Written in Partnership with Amir Bakian
Men and women of all ages know the embarrassment of hair loss. Today, hair loss is prevalent as early as the 20’s due to stress, environment and health factors. By the age of 50 most men will lose 50% of their hair. We took a poll of area LA residents and found that the solutions for hair loss range from covering up the thinning hair with hats, wigs, extensions, hair transplants and over the counter treatments that you have to continue applying the rest of your life. But local Santa Monica Dr. Ray Nettles is known internationally for his natural hair-regrowth process that has helped countless people across the globe. He is the founder of, Stop and Re- Grow.
“I am super excited with the result. I have been using Stop and Regrow for over a year and I couldn’t be happier. I was born with bald spots on the sides of my head and Dr. Nettles was completely able to regrow new hair. I highly recommend Dr. Nettles for anyone who has thinning hair problems. I feel great and I am not observing or experiencing any side effects.”
-Alena S. San Diego
His successful practice involves over 20 years of research and clinical treatment. Dr Nettles discovered that not only is every person unique, but the contributing factors to their hair thinning can also be unique. As a result, he developed a comprehensive set of lab panels to understand not only the factors contributing to your hair loss, but that also impact your overall health and well-being.
Dr. Nettles did a Q and A with us to share more information.
Q: Dr. Nettles, how long have you been in practice and what prompted you to specialize in hair regrowth?
Dr. Nettles: 22 YEARS in medical practice but my story begins long before starting to practice medicine. At the age of 6, my mother said “I prayed for you to come into the world. You will be a Physician and heal these people.” Becoming a good doctor was a way of life since childhood. As a child, I saw first my father then older brothers’ hair thin and bald. While growing up, others commented that “you are going to go bald because your dad and older brother are bald” to which I responded, “Only God tells me what is going to happen, and He never mentioned that to me.”. From that point I knew that God would gift me the understanding to solve the riddle of why 87% of men in the United States will be impacted by hair loss in their lifetime. At the age of 50 I still have a head full of thick hair. In high school I started studying genetics and cellular biology. It wasn’t until medical school that I would be introduced to the molecular world underlying the CELLS. Afterward, training in the field of Ophthalmology led to our discovery of the topical molecule that would prove to regrow the hair follicle. Later, I became a hair transplant surgeon – working alongside the pioneers of the FUE method. I realized pretty quickly that harvesting donor hair to replace in another area would not effectively conceal the hair loss, moreover, it would not repair the underlying molecular errors found inside their blood stream which led to continued research until the ultimate discovery of the DNA algorithm that cured hair loss. Hair loss is not actually a disease but a symptom of something else going on deeper inside.
Q: What age groups are you seeing with hair loss?
Nettles: Our youngest client is a 15-year-old Australian boy when he started, his sister was 16 when she started and our oldest client is an 89-year-old female actress from Los Angeles. So, all ages and professions.
Q: Do you see mostly men or women as well?
Nettles: As hair loss is not gender specific, affecting both, we have both clients, but as 85% of men are affected and 40% of women, our client base is 70% men, 30% women.
Q: What are the steps a new patient undergoes to begin the process of hair regrowth?
Nettles: The most important part is an accurate diagnosis. Unless we can accurately identify and treat everything that’s going on, we aren’t going to achieve 100% success, and that is our goal every time.
To get that accurate diagnosis, we start upfront with our comprehensive assessment process which is comprised of two appointments and ultimately the interpretation of the BRC, Biochemical Report Card which will reveal the underlying molecular health of the client.
The BRC is a comprehensive review of their nutritional status, inherited enzyme activity, all their cells health, the health of all their organs, their immune system, their hormones levels and (thyroid for women or prostate health for men). It’s much more comprehensive than any annual physical labs and gives me an extensive view of both their overall health and all the biomarkers that contribute to hair loss.
Each client is provided with a copy of the report to keep including my analysis and recommendations for improving their overall health and wellbeing.
Food provides the nutritional ingredients that become our internal biochemistry. We are what we eat after all and with proper nutrition we can prevent many diseases and optimize our bodies for peak performance.
To recap, the information from their bloodwork is used to create a personalized holistic program individual to each person, using precise formulas to repair enzyme defects and rebalance their individual Biochemistry. This is what allows their hair to regrow while also improving their overall health and well-being.
Q: What is the typical length of time to see new hair growth?
Nettles: The treatment itself breaks down into 3 phases as follows:
1st PHASE is the stopping or rebalancing phase. On average this takes 3-6 months. In this phase we over that time stop their hair loss by rebalancing their biochemistry. You should think of hair loss like a big ship in the ocean. For most people it happens gradually over time. We first have to slow down and stop that active process before we can turn it around and regrow.
