Hair loss news first:

— Apparently, there is a small subgroup of people who suffer from hair loss due to a condition called hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (HED), which also adversely impacts nails, teeth and sweat glands. While studying this condition, the well known Dr. Sarah Millar and her team at the University of Pennsylvania recently found that “lower levels of Wnt10A may contribute to male pattern baldness in some individuals”. Later, they go on to state that “small molecule drugs that activate the beta-catenin pathway downstream of Wnt10A could potentially be used to treat hair thinning and palm and sole skin defects” in some patients suffering from male pattern hair loss. I have covered Wnt signaling and various associated proteins and genes (especially Wnt10b) a number of time on this blog in the past when relevant to hair growth, but it seems like this is the first post that has covered Wnt10a.

— Someone from the Netherlands emailed me yesterday with an interesting new story on a well known Dutch news site about an American guy named Darren Moore who is testing FOXO4-DR to regrow his hair. This self-experimenter’s website with frequent updates is here and he also has his before and after scalp photos on there. For more about the FOXO4 peptide and its killing of senescent cells, see my recent post on that subject. The Netherlands based researcher (Dr. Peter de Keizer) who did that groundbreaking work has warned people about the above experiment and its possible dangers in the Dutch newspaper article that I linked to at the beginning of this paragraph.

Besides the health ramifications, I am obviously very skeptical of one-off anecdotal reports, even though I do mention them if interesting. Note that Mr. Moore’s site has two links from where to purchase FOX-O4 from, but I would not recommend getting the product. It is extremely expensive and potentially highly dangerous as elaborated by Dr. Keizer (and worth repeating again). I would also like to first make sure that Mr. Moore is in no way affiliated with the websites that sell this product before taking him more seriously. Having said all that, I am now probably going to eagerly anticipate his diary updates over the next several months:-) I like that he posted a photo of himself with Liz Parrish, another self-experimenter that I have covered on this blog several times before.

— Samumed continues to garner great publicity. They must surely be the most successful hair loss cure focused company of all time when it comes to getting media attention? Their big coup came last year via a cover page on Forbes magazine with some great photos such as the below inside:

— Like last year, Aclaris Therapeutics is presenting at various investor conferences and lets all of us see their slides and listen to their audio after registration. This time I have not listened to any live or recorded audio as yet (I waited for 30 mins on one day, but it never started at the announced time). For those who are patient, it is always worth hearing the audio out till the end, when attendees often get to ask questions. In their latest slides, Aclaris still maintains that are doing pre-clinical work related to topical JAK inhibitors for androgenetic alopecia. No announcements on when they will start phase 1 trials as yet.

— Wasabi found to benefit hair growth.

— Baldness, how close are we to a cure? Not a bad effort, since most such articles are highly inaccurate and badly researched. Nevertheless, the author does not even mention the leading prospects for a cure or treatment such as Follica, Histogen, Replicel/Shiseido, Samumed and Tsuji.

— New ADSC and hair growth study from Japan.

And now on to medical items of interest:

— Limitless lab-grown blood tantalizingly close.

— A drug that creates a real sun-tan (and subsequently, protects against skin cancer, rates of which have been rising rapidly).

— 3-person babies for older women having trouble getting pregnant.

— Progress in the cure for multiple sclerosis, a very debilitating auto-immune condition.

— Defibrillator carrying drones.

On January 21, 2003, a 20 year old man with the online name “Curi0usGeorge” started a US based beard forum thread about growing his sparse beard via applying extra strength Minoxidil (5% Rogaine) onto his face rather onto his scalp. In early March of that same year, he stopped his experiment, largely because he started getting excess body hair as a side effect. While he also got more facial hair from the Minoxidil, it was not in a pattern and density that truly satisfied him.

Tremendous Interest from men Wishing to Grow Beards

Little did “Curio0usGeorge” realize what he had started in 2003. His forum thread grew to 615 pages in length with 20 comments per page. Finally, towards the end of 2016, it was unfortunately closed by the moderators after 15 years of postings Prior to 2003, while many others on the web had discussed (or experimented) with the phenomenon of Minoxidil growing facial hair, it was this mega-thread that became the go to place on the internet for men trying to grow denser beards using medication.

While myself (and numerous other men losing hair) have the opposite problem and would prefer a much less noticeable beard and slower facial hair growth, I still thoroughly enjoyed going through 100 or so pages of the above thread some years ago. I was amazed at some of the before and after photos and transformations.

I never forgot those visuals, and after I started this blog, I have posted about the above thread at least briefly in passing several times. It clearly shows that Minoxidil can grow new hair where there were none before and not just make existing hair stronger. Or, to be more precise, it can convert vellus invisible-to-the-eye unpigmented hair into terminal pigmented hair. I have never enjoyed using Rogaine on my scalp, but the numerous before and after photos in the above mentioned thread (as well as via the testimonials in here) have convinced me to keep using Rogaine to this day (albeit just several times a week in order to minimize side effects).

Note that while writing this post, I did not go through the above 615 page thread in much detail beyond a few initial pages this time around and am assuming all the photos are still in there. If any of you readers have some spare time, please post your favorite before and after Minoxidil facial hair transformation photos from that thread in the comments on here along with a page number from 1-615 for our reference.

Growing Beards with Minoxidil in Indonesia

The reason I wrote this post and remembered the above mentioned mega-thread is because earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal published a very interesting related article on the front page.

If you cannot access the WSJ online edition, I have pasted an image on the left side of the first half of the story. Apparently, an entrepreneur in Indonesia by the name of Fariz Gamal has started a business to help men grow beards via just using Minoxidil. Like most Asian men, Indonesian men on average have much less facial hair in comparison the average caucasian men, and it is now becoming fashionable and trendy to grow at least modestly thick beards (especially in a Muslim majority country such as Indonesia).

When I did more research on Mr. Gamal, I came across this interesting article from April of this year from a local Indonesian magazine. He mentions that he orders the Kirkland brand of Minoxidil from the US. He claims that “he grew the full beard of his dreams after four months of regularly applying minoxidil to his face”. For social media fans, here is his Instagram page and here is his Youtube channel.

It should be noted that there are numerous very popular Youtube videos of men growing much thicker beards after using Minoxidil on their faces. However, I find some to be sketchy so did not select any favorites to embed on here.

There are now also numerous online forum testimonials with photos from men who have had success with this type of experiment. If I had the time, I would try to tally all the success and failure testimonials from these various beard and related forums (or at least from the 615 page thread that I mentioned at the start of this post) and calculate what percent of men who use Minoxidil on their face see significant new hair growth based on forum anecdotal reports (ideally, with photos as evidence).

Luckily, I do not have that kind of time on my hands, or else I would really do it as I think it is an important data collection venture.

