Hair today, gone tomorrow... but science can help

By Andy Ho

SCIENCE MONITOR

IF YOU have a hairless pate, a local researcher claims he has just the thing for you.

National University of Singapore professor Lee Chee Wee has tied up with a Hong Kong firm to make and market his Biolyn Hair Serum.

Many are wondering how this lotion, which retails online at US$140 ($245) for a five-month pack, actually works. Bloggers at http://www.hairsite8.com/ complain that the Biolyn website does not reveal its active ingredients.

Prof Lee told The Straits Times it is a plant-based product which prevents receptors in the hair follicles from coming into contact with hormones that cause hair loss.

The hair follicle is a small, cup-shaped structure in the skin from which hair grows. Each cup is lined with cells and connective tissue.

A bulbous collection of actively growing cells at the follicle's base constantly produces a strand of hair. The average person has about 100,000 strands of hair on the scalp and loses between 20 and 100 strands a day.

If Biolyn works the way Prof Lee says it does, then its mode of action sounds well within the realm of orthodox science.

It is already well known that an enzyme converts the male hormone, testosterone, into dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which damages hair follicles and causes hair to stop growing in men genetically predisposed to it.

Because the enzyme accumulates at the base of the hair follicles across the centre of one's head, this is where most males lose hair.

In the mid-1990s, doctors observed that men with non-cancerous, enlarged prostates who were being treated with the drug finasteride sometimes had hair reappearing on their bald patches. So plans to try it out on baldies were hatched. Tested on 2,000 bald Britons, 80 per cent stopped losing their hair. About 60 per cent even started growing back some hair.

By 1997, finasteride had been approved by British and American authorities as oral medication for baldness.

Sold by Merck under the name Propecia, it is taken once a day, indefinitely, and requires about six months before you start seeing any results. But it does work, and it works well.

However, there is a 2 to 5 per cent chance you may develop some problems that may crush your manhood. These include tenderness and enlargement of the breast tissues, pain in the testes, reversible impotence and loss of sex drive.

It may also cause abnormalities in sperm, so if someone on Propecia wants to father a child, he should stop taking the medication a few months beforehand.

Where Biolyn is concerned, you might not have such worries. One may deduce that this is because while Propecia lowers DHT levels by blocking the enzyme that produces it, Biolyn leaves the enzyme alone, so DHT is still produced.

Biolyn, it seems, will armour-plate those sensitive hair follicles against DHT.

Biolyn also seems to work differently from minoxidil, the only other drug for treating baldness apart from finasteride, and older by about a decade.

Sold by original patent holders Upjohn as a lotion for baldness under the Regaine brand, minoxidil is also found in various 'herbal' concoctions, which tend to be more expensive.

Minoxidil was first discovered as an effective hair restorer back in the 1980s, when it was noticed that patients on minoxidil tablets - then used to treat hypertension - grew body hair.

So minoxidil was tried out in lotion form on bald men.

In Upjohn-sponsored trials, Regaine was shown to slow down hair loss in 90 per cent of cases.

Regrowth, however, occurred much less often, and mainly in younger men.

The drug is thought to enlarge hair follicles and stir up resting follicles to get them to start growing. Perhaps it also eggs on follicles that are growing, so they continue doing so for longer periods.

This lotion must be applied indefinitely too.

Its main side effect is scalp itching in some cases. Because minoxidil was originally approved to treat high blood pressure, Regaine should be used with some caution in people with a history of heart problems, dizziness, chest pains or a rapid heart beat.

But whether you use Propecia, Regaine or Biolyn, here's the bad news: As you grow older, your follicles become even more sensitive to that culprit, DHT.

If you ever stop using any of these cures, you will likely start losing whatever you may have regrown. The older you are, the faster you will lose those precious strands.

Nature will always have the last say.