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In the News – Is Suave Keratin Infusion Kit Causing Hair Loss?

Snippet from the article:

Dozens of women across the country are suing the parent company of Suave over allegations that a product they bought at their grocery store left them with bald spots. FOX 7 investigates what caused the problems in the first place.

Could sleek, shiny hair be just a shampoo away? “So smooth so sleek…” Commercials for the Suave Infusion 30 day keratin infusion kit promises that quick transformation.

“What I got was the exact opposite of that,” said Tanya Millet, who claims the product damaged her scalp. But, Millet says her results were disastrous. “I just sat in the bathroom and cried and thought what am I going to do now?” Millet said. Millet says she bought the treatment at a local retailer, hoping it would prevent frizz on an island vacation. Instead she ended up making an emergency call to her stylist.

“And she said to me ‘I don’t know how to tell you this but your hair is chemically melted’” Millet said.

Read the rest — Dozens of women sue Unilever, claim hair product left bald spots

I just noticed this was from late August, but it is still relevant. Any readers of this site have problems with this shampoo?

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In the News – Is Latisse a Cure for Baldness?

Snippet from the article:

Allergan believes it may have a cure for baldness in the form of Latisse/Lumigan, its glaucoma drug-cum-eyelash enhancer. EVP R&D Scott Whitcup told investors on Allergan’s Q2 2009 conference call:

“We’re in the midst of looking at a number of [selections] by Bimatoprost [the chemical name for Latisse and Lumigan] for hair growth on the scalp.

Unlike Lumigan for glaucoma, we don’t have the eight years plus of clinical trials data so we’re sort of starting from scratch.

It’s a little too early to give you the final timeline but we are working as quickly as we can to get a formulation, get the pre-clinical work done and into the clinic and we’ll update you as soon as we have more from timeline.”

Read the full article at Aesthetic Medicine News – Is Allergan’s Latisse Also a Cure for Baldness?

The enthusiasm is high for this approach to hair loss, but we really don’t know if it will work on the bald skin. We are all waiting to see what the research tells us, but the conclusions may be years away.

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In the News – Interview with RepliCel’s Chief Medical Officer

Snippet from the article/interview:

For over a decade, leading hair biology scientists. Dr. Rolf Hoffmann and Dr. Kevin McElwee, have been studying the potential of dermal sheath cup cells to spark hair regeneration and the rejuvenation of miniaturized hair follicles. Hoffmann, RepliCel’s Chief Medical Officer, discusses his research, the process of developing this treatment, and the critical steps the company is taking along the way to ensure that it is successful.

Read the rest — Equities.com Interviews Dr. Rolf Hoffmann, Chief Medical Officer, RepliCel Life Sciences Inc.

Interesting reading! What little I know of RepliCel has been written before here, but this interview explains about their study of the dermal sheath cup cells and how this differs from others doing similar research.

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In the News – Interview with Hair Club Founder, Sy Sperling

Snippet from the article:

Sy Sperling is more than just the founder and former president of Hair Club, the hair-loss treatment company celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. “I’m also a client,” he says, just as he did decades ago on camera for TV commercials that made the business a household name. Today, Mr. Sperling holds another title— retiree, as he sold the brand he built from the ground up in 2000 to a private-equity firm for $45 million, which sold it in 2005 to publicly traded Regis Corp. for $210 million. But the 70-year-old will be making an appearance this fall—sporting a chestnut brown coif—at Hair Club’s New York City birthplace for an event commemorating the company’s anniversary.

Read the rest — Hair Club: A Lifeline For the Balding Man

I remember a time where you couldn’t go one day without seeing Sy Sperling on television. The link above contains an interview with Sy where he reveals how he got into the business of selling hair systems, why he’s no longer with the company he founded, and how a professional baseball player helped get the whole business off the ground.

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In the News – International World Beard and Moustache Championship in Germany

I love these photos! The international World Beard and Moustache Championship took place in Germany about two weeks ago and more than 160 facial hair combatants showed off their unique accomplishments. I believe this is just the German club’s awards, as the overall world champ is crowned every 2 years (unless I’m understanding it wrong). Here’s the official site of the World Championship here.

Nonetheless, check out the photos of this recent event at Yahoo!


2009-10-01 16:24:40In the News – International World Beard and Moustache Championship in Germany

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In the News – Insomnia Raises Heart Attack Risk?

Snippet from the non-hair loss article:

People who struggle with insomnia appear to be more prone to heart attacks than those who typically get a good night’s sleep, a large Norwegian study has found.

