An article carried in the Times of Oman newspaper, claims that three local girls have come up with a cream that can regrow hair. We look closer.
Hair Loss Cure Claims
It is the sort of news article that is always going to catch our eye. Invariably, closer inspection reveals a slightly less optimistic reality. Or at least it always has done until now, we never get bored of looking.
Three women working at the Higher College of Technology in Muscat, Oman have developed a hair loss cream. Made, they say, from the root of a Cherimoya plant, known locally as “Al Mustaafi” and found throughout the country. The fruit of the Cherimoya is akin to a ripe pear, though slightly over-ripe it apparently turns into something like custard.
We mention it as a food because we could find no references to its use in any medical sense. As a food, it is a good source of vitamin C and an excellent source of vitamin B6… a deficiency of which can result in sebhorric dermatitis-like eruption.
Hair Loss Cream
The cream the women developed was applied, as is traditional for these things, to some shaved rats… whose hair regrew after 3 days – a positive result for the women who said it would have taken much longer without their cream.
Encouraged, they moved on to human trials. When we say trials… a dermatologist tried it on one of his patients and volunteers were found to test it along with some friends and family of the women.
A Volunteer’s Experience
A volunteer, Majid Al Qatiti, said “I used the cream for three months, twice a day, and observed a huge change in the thickness of my hair. Earlier, I was suffering from hair loss and a bald patch, but now my hair is actually growing.”
“The dermatologist told me that I have a thick layer of fat on my head, which prohibits hair from growing. The cream helped me reduce the fat so the hair could start growing naturally.”
One of the women who developed the cream, Al Ghafri, said “… my uncle and my colleague’s brother also tested the product and saw good results.”
HIS Hair Clinic
While it is not out of the question that a plant rich in vitamin B6 could be beneficial for scalp condition, it seems to be highly unlikely to be the cure we have all been waiting for. We were rather confused by the interview with the volunteer, the one with the layer of fat on his head that was, he says, reduced by the cream.
While we applaud the efforts of the three Omani researchers the clinical basis for any claims of efficacy are simply not there just yet. They now need an injection of capital to enable proper clinical trials, and on their current level of evidence that might be hard to achieve. Read the original article here.
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