Category Archives: Women’s Hair Loss

Wounding, Follica, Microneedling, Women's Hair Loss

Scalp Wounding for Hair Growth in Females

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A new pilot study on wounding and hair growth just got released online yesterday. The authors found that wounding via Follica’s microneedling device causes new hair growth in women. This is worth reporting because prior research from Follica only entailed studying hair growth in men.

Wounding, Microneedling, Follica and Female Hair Growth
Before and after hair growth photo for wounding via Follica microneedling device in females. Source: International Journal of Women’s Dermatology. Publisher: Elsevier.

In fact, almost all past research on microneedling and hair growth has focused on male pattern hair loss. Balding men are often satisfied with new hair that grows just 1 inch high. Women, on the other hand, often need superior results in order to make for a natural appearance. I did not think that this would be possible via just wounding and intentional scalp injury.

Men are also more likely to  be ok with a shaved or thin appearance on the sides and rear of their heads. And of course many men can get away with just shaving their head entirely.

Scalp Wounding Causes Hair Growth in Women

This latest study was undertaken using Follica’s technology. See the company’s press release from today. The lead researchers were based at Harvard University and at Massachusetts General Hospital. The team was led by Dr. Maryanne Senna.

The study showed that wounding leads to at least some hair growth in all women. See discussion further below. All of the 11 females in the study suffered from mild to moderate female pattern hair loss (FPHL).

The main limitation of the study is obviously the small sample size. All 11 patients underwent six treatments with Follica’s Hair Follicle Neogenesis (HFN) device. Each treatment lasts for just a few minutes. The scalp skin wounding creates an “embryonic window” that allows new hair follicles to form from epithelial stem cells.

Two of the patients were also using Spironolactone for their hair loss during the trial.

Minoxidil Addition

The study summary initially states that on non-treatment days, participants applied a topical “on-market” drug.  However, later on in the study, it states the following:

“Subjects applied topical minoxidil 5% foam nightly to these areas for the duration of the trial. Topical minoxidil foam was not applied on treatment days.”

So I guess it is Minoxidil and nothing else in Follica’s topical? A lot of online discussion in the past centered around the addition of valproic acid, but this now seems unlikely.

100 Percent Success

  • 10 out of 11 patients reported perceived improvement in hair growth at the end of study.
  • All 11 patients demonstrated improvement in physician-graded Sinclair scores after 4 months. The average improvement in Sinclair grade was slightly more than 1 full integer reduction.

The Sinclair Scale for female pattern hair loss was developed by Dr. Rodney Sinclair of Australia. A more commonly used measure in women is the Ludwig Scale. For men, the most common way to classify degree of baldness is the Hamilton-Norwood Scale.

Also see Follica’s announcement of these findings on Twitter.

According to CEO Jason Bhardwaj, their product has the potential to address both male and female androgenetic alopecia. And this study makes clear that the device works well with both longer and shorter hair.

Follica plans to advance its lead program for male pattern hair loss into Phase 3 trials in 2021.

Female Hair Loss, Women's Hair Loss

Women’s Hair Loss Resources

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Around 45 percent of this blog’s readership consists of females. One would never guess that number when considering the fact that 90 percent of the comments to my posts are made my men (and almost 100 percent of the foolish comments are accounted for by men). I will probably update this post in more detail in the coming months (or create new posts on subjects related to women’s hair loss treatments), but wanted to create this one asap in order to acknowledge the neglected 45 percent.

— Cleveland Clinic Hair Loss in Women.

— Harvard University Treating Female Pattern Hair Loss.

Women’s Hair Loss Forums

On most of the major English language men’s hair loss forums, there are also women’s hair loss sub-forums if you scroll down a bit. There are also various separate women’s hair loss forums out there. Below I list the most active and useful ones:

Her Alopecia Hair Loss Forums

Women’s Hair Loss Project Forums

Soul Cysters Women’s Hair Loss Forums (for women with PCOS)

Hair Loss Talk Women’s Hair Loss Forums

Bald Truth Talk Women’s Hair Loss Forums

Groundbreaking Female Hair Loss Researchers

I have mentioned before that an increasing number of hair loss researchers are now female. They still account for a minority of all researchers, but the trend in most fields of study nowadays is that women are becoming increasingly more represented. A select few of the below female researchers perhaps also have their own practice and are seeing new patients in case you want to try contacting them. I would assume that all of them are especially experienced in advising female patients. Note that I have covered virtually all the below researchers on this blog before, and you can use the search box at the top for more information on each person.

Dr. Elaine Fuchs — She is a legend in the hair loss research world (New York, NY).

Dr. Angela Christiano — another legend in the hair loss research world, and wears a wig so has a personal interest in finding a cure. She has been the most widely covered on TV (New York, NY)

Dr. Claire Higgins — yet another hugely important person in the hair loss research world (London, United Kingdom)

Dr. Valerie Randall (Bradford, United Kingdom)

Dr. Gail Naughton (San Diego, CA)

Dr. Ksenia Gnedeva (San Diego, CA and possible also Moscow, Russia)

Dr. Valerie Horsley (New Haven, CT)

Dr. Ekaterina Vorotelyak — (Moscow, Russia)

Dr. Sarah Millar (Philadelphia, PA)

Dr. Maria Hordinsky (Minneapolis, MN)

Dr. Jennifer Kloepper (Lübeck, Germany)

Dr. Ulrike Blume-Peytavi (Berlin, Germany)

Dr. Annika Vogt (Berlin, Germany)

Dr. Antonella Tosti (Miami, FL)

Dr. Wilma Bergfeld (Cleveland, OH)

Dr. Mayumi Ito (New York, NY)

Dr. Elise Olsen (Durham, NC)