Many ways people hear of to increase the rate of hair growth - or to reduce hair loss - work by improving blood flow to your scalp, and therefore to your hair follicles.
That certainly helps. Your hair and its follicles need plenty of blood to grow at optimal speed, and not to die.
However, certain biochemical signals also influence hair growth pathways.
Keep in Mind the Basics
Your hair begins deep within your skin. Inside your epidermis, every hair starts at a bulb or root base. This contains progenitor stem cells.
Stem cells create the daughter cells that become hair, They add hair to the root base, and what is already there is pushed higher up the shaft. When it's above the surface of your skin, there's another strand.
Every hair and shaft has a sebaceous gland that makes sebum. Sebum is a waxy substance that seeps into the area around each hair, just below the surface.
This waxy sebum seals the area around your hair, making them waterproof. Sebum is also antimicrobial, so it protects you from infections.
Your Hair Grows in Three Phases:
1. Anagen phase: This is the growth phase, and can last from 2-8 years. The longer, the better for everyone who wants to keep their hair.
2. Catagen phase: The hair recedes from the inside out, and dies.
3. Telogen phase: The follicle basically rests, remaining quiet. The hair itself dies, but not its place in your scalp.
Remaining stem cells can start over, but they decline with age.
Scientific Studies Show Caffeine Can Be as Effective as Minoxidil
Caffeine helps to slow hair loss by inhibiting phosphodiesterase (PDE).
PDE inhibits insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1).
IGF-1, as its name implies, increases growth. It encourages your body, including your hair, to grow.
Therefore, by inhibiting PDE, caffeine encourages IGF-1, which in turn stimulates the growth of more hair.
However, we're talking caffeine creams, serums and ointments here, NOT drinking coffee, colas or other caffeinated beverages. When you do that, the caffeine you consume gets used up by the receptors that are all over your body. Only a small fraction makes it to your scalp, so the net effect on your hair is zero to minimal at best.
However, based on studies, caffeine applied to your scalp works around as well as the drug Minoxidil - and without the unpleasant side effects. For example, caffeine in hair ointments doesn't affect your blood pressure.
The suggested method is to apply a caffeine ointment to your scalp three times per week. After you apply it, give it time to soak into the skin of your scalp.
Anything That Increases IGF-1 Can Stimulate Hair Growth
IGF-1 is closely connected to human growth hormone (HGH).
One of the best natural ways to have more HGH is simply to go to bed close to the same time every night. That's because your pituitary gland releases HGH in the first few hours of sleep.
This is governed by the internal clock your body runs on. You set that clock by going to bed every night at the same time, give or take around 20 to 30 minutes.
If you stay up later, you'll miss the pulse of HGH.
You don't have to be totally obsessive about it every night, but having a regular rhythm of sleeping close to the same period on a normal basis helps regulate your internal body clock, which is healthy in many ways.
Insulin resistance reduces your HGH as well as puts you at high risk of obesity, type II diabetes, and other serious conditions. Focus your diet away from processed sugar and grains and toward whole plant foods.
Also, exercise increases HGH because your body needs more growth hormone to repair the tissues damaged by working out.
The peptide sermorelin is an HGH precursor or secretagogue.
NOTE: Before you buy something:
Like so many things, you need the optimal, "Goldilocks" amount of HGH. Not too little, not too much.
Too much is dangerous. If you're no longer a child, you don't want to grow taller than you already are. Well, maybe you do, but it's still not a good idea because HGH can encourage tumors to grow.
The good news is, your pituitary gland won't secrete too much. So the safest route is to go to bed at the same time every night while getting regular, moderate exercise and lowering your insulin resistance.
DHT is Another Hair Loss Villain
That's dihydrotestosterone. Both men and women produce testosterone, which converts to DHT. The older we are, the more testosterone converts to DHT.
DHT helps cause baldness by shortening the anagen growth phase of hair, reducing the number of stem cells in the hair roots and shrinking hair follicles.
What increases DHT? 5-alpha reductase.
The drug Finasteride works by decreasing your 5-alpha reductase. It can increase your hair count by 20%, in 90% of people.
Plus, it increases your hair's thickness by 20% to 30%.
Unfortunately, a few users develop unpleasant side effects.
Side Effects of Finasteride
* Reduced general drive
* Reduced sex drive
* Inability to maintain an erection
* Testicular pain
* Ejaculation problems, including reduced semen volume
* Depression
* Chills & cold sweats
* Confusion
* Rapid weight gain
* Dizziness or faint-headedness
None of those are fun, and preventing them may be more important to you than not going bald.
But there are natural ways to decrease 5-alpha reductase.
Three Groups of Natural 5-Alpha Reductase Inhibitors
1. Foods high in zinc - such as kale and spinach
2. Foods high in lycopene - such as tomatoes & carrots
3. Foods high in lysine - such as ground flax seeds and green tea
Individual Foods
* Tumeric
* Pumpkin seeds or oil
* Edamame - young soy beans
* Onions
Combine Blood Flow Enhancer Techniques With Biochemicals
These methods work best when combined with each other.
Get more blood flowing to your hair, and get more of it growing through encouraging healthy amounts of IGF-1 and 5-alpha reductase.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZrlsVx85ek&t=5186s
https://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a698016.html
https://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a698016.html
https://manmatters.com/blog/dht-blockers-and-food/
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/growth-hormone