At the recent 76th annual meeting of SID I noticed an interesting presentation titled “Olfactory receptor stimulation promotes human hair growth“, with the lead author being a Dr. Jérémy Chéret who I had never heard of before. One of the co-authors, however, was the well known Dr. Ralf Paus, who I have covered on this blog several times in the past.

While (unsuccessfully) trying to find a full version of the above paper, I stumbled upon the website of a new company that Dr. Paus has started in Germany called Monasterium Laboratory Skin & Hair Research Solutions. Although the company was supposedly started in 2015, it seems like their website only came on-stream in 2016.

On the website, they have a blurry image of the earlier mentioned study on the olfactory receptor (specifically, the OR2AT4 receptor) in one of the rotating banners on top. Apparently the company even released a product in Italy in 2017 called Bioscalin Signal Revolution and it supposedly stimulates the OR2AT4 receptor. If any of you readers frequent the major Italian hair loss forums out there, I would be curious as to what they think about this product.

Another interesting study that the Monasterium team has published recently concludes that the antidepressant Fluoxetine (Prozac) promotes human hair follicle pigmentation and could prevent grey hair formation. This is interesting and surprising, because there have also been some reports that SSRIs such as Prozac can cause hair loss in some patients.

According to Monasterium Lab’s news page, they will be moving into a brand new research facility in 2018 (located in this modern nanobiotech research hub):

Caveat

During the course of my research for this post, I read this wikipedia entry on Dr. Paus’ wife (with parts of it also involving Dr. Paus), and there seems to be some controversy regarding their past work. Nevertheless, this does not seem to have prevented Monasterium Laboratory from having a pretty solid list of advisers as well as collaboration partners (they list Shiseido as one of those, at the bottom of this page).

I have my doubts about this one, but nevertheless a very interesting new development. The US, Japan and Germany seem to be leading global hair loss research, although Germany has been lagging the other two so I am glad about this new addition in that country.

Perhaps the most important area of hair loss research that I have not yet covered on this blog relates to the Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) protein and signaling pathway. While the sonic hedgehog protein has numerous critical effects on a developing human embryo (brain, craniofacial, lungs, teeth and more), it also continues to be important in adulthood when it controls certain stem cell division activities. Getting into too much detail about this would go beyond the scope of this blog. SHH was named after SEGA’s famous video game character, Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sato, Leopold and Crystal (1999)

In the initial decade after the first identification of the hedgehog gene around 1980, there was almost no research devoted to the impact of  SHH upon human hair. However, this started to change in the mid-1990s (e.g., this from 1998) and culminated in the seminal work on this subject that was published in the US in 1999: “Induction of the hair growth phase in postnatal mice by localized transient expression of Sonic hedgehog“.

Of the three authors of the above study, the most cited was Cornell based Dr. Ronald Crystal who remains in practice even today.

What these authors discovered was that after injecting balding mice hair cells with the sonic hedgehog gene using an adenovirus, resting hair follicles in the mice started growing robust hair of the mouse’s native hair color (they dyed all the fur blonde so as to differentiate the newly growing hair). Moreover, upon final analysis, the team found that the SHH gene was active in the injected areas of the skin, but not elsewhere. A very humorous and at the same time highly informative article on this subject from 1999 can be read here.

Curis-Procter & Gamble RIP (2005-2007)

After the groundbreaking 1999 study on mice, some researchers were mildly optimistic that SHH activation could also have positive implications on human hair growth in balding men and women. A new company that was formed in 2000 called Curis partnered with Procter & Gamble in 2005 to try and develop a topical Hedgehog agonist product for scalp hair growth. However, this partnership was ended in 2007 due to potential safety issues since SHH can potentially also cause basal cell carcinoma cancer. P&G was not willing to continue with the drug development work, since even a very minimal risk of developing cancer is not worth it for treating a cosmetic problem such as hair loss (at least in the eyes of government). Interesting comment from the at-the-time CEO of Curis:

We are obviously disappointed that the collaboration with Procter & Gamble will come to an end. We believe that our topically administered Hedgehog agonists have demonstrated encouraging efficacy in preclinical hair growth models and we were hopeful that one of our Hedgehog agonist drug candidates under the program would have progressed.

Current Status

While the initial excitement of a SHH based cure for hair loss has long ended, sporadic research activity in this area continues (e.g, this in 2016). Moreover, in 2013, scientists even found that SHH signaling regenerates ear hair cells.

On a related note, also make sure to read my post from earlier this year regarding ear hair regeneration and possible links with scalp hair regeneration (some controversy in that analogy if you read the comments to that post).

I have covered the link between fat cells and hair cells a number of times on this blog in the past.

• In 2014, I discussed a newly published paper by Dr. Fiona Watt and various others that found a positive correlation between hair growth, adipocytes (fat cells) and epidermal Wnt/β-catenin signaling. One of their findings (albeit on a small sample size) was that “regions of hair loss were correlated with reduced adipocyte layer thickness in the samples we examined“.
• Thereafter, in March 2015, I wrote about Dr. Valerie Horsley’s work related to fat cells and scalp hair.
• In April 2015, I wrote a post on adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) and hair growth.
• Also in April 2015, I wrote about Advanced Adipose-Derived Stem Cell Protein Extract (AAPE) and hair growth.
• In July 2015, I wrote a post on an upcoming company named Kerastem that was working on using autologous fat graft enriched with adipose-derived regenerative cells (ADRCs) in the treatment of early male pattern hair loss. Kerastem has become much more renowned since then, and has been conducting clinical trials under the acronym STYLE. These trials are supposed to be complete in September 2017, and the renowned Dr. Ken Washenik is actively involved. I have discussed Kerastem in several other post since 2015.
• In one of my brief items of interest posts in 2017, I discussed the STRAAND clinical trials that will be completed in June 2018. These trials focus to on something called stromal vascular fraction (SVF), which is a type of adipose tissue, and platelet-rich plasma (PRP).

There are some significant differences between some of the above subject matters, but in the end, they all involve adipose tissue and hair growth.

A number of doctors around the world are now offering procedures where they inject adipose tissue into your scalp, often with the addition of growth factors and various stem cells. In most cases, these procedures are insufficiently tested and largely unproven.

I am skeptical about the potential of these treatments beyond making existing hair stronger and perhaps reversing very recent follicle miniaturization (in an absolute best case scenario). However, I remain open minded based on the assorted wide range of work from around the world related to fat cells and hair growth that is outlined in the earlier listed bullet point past posts of mine.

