| Author | Message | ||
     Anonymous |
I found this article through some research. Does anybody know anything more about this. Its fairly recent. http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/05/04/hscout525439.html | ||
| Tom Hagerty |
Anonymous: I want to quote a paragraph from In search of the "hair cycle clock": a guided tour by Ralf Paus and Kerstin Foitzik - "The terminal-to-vellus and vellus-to-terminal transformation of hair follicles is intimately linked with hair follicle cycling, since this process comes along with substantial shortening or lengthening of anagen, thus causing the shortness of vellus, and the length of terminal hair. "If true, the actual duration of anagen or catagen, i.e., of the hair cycle phases during which fibroblast trafficking between the dermal papilla (DP) and the CTS [I'll define this below] typically occur, must be very important, since this will determine the window during which a significant efflux of DP fibroblasts into the CTS, or a significant fibroblast influx from the CTS into the DP can cause follicle miniaturization or hyperthichosis/hirsutism, respectively." The CTS is the connective tissue sheath that surrounds the inner and outer root sheaths of the hair follicle. Fibroblasts are any cells from which connective tissue is developed. The window that these two doctors are discussing is the strict time period when changes in the size of the DP take place - early anagen only. A larger DP means a more robust terminal hair; a smaller DP means an intermediate or vellus hair. | ||
| Anonymous |
Tom, (I'm the guy that posted the link to the HCC article). Wow, it all seems to be coming together! Coincidentally I was reading something last night about fascia. There is a emerging form of therapy around conditions relating to disorders in the fasia. It's based entirely on movement. Fascia is everywhere in the body and is intimately connected to the structure of the dermis (including the hair follicle). I immediately thought of the the correlation between the SE's and the movement of fascia in the dermis. Could it be the missing link??? The HCC article does lead one to speculate that whatever regulates fibroblast expression around the hair follicle (fascia production) indeed regulates the hair cycle itself. Maybe I'm just overly-stimulated by all the new information, but it's actually starting to make sense! You might want to consider posting another possible explanation on why the SE's work! | ||
| Anonymous |
Tom, I've been looking into the fascia in more detail. The most common type of treatment that targets fascia disorders is called myo-fascial therapy. Though I had never even heard of it, apparently there are a lot of therapists in this area - as a quick google search will show. It mostly has to do with triggering changes in the fascia found in muscle, which is thought (by those who practice it) to be the cause of many ailments. Your SE's appear to me to be a possible variation on this type of therapy, one more targeted specifically at the dermal fascia of the scalp and - to a lesser extent - the face. I wonder if you've ever looked into this analogy between the SE's and this increasingly popular "alternative" approach yourself? I haven't seen anything written by you on it if you have. | ||
| Tom Hagerty |
Anonymous: First, a small definition: The fascia is a fibrous tissue network located between the skin and the underlying structure of muscle and bone. Fascia is composed of two layers, a superficial layer and a deep layer. Superficial fascia is attached to the skin and is composed of connective tissue containing varying quantities of fat. It is especially dense in the scalp where it serves to anchor the skin firmly to underlying tissues. I wrote about the subject about a year ago on this forum when someone asked a question about scalp laxity - the movement of the scalp when doing the SE. |
