Coffee Could Hold the Secret to Curing Male Baldness

For all those men who would do anything to stop their hairlines from receding, it might just be time to give hair weaving, toupees and wigs the boot, for a new research has found that coffee could hold the key for making their woe disappear.

The study, carried out by a team of researchers led by Dr Tobias Fischer at the University of Jena in Germany, found that caffeine stimulates the growth tiny follicles, the tiny sacs in the scalp from which hair grows, in men who are starting to lose their hair.

The researchers noted that caffeine helps slow baldness in men by blocking the effects of a chemical known to damage hair follicles.

However, before you reach for that cup of coffee, you have to know that researchers estimate that up to 60 cups a day would be the amount needed for significant amounts to reach follicles in the scalp.

Researchers are nonetheless, optimistic that caffeine can be a "promising candidate for hair growth stimulation".

"Caffeine is a well-known substance, yet little is known about its effect on human hair follicle growth. But this study shows it's a promising candidate for hair growth stimulation," the Daily Mail quoted him, as saying.

Now, German cosmetics firm Alpecin has developed a caffeine-rich solution that can be rubbed on the scalp.

Most baldness is caused when hair follicles become exposed to too much dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, a chemical produced by the male hormone testosterone.

Based on this, experts believe that men with high levels of testosterone are more likely to lose their hair.

As a part of the study, Dr Fischer took scalp biopsies from 14 men in the early stages of hair loss.

He then extracted hair follicles and placed them in test tubes with solutions containing different levels of caffeine. The samples were then monitored for a period of eight days.

The researchers found that caffeine had boosted the length of the hairs by between 33 per cent and 40 per cent.

"Hair follicles that were treated with caffeine showed a highly significant growth rate at 24 hours, and still showed further significant growth at eight days," said Dr Fischer.

Courtesy International Journal of Dermatology