Stromal Vascular Fraction (SVF) Enhanced Adipose Transplantation

As several commentators have pointed out, this week fat cells and hair were in the news yet again. This time, the excitement was limited to UK newspapers due to some work in which locally based Dr. Edward Ball was involved (note that the actual study is here and the principal author is Dr. David Perez-Meza). Before and after image below from the Maitland Clinic per the two UK newspaper links further below:

Basically, they conducted a small study in which they removed fat from six people’s stomachs, added stem cells to the fat, and then moved the resulting concoction to the same people’s scalps. They supposedly got great results. The procedure is described as “Stromal Vascular Fraction (SVF) Enhanced Adipose Transplantation”. Dr. Craig Ziering was also involved, and I have covered him on this blog several times in the past. I can’t think of many superficial things that I would love more in life then less stomach fat and more scalp hair:

— Express article on moving fat cells from stomach to scalp.

— The Sun article on moving fat cells from beer belly to scalp.

Note that there was another small-scale nine patient study done on SVF enhanced adipose transplantation in 2016 with a favorable conclusion. Two of the authors in that one were Dr. Ken Washenik and Dr. Eric Daniels (who also co-authored this latest study that I discussed earlier).

Hair loss news first:

— The biggest news story in the hair loss world during the past month probably deserved its own post, but I could not schedule things in that manner. Last week, respected University of California Irvine based hair loss and stem cell researcher Maksim Plikus (who I previously discussed here) and his team published a ground-breaking study. Their heavily mathematical modeling based findings were that hair follicles throughout the body communicate with each other via chemical signals, with Wnt signaling for growth activation, and BMP signaling for growth deactivation. So belly hair, back hair and scalp hair all communicate with each other. Must make Ernie very pleased.

The New Scientist article on this development discusses potential drug development for hair growth (via “an approach that may spread waves of growth back into balding areas”) and ends with an optimistic quote from Dr. Plikus:

We now have a road map to optimise the levels of activators and inhibitors to achieve desired hair growth.

Note that if such drugs are developed, they will also be able to eliminate excess body hair, a common problem for balding men and women.

As always, the largely trashy UK based gossip rap Daily Mail seems to become an almost respectable scientific magazine when it comes to coverage of latest hair loss research related developments. Their title of this latest development is “Hair speaks through words and sentences“.

— As if one major development was not enough, commentator “Royaume” posted a link to this study in which 14 lung cancer patients getting treated via immunotherapy (anti-PD-1 and anti–PD-L1) saw a large portion of their grey hair become dark again. The before and after photo (see further below) of what I presume is the best case responder is truly unbelievable and I would have assumed a fraud (it almost looks like two different people) were it not for the fact that JAMA Dermatology, which published the study, seems to have a solid reputation. It is almost impossible to reverse/repigment grey hair in substantial amounts due to melanoctye cell death, so this is a very surprising development. In fact, even Follica was impressed and retweeted JAMA’s before and after photo and I will do the same:

14 patients in anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1 therapy for #lungcancer have shown hair repigmentation during Tx https://t.co/V54ut3yyGE #LCSM pic.twitter.com/65XLquOAAt

— JAMA Dermatology (@JAMADerm) July 12, 2017

Immunotherapy has become an increasingly utilized and researched treatment for cancer in recent years. Moreover, of late, we in the hair loss world have also seen some major stories that suggest a potential immune system component to hair growth and perhaps even androgenetic alopecia (AGA). And now it seems that immunotherapy can sometimes reverse grey hair. Consequently, I continue to keep a track of Aclaris Therapeutics and their pending clinical trials on using specialized topical JAK inhibitors to treat AGA. As long-time readers of this blog know, JAK inhibitors have cured alopecia areata (AA) in many people in the past several years. However, unlike AA, AGA has historically not been linked to the immune system (until the recent regulatory T Cells — Tregs — related study suggested the possibility).

— Summer greetings from Follicum.

— Interesting study from Iran related to growing hair in mice via injection of hair epithelial and dermal papilla cells.

— Blimp1 before Wnt/β-catenin activation?

— How Hollywood tackles hair loss.

— Good news from the FDA for Concert Pharmaceuticals’ CTP-543 alopecia areata drug trials.

— Despite all these developments, for the time being, hair transplants (and several drugs if you are lucky) are sometimes the best option.

— Always been a fan of stories about MTF transsexuals getting their hair, and of course the Daily Mail agrees.

And now on to medical items of interest:

— FDA approves a gene altering treatment for cancer. A new era in medicine that involves altering T-cells and the immune system.

— Scientists can now erase specific memories from snail brains.

— Snip, snip, cure. “We feel that we’re right on the precipice of a new personalised medical future”.

— Harvard scientists (including Dr. George Church): CRISPR–Cas9 encoding of a digital movie into the genomes of a population of living bacteria.

A few hours ago Kerastem’s CEO Mr. Brad Conlan sent me an e-mail for the first time ever. The timing of this e-mail is quite appropriate considering that I just mentioned Kerastem in my recent post related to yet another new study finding some positive correlation between adipose tissue (fat cells) and hair growth. Note that in that post, the study that I discussed entailed Kerastem’s technology (even though the UK newspaper articles that covered the development did not state so anywhere explicitly).

I am pasting Mr. Conlan’s e-mail verbatim below in blue font. Please keep discussions in the comments here civil and related to this subject matter. Unrelated comments should continue to go in my last (“brief items of interest”) post. From the first link in the below pasted e-mail, I liked the following quote from lead investigator Dr. David Perez-Meza, although it is worth keeping in mind that the study had a very small sample size of 6 patients:

“We are very pleased with the clinical outcomes of our hair regeneration study, as they represent this procedure is safe and that results are on par or better than those of traditional medical approaches to hair loss”.

Dear Editor,

I wanted to pass along that the Kerastem UK clinical study results were recently published in the Journal of Stem Cells and Cloning.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/07/prweb14496474.htm

We were highly encouraged by the results of the UK study and proceeded to a 70 patient, US IDE clinical trial focused on Androgenetic Alopecia. US Clinical Trial details can be found below:

https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02503852?term=STYLE&rank=1

We expect to present the results from the US clinical in the Fall of 2017.

Kind Regards,

Brad Conlan
CEO
Kerastem

During the past decade, vitamin D (in reality, a hormone) has been in the news more so than any other vitamin out there. Its deficiency has been touted as the reason for dozens of human health problems, ranging from rickets to osteoporosis to teeth loss to depression to cancer to high blood pressure to multiple sclerosis. However, for most such problems, there is insufficient evidence that a vitamin D deficiency caused the condition in the first place. Nor is there concrete evidence that vitamin D supplementation causes any significant improvements in most such health problems.

Having said that, there are some conditions (e.g., rickets and other bone problems) where prolonged vitamin D deficiency has been proven to have a strong causative effect, and a number of other conditions where there is some evidence of the importance of a sufficient intake of vitamin D. As is the case with most vitamins and minerals, deficiencies are usually far more dangerous in early childhood than in adulthood.

