Can ginger grow hair? We've heard this hypothesis for half our lives.

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With the increasing pressure of life, the hairline problem is becoming more and more serious. Looking around, the army of alopecia and baldness is growing day by day, and even stars such as Yang Mi and Zheng Shuang have signs of being recruited.

It is obviously unacceptable that the hairline keeps receding, so the army of hair loss has launched a vigorous self-rescue, and the use of shampoo and hair care products that can effectively prevent hair loss is undoubtedly the first step of defense. The related products of a treasure and an east platform are all searched in large quantities. However, when it comes to functional ingredients, ginger should be our first thought. Ginger grows hair-that's how we were taught when we were young, and so are many popular sciences.

But as a thorough biological researcher, we only believe the results of biological experiments and refer to the reviewed SCI articles. Sorry, I really never read Chinese papers. In our standard of biological dogs, all the research results that are slightly useful will be issued with SCI, not to say that the articles in China journals have no reference value, but. . . . . . , experience by yourself).

In March 2020, I happened to find two large areas of hair loss in the back of my head. I have always loved beauty, and I began to look for literature crazily. I want to buy scientific and reliable hair growth prevention products for myself and try my best to save myself. However, in this process, I was dumbfounded that ginger is just a legend! Looking at pubmed, after searching for the two keywords "ginger" and "alopecia", there is only one basic research-oriented SCI study, and its conclusion can not support the scientific hypothesis that "ginger prevents alopecia", on the contrary, it can further inhibit hair growth! ! ! ! It can be used for hair removal instead of hair growth.

Therefore, the research team designed a biological experiment, and used 6- gingerol, the main active ingredient of ginger, to study the elongation and hair growth of detached hair shafts and their effects on human dermal papilla cells.

The result was surprising. Everyone was very busy. Give Vivian a simple answer:

⑴ Human dermal papilla cells cultured with 6- gingerol have slower growth, lower vitality and higher apoptosis rate than those cultured without gingerol. It shows that gingerol can inhibit proliferation and promote apoptosis of human dermal papilla cells (which can be understood as cells with long hair).

⑵ After human hair follicles were treated with 6- gingerol for 7 days, the growth length of hair shaft was measured. The results showed that the growth length of hair shaft in the experimental group with 20 μg/ml gingerol was significantly shorter than that in the control group without gingerol. It shows that gingerol can not only promote the growth of human hair shafts, but also inhibit their growth to some extent.

(3) Look at the in vivo experiment. After shaving, mice were coated with or without gingerol for 20 days. The results showed that the control group without gingerol showed better hair regeneration than the gingerol treatment group from day 10, and this advantage was significant on day 15 and day 20. It shows that gingerol treatment inhibits the growth of new hair.

The results showed that 6- gingerol, the main active component of ginger extract, had been verified by cell experiment in vitro and hair growth experiment in vivo. On the contrary, it can inhibit the growth of human hair in vitro by inhibiting the activity of DPCs and promoting apoptosis, and can prolong the resting period in vivo.

Reality is always skinny. 6- gingerol, the main component of ginger extract, is not only a component to promote hair growth, but also a potential hair growth inhibitor. It is not only not suitable for preventing hair loss, but also more suitable for hair removal. . . . . .

References:

6- gingerol inhibits the hair shaft growth of cultured human hair follicles and regulates the hair growth of mice. PloS one 20 13，8（2）:e 57226。