Androgenetic alopecia (AGA), commonly called pattern hair loss shares a striking degree of hormonal factors with other diseases including benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).  For a number of years, European research studies have pointed to the potential benefits of saw palmetto in the setting of BPH.  Until recently however,  saw palmetto while regularly employed against BPH, was not considered to be a potential tool against hair loss. 

In our lab, and more than fifteen years ago, we came to appreciate that saw palmetto extract represents a genuinely exciting tool in the creation of hair loss treatment formulations.  Saw palmetto extract, also known as the liposterolic extract of seranoa repens (LSESr) is like a biochemical stew, comprising multiple fatty acids and sterols, some of which, including betasitosterol, have been shown to block the enzyme 5 alpha-reductase (5AR) a key precursor of BPH and AGA.   Biochemical antagonism of 5AR has proven to be a useful treatment against AGA as well as BPH, however, 5AR inhibiting drugs like finasteride and dutasteride have been linked to quite serious negative side effects, including feminizing birth defects.  Fortuitously, this has not proven to occur with LSESr. 

So if LSESr represents a new tool against hair loss, why is it not in wider use?  Another interesting question is 'why aren't all saw palmetto-containing hair loss treatments equally effective?'.  Clearly, they are not --- and here's part of the reason why.   To begin, the macromolecules which make up the fatty acids and sterols in saw palmetto do not lend themselves to easy transport across the gastric mucosa (stomach lining) or the stratum corneum (outer layer of the skin).  This tends to limit the utility of saw palmetto in the hair follicle, because one can either ingest saw palmetto or apply it to the scalp --- there's really no other way to get it into where it needs to go.  So, in order to deliver the key molecules to the target tissue, carefully chosen chaperone-substances must be used; and these have proven to be extremely challenging in maintaining stability and potentcy so that saw palmetto may accomplish benefit in treating hair loss.  Certain botanically-based hair loss treatments, such as those conceived in our facility and successfully tested in placebo-controlled research, have been formulated with this key understanding in mind.    

As we have learned through more than ten years of research, LSESr, while not an ideal hair loss treatment in and of itself, constitutes a genuinely effective tool in putting together highly potent, safe and effective hair loss treatment formulas.  The art and science is knowing how much of each ingredient to use, how to combine finicky materials like LSESr with other substances, how to keep the material in solution, how to maintain potency, and other challenges.  The good news is that for the most part, these challenges have been solved --- at least in our hands.  As time passes, newer and better hair loss treatments will be created in our facility and elsewhere.  For the foreseeable future it is likely that this intriguing material will continue to play a role.

Geno Marcovici, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
HairGenesis®