Types of Vitamin D

There are five types of vitamin D, known simply as D₁, D₂, D₃, D₄ and D₅. Of these five, the two major forms are D₂ (ergocalciferol) and D₃ (cholecalciferol). When doctors talk about vitamin D, they generally mean D₂ or D₃ or both (collectively referred to as calciferol). Direct sunlight exposure is the easiest way to raise one’s vitamin D levels, since the skin synthesizes vitamin D upon exposure to ultraviolet rays (US). Numerous food items naturally contain vitamin D, and many are artificially enhanced with the addition of vitamin D in developed countries.

Optimal Vitamin D Levels

Modern life is heavily indoor-focused, with daytime computer based work followed by evening time entertainment and social media related screen-time for most people. Not to mention 24/7 smartphone access, usually also indoors or in shady areas to avoid sun glare. This has drastically reduced direct sunlight exposure in just one generation, and sunlight has historically been the best way for most of us to get vitamin D. Moreover, daily warnings about skin cancer and skin aging have meant that even when outdoors, most people lather on sunscreen and suntan lotion, drastically limiting vitamin D synthesis via the skin. Moreover, if you are mostly getting your daily sunshine through office windows or car windows, it does not raise your vitamin D levels since glass prevents UV rays from synthesizing vitamin D on your skin.

Because of all the above, most readers must have heard a lot in recent years about the huge number of people who are vitamin D deficient and the potential dangers of this problem. In fact in a radio show just last week, I heard that some scientists think that the current cutoff levels are too low, and if corrected, around 80 percent of Americans are vitamin D deficient (although this is a controversial issue). Quite often, people who are warning about this issue are also selling vitamin D supplements, so one must be vary about the messenger.

There is significant debate about ideal levels of vitamin D (i.e., what number seems to be the best for overall health) as well as about insufficient levels of vitamin D (i.e., below what number does it become dangerous for your health). The most common measurement for vitamin D is done via a blood test known 25-hydroxyvitamin D, with resulting numbers given in ng/mL (for those outside the US, just multiply these numbers by 2.5 to get corresponding numbers in nmol/L).

Most doctors consider that levels below 20 ng/mL are insufficient. Many nowadays have raised this number and consider levels below 30 ng/mL to be insufficient.

Ideal levels are even more heavily debated, with some data suggesting as high as 70 ng/mL, but other data suggesting that over 50 ng/mL can even be dangerous. Yet other data suggests that anything over 30 ng/mL does not lead to any benefits.

Trying to find and analyze all the main (probably 100 plus by now) studies here about this subject matter would be way beyond the scope of this blog. Moreover, your genetics, race, sex, height, weight and more can also impact the ideal levels for you. I am happy if my levels are over 20 ng/mL, which they are not in winters (so I supplement).

Vitamin D and Hair Loss

Over the years, I have read numerous comments from people suggesting that vitamin D has an impact on hair loss and growth. However, while researching for this post, I found that even some respected scientists have postulated this theory and a WSJ article in 2012 looked at this subject in detail.

• Per the above article, the leading researcher in this field seems to be Dr. Marie Demay, a professor at Harvard Medical School. According to her, the vitamin D receptor (VDR) activates hair growth, rather than the vitamin itself. The Demay lab continues to do research on the vitamin D receptor and hair growth (plus keratinocyte stem cells). Their latest study related to this subject matter came out in March of 2017, and is titled: “Absence of vitamin D receptor (VDR)-mediated PPARγ suppression causes alopecia in VDR-null mice“. I will not try to analyze that.
• Also important, in 2012, a research team led by Dr. Yuko Oda at UCSF found that knocking out (ablating) the transcriptional coactivator mediator (MED1, in particular) in mice led to increased hair growth.
• And finally, a team from Japan led by Dr. Kotaro Yoshimura and Dr. Noriyuki Aoi published an important study in 2012 that found that vitamin D3 promotes functional differentiation of dermal papilla cells (DPCs) and “could be useful in preserving the hair follicle-inductive capacity of cultured DPCs for hair regeneration therapies”. Apparently this could also help improve hair transplantation results.
• A 2016 study from Egypt found lower serum and tissue VDR levels in patients with AA and AGA in comparison to those with neither form of hair loss.

Miscellaneous Notes

• Some hair loss products that I have seen over the years have included vitamin D as one of the ingredients, but I highly doubt that this makes much of a difference in regrowing lost hair.
• It should be noted that even if you take or have taken vitamin D supplements orally, for many people (including myself), it sometimes requires mega doses (upwards of 20,000 IU per day, at least initially) to have any significant impact on one’s vitamin D blood test readings. Some doctors will not prescribe that much due to potential side effects, although as yet, I do not think this danger has been proven.
• I seem to have better hair when I am out in the sun a lot. I am certain this is not psychological. How about you? Like plants, I think that humans need sufficient levels of sunshine and water (and oxygen too for humans) in order to thrive.
• It is interesting that low-level laser therapy (LLLT) has been shown to benefit hair growth in a number of studies, and the average wavelength of light from LLLT devices is in the 600nm-900nm range. UV rays from the sun fall in the 300nm-400nm wavelength range.
• In most scenarios where things such as vitamins, minerals, growth factors and so forth are involved, it seems like women tend to benefit more than men. This is based on my general intuition from what I have read over the years. Male hormones are usually the predominant reason for men’s hair loss, but other factors are often more important for women. I would not be surprised that if vitamin D does benefit hair, it will be more effective in women than in men.
• Sunlight also seems to kill mites and improve other scalp problems for many people.
• An interesting study from Hungary suggests that androgenetic alopecia might have been an evolutionary mechanism to protect men from advanced prostate cancer since a bare scalp enhances UV ray absorption in the scalp. And apparently increased UV radiation reduces the risk of prostate cancer. Not sure about this. Men who suffer from AGA are more likely to have prostate cancer…so according to this theory, they would be even more likely to have prostate cancer if they had all their hair intact.

Thanks to Mr. BB

I had considered writing this post in the past, but put in on the backurner until I recently got two e-mails from a person I will address as “Mr. BB”. They spurred me to discuss this subject. I am pasting most of his two e-mails’ content below:

E-mail 1:

I found this page and thought it could be of interest for you as you also follow closely the AA. It´s dated from February 2017:

https://www.vitamindcouncil. org/new-study-finds- derivative-of-activated- vitamin-d-helps-manage-hair- loss/

I am taking vitamin D3 supplement since 14th of April 2017 and must say that within 3 or 4 days (not weeks or months) I noticed the hair stopped falling. I even think my hair is growing back in some places. The doses I take are important. In fact today I am taking 30000 UI daily (Thirty Thousand).

