Androgenetic alopecia: a possible treatment and a relationship with hair greying. Assessment of the herbal mixture Xiantene for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia and a relationship between early hair greying and the progression of androgenetic alopecia

Abstract

Hair plays an important role in human social and sexual communication. The androgen-stimulated, patterned loss of hair in cases of androgenetic alopecia (or common baldness) in genetically pre-disposed individuals, is associated with ageing and can cause marked phychological distress. However, it is poorly controlled. To investigate the effectiveness of daily topical application of a Chinese medicine-derived herbal mixture, Xiantene, on balding progression, two double-blind, placebo-controlled studies (3 and 12 months) were carried out on balding men using the trichogram approach. Xiantene significantly increased both the total number of hairs and those in anagen, improving the ratio of anagen:telogen hairs. This suggests that topical Xiantene increased the length of the anagen phase and may promote a cessation, or partial reversal, of the progression of androgenetic alopecia in men. Canities, loss of scalp hair colour, is another mark of ageing. To investigate whether early greying may protect follicles from androgenetic alopecia, the extent of alopecia, assessed using the Hamilton scale, was compared between men who first became grey before, or after, 30. Both alopecia and greying increased with age in 843 men (217 European, 626 Thai) whenever they first started greying. However, men who showed greying before 30 were significantly less bald, though more grey, in both groups. Hair follicle melanocytes synthesise the pigment melanin, producing reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress; losing melanocyte pigmentary activity, and therefore these toxic factors, appears to enable hair follicles to maintain their full size for longer, despite the androgen drive to miniaturisation.