elevated DHT levels.”
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I accept that DHT harms mitochondria, but if you fix the harm at a greater rate than it is caused then on an aggregate basis the situation is better. This is a slow process but with fewer negative side effects.
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So I had my first haircut since I started using GR7. There’s significantly less grey in my hair now but it’s not all gone, but still pretty impressive. My hairdresser was impressed and wants to try it.
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Were the roots coming through as gray?