I started to lose my hair around 1992-1993. It´s been a slow process but it has reached a level that made me think I´d better shave it all. Until I found some study on Vitamin D3 and started to supplement myself. I think it is working…

It´s already a miracle that something could make your hair loss stop let alone something that makes them regrow and boosts thickness and growth. What if the cure has always been here and it was just of Vitamin D deficiency ? In countries in which we live in (Europe, North America) it has been proven that 80 % of population is Vitamin D deficient.

By the way Vitamin D3 is not a Vitamin it is a Hormone and is said to enter in the expression of about 200 genes among which is the synthesis of a natural antibiotic that fights against the seasonal flu (influenza).

E-mail 2 after I sent him a brief reply:

There is something that I have heard about vitamin D3 from a specialist who even wrote a book about it.

That guy was saying that they discovered that French are Magnesium Chloride deficient. And guess what ? Magnesium Chloride is a cofactor to the vitamin D. Meaning that you they need to go hand in hand if you want to see benefits with vitamin D. Magnesium Chloride is the key !

I was on Magnesium chloride since 22nd of March 2017. And taking only that stopped my spring allergy and breathing problems. I am taking about 200 ml of magnesium chloride a day. That´s 100 ml after each meal.

Few weeks later as I saw my health was improving I started also to take vitamin C. I dilute about 5 g of Vitamin C powder in my 100 ml magnesium preparation.

Than I started vitamin D on the easter weekend with just 4000 UI and before the weekend was over I noticed the hair stopped falling.

Dr. Rachita Dhurat

In late July, user “Saleen” commented that Follica had updated their website yet again. This time, they added several clinical advisers on their “our team” section, including the well known Dr. Rachita Dhurat. The reason this Indian doctor is well known is because of her groundbreaking 2013 study (with extensive before and after photos) titled: “A randomized evaluator blinded study of effect of microneedling in androgenetic alopecia: A pilot study“. In that study, she used a dermaroller of 1.5 mm sized needles (plus minoxidil) on 50 patients, and 41 of those patients showed a very favorable outcome. In the minoxidil only comparison group, just 2 of 50 patients saw similar results.

Moreover, in 2015, Dr. Dhurat published a second related study (albeit with a much smaller sample size of 4 patients), that found that microneedling led to new hair follicle growth in all patients. Moreover, none of these patients responded well to conventional therapy in and of itself (i.e., finasteride and minoxidil).

A number of extremely renowned US based scientists such as Dr. George Cotsarelis (University of Pennsylvania), Dr. Luis Garza (Johns Hopkins University) and Dr. Maksim Plikus (University of California Irvine) have undertaken research on microneedling and/or wound-induced hair follicle neogenesis and published detailed reports that I have covered on this blog before. These scientists have received coverage in dozens of popular magazines in recent years. Nevertheless, for some reason, India based Dr. Dhurat is getting almost as much respect on this subject lately despite not having the same world leading university backing and related resources that the above scientists have (nor any popular magazine articles written about her). Hopefully, fewer resources does not mean weaker research.

More Microneedling and Hair Growth Studies from India

When excluding Follica news (e.g., this from “noisette” on HLT), microneedling has not been getting much coverage on hair loss forums in recent years. It used to in the past, as evidenced by one of my earliest post on this blog related to the dermarolling fad.

On the other hand, several new studies related to microneedling and hair growth have been published in India this year.

• In January 2017, Indian scientists published a report in which they found that patients being treated with microneedling plus minoxidil plus PRP saw superior results in comparison to patients being treated with minoxidil alone.
• And last week, scientists in India published a study in which they found PRP plus microneedling led to very favorable results when it comes to hair growth. Blurry before and after photos are in here (click on “preview article”) in case you can not access the full study via other means such as Sci-Hub.

Obviously the above two studies cannot be compared to Dr. Dhurat’s earlier work in terms of importance. Nevertheless, I find it interesting that scientists in the western world and Japan have not been focusing on microneedling and hair growth at all lately.

Side Note

One of Follica’s other newly added advisers has several videos on youtube discussing microneedling. See here (Dermapen review) and here.

University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and University of Southern California (USC) are both based in Los Angeles, California in the USA. They have one of the most intense and historic rivalries in American college sports, especially in American football. The two campuses are separated by just 12 miles. In an amazing coincidence, the two most important hair loss research related discoveries in the world this month came out of these very two universities.

UCLA scientists find two new ways to activate hair follicle stem cells

For our purposes, the UCLA findings (published just today) seem to have the greatest significance. Scientists (led by Heather Christofk and William Lowry) have found two drugs that activate hair follicle stem cells in mice. Interestingly, both drugs are topical, and one (RCGD423) involves activating the JAK-STAT signaling pathway. No idea if this drug is connected to JAK inhibitors in any way, but that acronym keeps coming up regularly these days.

Both drugs involve increasing lactate production. Apparently, lactate production is strongly connected to hair follicle stem cell activation and hair cycling. In their initial research, the UCLA scientists blocked lactate production genetically in mice and found that this prevented hair follicle stem cell activation. Thereafter, they found that increasing lactate production genetically in mice accelerated hair follicle stem cell activation and increased the hair cycle.

RCGD423

The first drug, RCGD423, activates the JAK-STAT signaling pathway, which in turn leads to an increase in the production of lactate. This then activates hair follicle stem cells and also leads to quicker hair growth. UCLA holds the original patent for RCGD423, related to its ability to rejuvenate cartilage, and has filed a provisional patent for its use for hair growth purposes.

UK5099

The second drug, UK5099, blocks pyruvate (a glucose metabolite) from entering cell mitochondria. Interestingly, this forces an increase in the production of lactate in the hair follicle stem cells and therefore accelerates hair growth. UCLA has filed a provisional patent for using UK5099 for hair growth purposes.

Perhaps the most interesting quote from the earlier linked article summarizing these findings is: “I think we’ve only just begun to understand the critical role metabolism plays in hair growth and stem cells in general“. On this blog, I have covered the connection between fat cells (adipose tissue) and hair growth numerous times due to significant recent research in that area. So I am not surprised at all that metabolism is also important when it comes to hair growth.

It is, however, surprising that hair loss research has uncovered so many new distinct pathways and mechanisms in the past few years. All of these are unrelated to the tried and tested method of targeting dihydrotestosterone (DHT) reduction. This is great news, since we already know that even close to 100 percent reduction in DHT will not bring back long-lost hair for most people, plus often comes with side effects.

USC scientists restore hair generation in defunct adult cells

A team of scientists from USC (led by Dr. Mingxing Lei, with collaboration from others in China and the UK) have managed to restore hair regeneration properties in adult mice cells that had stopped growing hair. A non-scientist friendlier summary of this work can be found here. One of the co-authors of this paper is Dr. Cheng-Ming Chuong, who I covered on this blog before.

