SE VIDEO + UPDATES

[alex]

Hi everybody,

I've made a video while performing the scalp exercise. I thought it could be useful for everybody here in this forum. I've shot it from side view, top view, and front view. I'm also showing the 3 movements : the full movement (alternating contraction of the occipitalis and frontalis muscles), the occipitalis movement alone and the frontalis movement alone. Hope it can help someone :

https://youtu.be/uTN7DnSaKq0

You can see from the video how the whole scalp "slides" on the underlying pericranium.
I would like to have your opinion all of you, and Tom's one of course. What do you guys think?

Background: I'm a bodybuilder of 24 years old. So I already had a good diet when I started the scalp exercise (4 months ago / 15 min a day).
I started losing my hair at 19 and I have a recession on the temples areas (which doesn't bother me). I started using Minoxidil at 20 (and still using it once a day).
But 8 months ago, I really started thinning on the crown/vertex area.

Objective: My aim is simple, the thickening of the vertex/crown area. Regrowth would be a plus, but I'm focusing on maintaining my existing hair.

I'm giving me 3 years to judge (I'm a really patient guy).

Thanks everybody.

[Sebastianyves]

Really great initiative!

Video is really professional, clear and well structured. Great work!

Cheers,

[Tom Hagerty]

Alex, Sebastian is right in his praise for your video. You are doing the scalp exercise perfectly. Your scalp is moving with force and the mobility is perfect. I would expect nothing less from a bodybuilder. ☺ That coupled with a nutritious diet should bring results in eight months to a year. Thanks for posting a really instructive video that we all can watch and learn something from.

[alex]

Thanks all of you for your feedback. Glad to see that you liked the video!

[alex]

Hi Tom and everybody on board,

Hope you're doing great. Just wanted to give an update about my situation. I'm 10 months and a half in, doing the SE twice a day for 10/15 min each session. But I don't have any cosmetic results yet. I lost my vellus hair in the temples and a bit of density in the top of my scalp (diffuse thinning). All of this is obviously only visible to me, because I pay some attention to it.

To my question: You said that I was doing the SE perfectly. But I also know that it may take several cycles for the hair follicle to get larger, and if it gets larger, it will only do so in the early anagen stage of the hair cycle. This is why any natural treatment cannot produce results fast. I understand that.

What I don't know is how to analyze my situation. From your experience, can succesful results (thickening of my thinning area) come after one year? I remember you saying that it should come between 8 months to a year. What do you advice me?

One interesting note: I'm shedding a lot of hair all over my scalp. This includes the sides and the back of my head. I have good density there, but I found miniaturized hair on the back of my head too. Is it a normal case of male pattern baldness?

Thanks for your time.

[Tom Hagerty]

but I found miniaturized hair on the back of my head too. Is it a normal case of male pattern baldness?

Miniaturized hair (vellus hair, peach-fuzz hair) is always found on the scalps of people with male pattern baldness. It's not often found on the back of a person's head though unless way down on the neck. But I wouldn't be concerned about that. The only thing that should concern you is the filling in of the thinning areas of your scalp with thick terminal hair.

I have said many times that results (the growth of new terminal hair) should be evident in eight months to a year after starting the scalp exercise. I still believe this to be mostly true, but there are two exceptions: (1) Sometimes the scalp exercise plus a nutritious diet do not produce a growth of new hair. My program just doesn't work. The genetic predisposition toward hair loss is too great. And (2) Sometimes the scalp exercise and a healthy life style produce results beyond the one-year point. I have not seen this personally but I've seen at least a dozen emails from men telling me about this unexpectedly welcome outcome. The emails are all credible.

One more thing. You wrote, "I'm a bodybuilder of 24 years old." I'm a bodybuilder too. I now train at LA Fitness in Dublin, Ohio. I work out three or four times a week using the machines. I do not use free weights. I do a lot of ab and lower back work, but I also do high rep low weight work for all parts of my body.

Even though I wrote in the past about heavy weight lifting not having any appreciable negative effect on the hair, I'm not so sure about this anymore. Almost all the guys who lift heavy weights are in various stages of baldness. Most of them shave their heads. Could it be that the lifting of heavy weights increases serum testosterone. It definitely increases short-term rises in testosterone but I've read many scientific papers stating that this has no effect on the hair follicles. But what I see at the gyms seems to indicate a different outcome.

You work out in a gym. What do you see? I'd like your opinion about this. I go to LA Fitness but have gone to Metro Fitness and other gyms too in the Chicago area. I've always noticed the same thing in guys who use heavy weights - hair loss.

[alex]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your answer. I'm really sorry for the late reply.

but I found miniaturized hair on the back of my head too. Is it a normal case of male pattern baldness?

I made a mistake, I wanted to say "thin hair" instead of "miniaturized hair". So I found thin hair also on the back. I've always thought the hair on the back was not affected by MPB.

Regarding bodybuilding, I've been working out in a gym in Cupertino (CA) and I'm now living in France and working out there, in a french gym. In both cases, I've always noticed the same thing, and it happens 90% of the time : most of the guys with thinning hair are guys on steroids. So yes, they lift heavy, but much more heavy than I can lift. All my friends that are working out are natural. Some of them lift a bit more heavy than me and none of them have thinning hair. So I'm not sure it's related.

Of course, I still do the scalp exercise because I like it, twice a day for 10/15 min. Progress may take some time to become apparent.

[Tom Hagerty]

most of the guys with thinning hair are guys on steroids.

That is a good point. I would never ask these balding bodybuilders if they are on steroids. But I seriously doubt if one develops those massive proportions without them. It probably is the anabolic steroids that are causing the loss of hair, not the working out with weights.

You don't look like this by using just weights!

[alex]

If you really want to know what's possible to achieve naturally, you have to go back to the pre-steroids era (before 1940).
Here is an example of a French bodybuilder Ernest Cadine (1893 – 1978) :

ernest_cadine.JPEG (45.95 KiB) Viewed 21680 times

He beat the world record by lifting 180kg with the right hand in 1920.
Of course, at this time, there was no such thing as protein powders. So they were not able to reach their natural limits. You can now have more muscles, but definitely not like the picture you've uploaded.

On a side note, you can see that Ernest Cadine has a full head of hair, and he was lifting much more heavy than me

[mickey]

Hi Alex,

Really great video, & scalp movement! How did you learn to move the occipital muscles? what do you concentrate on to get the occ's to move? how long did it take to get the occ's to start to move, & how long did it take to get full movement?

Mickey.