What do you think of the reality of the minoxidil permanent hair loss theory?
After spending some time reading the FAQ, one concern remains consistent; people complaining about their (scalp) hair falling out while applying minoxidil topically to their chin / face area. Typically the person asking the question has recently experienced hair loss while applying Minoxidil and they are asking if the hair loss is permanent. Most of the responses are along the lines of "read the FAQ" or "trust the process bro" and most commonly "It's just the shedding phase, it'll grow back". But here's what I don't understand and I would love it if someone could help explain this to me. Hypothetically, a person presents with androgenic alopecia, they topically apply Minoxidil to the vertex (crown/scalp), after a few months the person experiences increased hair growth at the same area they applied the Minoxidil. However, after the person discontinues the Minoxidil use, the hair gained through Minoxidil usage will be gradually lost over time. The reason why (to my knowledge) is because the Minoxidil gained scalp hairs are reliant on the vasodilator effects of Minoxidil, when Minoxidil usage is ceased, the scalp hairs die off too. There's also a pretty common concesus that Minoxidil generated beard hair is permanent when it's terminal. This makes sense to me and I understand that beard hair is not effected by DHT production / restriction in the same way that scalp hair, a healthy person with no history of androgenic alopecia starts topically applying Minoxidil to their chin / face area. During treatment the person starts experiencing hair loss (or shedding) on their head, this is because the absorbed Minoxidil is circulating through the body and having a side effect of increased hair shedding. But, this shedding is temporary and after some time the Minoxidil will create stronger, thicker hair to develop on the scalp in place of the previously shed hair. And this is what I have the most trouble understanding. If Minoxidil applied to the face causes increased scalp shedding, doesn't this imply that the new hairs that are formed on the scalp are Minoxidil reliant hairs? Meaning that the shedding experienced while taking Minoxidil could become permanent hair loss because the hairs that are being "shed" and "pushed out" are being replaced with vasodilator reliant (Minoxidil) hairs? If we know that Minoxidil scalp hairs will fall out after Minoxidil cessation, isn't it reasonable to assume that Minoxidil - even when applied to the face - has a chance of shedding your normal scalp hair and replacing it with Minoxidil reliant hair which requires continuous Minoxidil usage? Important to note that I was also unable to find any strong scientific literature which studies HEALTHY people using Minoxidil topically to the facial region and monitoring the effects long term hair loss not that unreasonable to assume that Minoxidil usage for beard growth has the potential to cause permanent hair loss in healthy people who don't already have androgenic alopecia. Unless I've missed something... In addition, studies have been conducted on the effects of Spermidine and Minoxidil on hair growth. Hair grows in cycle with 3 distinct and concurrent phases, namely anagen, catagen and telogen phases. The anagen phase is also known as growth phase when hair follicles actively divide to form hair. Meanwhile, catagen phase begins when anagen phase ends, it is transitional period when hair follicles undergo apoptosis, disintegrating and cutting of the hair strand from nourishing blood supply. Last, entering into telogen phase, or resting phase when the hair and follicles remain dormant. The cycle starts over when telogen phase finished.
The differentiation and proliferation of hair matrix cells is regulated by a numbers of molecular factors, namely, fibroblasts growth factors (FGF-7), Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors (VEGF), Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), hepatocytes growth factors (HGF). Molecular factors such as FGF-7, VEGF, IGF-1, HGF are involved in the hair follicle growth. The expression of these factors in culture human dermal papilla cells was evaluated. The expression of HGF was up-regulated and showed significant difference. Hepatocytes growth factor (HGF) is a multifunctional polypeptide which was found to stimulate hair follicles growth during anagen phase.
Meanwhile, the expression of FGF-7 was up-regulated in samples containing Spermidine 10, 100 µg/mL (Minoxidil 0.2 µg/mL), the up-regulation of VEGF and IGF-1 was expressed at concentration of Spermidine 100µg/m. Above finding clearly suggested that Spermidine promote hair follicles growth with up-regulation of hair growth promoting factors – HGF, FGF-7, VEGF and IGF-1 respectively.