Using intensive video analysis and documentation, bioinformatics, and molecular screenings, the scientists figured out a:

Molecular “how to” guide for driving individual skin cells to self-organize into organoids that can produce hair.

Also:

In the future, this work can inspire a strategy for stimulating hair growth in patients with conditions ranging from alopecia to baldness.

Very unlikely to come to fruition anytime soon of course, but considering that some of the research collaborators are from China… perhaps things may move faster than I am guessing if they could shift their research and potential clinical trials to that country?

Aclaris Therapeutics has been in the news a lot so far this month. The company has gone overboard with press releases and e-mail alerts (if you are subscribed) during the first two weeks of August. When I read all their recent press releases, I saw very little in the way of their topical JAK inhibitor program for male pattern hair loss, although one reader e-mailed me about one particular sentence in this press release in which they state that they will:

“Continue to develop another series of topical JAK inhibitors for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia (AGA)”.

Also of major interest is their recent purchase of Confluence Life Sciences.

However, something else extremely significant that I totally missed (despite my weekly Google Alerts about the company) was sent to me by a blog reader yesterday. It is a 10-page Seeking Alpha earnings call/interview with Aclaris CEO Neal Walker and others (can only be viewed in its entirety after registration). There are numerous interesting points in those 10 pages, but by far the most important for our purposes are the below two quotes from the CEO:

Mr. Walker: “We view the soft JAK as applicable to things like male-female pattern baldness”.

Shorty thereafter…

Mr Lugo: “Understood. What’s the timing for the soft JAK program entering the clinic? I’m not sure I heard that”.

Mr. Walker: “We will be giving a more full guidance on that at our Investor Day. We’re looking at approximately 2 years for some of our pipeline assets“.

My Thoughts

• It seems like they are classifying “topical covalently bound JAK inhibitors” as “soft JAK inhibitors”.
• Their collaboration and subsequent takeover of Confluence Life Sciences involves soft JAK inhibitor technology among other things. Mr. Walker points out elsewhere in the interview that their original reason for collaboration with Confluence entailed the latter’s soft JAK inhibitor technology.
• I presume that Mr. Lugo’s comment about “entering the clinic” means being in use at clinics. It seems very hard to imagine that this can happen in two years as Mr. Walker seems to imply. Aclaris’ pipeline currently has both its hair loss related topical JAK inhibitors in pre-clinical trials. The only way they could get these to the clinic in two years is if somehow the US FDA has significantly less stringent regulations for topical versions of drugs relative to oral versions of the same drugs (especially if the oral version has already been approved or is in final phase 3 trials in two years).

So the JAK hope-train continues even if commentator “nasa_rs” is missing lately:-)

A few days later than usual due to the major new developments that I had to discuss in my prior two posts.

Hair loss news first:

— I covered an interesting “COOL” new company named PolarityTE last month. A new article about the company mentions a possible product rollout in early 2018. Although focused on regenerating the skin (especially for burn victims), the technology will also include hair regeneration on the new skin.

— I covered Dr. Lu Le and his team’s groundbreaking discovery related to the biological processes behind both hair loss and grey hair in a post from May of this year. Now their local Dallas newspaper has much more detailed coverage of Dr. Le and his work. An interesting read.

— The first ever International Hair Restoration Conference was held in Vancouver, Canada in April 2017. During the past two months, the organizer has been releasing some interesting videos from the conference, including from the generally reclusive Dr. Kevin McElwee (Replicel) and Dr. Ray Woods (FUE hair transplant pioneer). Note that Dr. McElwee wrote most of the material on keratin.com (and he used to run the now nonexistent hair loss forums on there). Moreover, he is a co-author of an interesting new paper on hair loss  titled “Experimental and early investigational drugs for androgenetic alopecia“.

— Histogen’s proprietary “multipotent cell conditioned media” will be marketed by leading global cosmetics concern Allergan via the Regenica line of product. Although not related to Histogen’s main Hair Stimulating Complex (HSC) hair loss product, it is worth noting that Allergan has several hair loss products (Bimatoprost and Setipiprant) that it is also developing. Perhaps they could purchase the rights to the HSC product in the future too?

— Very interesting study from Iran. Conclusion: “Our data showed that injection of a combination of adult human cultured dermal papilla and epithelial cells could induce hair growth in nude mice”.

— Denmark’s Harklinikken is definitely not a miracle product for hair loss treatment, but it seems like it may have some benefits per the NY Times (h/t commentator Rene). And the company has major expansion plans for the US market. Their product is derived from cow’s milk and various plants.

And now on to medical items of interest:

— US scientists make genetically modified embryo. First ever case in the US. More here.

— Breakthrough device heals organs via touch. Extremely hard to believe, but the research comes from a reputable university. The device delivers new DNA or RNA into living skin cells in order to change their function:

— Scientists successfully make old human cells younger via lengthening telomeres.

— Some retinas are indestructible and do not need regeneration:

Aaaaaand here’s your photo of Trump looking straight at the eclipse pic.twitter.com/5vv6sVTDIl

— Stefan Marolachakis (@stefanmymind) August 21, 2017

— Harvesting the blood of the young.

— New high resolution 3D printing of live tissues.

— Blood test detects Alzheimer’s plaques in brain.

— Zion Harvey update. I covered this story several times before on this blog if you do a search.

— Stem cell brain implants could extend lifespan 10-15 percent.

— 3D printing revolutionizing plastic surgery.

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Aclaris Therapeutics’ latest e-mail from today morning contained a link to the following press release:

Aclaris Therapeutics Announces Issuance of Two U.S. Patents Covering JAK Inhibitors for Treating Hair Loss Disorders

Quite often, when Aclaris discusses hair loss disorders in its press releases, they only mention alopecia areata (an autoimmune disorder that is responsible for hair loss in 2 percent or so of hair loss sufferers). However, this time they specifically mention androgenetic alopeia (AGA) six different times in their press release so it was worth writing a post on this development. Around 98 percent all men who suffer from hair loss suffer from AGA.

If you are new to this subject matter, make sure to read all the past posts on this blog regarding Aclaris.

Aclaris’ Latest Patents

The two patents that were just granted to Aclaris are highly detailed and informative:

Patent Number 9,737,469 — covers the use of tofacitinib, baricitinib, ruxolitinib and decernotinib, specifically for treating androgenetic alopecia.

Patent Number 9,730,877 — covers the use of baricitinib for inducing hair growth and for treating hair loss disorders such as alopecia areata and androgenetic alopecia.

If you have time, I would encourage you to go through all the “US Patent Document” links in the upper part of the above two patent pages. Those reference documents go all the way from 1998 through 2016. If I had more time, I would search for “androgen” in all those documents and see what comes up.

