Yeah, but will it grow hair on a billiard ball?

Row C shows the mice four weeks after treatment.

Stress can turn your hair grey and even cause it to fall out; that’s a scientifically documented fact. The bad news is that of the zillions of “hair-restoration” remedies that have emerged to treat this unfortunate condition, very few have been shown to have any effect whatsoever – and even the best of them won’t turn a bald pate into a forest.

Until now. A team led by researchers from UCLA and the (US) Veterans Administration investigating how stress affects gastrointestinal function appears to have identified a chemical compound that induces hair growth by blocking a stress-related hormone associated with hair loss – and they did it entirely by accident. Okay, their experiment was conducted on mice, but still...

For their experiments, the researchers used mice that had been genetically altered to over-produce a stress hormone called corticotrophin-releasing factor, or CRF. As these mice age, they lose hair and eventually become bald on their backs, making them visually distinct from their unaltered counterparts. Says team spokesman Million Mulugeta: “This could open new venues to treat hair loss in humans through the modulation of the stress hormone receptors; particularly hair loss related to chronic stress and ageing.”
* Source: UCLA