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18. Miniaturization of hair follicles and diminution of blood supply :: Posted Thursday, May 24, 2001 by admin ::
The combination of various hormones, diseases, or injuries, and immune effects progressively "miniaturizes" the involved hair follicle. The smaller follicle produces a smaller, thinner hair and has a progressively shorter growth cycle. The hair becomes shorter and finer with each hair cycle until it finally becomes "peach-fuzz". Thus, pattern loss is actually more a problem of replacement than of loss.
A major cause of this miniaturization appears to due to the development of striking changes in capillaries surrounding the hair follicles. Comprehensive surveys of the male scalp from birth to senescence find that very significant changes in the structure of the blood vessels of the scalp. The number of the blood capillary loops supplying the hair follicle is greatly diminished. The inadequate subepidermal circulation that can develop as males age does not provide a rich nutrition for the follicle. Strong hair growth requires a large flow of nutrients such as such as vitamins, minerals and amino acids so that the follicle can actively synthesize new hair.
Blood flow impairments to the follicle, and their reversal, may explain why the administration of copper peptides (such as Folligen and Tricomin) to the scalp increase hair growth and increase the size of hair shafts. It has long been known that certain copper-peptide complexes strongly stimulate angiogenesis or new blood vessel formation. In laboratory hair-growth models using mice, the copper-peptides in Folligen or tricomin increase hair follicle volume by 5 to 8-fold. It is likely that these copper-peptides also increase the volume of human hair follicles, although an increase is likely to be smaller than the change in mice. The increase in hair follicle size and the rate of hair growth caused by the administration of copper-peptides may be due to their causing blood flow changes that provide adequate nutrients to the follicle for strong hair growth.
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