Can I Avoid Hair Loss Gene Triggers?

First off I would like to say thank you for answering people’s questions on this site. I’ve learned more here on the subject of hair loss than anywhere else. I have a few questions that I would appreciate some clarification on. I’m a 17 year old white male. My family tree doesn’t have much of a history of hair loss. My father is Norwood 2 at 50, and both of my grandfathers had full heads of hair, and so does my mom’s brother. The last bald person in the family was my maternal great grandfather. My hairline is probably identical to my fathers.

You spoke before of people having the balding gene but not expressing it – I’m wondering if that could be the case with any of these people and that I could have possibly inherited it. If it were, are there any triggers that could trigger it that I could avoid? For example, you said malnutrition can activate the gene. Specifically does that mean not getting enough calories, vitamins and minerals, or eating too much salt, fat, sugar, etc.

I’m also considering starting urine therapy for something completely unrelated to hair loss, but I read that male urine contains DHEA, which is supposedly another trigger of the gene. Do you think the amount of DHEA in urine would be sufficient to have any negative affect on hair loss?

I am assuming that you plan on ingesting the urine, as opposed to applying it on your scalp. I don’t think drinking it would be a negative on your hair (nor would applying it to the scalp — though I don’t know why you’d do that), but I have to admit that I don’t know a lot about urine therapy. Anyone with more experience in this area would be welcome to add a comment.

I do know that avoiding potential hair loss triggers really isn’t a great way to prevent hair loss, so long as you have functioning testicles. In other words, anything can potentially trigger it and there’s no perfect checklist to guarantee you’re safe from genetic hair loss.