Gray Hair Treatment

Rogaine was the first medical drug in history approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating genetically determined hair loss. By now it has been approved and is available as a cure for thinning hair in many other countries of the world. Its sole active ingredient is minoxidil, a vasodilator that was initially used in the form of the oral drug Loniten to treat high blood pressure. Minoxidil is a hair-growth stimulant but its exact mechanism of action is not very well known. Since Loniten has long come off patent, generic minoxidil is widely available in pharmacies at a very reasonable price and in most countries it does not require a doctor’s prescription.

Both Rogaine and generic minoxidil solutions come in concentrations of 2% for women and 5% for men but many experimental, generic hair loss remedies use concentrations of up to 20%. Minoxidil is often blamed for causing negative side effects. Since it has become the most commonly used drug for treating baldness, its side effects are very well documented and they happen to be often largely exaggerated. In less than 1% of patients they include an irregular or fast heart beat, decreased blood pressure, blurred vision, swelling face and ankles, numbness in the hands, etc. These symptoms are directly related to minoxidil being a vasodilator. In addition, minoxidil can cause undesired hair growth on the face and other parts of the body. This is due to its ability to stimulate hair growth. But some side effects that minoxidil is often blamed for are not caused by minoxidil itself. They include inflammation, itchiness and redness of the scalp, dandruff and allergic reactions. These side effects can be attributed to the chemical vehicles used in the solution, such as propylene glycol and isopropyl alcohol (propanol). Many hair loss sufferers have discontinued their minoxidil treatment because of scalp problems, although minoxidil seldom causes such reactions.

Furthermore, many generic, minoxidil based lotions contain supplementary ingredients that are supposed to improve their overall efficacy, such as azelaic acid, retinoic acid, herbal extracts, etc. These substances, especially the herbal extracts, are known to be allergenic to many people. It is recommended to try several different minoxidil based products, for instance, those that do not contain propylene glycol, in order to test their tolerability for your scalp. A more expensive product, e.g. the original formulation, Rogaine solution, is not necessarily a better choice than a less expensive generic mixture. However, Rogaine foam, though relatively expensive, is usually very well tolerated. Anti dandruff shampoos, e.g. Nizoral, can, in the majority of patients, be employed successfully to treat scalp inflammations, itchiness and dandruff caused by the use of minoxidil based topicals.

Given the currently available treatment options it seems that the greying process cannot be reversed. There is no scientific evidence that any existing medicine, herb, dietary supplement or natural product can prevent or reverse greying hair. Several cosmetics and pharmaceuticals companies are working on the discovery of the ultimate cure for grey hair but no satisfactory solution is commercially available yet.

Premature grey hair is often associated with excessive stress, bad diet, vitamin B deficiency, thyroid problems and smoking. The fact is, however, that the number one cause for premature greying hair is genetics. The pigment that determines the colour of our hair is produced by special cells at the root of our hair called melanocytes. It is the lifespan of these cells that determines the onset of the greying process. Once melanocytes die, the hair turns white.

There is no principal difference between a premature and a normal, age-related greying process. It is by virtue of nature that some people will experience their first grey hair in their teens and turn completely white in their early thirties, while others will keep their original hair colour for many decades. If more than 50% of a person’s hair is white by the age of 40, it is considered premature.

There are several commercial products out there that claim to be able to rejuvenate the dead pigment-producing cells and reverse grey hair. Such claims, however, are utterly unsubstantiated. The sad truth is that at this point in time no proven remedy exists that can reverse the greying process. Most of the anti-grey hair products either use Fo-Ti, referring to the centuries old legend of Mr He, who recovered his original hair colour, youthful appearance and vitality thanks to this traditional Chinese medicinal herb, also known as He Shou Wu or use vitamins B (mostly PABA and folic acid) as their main active ingredients, since some forms of premature greying are said to be caused by vitamin B deficiency. However, such products are ineffective for the majority of grey hair sufferers.
 
Therefore, the only option for treating grey hair that seems to deliver guaranteed results is camouflage. Women use various types of permanent, semi-permanent and demi-permanent hair dyes but men usually prefer a subtle and less noticeable change in their hair colour that does not cover all their grey. Such products are usually called progressive grey hair colorants. It is obvious that none of these products can make the dead cells produce pigmented hair and thus they must be used continuously to cover the grey of fresh hair. Although there are some natural hair dyes that claim to effectively cover your grey hair, the products that really work well all use certain chemicals. When deciding about hair dyes or progressive grey hair colorants, you should always consider the potential health risks, as most of them contain substances that can cause poisoning if used inappropriately or can lead to severe allergic reactions. You should always use a patch test before applying any such product and follow the application guidelines in order to minimise exposure to aggressive substances.

Men have been seeking an ultimate cure for hair loss for thousands of years but until very recently all available cures were either cosmetic cover-ups or unsophisticated and harmless vitamin/mineral pills and herbal lotions, with many of them just being scams. It was only with the arrival of finasteride and minoxidil and improvements made in hair transplantation techniques in recent years that the new era began, enabling hair loss sufferers to halt the further progression of the balding process and replace the missing hair on top of their head using the hair left at the back of their scalp. However, to this day no ultimate cure for hair loss exists. There are presently several new drugs and techniques under development but none of these promising therapies is expected to hit the market before 2011.

NEOSH101 is being developed by the US firm Neosil and it is currently undergoing phase IIb clinical testing. NEOSH101 has shown to be a more powerful and faster-acting, hair growth stimulant than minoxidil and it only needs applying once daily. Though significantly improving the current hair loss treatment chances, NEOSH101 is not going to become an ultimate cure for hair loss. The clinical trials seem to be advancing slower than most hair loss sufferers would like and, hence, do not hold your breath for it hitting the market anytime soon. NEOSH101 is mainly expected to replace minoxidil and other, presently used hair growth stimulants.

Another promising field of development is the telomerase research. Telomerase is an enzyme that puts natural caps on telomeres and thus protects them from shortening. Telomerase thereby maintains the genomic integrity. Shortened telomeres are associated with causing the premature aging processes. However, the uncontrolled activation of telomerase can cause tumour. Cancer research is the main focus of the telomerase study but scientists are also looking for other applications, such as anti-aging drugs and drugs against hair loss and grey hair. Although still under development, there are already some products available on the market that seek to emulate the mechanism of telomerase action but they have no scientific backing and should be avoided. Telomerase research could really change the world of medicine but its commercial application might be a good decade away.

Hair multiplication, often called hair cloning or follicular neogenesis, is the next hopeful treatment option being developed. This technique involves extracting the hair follicles from the back of the patient’s scalp, culturing and multiplying them in vitro and injecting the newly-grown, hair cells into the bald scalp. Among several teams of scientists on three continents exploring hair multiplication, the UK healthcare firm Intercytex appears to be the frontrunner. Intercytex reported results of the latest stage of the clinical phase II study of ICX-TRC (a suspension of a patient’s own dermal papilla cells) in March 2008 and they were largely positive. The next release is expected soon. This therapy might hit the market in 2011 at the earliest. The main benefit of hair multiplication would be solving the shortage of donor hair that is the main limiting factor in hair transplantation.

Generating hair follicles in hair-free skin wounds is an utterly new approach to regrowing lost hair. It was discovered accidentally as wounded skin in mice started producing new hair. This technology is currently being developed by the US medical device company, Follica, which licensed this technology from the University of Pennsylvania. Though this method may sound weird it only uses common medical instruments and drugs that have already been approved and thus it might not take too long for it to become available to the public.

This is the list of only a few promising treatments for baldness that are being currently developed but several others are in the pipeline. It appears that becoming bald will soon be by choice rather than destiny.