That turnaround point usually happens somewhere between 3-6 months. From that point they have entered the regrowth phase.
2nd PHASE is regrowth. Generally, the first thing clients will notice is that their existing hairs improve in thickness and strength and then gradually hairs in affected follicles will regrow, one by one.
Then, once their hair has regrown to where they’re happy with it, PHASE 3 is to maintain that healthy hair with their continued rebalanced biochemistry and nutrition.
Q: How is your practice unique?
Nettles: We are the only company with the breadth of molecular medical expertise coupled with over 2 decades of experience across the entire planet (successful clients on 6 continents). Whereas many companies today have patients with ‘side effects’, our individualized program identifies and prevents ‘side effects’. We tackle the problem from the root cause. Leviticus 17:11 “the life of the flesh is in the blood”. Hair follicles are fed from the blood. Therefore, the cause of the problem is also in the blood. Also, every person has a unique biome. The only way to effectively treat anyone is to treat each person’s unique cause of hair loss. For each person, the ingredients needed and dosing can be different. Using precise x-rays, science has now proven that not only does a one-size-fits-all approach not work, but it can also cause problems for up to 20% of patient, as have been reported “loss of libido, anxiety and depression).
We also do not use any commercially available medicines. All person’s formulas are made fresh by hand right before shipping. This means we do not need to use fillers, binders, colors, synthetic preservatives and other ingredients that can cause people problems.
7: Please share information on your new Guaranteed Hair Regrowth?
My intention in creating the Stop and Regrow program is to help as many people as possible. The hair regrowth guarantee was introduced to differentiate Stop and Regrow from the many products that do not work. It also makes the decision to try Stop and Regrow risk free, especially in conjunction with our risk-free assessment process. The risk-free assessment means that if at any point in time during the assessment process we don’t believe we can regrow a person’s hair, we will not take them on as a client and we will refund their assessment fee. We are not interested in wasting people’s time or money if we can’t help.
Also importantly, stress – especially stress about hair loss – can negatively impact hair regrowth. Our guarantee enables our clients to feel confident that Stop and Regrow will work for them and remove that stress of worrying about their hair, thereby assisting their hair regrowth.
Our hair regrowth guarantee, (unlike other companies who are offering 1 month money back as a guarantee), is a true guarantee to regrow your hair. The way our guarantee works is that; if after a minimum period of stopping and regrowing we are unable to show hair regrowth, the client will not have to pay for their treatment, until they do, for an additional period of up to 12 months.
8: You had a practice in Beverly Hills, do you still have a presence in California?
Yes absolutely! Obviously, Angelinos are familiar with how bad both parking and traffic are in the Beverly Hills area, especially where we were on Wilshire Blvd. During the construction of the new rail line this became even worse. Also, we were in a shared high rise building with very expensive parking.
We have now moved to a purpose fit, street front location on Broadway in Santa Monica. We have free onsite parking for our clients here and easy access from both the 10 and the 405 freeways.
Q: Have you helped any celebrities with hair loss issues in the past? no names- any cases
Nettles: As you know appearance and hair is very important for celebrities and others in the industry. As ‘thick beautiful hair: equates to longevity and financial security for this ultra-competitive industry, rarely is my name shared, unfortunately. While we cannot of course, name names, we have a raft of clientele from both in front of and behind the camera as well as from the professional sports field and models as well, including a few A-List actors. If you really want to know, watch the ‘younger’ actors ‘grow’ thicker hair over the next few years and maintain thick healthy hair into their 30s and 40s and 80s. Those are the lucky few who found Stop and Regrow.
Q: What are your goals for 2023?
Nettles: We are continuously undertaking research and development to improve both our program and our customer service. Our goal is to grow the practice in the US and help as many people as possible. Recent data from the American Hair Loss Association has found that over 85% of men will experience hair loss at some point in their lifetime. That’s a lot. And there is so much mis-information and even downright untruths and myths in the marketing place so it’s really hard for men and women to know who to trust and where to turn. That’s why we introduced the hair regrowth guarantee. So, people can know who to trust.
For our Los Angeles clients we have an additional benefit for them of being able to come into our Santa Monica location, and that is our powerful digital microscope. This is especially important for clients who have had transplants in the past. We want to make sure that there are viable hair follicles between the transplanted hairs to regrow. Stop and Regrow can only work to regrow hair in live hair follicles and transplants do damage the existing hairs between the transplanted hairs by damaging blood flow to those follicles thus speeding up the hair loss process in those areas.
You can learn more about Dr. Nettles by visiting: https://www.stopandregrow.com/
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