In the study, published Monday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, researchers conducted a comprehensive health survey of more than 52,000 adults, which included questions about sleep quality. Over the next 11 years, roughly 5% of the participants had a heart attack for the first time.

Compared to solid sleepers, those who had trouble falling or staying asleep nearly every night were 45% and 30% more likely to have a heart attack, respectively, even after the researchers took into account age, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and other factors that can contribute to heart disease. People who reported feeling tired or unrefreshed after waking up at least two mornings per week were also at greater risk.

Read the rest — Insomnia May Boost Heart Attack Risk

You can find the abstract of the study here. While the study concludes that the risk is moderate, it this is an important health issue that many of us just do not take into account.

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In the News – How to Wash Your Hair in Space!

Snippet from the article:

Dr. Karen Nyberg is a flight engineer on the International Space Station—and she happens to have long hair. So how does she wash her hair in space? It turns out to be an easy process, though a visually striking one. Due to the lack of gravity, her hair sticks straight up, so she ends up washing up rather than our Earthbound, gravity-centric “water flows down” thinking.

See the video at Mental Floss — Washing Your Hair in Space

I have often wondered about the other essential body functions in space, but did not feel it was a necessary project for my busy mind prior to seeing the video. Click on the above link to check out the video!


2013-07-19 11:29:32In the News – How to Wash Your Hair in Space!

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In the News – How Hollywod A-Listers Fight Hair Loss

Snippet from the article:

In a town obsessed with staying (or at least looking) young to remain on top, more than a few men agonize over going bald. Superficial though it might be, many derive confidence and a perception of power from a full head of hair.

Which is why anyone who’s anyone in the follically challenged Tinseltown set has come to rely on a few good doctors. Armed with the latest technology, these gurus — having moved far beyond yesterday’s telltale hair plugs — know how to help a man sprout hair or at least give the appearance of doing so, using several techniques from shots to transplants to tattoos.

Read the rest — Leg Hair Transplants and Scalp Tattoos: How Hollywood’s A-List Fights Baldness

Dr. Pak is quoted about SMP in the article — “There are a lot of actors who have had bad hair-transplant scars or are covering a bald spot, and this frees them from using makeup,” says Jae Pak of the New Hair Institute on L.A.’s Miracle Mile.

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In the News – High Dose Finasteride for Treating Female Hair Loss?

Snippet from the article:

Off-label use of oral finasteride at 5 mg/day proved safe and effective for the treatment of female pattern hair loss in 43 premenopausal women in an 18-month study.

Treatment effectiveness was assessed in two ways: patient satisfaction scores and two blinded investigators’ evaluation of photographs. As a precondition for study participation, patients needed to have normal serum androgen levels, no clinical signs of hyperandrogenism, and no wish to become pregnant ever again. They also had to go on drospirenone/ethinyl estradiol for oral contraception.

At the 6-month mark, 25 patients (58%) characterized their improvement as “huge” and 14 (33%) as moderate; 4 reported no improvement. These results were stable across time, with the women reporting the same results at 12 and 18 months of follow-up.

Read the rest — High-Dose Finasteride Halts Hair Loss in Women

The study appears to be unpublished and includes only a few dozen patients, but I found it of interest to our readers and worth posting. As the article points out, “an 18-month study is not sufficient to draw solid conclusions about the possible long-term risks of extended therapy“.

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In the News – Health Canada Says Finasteride and Dutasteride Increase Prostate Cancer Risk

Snippet from the article:

Health Canada is informing health professionals and the public that certain prescription drugs may be associated with an increased risk of developing a serious form of prostate cancer known as high-grade prostate cancer.

High-grade prostate cancer is an aggressive type of prostate cancer that grows and spreads more quickly than low-grade prostate cancer. This type of cancer is rare, and the increased risk seen with prescription drugs finasteride and dutasteride is still considered very small.

New warnings on this risk have been added to the Canadian drug labels for finasteride and dutasteride products.

Read the rest — Prostate cancer risk could increase with use of hair loss drug: Health Canada

There it goes again. Like the pendulum of a clock, the claims on cancer swing in bother directions (positive and negative). The focus here was on 5mg dose of finasteride (for treating enlarged prostate), not 1mg that is used to treat hair loss. And the focus of the study was on the rarer high grade malignancies classified by microscopic assessment of a pathologist. These conclusions may not apply to the lower dose, nor may they not apply to the young men under 50 years old.

We’ve written about the possible finasteride/cancer connection before, most recently here:

  1. Propecia, the FDA, and High Grade Prostate Cancer
  2. In the News – Finasteride and Dutasteride Raise Prostate Cancer Risk
  3. More Opinions About Finasteride and Prostate Cancer Risk