Over the years, I have frequented numerous online English language hair loss forums on a regular basis. However, sometimes I forget to visit some of the less popular ones for months at a stretch, especially the message boards that largely only focus on hair transplants. Some forums have also disappeared or become inactive over the years, while other newer ones often escape attention.

Perhaps my biggest area of neglect in research on hair loss has been an unwillingness to regularly frequent non-English language hair loss forums due to laziness in going through the translation process via Google or Chrome. I am hoping that having all the important hair loss forum links in one place in this post will encourage me (and others) to visit the non-English language hair loss forums more frequently. Some of them are highly active and often have interesting local information that is missing in the English language hair loss forums out there.

I have tried to only include the most visited forums below. Note that I have not posted links to women’s hair loss forums, but most of the below are largely unisex or have subsections devoted to female hair loss.

Main English Language Hair Loss Forums

• Baldtruthtalk (BTT)
• Hairlosshelp (HLH)
• Hairlosstalk (HLT)
• Hairsite (HS)
• Hairtransplantnetwork (HTN)

Other English ones of Interest

• AlopeciaUK
• Alopeciaworld
• Hairlossfight
• Hairlossexperiences
• Hairlossreversible
• Immortalhair
• Reddit Tressless
• Regrowth

Arabic

• Hairarab

Chinese

• Faayoo
• Fayouwu
• Haotoufa

Dutch

• Haarweb

French

• International Hair Loss Forum

German

• Alopezie

Greek

• HairlossGR

Italian

• Bellicapelli
• Ieson

Portugese

• Calvicie

Spanish

• Recuperarelpelo

Turkish

• Sacimindoktoru

Hair loss news first:

Seems like all of a sudden, this became the month where important companies in the hair loss world updated their websites after a long time.

— Who else but “nasa_rs” notifying me that Aclaris Therapeutics finally updated their pipeline page. The most interesting part is that they now term their topical JAK inhibitor for androgenetic alopecia (AGA) as a “soft” JAK inhibitor (no surprise), and they term AGA as an “inflammatory” skin disorder. I have theorized for a while that perhaps people who have major itching and dandruff associated with their male pattern hair loss might be suffering from significant inflammation (and therefore, if topical covalently bound JAK inhibitors do work for AGA, perhaps they will help those with itchy scalps much more than those without). Aclaris has also started a CEO blog on its site, which hopefully gets updated more frequently.

— Perhaps of even more importance, Dr. Tsuji/Kyocera/RIKEN partner Organ Technologies also updated or renewed their website (h/t Fuji Maru Kagurazaka) recently. On their hair follicle regeneration page (after translation), they state:

“We are currently pursuing research and development with a view to clinical application of hair follicle regeneration as the world’s first organ regeneration in humans in 2018”

As an aside, whatever has happened to our invaluable Japanese correspondent/informant “nosyu”? Hope he comes back some day.

— Of least significance, but nevertheless worth mentioning, Follica finally added text to the bios of some of their new team members including Dr. Dhurat.

— I am always highly skeptical of newer smaller companies when we first hear about them. However, Rivertown Therapeutics has been a bit harder to ignore. According to a new interview with the company’s co-founder Dr. David Weinstein, their product is unlikely to come out before 2022. However, in spite of the somewhat disappointing news, I am impressed that Dr. Weinstein is keeping abreast of the latest developments in the hair loss world based on his mention of Dr. Lu Le’s work on Krox20 and his own work on the related transcription factor Oct6. What do the experts on here think about that portion of the interview?

— The same Ohio State University (OSU) doctor who amazed us recently with this unbelievable breakthrough from his lab is now making claims about hair regeneration from palm tocotrienol complex. I am highly skeptical, but still willing to keep a track of his work because of the OSU affiliation.

— Dr. Koray Erdogan.

— Interesting article on the travails of hair loss in UK paper Mosaic.

— Androgens and androgen receptor action in skin and hair follicles.

— Topical tofacitinib possibly promoting hair growth via VEGF growth factor induction. This is the kind of research that keeps me interested in both JAK inhibitors and platelet-rich plasma (PRP).

— Generation of iPS-derived model cells for analyses of hair shaft differentiation (h/t HLprevention).

And now on to medical items of interest:

— China: pig to human organ transplants two years away.

— Nanoparticle drug to turn bad white fat into good brown fat. I am thinking fatlosscure2023.com as my next project.

— Bionic lens, superhuman threefold vision.

— CRISPR changes flower color. Would be great to change untanned Donald Trump into a Sudanese African. That is my political input for the year.

— Something better than CRISPR?

— Coma communication.

— Vaccine to prevent tooth decay.

A little over a month ago, a new groundbreaking study came out of UCLA that found that increasing lactate production in mice via the use of two different topical drugs led to increased hair growth both times (through hair stem cell activation). As I detailed in my post on that discovery, the two drugs are known as RCGD423 and UK5099. Both drugs act via entirely different mechanisms, and UCLA has filed separate patents for the use of each for hair growth purposes.

The scientists that led this research were Dr. Heather Christofk and Dr. William Lowry. Both run their own labs at UCLA, and the latter is listed as “post-doc” with the famous hair researcher Dr. Elaine Fuchs. Several weeks ago, a reader who wants to be known as “HLprevention” got in touch with Dr. Christofk, and then sent me her e-mail address and told me to get in touch with her. He thought that she would be willing to participate in an interview. I did as suggested, and Dr. Christofk has agreed to answer reader questions.

Please only post relevant questions, thoughts and concerns in this post, and continue to post unrelated comments in the last post.

UCLA has now been added to the list of research centers around the world working on a hair loss cure.

The single best currently available medication to treat hair loss is enlarged prostate drug Dutasteride (which is basically Finasteride/ Propecia on steroids). I have covered Dutasteride or its brand name Avodart numerous times on this blog in the past. For many lucky people, this drug represents an already available cure for hair loss.

While Dutasteride is not yet approved for treating hair loss in the US or Europe, it is approved for that purpose in Japan and South Korea. Nevertheless, many US doctors are willing to prescribe it for hair growth purposes. To get an idea of how effective this medication can be, you can read the hundreds of mostly positive comments in this blog’s Dutasteride testimonials page.

Side Effect Fears from Ingesting Oral Dutasteride

I tried Dutasteride pills many years ago shortly after they first came out, but got paranoid about the potential side effects and stopped after several months of experimentation. However, based on the above mentioned numerous positive testimonials on this blog, I restarted the drug last year, albeit taking the recommended 0.5 mg per day dosage every second day rather than daily. As far as my hair loss goes, Dutasteride has been a miracle and instead of shedding 100 plus hairs after my daily shower, I shed 10-20 now. As far as regrowth goes, I have definitely seen some in my crown, but not elsewhere as far as I can tell.

