Louis Theroux has confirmed that his alopecia reached its lowest point during the filming of Inside the Manosphere, his new Netflix documentary, saying on Instagram this week that the autoimmune condition worsened considerably throughout production last year but now appears to have since improved. The 55-year-old broadcaster shared the update, showing followers visible changes to his hair in footage posted online.
Theroux first disclosed his alopecia diagnosis publicly in 2021. The autoimmune condition causes the immune system to attack hair follicles, resulting in patchy or widespread hair loss with no guaranteed treatment outcome. Viewers who watched Inside the Manosphere had already noted that his hair appeared noticeably thinner than in previous projects, and Theroux has now confirmed those observations.
Inside the Manosphere, now streaming on Netflix, follows Theroux as he investigates how online influencers are shaping young men's ideas about identity, masculinity and gender. The documentary features HSTikky Tokky, a British creator whose real name is Harrison Sullivan. In one particularly stark moment, Sullivan declares that he is 'coaching boys how to be f****** boys, not soy boys or gimps.' Even compared with the provocateurs Theroux has profiled throughout his career, the remark lands with considerable force.
The Lowest Point
In the Instagram footage he shared this week, Theroux addressed directly what viewers had been able to observe on screen. 'It [his hair] is quite weird in parts of it, especially the back, when I enter buildings a couple of times, you can see it is quite patchy,' he explained. 'So I filmed that documentary last year, and that was my hair I think at its lowest depth of the two.'
The phrase 'lowest depth of the two' is a quiet acknowledgement that this is not his first episode with the condition. Theroux has spoken previously about distinct phases of hair loss, and the period spent filming his manosphere documentary appears to have been the worse of them as he 'hit bottom.' He did not speculate on why the timing coincided with that production in particular, which perhaps says something about the man. Theroux rarely editorialises about his own life in the way many broadcasters might.
What the footage captured was typically straightforward, almost reportorial in tone. Theroux held the camera to his scalp with matter-of-fact honesty rather than visible distress, giving the update the feel of a status report from someone who has made a measure of peace with uncertainty.
Signs of Recovery
The more recent news is cautiously encouraging. 'The good news is that my hair seems to be growing back. Not all of it, but much of it. It is better than it was. So it is more than a year, or about a year in fact, since I last updated you about alopecia,' he said.
What makes his case unusual is that the improvement occurred without any deliberate intervention. 'What have I done? Nothing. I have made no interventions, I have taken no drugs, I haven't changed my diet, I don't feel like I am less stressed or more stressed,' he said. He also described the condition in the footage, as reported by the Mirror, noting that it 'leads to your hair falling out in patches or your lesions, as they are called,' before saying that 'this is me saying, surprise, surprise, it seems to have gotten better.'
There is no confirmed medical explanation for why his hair has begun returning, and Theroux made clear he is not particularly in search of one.
'I am just going to put it down to the vague mysteries of life and the human condition. I am grateful that it is better. I take nothing for granted, I am pleased I have hair,' he said, before adding with his characteristic grounded deflation, 'I can see the sides and even in the back, you can see a little bit there. Still a bit funny.'
