People today are experiencing hair loss at a rate not seen by previous generations. Even children are starting to lose their hair, especially young boys. Some of us can probably remember a friend who started experiencing a receding hair line while still in high school. In recent years, the problem has gotten much worse, with some boys suffering from thinning locks as young as 6 years old!
My hair stylist told me that hair loss is rampant in her clientele both male and female, young and old. She said this shocking observation is one reason why she has started to switch over to nontoxic personal care products.
While chemical exposure and other factors such as adrenal fatigue are no doubt contributing to the epidemic of hair loss today, one thing is for certain.
Diet plays a huge role in hair loss especially male pattern baldness.
Saturated Fat Avoidance and Hair Follicle Destruction
Male pattern baldness is the most common type of balding. It usually involves a receding hairline at the top and front of the head sometimes combined with hair thinning at the crown. It affects about 1/3 of men by the age of 30, half by age 50, and nearly two-thirds by retirement age.
Most people chalk up balding in men to genetic predisposition. While this is definitely true, there is another reason that is less commonly known: male sex hormones potentially gone awry.
DHT Hormone and Male Baldness
According to Medical News Today, the molecule dihydrotestosterone (DHT) appears to be closely linked with male pattern baldness. What’s more, it is estimated that DHT is responsible for triggering baldness in over half of the men with hair loss issues.
This is not the only problem DHT causes. Excessive levels can trigger an enlarged prostate and potentially prostate cancer as well.
While DHT is an important male hormone (androgen) responsible for the development of male characteristics, when in excess it can cause problems. DHT is very potent, five times stronger than testoterone in fact! Moreover, DHT competes with testosterone for the same hormone receptor sites in the body. The difference is that DHT attaches more easily than testosterone and once bound, remains so for longer periods of time.
How does DHT contribute to issues with baldness? It does this by slowly “miniaturizing” the hair follicles to the point where new hairs are so short that eventually they do not even peek through the surface of the skin.
While new medications such as Finasteride (brand names: Propecia, Proscar) to inhibit the production of the baldness-inducing DHT have been shown to be successful in substantially reducing hair loss and stimulating new growth, wouldn’t it be better to control it with diet? After all, pharmaceutical drugs have undesirable side effects and sometimes even unknown risks for long term users.
Side Effects of Hair Loss Drugs
Here is the long list of side effects from Finasteride, many of them much worse than losing your hair (1).
- loss of sex drive (commonly reported)
- impotence (commonly reported)
- trouble having an orgasm
- abnormal ejaculation
- swelling of the hands or feet
- swelling or tenderness in the breast area
- dizziness
- weakness
- feeling faint
- headache
- runny nose
- skin rash
Soooo, taking anti-baldness drugs supposedly makes you more attractive to dating prospects, but once you have their interest, you may no longer be even interested yourself?
Yeeeah.
That makes sense!
All in a day’s work for a drug marketing brochure!
Instead of Drugs, Prevent Baldness with Saturated Fat!
Instead of health destroying drugs, why not prevent hair loss and help regrowth with simple dietary changes?
You see, saturated fat intake inhibits the production of DHT just like the drug Finasteride but without all the nasty side effects.
The DHT conversion from testosterone is facilitated by an enzyme known as 5-alpha-reductase (5-AR). If there is an increase in 5-AR in the body, there will be an increase in the amount of testosterone that is converted into DHT and consequently an increase in hair loss.
Here’s where saturated fat comes in.
Saturated fat naturally lowers levels of 5-alpha-reductase (5-AR) in the body. This correspondingly causes less DHT to be converted and a reduction in hair loss.
Researchers revealed in the journal Chemistry and Biodiversity this nutritional bombshell about the inhibitory effect of saturated fats on 5-AR which blocks the conversion of testosterone to hair munching, prostate enlarging DHT (2).
Still Afraid of Eating Saturated Fat Even to Save Your Hair?
Is fear of the saturated fat boogie man keeping you from embracing butter, ghee, coconut oil, and other healthy fats and foods like egg yolks and liver that contain them? Relax. You can literally take heart in knowing that the decades held belief that saturated fat causes heart disease has been completely disproven. Even Time Magazine set the record straight in 2014. The cover proclaimed that eating butter is best. Saturated fats containing natural beneficial cholesterol boost health and are not the dietary demons they’ve been portrayed for 5+ decades. Many doctors including cardiologists today are in favor of butter and other saturated fats as well. Some have even gone so far as to say that lowfat diet is “morally and scientifically indefensible”.
On an anecdotal note, I’ve noticed that nutritional conferences that promote the benefits of traditional diet definitely seem to have more than their fair share of both men and women with luscious locks. Rather then being purely coincidence, research is showing that it is specifically the saturated fats so prized by traditional, ancestral societies that are a primary reason why!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Dear SARAH,
I have seen how low saturated fat diet has made my life tough..dehydrated, low libido, low energy, loss of pump during workout, low testosterone, and thinning hair. I just want to know, if only stick Olive oil, because it has it all? My second question is, my body does not absorb water due to lack of lipids, what kind of lipid is most effective here?
Olive oil is composed of primarily monounsaturated fats. It is not going to be hair protective like saturated fats … so no, it does not have it all 🙂 Nothing wrong with olive oil … just be sure to eat saturated fats too.
Our hair is important too. It protects our skin and really helps a lot in our whole being.
Sarah,
Do you know if eating saturated fats will help reverse both baldness and hair loss on legs (men)? This is such an interesting article, thank you so much!
Hair loss on legs may be adrenal related rather than a DHT overload issue. This post has more info on that. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/6-little-known-signs-of-adrenal-fatigue/
This is interesting. However, some individuals, specifically those that possess the apoE4 allele variant, do not do well on a high saturated fat diet. Those individuals do much better on MUFA’s. Any ideas if MUFA’s would have the same positive effect on hair maintenance that SFA’s do?
The study you sum up (from Chemistry and Biodiversity) about DHT is from 2009, in vitro (in a glass bowl), on rat tissue, with fatty acids.
It would be fairly easy to study men who eat saturated fats (like butter) vs. those who don’t, and check their male pattern baldness progress. Have you found such studies?
You’re right. Such a test would be quite easy to perform. I myself have not come across a study like this.
Actually when you look at those who suffer from hair loss… They usually have low or normal DHT levels, DHT really has nothing to do with it.. Estrogen, Prolactin, Thyroid are usually cultists.
If that is true why do the effective drugs targeting hair loss specifically work to reduce DHT levels? Do you have a source for your claim?
You might also want to block Post and General Mills — they also produce their own Raisin Bran cereals.
Yes, those are blocked too. I block all Big Food companies that make garbage processed foods as well as fast food companies.
I don’t have any idea how “advertising works on a website” but I just noticed that you have Kellogg’s Raisin Bran advertised and I know that’s not your value…..wondering if you knew…..
Thanks for letting me know! I have Kellogg’s blocked so not sure how it slipped through. Will pass along to see why this is appearing. Sometimes advertisers purposely miscategorize their ads to slip through filters. Very sneaky 🙁 Wouldn’t be surprised at this behavior by Kellogg’s which is one of the worst Big Food companies out there.
I wonder if saturated fats are the key to reversing hair loss, as well. Several of my friends have reported filled in balds spots and fuller hair lines after using coconut oil on their scalps.
Interesting info! In my family, only I eat saturated fats. Everyone else is still on the lowfat bandwagon and eats margarine and tub spreads. I’m also the only one who still has my hair! I’ve always been told that I won the gene lottery, but it seems there is more to it than that.