Thinning or balding hair is quite frustrating for men who suffer from it. This situation may cause a lot of stress and even lead to depression in the long run. There are several types of hair loss, all of which can be caused by different reasons.
Sometimes it may be due to malnutrition, emotional stress, or alopecia (which is a condition that causes patchy hair loss). But the most common reason behind hair loss is usually the genetic makeup of the individual.
A lot of people may be wondering if being muscular or going to the gym is related to getting bald in some way because most of the bodybuilders that we see are bald. Sometimes this is just the style of hair they want to have, and sometimes they suffer from baldness.
To understand whether being muscular is related to getting bald or not, first of all, we need to understand the causes behind baldness. One of the most common types of hair loss is male pattern baldness. And what causes the male pattern baldness is having excessive amounts of DHT (dihydrotestosterone) in your body.
What Is DHT?
DHT is a byproduct of testosterone, and it helps to form the male genitalia when a male is in his mother’s womb. So we can say that it is a very important hormone for males, just like testosterone. However, there are some differences between testosterone and DHT.
If you have an excessive amount of DHT hormone in your system, the DHT will bind to the receptors in your hair follicles. This will cause your hair follicles to shrink. And the shrunken hair follicles will not receive enough nutrients which will prohibit their growth.
The hair follicles will get weaker and die over time. This will stop the growth of the affected hair follicles completely. While the DHT can cause hair loss on your scalp, it is also responsible for encouraging hair growth in other parts of your body, such as your chest and your back.
Does Bodybuilding Increase the Levels of DHT?
Some bodybuilders use muscle-enhancing drugs to be more efficient in growing muscles. These drugs usually either contain high amounts of testosterone, or they trigger the production of testosterone in your body. And when you have high levels of testosterone in your system, you will naturally have DHT as well because DHT is a byproduct of testosterone.
However, you do not necessarily need to take these muscle-enhancing drugs to have high levels of testosterone in your body. Even if you are a regular bodybuilder and you do not use any of these drugs, you can still have increased levels of DHT. This may be due to supplementation or intense weight training, which are common practices of bodybuilding. Excessive workout can also increase DHT levels.
Considering that the DHT hormone is the main cause of male pattern baldness, we can say that bodybuilding or working out excessively can be related to hair loss. It may be hard to notice at first because it does not happen overnight. But sooner or later, the hair loss is going to become more and more apparent.