However, despite this very successful outcome, I still have second thoughts about taking this drug because its long term side effects are certainly going to be worse than those from Finasteride for the unlucky who get them. Besides inhibiting a significantly higher portion of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in comparison to Finasteride, Dutasteride inhibits all three isoforms of 5α-reductase (i.e., types I, II, and III). Finasteride only inhibits types II and III. Hopefully my fears are overblown, and most studies from around the world seem to suggest so. Dutasteride is largely well tolerated per most research findings and very few people get major long-term side effects upon cessation of the drug. However, since the drug was only approved to treat enlarged prostates in 2001, there are very few studies out there that follow people who have taken the drug for 10 plus years.

Topical Dreams

For many years, I have been hoping that a topical gel or cream or liquid version of Dutasteride would come out so that I could take daily and higher doses with fewer chances of side effects, but so far no luck. In general, topical versions of drugs seem to result in fewer side effects than oral versions, although this is not set in stone. In some cases topical products still get into the bloodstream and show up in various tissues and organs in similar concentrations to their oral counterparts. Nevertheless, topical is always preferable to oral if both are equally effective in my opinion. Note: topical Finasteride is now available from various sources, and hopefully P-3074 will be released in the near future.

Local compounding pharmacies can often also make topical Finasteride or Dutasteride for you, but prices are very high. Moreover, I would be more comfortable with a well known corporation making the product so that I know that the topical compound and delivery method are reliable.

Mesotherapy with Dutasteride in the Treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia

Last week, I got a great surprise when I was browsing through PubMed for the keyword “Dutasteride”.

It seems like a new way of applying Dutasteride through mesotherapy scalp injections seems to give great results with no side effects. This potentially groundbreaking study comes from Spain. Moreover, the best part of the story is that:

“Laboratory tests showed no differences between serum hormone levels before and after treatment”.

This means that unlike oral Dutasteride, this treatment method does not alter your hormones beyond localized scalp DHT reduction. The scientists involved treated six patients (five male, one female) and all got good results. They posted one before and after photo:

The second best part of this story is that the treatment was only done once every three months. The authors mention that in the past, three other groups had tried similar mesotherapy treatments, but all involved far more frequent treatments. It would be very expensive and annoying to get injected every couple of weeks, but every three months as in the latest work is not so bad.

Dr. David Saceda-Corralo

I contacted one of the study’s lead authors Dr. David Saceda-Corralo to see if he had photos of any of the other five patients and to ask whether this treatment is available in the US. Unfortunately, while he has other photos, those patients have not given him permission to share them. He did say that he may share other relevant photos on his Instagram account.

According to Dr. Saceda-Corralo, this treatment is not easy to get in USA (he has worked in Miami). However, it is getting increasingly popular in Spain and the rest of Europe.

I have discussed Minoxidil many times on this blog in the past since it is one of only two drugs officially approved by the US FDA to treat hair loss. Most men use 5% topical Minoxidil foam and apply it to their scalps twice per day. For those who get adverse reactions, dosage is sometimes reduced to once per day.

Unbeknownst to many, Minoxidil was originally approved in 1979 as an oral medication (brand name “Loniten”) to treat hypertension (high blood pressure). It was only approved for treating hair loss in men in 1988 as a topical medication. A women’s version was approved in 1991. To this day, it is not entirely clear as to how Minoxidil works in promoting hair growth, with a number of theories out there, implying the likely involvement of multiple mechanisms.

Oral Minoxidil for Hair Loss

For many years, I have heard that the oral version of Minoxidil results in even more hair growth compared to the topical version, but I always assumed that the side effects would be much worse. Besides blood pressure fluctuations and potential water retention, I was most concerned about the side effect of excess body hair growth from oral Minoxidil turning me into a werewolf. Note: Make sure to read my post on topical Minoxidil and beard growth.

Acceptable in Thailand

Several years ago I read and bookmarked a very lengthy and thoughtful comment by respected Thai hair transplant surgeon Dr. Damkerng Pathomvanich about why he prescribes oral Minoxidil to a select few of his patients. According to him as well as other physicians that had given him feedback, 5 mg per day was an ideal dosage that did not even change patient blood pressure readings significantly. However, some western publications and websites recommend a lower dosage (see links in some of the comments to this post). Image below shows generic 5 mg Minoxidil tablets from Thailand.

Side effects are still possible at low doses. Dr. Pathomvanich does not prescribe oral Minoxidil to patients who have blood pressure, heart, liver or kidney problems. Note that according to the official brochure for Loniten, maximum recommended dosage is listed as high as 100 mg per day, which seems crazy. Most patients taking the drug for hypertension do not cross 40 mg per day.

Dr. Rodney Sinclair in Australia Agrees

I had forgotten about the above till today, when commentator “Billa” posted an interesting link to a new audio interview with Australian Dr. Rodney Sinclair. I have covered this well known hair expert a number of times on this blog in the past. In this latest interview, one of the things that Dr. Sinclair states is that oral Minoxidil is much more effective than topical Minoxidil when it comes to hair growth based on some clinical trials that his clinic is currently undertaking.

While the article describing the above interview states that side effects from oral Minoxidil were not significant according to Dr. Sinclair, I did not hear that in the audio interview. I am guessing that this must be true or else they would stop conducting the trials.

Note that oral Minoxidil is not currently FDA approved for treating hair loss, and I do not intend to take the drug.

Restoration Robotics is a privately held company that manufactures the world leading ARTAS robotic hair transplantation system that I have discussed on this blog several times in the past (search via the “Categories” menu). This robot has revolutionized follicular unit extraction from the back of patient scalps during an FUE hair transplantation procedure. In future, ARTAS may also become an expert at hair placement in the front and crown of patient scalps.

I just found out that Restoration Robotics will undertake an initial public offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ stock exchange tomorrow October 12th, 2017. The company’s stock ticker will be “HAIR”, which was surprisingly not already taken. They aim to price shares at between $7 and $9 and will issue 3.1 million of them. Restoration Robotics had $20 million in revenue last year, but was not yet profitable it seems.

I have done limited basic stock trading in my life, but will be keen to follow this IPO tomorrow even though I do not intend to buy. I do want to learn how an IPO works at the get go and, if awake, follow real-time trends. For any financial experts who care to comment:

• How easy is it for the common man to purchase stocks during an IPO? Any website recommendations?
• Will “HAIR” start trading as soon as the NASDAQ market opens at 9:30 am or will it be later in the day?
• Did Restoration Robotics have to make public significant financial details regarding its past few years of operations/performance before being allowed to proceed with the IPO?

— ARTAS Twitter Account.