A prospective customer writes asking "How does psoriasis influence hair loss, and is someone thusly affected likely to benefit from HairGenesis® treatment?"  Here is my response: If I understand your question correctly, you are asking two things.  First, you are asking whether or not it is appropriate for someone affected by psoriasis to use HairGenesis.  Second, you are asking whether HairGenesis can provide such a person clinical benefit.

Because psoriasis can manifest in a variety of ways, and to varying degrees it is somewhat difficult for any professional to answer these ostensibly simple questions, especially from long distance and particularly without seeing the patient.  In the first place, scalp psoriasis can either be very mild, with slight, fine scaling, or it can be more severe with thick, crusted plaques covering the entire scalp.  In and of itself, this is an important distinction.

Because in more severe forms of scalp psoriasis, hair loss can be a fairly common occurrence.  The exact basis for this form of hair loss is not yet fully understood.  However, it is believed that inflammatory mechanisms causing damage to the follicle may play an important role.  Thus, if it turns out that your hair loss is being caused by fairly severe psoriasis then a treatment designed primarily for pattern hair loss, such as HairGenesis, is probably not a good idea.

However, it is also true that androgenetic alopecia (common pattern hair loss) often occurs in persons effected by psoriasis, particularly in those with a less severe form of the disease.  In such people, it may be appropriate to attempt treatment with a product like HairGenesis®.

Perhaps you now begin to see the subtlties that influence the relevant treatment decisions.

In my view, the first step should be to establish a definitive diagnosis, ruling out other scalp disorders in the process.  For one thing, other scalp pathologies, such as seborrheic dermatitis, may look (superficially) quite similar to psoriasis, but to a trained observer there are discernible differences. Scalp psoriasis scales appear powdery with a silvery sheen, while seborrheic dermatitis scales often appear yellowish and greasy. Despite these differences, to an untrained eye the two conditions can be easily confused.

And because seborrheic dermatitis has a totally different etiology, the treatment options for this problem are typically quite different from those used to treat psoriasis.


For all of these reasons, I would strongly suggest that you involve your primary care provider in establishing an exact diagnosis of your situation before you attempt treatment of any kind.  I apologize for the long and detailed answer to your simple question.  However, I hope I have helped you understand why the matter is not as simple as it may appear.   Please feel free to contact me if you still have questions in this regard.