You can disprove this theory by looking at people with gigantism where they continue to secrete Growth Hormone and grow to crazy heights and their skull also grows out of proportion. They do not suffer from hair loss due to this.
If you visualize his younger photo with no hair, his head will look much larger. Nit is an illusion.
Not so fast. I think the theory posits that it is an enlarged skull from the exaggeration of the bone remodeling process that causes a reduction in blood supply to the capillary network within the balding area of the scalp. I have also read another theory (I think it is the gravity theory by a Turkish doctor, in which it is mentioned that a compressed scalp deprives hair of nutrients - this compression is akin to an expanding cranium putting outwards pressure on the scalp. DHT is also probably a big factor and somehow plays into this.
I'm no expert in acromegaly but it isn't farfetched to think that HGH has different affinities for different tissues in different individuals, just as DHT is in different men. Of all the examples posted I recognize only Andre the Giant and Sultan Kosen, while the rest are women, and since DHT plays a role in male hair loss, and estrogen reduces bone/muscle size and has protective effects against hair loss, I am going to only address the two men. Andre has curly hair which extends below his hairline, so it probably hides a receding hairline to some extent. Sultan Kosen is probably not affected cranially size-wise. As mentioned above, excess HGH is perhaps not expressed to the same degree in the craniums of acromegalic humans who seem not to exhibit any hair loss, meaning their condition has not increased their cranial size much if at all above the norm. Note: it is important to pay attention to the cranium size and not overall skull or head size. Some pics will demonstrate this. There does not seem to be an overwhelming disparity in cranial sizes between these giants and those of normal humans, even females.
What I have noticed is, acromegaly tends to thicken the brow ridge contributing to frontal bossing, but there is often a sharp angle in the protrusion of the ridge which turns almost 90 degrees back towards the hairline, as is the case in Andre. In normal balding humans however, brow ridges are usually non protrusive, and even if they were, extends towards the hairline and beyond in a smooth contour.
I've attached one more pic of a baby with an enlarged forehead (hydrocephaly). Note the horseshoe hairline and thinning pattern highly reminiscent of balding men.
What I personally believe is that it is first the frontalis muscle itself and not just the cranial bones that initiates hairloss. The brain can potentially also affect growth of one's cranium, as denoted in the functional matrix theory of bone growth, but I'm not as certain of it's role as compared to the frontalis. It is probably a combination of the muscle and bone, and indeed any tissue growth under the scalp that places a stretching pressure on the scalp, that ultimately, together with DHT, kills off healthy hair. I think u might have read the study where botox injected into the frontalis to atrophy it resulted in significantly increased hair count.
https://twitter.com/registability/status/705854613954625536
https://www.hairgrowthsos.com/skull-expansion.html
