For those who consume a normal diet, the factors influencing hair cycling, hair growth and specifically, hair loss are well outside the scope of nutrient-driven biology. Even homeless people experience hair loss in approximately the same ratio as the rest of the population. Pointedly, residents of homeless shelters exhibit ailments, poor hygiene, drug addiction and other maladies. And so, we find that the prevalence of pattern hair loss in such people closely coincides with the non-homeless population.
Therefore, rather than nutrition, hair density is largely driven by three factors. First genetics --- because as the saying goes, genes are destiny. Second, age. This is why nine year old children do not typically suffer from common pattern hair loss. One has got to reach a certain point in life before hair loss will occur. And third, circulating hormones. Here, steroid hormones and specifically androgen steroid hormones act as the trigger to begin the onset of hair loss. Interestingly, the aforementioned factors are operative in women and not just men.
While diet bears little positive or negative effect on hair health, circulating hormones can either make or break the vitality of your hair. Today, more than at any time in human history, we understand the metabolic chain of events that cause healthy vigorous hair to whither and die as genetics, age and circulating hormones take their toll.
While much work remains before a true cure for pattern hair loss becomes a reality, treatment options have never been better. Now there are safe and effective choices, including those offered through our company. As time passes, the cutting edge of science will allow us to turn on good hair genes and turn off the bad so that the software controlling hair caliber is reprogrammed to make thicker strands. Alternatively, or perhaps additionally, a means to turn one hair into many shall yield an almost infinite supply of viable hairs suitable for implantation into the thinning scalp.
In our lab, we focus on the far more modest goal of testing naturally-derived compositions and their ability to blunt and reverse the hormonal and biochemical mechanisms behind pattern hair loss.
To sum up, there are excellent reasons to consume a healthy diet. However, protecting your hair against thinning and loss is not something that comes from good nutrition. One may wish it was that easy. It's not. The good news is that as time passes the opportunity for each of us to enjoy thick vibrant hair for one's entire life span, no matter our genetic destiny, becomes increasingly probable.
