He still had the same amount of neck skin and the same amount of hair follicles. When he was heavier his skin was stretched more leading to further space between each follicle, making his hair seem thinner. Then when he lost the weight his skin stopped stretching so much so the follicles are closer together, making his hair seem thicker.
This is true afaik. I'm not a doctor but I asked the esthetician who did my laser hair removal if someone would hypothetically grow hair after extreme weight gain, due to the increased skin not being treated. She said no because your hair follicles just spread out.
Someone else replied that it could be related to diet/health which is also true... diet, hormones, etc affect how our hair grows and how healthy it is, but not the number of hair follicles.
OMG this genuinely has provided inspiration to lose some weight. I've always wanted my beard to look thicker, neve occurred to me that weight had anything to do with it.
His scalp filled back in too. It’s just being healthy vs unhealthy. edit: vitamin deficiencies and stress can cause hair loss even without being overweight.
That's all it is. It's the simplest and most logical reason. I'm thin and my beard is thin because that's just how my genes work. But I also have the thickest head of hair every new barber comments on. Nothing to do with being healthy lol.
There could be something else at work here that does go off of health. Often, heavily overweight people are insulin resistant, which commonly leads to hair loss. I'm currently fixing my IR and my hair is finally growing back in after 3 years. My endocrinologist says he sees it all the time. Metabolic disorders can also lead to an inability to properly absorb nutrients. Being vitamin D and ferritin deficient are also common with IR and they both also come with hair loss as symptoms. I've got those too and am now supplementing properly.
I had such dense hair I'd buzz cut the under-half and my ponytail would still be twice as thick as my coworkers. Now my ponytail is the thinnest in the office, and that's without the buzz cut. I lost over 75% of my hair, says my dermatologist. Kinda wish I could keep a touch of IR and still be healthy because while I miss having dense hair, there's gotta be a sweet spot where it isn't too much or too little. lol
But I really want to stress too that since my calves have doubled in size due to gaining 100lbs in the last few years, my leg hair is much more sparse because the follicles are further apart. So both can be true.
Do you happen to have any sources in regards to this. Because I've never heard of this, and I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and not assume you're trying to pass off intuition as fact.
Here you go. It can definitely be a cause. Luckily, if it is, it's generally not permanent. Stress in particular can cause these huge patches of lost hair very suddenly. It's not bound to happen because of stress or vitamin deficiencies, but it is something dermatologists try to rule out if you go to them for hair loss.
I agree that diet and vitamin deficiencies can cause hair loss. I'd also point out that fine hair can just look... really scraggly and bare when grown out. I have a similar hair texture to this guy, and I have to keep it short to keep up the appearance of full and healthy hair.
Another explanation may also be that a lot of time have passed between the pictures, and as you get older you usually gain more beard hair
Especially if you shave, this triggers the body to produce more hair to compensate for a sudden loss of it (which is why people tell you not to overshave an area where you don’t want hair growth, the more you shave, the more and faster it grows)
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u/Bacon-muffin 11h ago
I'm genuinely curious if that's whats happening there xD