The Alopecia Help Collection

Most of us think of prolactin as the hormone responsible for milk production after childbirth. It hardly seems relevant to hair. So I was surprised to discover that human hair follicles don’t just respond to prolactin. They appear to make it themselves. That immediately raises a question. Why would a hair follicle produce a hormone best known for helping mothers breastfeed? The answer isn’t obvious. In fact, despite more than twenty years of research, scientists still don’t k

Does melatonin do more than help us sleep? Hair follicles produce their own melatonin, yet scientists are only beginning to understand why. A fascinating new laboratory study suggests melatonin may influence the stem cells responsible for growing new hair, adding another piece to the complex puzzle of androgenetic alopecia.

Hair loss is often explained using words such as miniaturisation, dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and follicular units. These are scientifically accurate terms, but they can be difficult to picture. What if, instead, you imagined your scalp as a town? This essay explores androgenetic alopecia through a simple analogy inspired by published trichoscopy research, helping to explain why the town often becomes quieter before it becomes smaller.

Why does hair loss usually affect the top of the scalp while the hair at the back and sides often remains thick for decades? Modern research suggests that hair follicles from different parts of the scalp are biologically different and may even carry a “memory” of where they came from. Dr Gwen Adey explores one of the most fascinating mysteries in hair biology: how hair follicles seem to know where they are.