Hair Restoration Blog

We know that direct sunlight and ultraviolet radiation can affect the growth of hair follicles negatively. There is new research resulting on profiling the response of human hair follicles to ultraviolet radiation that was published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology this month (January 2009). The joint effort work Department of Dermatology at the University of Lübeck in Lübeck, Germany and Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China showed that excessive UVR ranks among the most harmful environmental influences on human skin.

The research was mainly done on organ-cultured human anagen hair follicles in vitro were irradiated with UVB (one of the two main types of Ultra Violet light), and reduction of hair shaft elongation, premature catagen entry, and reduced hair matrix keratinocyte proliferation were observed.

Upon irradiation with UVB at lower powers apoptotic cell death prevailed, whereas at higher power, necrotic cell death was predominant. These investigators concluded that UVR differentially modifies hair growth and cycle, promotes cell death, and induces complex regulatory events in human hair follicles in vitro. The leads from this human organ model, which is a living and human tissue interaction system under physiologically relevant in situ conditions, may encourage its use for general investigation of UV-induced effects as well as for testing possible agents for their UV-protective agents.

We can see that some patients who are exposed to sunlight for extended periods of time experience hair loss on unprotected parts of their scalp skin. I personally have a no sun exposure policy for 6 months after hair transplantation for all my patients at our Los Angeles hair transplant clinics.  Now it is becoming even clearer that both native hair and transplanted hair could get hurt by being exposed to direct sunlight.

I just read another article that may bring more hope for the people with hair loss.  Kang et al has been working with a plant native to Jeju Island in South Korea by the name of Schisandra Nigra.  They studied the effect of the extract of this plant on hair growth.  The article which is published in the European Journal of Dermatology is the result of a study on application of this product on rat hair with some promise. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Schisandra Nigra on the promotion of hair growth.

When rat vibrissa follicles were treated with 85% ethanol extract of S. Nigra, the hair-fiber lengths of the vibrissa follicles increased significantly. In addition, after topical application of the EtOH extract of S. nigra onto the back of C57BL/6 mice every other day, anagen (growth phase) progression of the hair shaft was induced. Moreover, the extract increased both the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen in the bulb matrix region and the proliferation of immortalized vibrissa dermal papilla cells.  Both of those showing more activity on hair follicle cells.

In order to determine the mechanism by which the plant S. nigra promotes hair growth, the researchers examined its relationship with the TGF-beta2, which is a signal pathway, known to be a regulator of catagen induction (the phase that come after growth phase in hair cycle).

When the vibrissa follicles in the anagen phase were treated with S. Nigra extract for 7 days, the expression of TGF-beta2 in the bulb matrix region was found to be lower than that of the control follicles that were expected to be in the anagen-catagen transition phase.  These results suggest that S. Nigra extract has the potential to promote hair growth via down regulation of TGF-beta2 and the proliferation of dermal papilla.

In less scientific words, the plant has been able to stop hair follicles from going into their resting phase from their growth phase and thus increasing the number of growing hair follicles.  Could this hair loss product be used as a valid option for treatment of baldness in humans?  We can not be sure yet.  More studies are needed to prove the therapeutic effects of this product on human hair growth.

We do not recommend any herbal hair loss products at this point for treatment of male or female patterned hair loss due to the lack of adequate evidence based on documents that support that in humans.  However, we follow the findings of the new research through the world and keep our readers posted if one becomes available.