Look at Your Hair the Way You Look at Your Face: Concept of Total Facial Skin and Hair Care

The Problem with Capitalism in the Trichological Sciences

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels exposed a pattern of societal conduct they chose to name capitalistic bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie created a common language of communication through collaboration, gathered in circles such as free academies, scientific academies, literary circles, and the media, that provided forums for the emerging bourgeoisie to conceive of new social orders. One aspect of bourgeoisie culture is conspicuous consumption, central to which, is a culture of prestige through material consumption. Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership and the operation for profit. Characteristic features of capitalism include competitive market, commercialism, property rights recognition, capital accumulation, material consumption, culture of prestige, sycophancy, and coterie. Critiques of capitalism allege that it is exploitative, alienating, unstable, unsustainable, and inefficient. In turn, critical theory inspired philosophers such as Michel Foucault to conceptualize how we form identities through social interaction. When the patient's body entered the field of medicine, it also entered the field of power where the patient can be manipulated by professional authority. Without forcibly being a proponent of political theory, as an academic, one is inevitably confronted with Marxism in terms of philosophy. As a discipline at the interface of medicine, lifestyle, and cosmetics, trichology is particularly susceptible to the primary aims of profit, consumption, and prestige that characterize the capitalistic bourgeoisie. The trichological sciences, particularly trichoscopy, have discovered a profitable market for itself. The practice of trichology is not immune to malpractice. It has created an industry that dwells on the autistic thinking of patients and doctors, and because it is prosperous, makes propaganda among lay people and doctors that necessarily leads to abuses.

An extract of Leontopodium alpinum inhibits catagen development ex vivo and increases hair density in vivo

Objectives

Hair loss and reduction in hair volume are hallmarks of hair disorders, such as telogen effluvium, or male or female pattern hair loss, and hair ageing, which can cause severe distress in both men and women. Common anti‐hair loss drugs carry some side effects; therefore, novel, safer approaches targeting milder phenotypes are highly advocated. In this context, we investigated an extract of the alpine plant Edelweiss, Leontopodium alpinum var. Helvetia, for its ability to modulate hair follicle (HF) growth ex vivo and inhibit hair loss while increasing hair regeneration in vivo.

Methods

Human amputated HFs were microdissected from three donors, two women and one man, and cultured ex vivo for 6 days. After treatment with 0.001% Edelweiss extract (EWDE), we investigated hair shaft production and anagen/catagen conversion, and measured known parameters associated with hair growth, that is hair matrix keratinocyte proliferation and apoptosis, dermal papilla inductivity, and growth factors, by quantitative (immuno)histomorphometry. To assess the anti‐hair loss potential of the alpine plant compound, we performed a randomized, placebo‐controlled human study enrolling Caucasian women and men, aged 18 to 65 years, with normal hair loss. After 5 months’ daily use of an extract containing leave‐on serum, we analysed hair density and anagen‐to‐catagen/telogen ratio by the Trichogram analysis.

Results

Our results revealed a significant prolongation in the anagen phase in HFs treated with 0.001% Edelweiss, as indicated by an increase in HFs remaining in anagen and a significant decrease in hair cycle score. In line with this effect, EWDE significantly stimulated hair matrix (HM) keratinocyte proliferation, and dermal papilla inductivity, as shown by a significant up‐regulation of versican expression and alkaline phosphatase activity, and a tendential increase in FGF7 immunoreactivity in the dermal papilla of all HFs or only anagen VI HFs. Corroborating the ex vivo results, we observed a significant increase in growing hair shaft numbers (hair density) after treatment with Edelweiss extract formulation, and a tendential up‐regulation in the anagen‐to‐catagen/telogen ratio.

Conclusions

We show here, through several lines of evidence, that the selected extract of the alpine plant Leontopodium alpinum var Helvetia (Edelweiss) inhibits premature catagen induction, possibly by stimulating dermal papilla inductivity. It is therefore worth exploiting this extract clinically as an anti‐hair loss agent, both for preventing ageing‐associated hair shedding and as an adjuvant therapy for hair loss disorders.

Oxidative stress and its impact on skin, scalp and hair

Oxidative stress is an unbalanced condition in which the tissues of the body are not sufficiently able to counteract either exogenous or endogenous sources of reactive oxygen species. Oxidative stress is strongly associated with ageing, both local and systemic, as well as a wide range of local health conditions. This review focuses on the oxidative stress data known for skin, scalp and hair. This oxidative stress may be the 'currency' by which an unhealthy scalp leads to deleterious consequences to the hair. The ramifications of this scalp oxidative stress to normal hair elongation, retention and replacement are discussed.