Some Canadian research from the end of the last century on the effects of electrostatics on hair loss makes for interesting reading.
An Inspired Moment
For reasons we have been unable to establish, but hats off to them just the same, a team led by Stuart WS Maddin at the Dermatology department of the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine at Vancouver, Canada, investigated the properties of a pulsed electrostatic field through a comparative study, looking for a positive biologic effect on hair regrowth. The results were remarkable.
The Study
We should start by pointing out that the results, in purely scientific terms, are undermined considerably by the small size of the study group. There were only 30 treatment subjects. Just the same…
The subjects who received the actual treatment, as opposed to the control group, were administered, according to a regularised treatment schedule, a pulsed electrical field over a period of 36 weeks.
When they pored over the results they saw a clear improvement in the group that received the therapy. When they looked at the mean hair count increase above the baseline they noted that the treated group achieved 66.1% compared to the 25.6% seen in the control group. It was notable, they said (which strikes us as an overwhelming understatement), that 96.7%, which translates as real numbers as all but one, of the treated subjects showed either regrowth or no further hair loss. A statistic way ahead of anything achieved by either of the two FDA approved hair loss products on the market.
Their Conclusions
At the time Maddin and his team had little by way of explanation for their results, they thought it was probably due to an “electrophysiological effect on the quiescent hair follicle.” Which strikes us as a medical way of saying they hadn’t really got a clue.
Glacial Progress
Slow progress on a cure for hair loss is something we are all too familiar with, and this is no exception. The study was originally published in the International Journal of Dermatology in 1990. It has since been cited in many publications since and the technique, in alternate forms, is used in other areas of medicine to aid healing. There are products in the pipeline that are looking to take advantage of this technology for hair loss, the Tesla Brush for one, but we wait to see results ahead of any launch. More on that soon we expect.
HIS Hair Clinic
We really like the originality of thought that inspired the experiment in the first place… the classic science question of “what if?” What if we put hair follicles in an electrostatic field to see what happens? The results were, you would have thought, encouraging enough to have seen some results in terms of products. You can read the results for yourself by clicking here.
If you would like tot discuss your hair loss situation with one of our team of friendly experts simply complete the contact form at the side of this page, or click here to find your nearest clinic.
